Strymon Bigsky User Manual

USER MANUAL

BigSky - User Manual

Front Panel Controls

VALUE: Turn for ﬁ ne adjustment of Decay time when time is displayed. Scrolls through presets when bank or name is displayed. Push to access the PARAMETER menu, hold to access the GLOBAL menu.

TYPE: Turn to select desired reverb machine. Push to toggle the display to show Decay time or the current bank. Hold to save current preset.

TONE: Adjusts the high end content of the reverb. Lower settings create darker, warmer reverberation, higher settings are bright and crisp. Set at 12:00 for a nicely balanced top end.

A, B, & C LEDS: Green if active. Amber if the preset has been edited. Off if bypassed.

A, B, & C FOOTSWITCHES: Press to engage or bypass preset of the current bank. Hold for Inﬁ nite Sustain or Freeze (selectable via PARAMETER menu). Press A & B to select a lower bank. Press B & C to select a higher bank.

DECAY: Controls the Decay time of the reverberated signal. The range can depend on the selected reverb machine.

PRE-DELAY: Adjusts the time between the dry signal and the onset of the reverb, from 0 to 1.5 seconds. For the Nonlinear and Magneto machines, this knob controls the amount of Feedback.

MIX: Controls the balance of your analog dry signal and your wet signal, from 100% dry at minimum to 100% wet at maximum. 50/50 mix occurs when the Mix knob is set to 3:00.

MOD: Adds modulation to the reverberated signal. Lower settings modulate the delay lines lightly for a subtle and natural movement, higher settings tastefully add stronger modulation.

PARAM 1 & 2:

Assignable to parameters for the current reverb machine. To assign, choose the desired parameter, press and hold value encoder while turning a PARAM knob.

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BigSky - User Manual

Rear Panel

INPUTS: High impedance inputs. Use LEFT input for mono.

OUTPUTS: Use LEFT output for mono.

EXP: Connect an

expression pedal. See

EXP Connections

CAB FILTER

SWITCH: Set

switch to ON for a sophisticated speaker response curve. See Cab Filter.

MIDI: Full featured MIDI input and output supporting CCs, Program changes, etc. See MIDI

Speciﬁ cation

section.

POWER: Never plug into voltage higher than 9V DC. Requires at least 300mA of available current. 9V DC center negative polarity.

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BigSky - User Manual

In Depth: PARAM 1 & 2 controls

The PARAM 1 & PARAM 2 knobs allow you quick access to any desired menu parameter of the currently active reverb machine. For example, DIFUSN on the Cloud machine can be assigned to one of the parameter knobs to allow for easier control over the reverb diffusion.

ASSIGNING A PARAMETER

STEP 1: Navigate to the desired parameter to be assigned.

STEP 2: Press and hold the value encoder.

STEP 3: While holding the value encoder. Turn either the

PARAM 1 or PARAM 2 knob to assign a parameter.

STEP 4: Turn the newly assigned PARAM knob to adjust your reverb machine parameter.

Reverb time ranges and Display

to toggle the display between

push the

TYPE encoder

BANK, NAME & TIME

The displayed Decay time is the Tr60 value, which is the time it takes for the reverberated signal to decay to -60dB (1/1000th) of its initial value.

Hall, Plate, Swell, Bloom, Chorale, Shimmer 500mS — +20.00S Spring 800mS — 10.00S Cloud 1.00S — +50.00S Magneto 200mS — 1.50mS Nonlinear 50mS — 2.00S Reﬂ ections 133mS — 400mS Room 200mS — +20.00S

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BigSky - User Manual

EXP Connections

Connect an external TAP switch for remote control of Pre-Delay (or Decay time with the Magneto and Nonlinear machines). Use a standard TRS cable to connect the external switch. Set the EXP MD global setting to TAP to use external tap.

TAP

Connect a standard TRS expression pedal for continuous control over any knob. To select the knob(s) controlled by the expression pedal, use the EP SET parameter in each preset. All knobs can be controlled simultaneously. See Common Parameters for set up instructions.

Connect a Strymon MultiSwitch for external tap, bank, or preset selection. Set the EXP MD global setting to either TAP, BANK, or PRESET.

Please refer to the MultiSwitch user manual for detailed setup information:

www.strymon.net/support/ multiswitch

TRS

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BigSky - User Manual

Banks and Presets

BigSky has 100 banks with A, B, and C presets in each bank. Banks are numbered 00 to 99 on the display.

