Strymon Nightsky Reverb

Most verbs are boring, in a good way. There are a couple of algorithms with their distinct sound and features, each one having a small amount of controls which allow one to fine-tune the sound for a purpose. Usually that's exactly what's needed to get the results one wants.

I feel the Nightsky is non-boring in an equally good way - it keeps the basic "algorithm" side simple, but in exchange, allows you to pop the hood open and tweak and modulate a lot of things that are usually unavailable or out of reach.

The base "algorithm" in this case is the "reverb core" - there are three of them, each with its unique sound and behaviour. Once you start piling modulation, pitch shifting, harmonic excitation, distortion and filtering on top, things get very, very interesting. Naturally, it's easy to go overboard: most of the demos online eventually show how someone really loves to make a reverb sound like a reverb run through an over-the-top wah or a distorted vibrato with pitch sequencing on top, and to me that sounds kind of gimmicky and cheap. But fear not: there's a huge palette of interesting and usable sounds one can get out of this one even if you're after "tasteful" results - from shimmery, crystaline, glittery sparse verbs to full-on bloomy ambience.

One thing it certainly doesn't really do is "real" or "classic" sounding reverbs, but you probably knew that already - and it's a pleasant surprise that aside the huge and weird stuff that you hear in the demos, you _can_ get nice, if proudly "artificial sounding", shorter and cleaner verbs out of it. There are much better and more versatile verb units for bread and butter reverb, this is just to say that it does sound good even without the shimmery modulated goodness and even with moderate size + decay settings.

Overall, I can't fault much - full marks from me for the purpose I bought it for.

Phiuu..I waited quite a long time before bying the Nightsky, and I must say..I´m not dissapointed. On the contrary I´m very very excited.
First, most important to me is that, sound quality is just amazing.
It´s really easy to use. Once you realize how the "mixing" works it´s
all about Heavenly bling blings to Hellish earth crust breaking explotions, a journey to never ending sound landscapes indeed.

There´s a catch though. This isn´t a "normal" reverb perse. I play instrumental ambient guitar music so it´s right down my alley.
I understand now, what utubers like Rhett Shull & Rabea Masaad ment when they say, "It´s a bit tricky to deside where this pedal falls". Synth players, absolutely. I can see having this pedal on the "synth rak" where player can adjust the sounds while playing.

As a guitar player it gets a bit trickier though, well at least for me it did.
16 memory banks is more than enough for me, so that´s ok. The saving system couldn´t be easier..There is yet much for me learn for sure.

The hardest part for me was that, when using Night sky I couldn´t really
adapt it right away in to my old songs. Because the pedal generates such amazing sound, I had change my approach. Ok you can use it as a normal reverb sure..but then, what´s the point? i´d recommend buying something cheaper for example EHX oceans 12 goes a looong way and more. Night sky kinda sets it´s own terms. I had a bit difficult to use with my overdrives & gain pedals at first but when I got over that..ta´daa!

Once realizing that it can be a bit tricky to implement it to your "old ways" instead, go boldly where no man has gone before, be brave, try new stuff and it will reward you, Royally!

I used this pedal on an electric guitar, and some synths: MicroFreak, Mother32, and even on virtual sounds like FL Studio Sytrus. It sounds very good with any input source.

What I especially like about it is that the reverb follows the melody or chord, even when they are changing in time. (Unlike other reverbs that mush together chords when they change)

I would recommend any Strymon device at any time. The hardware is solid, the knobs feel nice.