It pleases me greatly to see serious people using pedals as serious production tools. The majority of home producers seem to almost completely dismiss pedals as a guitar only endeavor not worthy of the studio, especially since “a plug-in can do that.” I come from playing guitar, and have loved pedals since I started playing, and immediately gravitated to them, despite the added complexity of shuttling sound out of the box and back in. And I naturally look for pedals, rather than plugins, to handle my effects. An EQD Pyramids for flanger, Mr Black Twin Lazers for phasing, Walrus Julianna for chorus or vibrato (along with some very excellent modulation), Strymon Volante for tape echo, Empress Echosystem for any of various sorts of delay, Source Audio Ventris and Free The Tone Future Ambi-Space for reverbs and on and on.
Thanks Christopher, I truly believe that finding your own voice is ABSOLUTELY key. For me, pedals (well, maybe not this one) are a relatively inexpensive way of discovering your own sonic footprint. There's tons of them available second hand and because they're built to gig and tour.... well they're brick shit houses and last forever.
The argument for purchasing pedals instead of plug-ins is that they have a resale value. You can't sell your license to anyone after you stop producing music, and you can't borrow them to a friend. On the other hand, pedals are physical and retain value over time.
@@BitcoinTakeover And it doesn’t even take not producing anymore. There may be an effect that you use only for a particular project or that otherwise has limited utility for you. Buy the pedal, use it, sell it. Pedals are quite literally plugins, only made of “stuff” instead of digital ether with locking schemes that occasionally fail, aren’t really portable for collaborators purposes, etc. Plugins certainly are convenient, and most sound great, but they’re not inherently superior unless convenience is your top priority.
Home Producers dismiss pedals? I always thought this was the standard and cheap hack we were all doing? I've been plugging keyboards into stomps, guitars into my old DigiTech 44 Rackmount, and routing out of VSTs through both of these for years. Didn't realise this was an oddity. Although, we did used to play live with laptops and Guitar Rig running into further stomp boxes... cause sometimes what you really need in life is three Quad Delays in serial, with a split channel of 100% plate reverb, all going into a stomp fuzz box for maximum screaming fuzz box noise. The Strymon's are filthy good, should come with some sort of dribble shield. Been tempted by the Big Sky and now the Night Sky for years, but went with a Helix instead for ease of routing options and... sort of portability... but I'm still tempted to put a Night Sky at the end of it. :D
@@BitcoinTakeover Most of the big VST producers allow you to resale or gift your licenses now via their site. I've sold a number of my Native Instrument licenses over the years. Agree on the value tho.
If using with a daw, you can just connect the MIDI or USB and control it via software like a plugin. I haven't tried the Night sky yet, but it's a very handy feature for Big Sky and Timeline.
The Source Audio Ventris is also very special, it's kind of like two Big Skies that you can run in parallel or in series with wild wild sounds and huge stereo width.
This pedal sounds great - especially if you love to mess with sound design. There's no end to the manipulations. But if you want a pedal reverb of the same high quality, with the ability to save presets, but can make do with about half the feature set for less money, check GFI System's Specular Reverb 3. I particularly like the width of its stereo outs - lush & wide.
I have several Strymon pedals, and my only complaint about them is the hidden features. They all have additional functionality hidden under shift buttons without any labeling on the box to indicate that those features exist. I keep meaning to add my own labels. It's very frustrating to have to go look up the user manuals for all these different boxes every time I use them. That said, I think they sound great, and NightSky is no exception.
This was my first thought too, being a guitarist. And the Volante is unmatched for tape/drum echo sounds except for by the real deal (which I also have).
I believe the nightsky is the same form factor as the volante (Strymon obviously doing focused versions of iconic bigsky and timeline) which is then just a lengthier version of the el capistan/bluesky case
I have the Big Sky, as the first pedal from Strymon, I bought it in 2017 - in the meantime I bought another 11 Strymon pedals , all my savings went there in the last 3 years - of course, the Night Sky is like the next pearl on the crown ... and you are right, having all these dreamy pedals it's not necessary a guarantee to become a better musician ! ... But having them is like being able to touch a bigger part of the Universe ! ...
