Strymon NightSky Testing Uncovered Something Unusual

[8bitBarry]

my Behringer FX2000 a fantastic unit, crazy good for the money, it’s laughable.
BigSky gets used for the strange "heavenly distant ethereal angels" thing that only it can do, it’s magic, it really is, it only gets used occasionally, but it’s too good to do without.

I have a Behringer 2600, I can recommend it completely, it has that amazing quality of the original, great sounds just pour out of it with little effort, especially if you’re into more abstract sounds.

I’m so interested in the Behringer 2600 - I’ve been eyeballing the Blue Marvin as it’s such value but I’m struggling to fit it into my studio. I am into abstract sounds!

I’ve been trying to weigh up the differences between the Korg 2600 M and the Behringer…

[Adam Inglis]

You also can’t edit the pedal on the fly like the Eventide, you have to guess the settings and
Send them to the pedal using the Nixie software.

Er.. my BSky sits next to my mixer and gets edited in real time like crazy! I love it! Especially on the Magneto setting! And that one with the monks' voices, changing the vowel sounds in real time - great fun.
Trust your ears, don't worry about Nixie.

[sonics]

Especially on the Magneto setting! And that one with the monks' voices, changing the vowel sounds in real time - great fun.

You mean like Delay Lama plugin from twenty years ago? Wow!!

[Arpangel]

Especially on the Magneto setting! And that one with the monks' voices, changing the vowel sounds in real time - great fun.

You mean like Delay Lama plugin from twenty years ago? Wow!!

But that was a plug-in, this is a pedal
I never edit my BigSky, I find the system and interface unbelievably cumbersome, it could have been done much more elegantly, with a more comprehensive screen, all those heavy pedal switches and each bank with only three presets, please.
I just call up an algorithm and maybe tweak the decay, and that’s it for me.
I ignore the way it works.
And this FX2000 is a pain to edit, you can’t see what’s happening until you turn a knob, and then the text goes away again, it’s a preset machine, there aren’t many units out there where the designers have actually thought about how musicians think, we aren’t nerds, we just want something to happen as quickly and as easily as possible, no wonder people like Brian Eno wrote letters to Eventide congratulating them on the way the H3000 worked, and yes, he was right, that was the first user friendly digital unit, they really did get that right.

[ManFromGlass]

Delay Lama!
Loved that one!

[Arpangel]

Delay Lama!
Loved that one!

There are so many amazing reverbs out there now, mostly in pedal form, which is OK, but I dislike the lack of proper I/O metering.
These pedals give you a level of quality that was once only attainable in high end rack units, this has made me accumulate more reverbs than I actually need, I only had one a few years back, and never had any issues with wanting more, now I have around six, dedicated reverbs, some hardly get used.
But they all have something that I like about them, it’s either simplicity of use, or just one sound makes it worth having, that’s the nature of all this I guess.

[8bitBarry]

You also can’t edit the pedal on the fly like the Eventide, you have to guess the settings and
Send them to the pedal using the Nixie software.

Er.. my BSky sits next to my mixer and gets edited in real time like crazy! I love it! Especially on the Magneto setting! And that one with the monks' voices, changing the vowel sounds in real time - great fun.
Trust your ears, don't worry about Nixie.

Well that’s great to read - I watched a few videos about it and the comments pulled up that the pedal had to be altered using the software and written to the pedal before any alteration would take affect. I look forward to trying it out.

So can you recommend a Midi USB cable? There’s a Roland one but it’s £45!

[James Perrett]

So can you recommend a Midi USB cable? There’s a Roland one but it’s £45!

Don't go cheap with this. The cheap ones seem to be unreliable - especially when sending large amounts of data. I've had good success with a MOTU Fastlane USB and an M-Audio Midisport 2x2. Both were bought used for not too much money.

[Adam Inglis]

I never edit my BigSky, I find the system and interface unbelievably cumbersome, it could have been done much more elegantly, with a more comprehensive screen, all those heavy pedal switches and each bank with only three presets, please.

Are we talking about the same machine?
Cos mine has 9 knobs on it that all do something immediately musically useful. Two of these are assignable parameters which might require some deeper diving if you wish to alter the assignments, but the defaults seem mostly useful.
Those heavy switches are there so that guitarists won't break it, just ignore them.
(The switches, not the guitarists... er, actually, maybe both)

Admittedly I'm not into the business of building up a big library of presets so maybe I'm missing out on some of the subtleties of the programming logistics, but, given the sound, I think the editability (is that a real word?) is pretty good.

[Arpangel]

I never edit my BigSky, I find the system and interface unbelievably cumbersome, it could have been done much more elegantly, with a more comprehensive screen, all those heavy pedal switches and each bank with only three presets, please.

Are we talking about the same machine?
Cos mine has 9 knobs on it that all do something immediately musically useful. Two of these are assignable parameters which might require some deeper diving if you wish to alter the assignments, but the defaults seem mostly useful.
Those heavy switches are there so that guitarists won't break it, just ignore them.
(The switches, not the guitarists... er, actually, maybe both)

Admittedly I'm not into the business of building up a big library of presets so maybe I'm missing out on some of the subtleties of the programming logistics, but, given the sound, I think the editability (is that a real word?) is pretty good.

I only use it for three sounds, that I've edited and I’ve put in the first bank!
Clouds, Shimmer, and Chorale. That’s it.
I’ve got a UAD Golden, and that is used for one sound only, the 224 Hall, it’s in its "one" preset location!
I just can’t be bothered to edit anything as I’ve got older.