Talking Strymon Big Box Pedals. Will there ever be a pedal released that does more, offers more, etc than those 3 pedals? If there were such a pedal, would you want that much in a pedal (and its price point) and would you buy it? There are so many pedals and pedal makers out there. Strymon definitely raised the roof in several ways and to me a lot of that was breaking the price point ceiling and opening the doors for other companies to charge more for pedals and get away with it. How much more can really be put into a pedal? I am not sure how much further the pedal game can go.
The King of the World?
- Thread starter Bogner
- Start date
You can build similar reverbdelay/pitch effects with a Fractal or Eventide. I would think that as technology improves, you'd be able to load software plug-ins into a pedal, too and you'd reach a whole new level of effects.
I remember when the Line 6 DL4 came out, and I thought there wouldn't ever be a more complete delay pedal.
I remember when the Line 6 DL4 came out, and I thought there wouldn't ever be a more complete delay pedal.
I forgot to mention presets etc on each pedal. That was part of the reason for starting this thread. You have options, presets, options, routing capabilities, deep dive menu's, etc. Will there be more? Do we need more? Do we want more? When is enough enough I guess is what I am thinking. When you sit back and look at all of it you quickly see how crazy it is.
I am all for more! These kinds of pedals that twist the sound so much that it doesn't sound like a guitar weaned me off of my guitar synth, which was used for long slow pads.
PFDarkside
of the Forum
There are three factors in my mind:
1. Processing power/price
2. Algorithms the require the power
3. Usage/Packaging of those algorithms
In the not too distant future, the chips in the Stryfeca will need to be updated (or already have been). There will be an engineering cost to make these upgrades, but then you’ll have more power and speed available. This can resolve the single algorithm issue that they currently have. You can’t do two modulations on the Mobius, the Timeline can’t do detailed multitap tape echo, etc. (The Nightsky and Volante show where more processing can go)
From an algorithm standpoint, they definitely have a “sound”. For the most part I like the sound, but others criticize the Strymon sheen. However, from a technical standpoint they can always model and simulate the next layer of depth for even more realism. I have no idea if that means a revision to the current dBucket, dTape, and reverb algorithms or just tearing them up and starting over fresh but the power will be there.
For the packaging side, Boss, Line 6, Fractal and others have bundled stuff together, made it bigger and smaller, etc. An all-in-one Helix style grouping of all the algorithms makes sense, but by the same token of you get the compressor, two drives, iridium and stryfecta today, that’s over $2500. What would the market bear for a Strymon Helix? They pay that much for a Fractal AxeFX, so maybe it will?
Also from a functional standpoint you’ve got MIDI on the Riverside and Sunset, it seems the next revision of the small pedals would include MIDI across the board.
The final thing to think about is that they are a small company with limited resources. Boss/Roland and Yamaha/Line 6 have a ton of money and people to throw at stuff. Strymon needs to hit their shots or it could be a pretty big hit for a failure.
I’m always interested in what they do next though.
1. Processing power/price
2. Algorithms the require the power
3. Usage/Packaging of those algorithms
In the not too distant future, the chips in the Stryfeca will need to be updated (or already have been). There will be an engineering cost to make these upgrades, but then you’ll have more power and speed available. This can resolve the single algorithm issue that they currently have. You can’t do two modulations on the Mobius, the Timeline can’t do detailed multitap tape echo, etc. (The Nightsky and Volante show where more processing can go)
From an algorithm standpoint, they definitely have a “sound”. For the most part I like the sound, but others criticize the Strymon sheen. However, from a technical standpoint they can always model and simulate the next layer of depth for even more realism. I have no idea if that means a revision to the current dBucket, dTape, and reverb algorithms or just tearing them up and starting over fresh but the power will be there.
For the packaging side, Boss, Line 6, Fractal and others have bundled stuff together, made it bigger and smaller, etc. An all-in-one Helix style grouping of all the algorithms makes sense, but by the same token of you get the compressor, two drives, iridium and stryfecta today, that’s over $2500. What would the market bear for a Strymon Helix? They pay that much for a Fractal AxeFX, so maybe it will?
Also from a functional standpoint you’ve got MIDI on the Riverside and Sunset, it seems the next revision of the small pedals would include MIDI across the board.
The final thing to think about is that they are a small company with limited resources. Boss/Roland and Yamaha/Line 6 have a ton of money and people to throw at stuff. Strymon needs to hit their shots or it could be a pretty big hit for a failure.
I’m always interested in what they do next though.
Companies like Strymon, Meris and Source Audio are definitely raising the bar for perfomance, features and sound quality in guitar pedal technology.
Part of me thinks it's really cool when you consider the level of depth that is built in to any of them. Things that were not possible 5 to 10 years ago can be purchased at Sweetwater today. A few Strymon pedals and one literally has thousands of sound combinations at their disposal. It's pretty cool!
The other part of me thinks it is kind of similar to the rack gear of the 80's. People are wowed by the capabilities on the showroom floor and buy it. After a while, they realize they are only using 1 or 2 sounds per pedal and then they ditch them for simpler gear. That said, it is undeniable that the current state of digital audio sound quality is the best it has ever been.
Part of me thinks it's really cool when you consider the level of depth that is built in to any of them. Things that were not possible 5 to 10 years ago can be purchased at Sweetwater today. A few Strymon pedals and one literally has thousands of sound combinations at their disposal. It's pretty cool!
The other part of me thinks it is kind of similar to the rack gear of the 80's. People are wowed by the capabilities on the showroom floor and buy it. After a while, they realize they are only using 1 or 2 sounds per pedal and then they ditch them for simpler gear. That said, it is undeniable that the current state of digital audio sound quality is the best it has ever been.
eclecticsynergy
Well-known member
Off topic, but somebody had to...
Steely Dan - King Of The World.
Steely Dan - King Of The World.
Aceman
I am your doctor of love!
Yet - is there really a sound we aspire to create that was made using those pedals?
I'm not saying they are not Uber pedals - they are and then some. But when I go through my list of top 10 "Wish I sounded like" not one of them were made since those have been around.
Could they make it easier? Perhaps. Are they necessary? I doubt it. And, I'll even argue, much like Microsoft software, how much of that do you really use anyway?
I'm not saying they are not Uber pedals - they are and then some. But when I go through my list of top 10 "Wish I sounded like" not one of them were made since those have been around.
Could they make it easier? Perhaps. Are they necessary? I doubt it. And, I'll even argue, much like Microsoft software, how much of that do you really use anyway?
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I understand that point and I agree. Classic tones can certainly be easily achieved without this stuff.
A friend of mine has several Strymon pedals and lots of other top shelf gear. The emphasis for these state of the art pedals for him, and I agree with his perspective too, is that they are tools for creating new and different sounds.
Those who are bored with spring and plate reverb for example, now have multitudes of other reverb types to experiment with and write new songs around.
Ambient and shoegaze will become "classic rock" for the next generation and people who are into that will covet things like the Strymon Big Sky like blues guys covet the TS-808 now.
A friend of mine has several Strymon pedals and lots of other top shelf gear. The emphasis for these state of the art pedals for him, and I agree with his perspective too, is that they are tools for creating new and different sounds.
Those who are bored with spring and plate reverb for example, now have multitudes of other reverb types to experiment with and write new songs around.
Ambient and shoegaze will become "classic rock" for the next generation and people who are into that will covet things like the Strymon Big Sky like blues guys covet the TS-808 now.
