Bim and Bam are very much retro sounding, very hands on and simple, I like them.
Ever tried a mpx550 or similar? Must say Iām pretty amazed. Lush verbs, cool delays and a comp algo afterwards, handy if you want to go wild on dly chains w feedback.
I have not used the Big Sky or Timeline, but used to have a BlueSky and El Capistan. The BlueSky sounded beautiful, and I can imagine the expanded version is awesome. At the time I had it the Elektron reverbs were enough for me, so I sold it, but based on its quality Iād suspect the BigSky to be fantastic.
I miss the El Capistan just for processing mono signals 100% wet, but got rid of it shortly after getting the Bim. Bim is my favorite delay unit ever. I love how it sounds and itās very versatile. I love using it as a distortion unit, vibrato, flanger, chorus, pseudo-looperā¦ Iām working mostly ITB now but itās still worth the trouble of including it in my setup.
Bam is nice but Iām not in love with it like I am the Bim. I ended up replacing it with Valhalla VintageVerb, since itās easier for me with my mostly ITB workflow. It sounds great and has a very simple interface, which is nice, but for me itās not as clear a decision as it is with the Bim, since there are many other interesting reverb units (Empress Reverb still appeals to meā¦).
Big sky here. Sounds lush, sometimes too lushy, like a slush puppy with a blue taste, which hurts your teeth
Did some one try tc electronic flashback?
I used to have the strymon timeline, but sold it to finance my Bim. And I have to say: Iāve never had more fun with an effects box! The way it is designed is pure genius, it is MADE for live tweaking. Syncs up perfectly via midi clock. And it sounds AWESOME if you like the vintage vibe. It does not self oscillate however FYI. But the delays can get pretty dirty when u turn up the IN gain. I enjoyed it so much I sold my other reverb pedals and got the Bam. It sounds just magnificent.
NOW, these are by no means equivalent to the timeline or big sky. Both of those sound fantastic and there is a reason every guitarist and now synth player on the earth has either or both. You canāt get these dramatic, beautiful swells on the Bim Bam combo, not even close. But the strymon pair is not really designed for playing with. They have huge diversity in their sounds, and almost everything sounds good or amazing, but itās mostly a set-and-forget story. You just donāt want to play with those small knobs and look at the screen that much while youāre in a live/recording situation. My two cents, and itās completely subjective ofc. To sum it up, get the Bim and Bam, they are waaaay more fun and sound awesome. Cheers!
PS. I do sometimes miss certain dramatic extremes from the Timeline every now and then
mega love for Eventide Space here! Mostly using the modverb and shimmer algos. They are sounding just damn great. Have one or the other on every track. You can here the shimmer in my āForest Of The Monkeysā I already posted here in the forum. It sounds so lush. took me a year around to decide to buy it. Never regret it.
For the delay I love to use vsts like Soundtoys Echoboy, NI Guitar Rig tape delay or u-he Satin. They are sounding great. Got a El Cap for live sessions lately. Not sure about it. It sounds great - no questions. But need a bit for going grazy in self oscilation. Found the stereo image a bit strange. One channel is around 5 db louder then the other ā¦ so the delay is more panned to one channel. you can see this on the levelmeter of soundcard or mixing desk.
Have also a behringer Echo Maschine 600. Great little pedal for tape delay style with good selfoscilation and stereo ping pong delay for around 40 EUR ā¦ my glasses just hate the blue led
Hey Prinzabu,
The Bim manual say that you can get self-oscillation by turning the feedback limiter off. Have you found issue with this or was it maybe overlooked?
I also like the FX of the Digitone, the delay, reverb and distortion does wonder to my Tempest, where there are only midi FX and the distortion on the Tempest is not that great. Together its a really slick and mobile setup. If you compare the price in that range - OTO BIM = 500ā¬ , its a steal to get the Digitone just for the FX. (And you get a really cool sounding and innovative FM synth with itā¦)
BIM with the new firmware update allowing THRU mode 12-bit A/D D/A conversion with input gain and filters but without the delay is a crazy.
BAMs chorus mode is simple but beautiful.
I think Iām leaning toward the Oto combo for the live tweakability like Prinzabu says. I have Valhalla Vintage and Room for production needs. Also the Ohm Boyz plugs for getting weird in the box.
Too late on thatā¦ already done!
The fx are pretty great! Iām just itching for more options.
I think the H9 gives most value for money, for tweak-ability there is also an extra interface dedicated for the H9, but i dont know if its really necessary, i get along with the Dial, and some button presses. At some point you will have to sample your stuff anyways. An octatrack has also very good FX. The delay is not comparbable to the BIM though - mostly FX are there to cover up no so excellent sounds, its better to have really good source sound, and then add FX only sparsely. The Dark Reverb on the Octatrack is cool, and the other FX are usable and mostly on par with Abeltons internal FX. The X-fader allows to mangle several parameters at once.
Definitely a big love for BIM and BAM here. BAM is really something special if you ask me, just so useable and flexible, a nice array of different FX models, but I lean towards the āAmbientā one.
BIM is awesome too, I think here there is (to my subjective mind) a more distinctly vintage vibe and tone. I love delays and BIM is my go-to at the moment, unless I am looking for a cleaner, more ādirectā and ādigitalā kind of delay.
I have to say I prefer the Reverb and Echo Station from empress. I had the bim and the big sky but not the bam or timeline. The empress pedals have a simple layout, smaller footprint and of course incredible sounds. The Bim is 12bit and analog, and though the echo station has amazing analog and tape echo emulations, the OTO box was def better there. The Echo Station just does more. To be fair though all of the ones I used were stellar.
Is no one concerned about the 12 bit restriction of BIM?
Well itās higher than their Biscuit, and is inspired by the ā80s
Guitarists who play live probably arenāt using BIM/bam as they donāt have footswitches!
Nah the Lexi Prime Time was 12bit and thatās one of the nicest delays ever, BIM seems to be the pedal with most inspiration from that. Itās the only one Iāve found that can loop a buffer and pitch it around the octaves in that beautiful degraded way.
Oh really! I must have missed that!