BIG SKY vs MERCURY X - Is This the Big Sky Killer?
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2023
- An in-depth video comparing the @strymon Big Sky with the Brand New @MerisUs Mercury X
How does it compare, and what are the main differences between the two reverb Powerhouses? 
Видеоклипы
I prefer the Bigsky, but nice demo and comparison. I've been hearing the Strymon killer term for many years. Strymon just makes some nice stuff, and so many other companies do as well. No need for killing. Just pick what works best for you.
Listen to the Room demo in the beginning, BS sounds syntethic and unconvincing , the MX room is 2 leveles up in realisem much more 3D, now that's a BS killer.
hahahaha!
@@SAGABIJO2 yeah, some room/delay sounds in BigSky are unconvincing. But stuff like chorale or cloud is top notch. Personally I too prefer the cold character of Mercury7 (didn't try X yet, but assume it's the same plus much more), but their feature sets are a bit different.
@@SAGABIJO2 To me it sounded like the MX had more bass dialed in and a slightly longer tail to develop. I'd be interested to hear a side-by-side comparison with knob turning rather than whatever this was.
Dude the lighting made that tele look purple and hell yeah! Great vid dude
Thanks a ton!
Mercury X is an improvement over the big sky to my ears.
Great video! Looks like you're now gonna need a Strymon Big Sky MX for the next comparison! :)
Thanks for doing this.
There are tradeoffs with any choice you make. I think 'what is the best 'x' pedal?' is not as helpful a question as 'what do you want to achieve musically?' With this in mind, I don't think the MercuryX kills the Bigsky, but I think it is a worthy spiritual successor. They are both great units (I'm keeping both, FWIW.)
I've had the Bigsky since around the time of its initial release. It seems to be often regarding as a classic, and I think that is well-deserved. For as complex as it can sound, it is relatively easy to use, and Cloud gives up the ambient goods very easily. Overall stereo is good...but not always exceptional, in my opinion. The MercuryX, like the LVX, just has an exceptional stereo image, with some exceptions. It also has 'special effect' capability with pitch shifting, modifiers, gating, hold, and has an extremely robust predelay section (Bigsky predelay is VERY wide-ranging, but Meris have really expanded this feature by a country mile. It could eliminate a delay pedal for some players, though not for me.) The flexibility of the modulation block, which can either flavor the reverb or the dry, really takes the MercuryX (and the LVX) beyond the limits of its predecessors. Also, the MercuryX, like the Mercury7, is one of the few reverbs on the market that has true stereo reverb - it will not, in most cases, sum the to-be-processed signal to mono before creating stereo reverb. This is what the Bigsky does, nothing wrong with that, and the dry signal is always stereo. But the Mercury reverbs will preserve the stereo information 'in the tank.' This isn't always a huge deal, but for some people who love ping pong delays or other panning effects before their reverb, it is nice to have.
Some things the Bigsky does which are overlooked, IMO: Yeah, the Cloud is great. But there are other reverbs that also do great ambient things, namely Bloom, Chorale, and Nonlinear. Nonlinear is not just a reverse reverb, but a multi-part reverb with two subsections. 3 of the 6 shapes are not reverse and can be used as standard reverb with a little something extra. Swell is not just about the volume envelope...the modulation is different here, and fantastically lush and well voiced. Set to swell wet, pick a short rise time, and enjoy. Shimmer set to micropitch (that's +/-10 cent intervals) is mega lush, and not shrill. Nice options for how it is blended, and nice stereo. Magneto can be a fairly conventional multi-tap digital/drum delay. It's more fun with diffusion, and uneven head spacing, but this can be a great sounding and versatile delay-verb. Finally, there is digitally controlled analog boost/cut in 0.1 db increments, per preset, also controllable per CC. If you have MIDI, this is SUPER useful in fine-tuning presets.
Yea, its best to not get caught up on a big pedal release and 100 RUclipsrs are pushing it and ask yourself what ot can do for your sound.
I have a feeling that it’s possible to make Mercury X reverbs sound more warmer and less brighter, just like on Big Sky. If so…MX is a fantastic choice.
Of course it can be get warmer..there are all types of filters and frequency parameters..
I just got the Mercury X and did a comparison. The spring and plate are much different. When you put the mix up, the X sounds much tamer. I would not give up my Big Sky for my basic reverbs.
