Review: Strymon BigSky MX Reverb Pedal

Not long ago I unequivocally declared Meris’ Mercury X (9/10, WIRED Recommends) the best reverb pedal you can buy. The very day that review went live, Strymon, one of the pioneers of high-end boutique guitar pedals, announced the BigSky MX, an update to its legendary BigSky reverb.

To call the update massive would be an understatement. While it still looks like the BigSky if you squint, and you’ll find many familiar reverb algorithms on its front panel, the MX is an almost ground-up reimagining of what the BigSky can be. And while I’m not about to say that Strymon has already usurped Meris, I can no longer say there is a definitive “best” reverb pedal. If you're in the market for either, you're in for a treat.

Into the Weeds

The BigSky MX is a particular breed of effect that can turn off players who prefer their guitar pedals to just have a couple of knobs and one or two foot switches. The piles of presets, the screen, and the extensive array of knobs might seem too complex for some at first, but part of the beauty of the BigSky MX is how simple it is to use.

Photograph: Terrence O'Brien

You can scroll through presets using either the Value knob in the top right or by using the foot switches. And if you just want to start from scratch, there’s a knob in the top left that selects from the 12 reverb engines. The row of seven knobs below that control all your most important parameters: Decay, Pre-Delay, Tone, Mod, and Mix. Then two knobs labeled Param 1 and Param 2 are engine dependent. For example, on Spring setting, param 1 controls the amount of low end in the reverb, while in Shimmer it controls the pitch of echo one.

Some parameters aren’t accessible directly from the font panel. For instance, if you want to change the voicing of the Shimmer reverb from the hi-fi MX version to the classic model, you need to tap the Value knob to open the parameter menu. But the number of hidden parameters usually isn’t overwhelming. Some engines only have three or four parameters to control in total. And, if you decide you’d rather have control of the two parameters currently hidden away in the menu, you can swap them.

Since the number of things to contend with is streamlined, it should take only an hour or so to figure out the basics of the BigSky MX. It may take a few days or even a few weeks to truly master all of its subtleties, but even if you’re averse to menu diving, you should feel pretty comfortable by the end of day one.

What will take the most time is simply familiarizing yourself with all the available reverb options at your disposal. Even if you ignore the IR (impulse response) engine, which offers almost endless variety on its own, there’s quite a lot to work with. There are 12 reverb engines that range from simple, natural-sounding Room and Spring algorithms to the ethereal Cloud and glitchy Nonlinear options.

Great for Always-On Performance

Where I think the BigSky MX is at its best is at its best is at the smaller, more subtle end of the reverb spectrum. That’s not to say it can’t do epic otherworldly weirdness, but it’s the less flashy stuff where it really shines. The Room reverb is the kind of gentle ambiance that you could simply leave on 100 percent. At lower settings you might not even consciously notice the reverb, but you’d know if it was suddenly turned off.

The Spring, Hall and Chamber reverb options are a bit more obvious and can reach absurd depths when cranked, but still they’re generally natural sounding and don’t scream “Hey, check out this crazy reverb!”

Photograph: Terrence O'Brien

Cloud, Shimmer, Bloom, and Chorale are more grand. These are the sorts of reverbs that grab you by the collar and shout “Listen to this wild thing!” Cloud is the most versatile of the bunch. It’s huge and unnatural but less gimmicky than Shimmer. Shimmer has two pitch shifters which can be combined to create some lovely complex harmonies. Bloom does exactly what it says, it unfurls slowly after you play a note and you can add shimmer-like harmonics to create a pad underneath. (This is probably my favorite of the bunch.) And Chorale adds pitch-shifted vowels to your playing to give you synth choir and organ effects.

Magneto and Nonlinear are very different beasts. Magneto isn’t actually a reverb, it’s a delay, modeled on classic multihead tape delays of the ’70s. But it has a diffusion feature that allows you to smear those repeats into something more reverb-like. At longer decay times with the Pre-Delay knob (which actually controls feedback for magneto and nonlinear) and diffusion turned down it can get quite choppy, since it plays up to six repeats at the same volume, then abruptly cuts off. But if you turn the decay down, but the feedback (pre-delay) and diffusion up, you get these cavernous cascades of surreal chimes.

Nonlinear is unapologetically glitchy. It appears to be some form of granular reverb, meaning that it takes a small chunk of your audio signal and then plays it back while manipulating it. The Shape parameter here changes how that audio is played back, for example Gate gives you abrupt chops, while Swoosh is like a rush of digital repeats. It’s probably the least practical of the algorithms, but it’s also the most fun.

Real-World Tones

There’s already tons of variety in the sounds you can get from 11 algorithmic reverbs. Then there is the IR or impulse response engine which, frankly, could be a stand-alone pedal and nobody would bat an eye. If you’re unfamiliar, IRs are basically audio snapshots that can be used to re-create the sound of an amp, microphone, or a physical space. They’re just audio files that capture the response of something across a wide frequency range.

The BigSky MX comes loaded with a selection of IRs from both real-world locations and vintage reverb units. These give you a load of excellent sounds to play with beyond the existing reverb algorithms. But the real power comes when you connect the MX to your computer and load custom IRs using the Nixie2 app. There are countless sources of free IRs out there that capture everything from classic rack reverb units from the ’80s to the epic Pool of the Black Star in the Manitoba Legislative Building.

Photograph: Terrence O'Brien

You can even create and load your own custom IRs, say of your bathroom, with little more than a field recorder and a balloon. (These will not be quite as accurate as using a sine wave generator, but it gets the job done.) Perhaps the most fun though, is loading up sounds other than proper IRs. Since IR is just a .wav file, you can drop almost any sound file onto the BigSky MX and use that to create a unique reverb. That can be the trilling of a bird, a drum break, or the droning of an air conditioner. I’ve found that the clicking and buzzing of a crosswalk sign and the bubbling of a bong rip make particularly compelling effects—experiment and have fun.

Since the MX can run two reverbs simultaneously you can also experiment by combining the bizarre with more realistic spaces. You can run the two reverbs either in series or parallel, and even send them out to different stereo channels. This, along with the addition of impulse responses add a lot of room for experimentation that you won’t find on a lot of other reverb pedals.

Perfection Can Cost You

Let’s address the biggest con of the BigSky MX: cost. The MX goes for an insane $679. It’s not quite the most expensive reverb pedal on the market (I believe that distinction belongs to Chase Bliss’ $899 CXM 1978), but it’s still quite a bit more than the Mercury X, which is already a tough sell at $599. I can’t tell you if it’s worth the price; that is a decision you’ll have to make for yourself and your wallet.

A big part of that decision will be based simply on whether your budget can handle it. Another thing you’ll need to figure out is exactly what you’re looking for in a big-box reverb pedal. Do you want a playground with tons of modulation options and the ability to craft completely unique sonic spaces? You might be happier with the Meris Mercury X or something that goes beyond reverb, like Eventide’s H90 Harmonizer or the Empress Effects ZOIA. But if you want something that’s a bit more straightforward, while still being incredibly versatile and delivering some of the best reverbs in the world, the BigSky MX is it.