Note: BigSky ships from the factory with the ﬁ rst 100 presets (00A-33A) duplicated from 33B-66B, and again from 66C-99C.

Saving Presets

Save a preset to the current location:

hold the

TYPE encoder

push the TYPE encoder

to save your settings

Save a preset to a new location:

to select the bank to

hold the

TYPE encoder

turn the

VALUE encoder

save to

push the TYPE encoder or

the A, B, or C footswitch

to save your settings

To cancel an in-progress save press the VALUE encoder.

Restoring Factory Presets

CAUTION: This procedure will erase any custom presets saved in your BigSky and restore them to factory

POWER UP BigSky while holding A & C.

Keep holding for 5 seconds after BigSky has powered up.

REINIT will be displayed

and all factory presets will

automatically be restored

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BigSky - User Manual

Editing Parameters

While displaying BANK,

NAME or TIME

push the

VALUE encoder

to enter PARAMS

push the

and turn to edit

the selected

PARAMETER

turn the

VALUE encoder

to select the desired

PARAMETER

Reverb Machines: Common Parameters

All Reverb Machines share a set of parameters. These parameters are saved with each preset and include:

Boost: +/- 3dB of boost/cut. This can be useful for level matching in your effects chain, or can be

used as an effect such as boosting a solo with reverb.

Persist: Turns on reverb persist “trails” which will spill over when the effect is bypassed. Use this

if it is desired for reverb decay to continue after the effect has been bypassed. Note that if persist is set to ON, the bypass mode will automatically be set to analog bypass.

Hold: Sets the press-and-hold function for the selected preset switch. Select INFNTE to set as

Inﬁ nite Sustain, allowing your reverbs to continue inﬁ nitely, with each new note you play adding to the reverb signal. Select FREEZE to set as Reverb Freeze, delivering inﬁ nite sustain, and allowing for new notes on top of the sustain without adding to the reverb.

Name: Allows editing the 16 character name of the current preset. Use the VALUE encoder to

change the selected character. Use the TYPE encoder to select a character. Exit by pressing the VALUE encoder, then press and hold the TYPE encoder to SAVE the name permanently.

note: For the preset name to be displayed the NAMES global must be set to ON or SCROLL.

Expression Pedal ON/OFF: Enables or disables the expression pedal input for each preset.

Expression Pedal Set: Enters the expression pedal setup for each preset. All knobs can be conﬁ gured to be

used with the expression pedal. To set up which knobs are controlled by the expression pedal, push the Value encoder when it displays “EP SET” and it will then display “HEEL”. Turn the knob(s) to the position desired at heel down on the expression pedal. Then, turn the Value encoder right to display”TOE” and set the knobs to their desired values at the toe down position on the expression pedal. An expression pedal can control all of the knobs simultaneously.

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BigSky - User Manual

Reverb Machines: Room

A versatile room algorithm that creates environments ranging from well-tuned studio ambience to larger night club acoustics. The Tone knob, Diffusion and Low End parameters adjust the damping and scattering effects of room materials, furniture, and people.

PARAMETERS:

Low End: Affects the low frequency content and decay proﬁ le. As you turn it up, more low

frequencies reverberate creating the impression of longer decay times and a room that is sparsely furnished.

+ | | -

Size: Choose Studio for a well-tuned intimate studio environment, or Club for a larger,

livelier Night Club experience. The early reﬂ ections and reverb decay proﬁ le change accordingly.

STUDIO

CLUB

Diffusion: Softens the early reﬂ ections to create a thicker, more diffused reverb at the

attack portion of the reverb. Sometimes this can be more easily ‘felt’ than heard depending on the input and speciﬁ c settings.

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TIPS & TRICKS:

For realistic acoustic spaces, Pre-Delay can be kept at minimum, with Decay values in the 500mS to 2 second range. However, the Room algorithm is designed to be just as adept at long decay times. For great atmospheric reverbs, try Pre-Delay at noon, Decay at 12 seconds or more, and Mod at 1:00. Mix to taste.

The Mod control randomly modulates the reverb’s delay lengths for the ﬁ rst half of the knob travel for subtle natural movement, and then adds modulation to the input of the reverb tank for the 2nd half of the knob travel for a more overt yet tasteful modulation experience.

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