Nice review and overview. In fact, probably the most comprehensive and well-structured I've seen on any piece of kit, though it probably helps that there aren't that many features to go through. I am also quite fascinated by the fact that after getting into pathcing my Empress Effects Zoia properly, I can watch a review like this and not feel any urge to buy the reviewed item at all. Instead my mind is starting to conceive of ways to do exactly the same on the Zoia, which I think you can for pretty much all the features of this paragon of Strymon reverb pedals. I think the Strymon pedals are great, but I am so glad I've got the Zoia as it's saving me so much money.
I had the same exact idea! Although Zoia’s CPU is a bit limited I am sure you can get some of the functions done. So please, create a patch, I’ll sure download it! Been digging your stuff already.
Am with you on the “Moog” thing, but playing devils advocate I should point out they also, in the early 80’s, had the Moog Rogue synth, which seemed designed to force a particular pronunciation? Didn’t really work though as I recall my mate in a music shop asking to see what he pronounced as the “Moog Roog”. 😂
You're both wrong. Moog is pronounced like "good" "book" "took", obv. Don't know where they got Mooooo or Mohg or wtv. I wish I'd been able to let Bob know...
You’re all wrong. How a person’s name is pronounced is however they say it is. My grandfather pronounced our last name with the accent on the first of the two syllables, my father puts the accent on the second. I, of course, learned from my father. If Bob Moog pronounced it “Mogue,” would you call him “Moog” to his face? Probably not.
This is one of, if not the most comprehensive reviews/demos I’ve ever seen. Your production adds so much to the information, but it also shares how much you care about and love music, as well as what you do. Your hard work doesn’t go unnoticed. Awesome work man. Most likely going to pick up this pedal due to this review lol. Keep up this awesome work !
Thanks for articulating the troubles with hidden functions on pedals, Christian. I have always felt somewhat ashamed that I don't learn and remember every detail of every piece of gear I own as I once did when I was younger and had far less gear and a better memory. I've always felt it was a bit cheap that I was only scratching the surface of a piece of gear. One thing I will say, however, is when you seriously fall in love with a piece of gear, when it becomes part of your sound, your secret weapon, you use it so much that you end up learning all of the hidden functions, or at least, keep the manual handy because you use it so often. I bought the Night Sky as soon as it was announced, but it's not my current secret weapon. It's the Microcosm from Hologram Electronics. You owe it to yourself to check it out if you don't know it.
@@HondaWanderer im a gezzer from essex moo-g init av it out with my bullmastiff if theres a problem bro ha ha just joking around you know how things are taken on the internet happy days
i havent quite finished the video here but i believe i know exactly what i think about this pedal. its simple really. yes, many obvious features of a reverb are buried beneath button combinations, however, in its priceclass it far outfeatures its competetors. for a guy like me who will run this in his live synth rig, dub style, i am going to build 8 excellent presets that do exactly what i want, and have 8 empty slots for experimenting and trying to remember what button combos do when in the studio. i think this pedal is excellent.
That’s lovely. I’d also recommend checking out Devin Townsend’s Mooer Ocean Machine pedal. Along similar lines but from the master of reverb (in my opinion)
Who would downvote this? If you're here, you're interested in the pedal. If you're interested in the pedal, this is an epically better look at it than you're going to get anywhere else.
Your content is refreshing. I feel a very similar aversion to conformity. Anything that becomes hugely popular I am suspicious of. Perhaps instills fears of becoming a replica instead of an individual. However it turns out some of the things that recieve mass heightened attention and praise actually do warrant it. Its does not always come down to the simpleton in our minds being brainwashed.
LOVE you final remarks - about not spending $ having anything to do with your success!!! I have a serious gear fetish, and I buy and sell gear regularly, however, I also have decades of experience, and worked as a full time touring and recording musician, with some of the biggest names in music. I can't emphasize how that comment resonates with me - so rare to hear this perspective these days. It all comes down to our creative abilities, discipline, etc. An experienced and passionate creative player will make any piece of gear sound original and optimal.... Anyway, can't wait to check out some of your other uploads.......All the best!
