Hi all, I’m looking to get a reverb/delay unit to compliment my synthesizers. I have been looking at the Strymon big sky and timeline. I’m about to pull the trigger on both. Is this a safe purchase or could strymon release an update soon? Does anyone have any other recommendations? Cheers! 
-Daniel
There are lots of options available now, and a few threads discussing these options.
Eventide is always my best option
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I just picked up a Meris Mercury7 (reverb), and it’s great. I believe Meris was started by someone from Strymon, for whatever that’s worth. I’ve also heard a lot of good things about Empress Reverb, and their Echo System is a delay pedal that is high on my list. Basically, there are a lot of good options out there, take a look around.
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Although anything is possible, in the past Strymon has not released new versions of old products (with the exception of small changes to foot switches, etc). If you want to be super cautious you could wait until after winter NAMM at the end of the month.
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I’ve been spending many minutes per day for last month researching delay+reverb (and granular) pedals with emphasis on reverse and stutter type sounds. I finally pulled trigger on the empress echosystem just today!
Echosystem has dual delay+reverb engines as you probably know, which immediately seems to make it two pedals in one, though the reverb portion is limited to plate and hall. I didn’t actually spend much time on the Strymons, however, because I wanted something that seemed a bit weirder???
But have you seen this new pedal by old blood noise endeavors (collaborating with datachoirsounds) called the REVER? Here’s a preview:
Probably more of a niche ambient shoegaze pedal. But I want one at $229 usd. Problem is there aren’t any available right now!!!
Good luck!
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I’m a bit of a reverb and delay junkie, mostly for guitar. One thing you might want to consider is whether you want knobs and switches or menus. For me, I could never bond with the big box Strymons because of the menus. I love the Flint and the El Cap, and my buddy gave me a Deco for Christmas, which I’m digging at the moment (although not a standard delay per se).
I also like analog delays, such as the Way Huge stuff.
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Give Specular Tempus a look:
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A Meris Polymoon as at the top of my GAS list
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If you don’t need stereo, Chase Bliss Tonal Recall (Red Knob Mod) is absolutely incredible on my Moog Grandmother. Also, their Dark World reverb is equally sweet.
But, they aren’t as “clean” as Empress, etc. Very colored, but I love it.
If you need a stereo box, I have much love for the Earthquaker Devices Avalanche.
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Digitech Polara and Obscura.
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I would agree that the big box strymons are deep though that worked against me when I had a mobius. My fave reverb in the studio is neunaber wet - three knobs and sounds great to my ears. For delay I get by with my moog super delay…
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I was in the same boat and ended up with the Oto Bim and Bam. I think if I wanted more modern sounds I would go with Strymon, but I was looking for more of a vintagy sounding vibe from hardware. I have Valhalla plugins for modern sounds, which can’t be beat for $50. The Oto stuff has the (to my ears) advantage of analog filters and other circuitry. Some of the newer digital time based effects sound/feel more like a plugin in a box, which can be great(!), but there is some magic with 12 bit processing through an analog fiilter.
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you’re def safe buying Strymon big boxes, they are both phenomenal boxes and amongst the best in their respective classes. Both have of course also been around for a while.
Alternatives re Reverb, if you want similar flexibility as with the BigSky, the Empress Reverb, Source Audio Ventris, Specular Reverb and Eventide Space are all valid competitors. They all have their own sound (as does the BigSky), so it’s a matter of taste really. If you just want really good sounding (ambient) reverb (and you don’t need 10+ algorithms), I’d recommend the Meris Mercury7 (stereo pedal) or the Chase Bliss Dark World (mono pedal).
Alternatives re Delay, again if you want similar flexibility you could go for the Empress Echosystem, Source Audio Nemesis, Specular Delay (or Specular Tempus which is Reverb + Delay algos in one), or the Eventide TimeFactor. Here again, it’s really jus a question of preference as these are all great, powerful pedals. If you want something slightly odder, the Meris Polymoon is fantastic and someone mentioned the Chase Bliss Tonal Recall which is also very cool.
I wouldn’t worry about Strymon bringing out an update, especially the BigSky is such a classic, you wouldn’t lose much either way.
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Source Audio Ventris and Nemesis are monsters. Really amazing. Not sure about other pedals. I had the Strymon peddle for a test and didn’t see the fuss. The big thing with the Ventris is that it has two reverbs that you can mix between. For me this makes a huge difference and makes the Ventris easily better than VST plugins.
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Rv 500 is great bang for buck. Doesn’t get too weird, although great bread and butter reverb. Can run to seperate ins and outs. Verbs can be stacked or parallel. Limit is ten seconds of reverb per effect, so the idea is to stack to beef them up if you want longer tails. Has a delay as well.
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If you are considering a Strymon pedal, I’d wait at least until Jan 11th, as they are announcing something(s) new on Jan 10th.
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Got an echosystem, amazing !
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Deleted because I wanted to reply to ML…
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I Me too! Not getting me all the way where I want vocally but it’s transformed my sub phatty. I assume one of these days I’ll be back to writing and recording and I expect some phatter sounds!!!
Sam
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Wow the Rever sounds great.
Have you checked out the Chase Bliss Dark World yet? Knobs did a video on it that was pretty amazing.
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