Strymon releases BigSky MX reverb pedal with dual engines and IR

January 1, 2024 · 3 sources

Strymon released the BigSky MX, a new flagship reverb pedal and successor to the original BigSky, in April 2024. Guitar World reported the launch on April 30, 2024, and said the original BigSky had debuted more than a decade earlier¹.

The pedal runs a tri-core 800 MHz ARM processor with 32-bit floating point processing, which Guitar World described as a significant upgrade to the original's 366 MHz processor²¹. It carries 12 reverb engines, and two can run at once, routed in Series, Parallel or Split modes with individual panning per engine²¹. Strymon says seven algorithms are new, with Impulse and Chamber built specifically for the MX, while Spring, Plate, Hall, Room and Shimmer get new handcrafted algorithms alongside the original BigSky voices²³. The pedal has stereo inputs and outputs with discrete Class A JFET input preamps, a dedicated Infinite/Freeze footswitch, an OLED display, MIDI over DIN, TRS and USB-C, and an expression pedal input²¹³.

Impulse response playback runs up to 10 seconds of stereo IR per instance, with editing that includes decay envelopes, gating the tail, reversing the IR and resampling to shorten or stretch it²¹. Any compatible audio file can be loaded, and the pedal ships with 22 stereo impulse responses, including Strymon's own captures of analog studio gear²³.

Guitar World reported an expected US retail price of around $679¹; Creation Music Company listed it at $679.99².

Strymon co-founder Pete Celi said in the same article that the new algorithms are "bigger, wider and cleaner than anything we've been able to achieve in the past"¹.