I love how this isn't just any other pedal reviews. There's concrete reasoning behind why Henson used this pedal, and how other musician might be able to utilize it. 5 minutes in and I already forgot I was supposed to watch a "review" of a pedal. Please make more of this story-oriented films in the future!
The video is a lovely production again. Cool pedal. When a shimmer effect comes in it always makes me laugh though. Yes, it makes every loop soOo ‘heavenly’ but it also sounds cheesy and fake. But maybe that’s me.
Well...I finally bought a NightSky for my Casio synth hoping I could hide the bad sound of the synth ($1100.00 synth) with drenched reverb. I failed. Bad sound is still bad sound when using 50/50 wet/dry. So I gave that synth to a friend and bought a Roland synth that has good sound, but not so good reverb built in. Now using the NightSky on this synth and not using the ZoomCDR pedal on this synth anymore. This reverb is slightly better than a well thought out custom made series of modules design on the ZoomCDR, and tweaked per module. I think the reverb is a little more transparent by not adding sound to the reverb. The NIghtSky seems to reflect the original synth sound more accurately while the ZoomCDR is adding (or missing) the original synth sound in the extended reverbs. The long tails of the reverbs that we hear distinctly on long reverbs become a place of focus and hearing the reverb not sound precisely like the synth is why I like the NightSky a little better. On shorter reverbs, more natural reverbs of a concert hall, the Zoom and Strymon are very close.
I was about writing the classic comment "great! now I need 500€ to fill my needs" but right at the moment you came up with the ending speech about ideas and our possibilities as an artist regardless the equipment
Will there be others in that form factor??? How about the excellent Volante? They match their half-size brothers like El Capistan, Blue Sky. 🤦♂️ Big Sky, Timeline and mobius are the anomalies.
At this point pretty much all of the hardware and software reverbs I have available have been superseded by an OTO BAM, Behringer V-Verb and first-gen Peavey Univerb. EDIT: and Octatrack Dark Reverb.
On the one hand I really appreciate the complexity and excitement behind this video. However it seems to me - just personally - that this time around many or most of the reviews of NightSky are done by people who don't extensively review pedals and therefore don't really compare them to the competition. Whether this is caused by some Strymon review units selection process or is simply caused by the pedal being marketed more universally I don't know. But my problem is best summarized by the title: "Is this the best effects pedal ever?" No, it's definitely not. It's a cool take on the Strymon formula. But many of the reviews just get excited about the modulation stuff, to the point where this pedal seems unique as a reverb. Which it is not. The actual usability, to me, remains questionable. I've been using this pedal for 4 months now with my synth and I'm exchanging it for DBA Rooms - the practical application of these oh so cool features is... Maybe not so practical? My personal take on the NS is this: It's a mediocre Strymon 'verb with some very innovative modulation/warping features. If I were looking for a weirdo reverb pedal today, I'd go with Chase Bliss Mood (if I didn't mind mono) or Hologram Microcosm (if I did mind mono).
Moog. I'm guessing he's got Dutch ancestry. Double o is a vowel sound. To be Moog as in the moo from a cow, it would have to be spelt moeg. But names often get bastardised in pronunciation over decades and due to emigration. It's similar to stein. Some say stein, some say stien. But ei in another vowel sound like oo, like in Eindhoven. It doesn't matter, but there's reasons why.
Love the Nightsky, i see more in there for me than the Bigsky, but the mod LFO section just seems to ruin the whole experience for me. Why do we want this? As a pedal is this directly in competition with the Microcosm now?