I have had a Big Sky since it came out (10 years?). Some of the Big Sky reverbs now sound a bit lo-fi compared to more recent pedals e.g. Skylar shimmer is epic compared to Big Sky. I am thinking about getting the MercuryX but this video doesn’t convince. I honestly think you needed to familiarise yourself with both pedals first before filming. Then you could have cut the length of the vid too!! Sorry… but this is constructive criticism.
Great video, thanks for the comparison. I love those 78 algos in the MercuryX. It looks like with enough time and tweaking it can pretty much do everything the BigSky does and more.. Off topic, but consider keeping that vermouth behind you in the fridge (unless you just have it out momentarily during the filming of this video, of course)
hey jimmy....im working through my version of this video...kinda excited and scared at the same time...been very protective of my treasured big sky for the past 10 years
I knew you would be working on something like this and i honestly can’t wait to see and hear!
Thank you for this video. Just FYI the big sky wet/dry 50/50 level is at 3 o'clock position of the control knob not at 12 o'clock not sure how it is with mercury x but im assuming at 12 oclock thats why from what I hear mercury x had a more wet signal in this comparison.
Depending on how you modify the basic presets you can get an array of sounds similar to each pedal. I think a lot of GAS is present and unavoidable. Who doesn't love new gear?! 😊
I have both and several other reverb pedals... The true test of the algorythms is to compare them full wet... Surprisingly, out of all my reverb pedals, the Ventris clearly has the best reverb algorythms... Check it out for yourselves...
Was really hyped by the X when it came out (I own a Big Sky since years); now the more I hear comparisons the more I think the X is an excellent reverb, but will keep my Strymon nevertheless. Plus the GUI is simpler / more direct / less prone to failures (no screen). And you can probably get one used for half the price of the Mercury X.
Pretty close in sound. Slight different color. Nice to have an alternate verb. I thought the room verb was nice on the MX. But once you started to match the longer tails for the plate and hall they sounded closer. The shimmer sounded less shimmery on the MX but sounded really good. I'd use that on synths rather than the Big Sky more shimmery shimmer sound on synths as an option. Nice comparison of the 2 reverb pedals. I should do a comparison on synths w these 2 pedals.
How do you feel about the amount of usable tones in each? It seems liked there was at least one setting on the Big Sky that you seemed to shrug off as basic, and then of course there is always some bloat in presets where some sounds are possible but would be so unique or quirky, it's hard to fit them into a worship mix.
Honestly mostly impressed with Smith & Cross up on your shelf. Solid Jamaican rum choice. Also love Ramazzotti 🤠
Hahaha thanks! I love smith & cross
@@jimmyrigs of course. The demo comparison was great, I just really wanted to send kudos to your taste as well. Love a good funky rum 🫡
@@dreamwarden agreed! The funkier the better e
The Big Sky algorithms still sound pretty great. To me though, the Meris is a whole workstation which allows for more options. Do they feel any different to you?
The big thing I’ve noticed here is that you can tell that they share some of the same core sonic properties, probably because the founders of Meris and strymon previously worked together at both strymon and line 6. So in some ways they feel like distant cousins. In terms of how it feels when being played, the Meris seems to have a bit dynamic range when it comes to the reverb, like I can play softer and get softer attack and decay in the verb and play harder to get a more abrupt attack and longer decay. Seems a bit more interactive in that regard
I am having massive deja vu... maybe you did a livestream for LXV too.
I did a premiere video for the LVX, but not live. Maybe i should do a live one 🤔
Is it a killer? Hmm, I own Big Sky and love it but there's nothing wrong with having both ;-)
This is a great solution too!
Yes sell your big sky so I can buy one at a discounted price
I never liked bigsky since it colors dry tone significantly, which is pretty clear in this video as well. Meris retains dry tone whereas Bigsky sounds almost like synth compared to meris
that is funny because some people says the same other way around. I love it in this community :)
funny but this is in the end pretty nice that everything is bit different for everyone.
I'm a bit surprised by how much I prefer the Mercury X.
I prefer the Big Sky, more natural for me.
I couldn’t decide on 1 so I had to get both. I think Ben Jordan sold me on the MercuryX and many ambient you tube videos sold me on the Big Sky. The Walrus Sloër is also another awesome pedal, especially for synths.
I will need some time to build some basic reverbs before I take the big sky off my board. The RVX (mercury X) is just so vast. I wish the presets weren’t so off the wall and they had more normal presets. The big sky is much more consumer friendly the RVX is think of a reverb you want and you can have it.
bigsky sound like a natural extension of the sound, meris add another (very very clear and thin sound) decoupled of the original.