When someone moves a knob and tells you "you need to figure it out what you want" is because they just can't tell you what is going on. :-/ I would prefer a video with someone who understand the knobs. Buying this myself and making my own video pretty soon.
man...some people dig the strymon thing but it just sounds dead to me. I've never heard one I like. Those reverb presets all sound like plugins to me. Just my two cents
I will stay with my Zoom MS70CDR pedal. I now have 3 of these Zooms connected in my mixer aux loops (for synths use). I listened for 2 years of conflicting review on this little pedal, and finally gave up and bought one....I listened to it for just a few minutes and immediately bought two more. The sound design possibilities and ease of use and great effects quality, makes the Zoom a little miracle for starving musicians...we can afford it too! So for anyone who don't have $400 dollars/pounds for effects, you have a great alternative...that may be (with intelligent effects chain design) better than a BlueSky.
There is definitely an argument to be made that if everyone else is using it, then you shouldn't. The other 'problem' is that a Strymon can make anything sound good with it's distinctive Strymon sound: a Casio, a fan organ, a kazoo... it's got boring. It's become Strymon Muzak.
Yeah maybe if you’re a noob who is defined by his reverb sound instead of his harmonic/melodic/rhythmic conception. It cracks me up how much weight amateur musicians put in which pedals they use.
This video put me off the box. I don't mean to be negative, but the hidden options to features is a massive no no for me. Would rather pay more and have the separate buttons.
Thank you for doing this Christian! I’m always grateful for your reviews that end in “will this be the one thing standing in the way between you and success as a sound designer or composer? NO”. A lot of other channels that handle this sort of kit don’t necessarily have that in mind. Your perspective is grounded in reality
Thank you for making this video I really enjoyed it and reminded me a bit of top gear but for music gear lol My thoughts are Big sky and night sky can’t be compared, two different pedals completely. At the end you said complexity bogs down night sky but earlier you complained about how big sky had become a common studio effect sound when used or standard which you tried to stay away from. In the complexity of the Night Sky that will not happen because you are the one stirring the sonic paint, you create your sound completely! That’s why having both pedals I will say with the night sky people don’t understand it or weary because the amount of freedom is scary and off putting to a lot of people whereas to people who like to hang around in ambient depths or like yourself with composition you really have a full control over sculpting the reverb signal. I need so much more time with it but I find it doesn’t have that million knobs paralyzing effect that the big sky at times gives me..”oh damn what preset settings did I have again?” Problem. I feel like a curious child exploring with my ears on a new adventure that is my completely unique reverb that I can create and might not be replicated by someone else unless by accident lol Tip - Bigsky into night sky on cloud setting is heaven. I love the post drive on the night sky it’s sooo tasty
MoogerFoogers are what got me into modular synthesis. I was using effects like the EHX Freeze, and a Dave Smith Evolver in a giant chain with my guitar to do like 'modular pedals' straight to 4-track cassette. Those were the days.. Now I have a eurorack system with a Strymon Magneto, and while it's super convenient, something about it just isn't as sweet...
I'm completely with you on hidden parameters - why no pre-delay on the front panel, for instance. The Moog Matriarch drives me nuts with its hidden settings; if I've not used it for a while, I've no idea what settings I left configured from the last time I used it. Nightsky looks interesting, but not for me....
What I love about Strymon pedals is how well their feature set is thought out and carefully planned out. They could've gone completely overboard. Load it with every feature any reverb ever had. They have the expertise, if they wanted to. But that would lead to it being unbelievably annoying to use and control like some other all-in-one type of pedals. But they didn't. Every bit of functionality is there for a reason. And as usual there's multiple layers of features, which can be accessed via specific switch press combinations. So things you might not want to adjust on the fly are still there, but they are not in the way at all. You can see this design philosophy running through majority of their pedals. Yes people will complain about how Strymon became so mainstream it's a little annoying. However, there's some real masterwork engineering and software design going on in these boxes. So, it is well deserved I'd say. P.S. Those are the views of a guitar player. Reception might be totally different among other groups of people who may use Strymon pedals.
I grew up in the 60's and on even people would argue on how to pronounce Moog. Some would get fanatical about it saying it was Moe-G like his name not Moooo G like the cow. But seems over time the cow won.