Same guy designed both pedals.
Ok now do the bigsky Mx!!!
I think that the Meris X is more for the tweker, nerds guy. Bigsky is just play n go type of pedal?!
Strymon has better specs, but the Meris sounds Fantastics well. If Strymon would get off their buts and update the Big Sky with a faster processor and better control it would retain it's crown.
Something is off with this test. The dry signal coming out of the Big Sky sounds different than the Meris. I can see that you're going Guitar TS into Meris then Stereo TS or TRS to Strymon then Stereo TS or TRS to interface. I'm fairly positive that your setup is influencing the dry tones. You should not have put them in series for a true 1:1 test. These pedals both have options to choose either a buffered bypass, or a true bypass. The most likely culprit here is your input gain going into the Big Sky. This is what's likely responsible for skewing this test. More gain going into any analog input is going to change the harmonic character of the signal. And a mono signal being split must be buffered in order to maintain a consistent amplitude on each channel. And a dual mono buffered signal will be 6dB hotter going into the Strymon when the L and R get summed together; changing the harmonic character of that signal because the input stage is being driven harder. In this case, making it sound warmer.
Now I could totally be wrong, and Strymon could just as easily have a nicer sounding input stage, but I can't be sure because they're wired in series. So just keep that in mind for future reference. Always test in parallel with an AB switcher to ensure gains are matched when doing a true 1:1 test. I honestly don't know if any of you can even hear the differences. I'm in my mastering studio; which is maybe why it's so noticeable to me. The dry signal of the Meris sounds thinner and brighter, and the Big Sky is warmer with a little more harmonic character; making it sound more full. This is a huge deal for me, cuz I do pay very close attention to harmonic character when choosing what to buy, and if the Strymon truly does have a nicer sounding input stage, then that is something I need to know because I actually use pedals in my mixes. I rarely use them for guitar. And if I can notice a change on a clean guitar signal, then it's gonna be a lot more noticeable on fuller sounding things.
Anyways, just food for thought! Thanks for the video!
Thanks for the comment, i was pretty quick with putting this together, and mostly wanted to compare algorithm to algorithm. Regarding input gain, i know both have analog dry thru, both have buffered and true bypass options selectable in the menus. I appreciate the insight and will definitely keep it in mind for next time.
Big Sky seems to be superior for my ears... Both are great, but, not necessary for me, when I can create better sounds on my daw computer...
~ INERTIA
bricasti**
Meris !!!
They are both mono delays at their core, if you don't care about the portability or cool form factor then there are 25 euro reverb plugins that sound much better. It's a shame that companies opt for mono effects when even guitarists are shifting more towards stereo setups. This at the end of a chain would muddy your pingpong delay, stereo chorus or any stereo effect put before it.
I still prefer my ''bathtub, two mics and hamster driven doubletracker'' setup over these two bad boys 🛀🛀🛀
Are a lot of folks willing to pay that much? I cannot.
NOPE. Meris knows what they shouldve done, ONE PEDAL, istead they will milk people during a recession, for algorithm per pedal.
60 hz hum coming from that Japanese guitar - not grounded properly.
Research for m-vave mini universe 😉 30 dollars
I have noticed that company, thinking about trying their cheap midi controller for like $30.
The Mercury X seems to thin out the sound considerably. I prefer the Big Sky
No it just doesnt have as much modulation as the big sky by default with the mount of chorus and other stuff they slam into their reverb. Cloud only sounds bigger for example because of the chorus and eq which can easily be bettered on the mercuryx.
@@JohnnyADi I hate that modulation in the BS, can't stand that pedal, very syntethic... The MX for my ears is 2 levels up in realisem, 3D and resolution.
@@SAGABIJO2 exactly!
600 dollars, lmao
Big Sky interface is a dinosaur.
Im gonna put this nicely, if you don't play both at the same time in this video.... I am unsubscribing. Btw people don't want screens, unless is an HX Stomp style true multifx pedal where you can place blocks ANYWHERE you like. Like a fractal FM3.
😂 it definitely happens a few times in the video. And I kind of agree with the screens, it just depends on the UI
Doesn’t sound nice to me bucko.
I am very nice, you big ol l 0 s3r!@@JonathanKSims
I want screens.
Well I hope you have enough to fund Meris's porsches. Maybe you can buy 500,000 of these pedals. @@Tim.Traveler