# Eventide H9 vs Strymon BigSky?



## glpg80 (Jun 5, 2015)

I need help choosing a reverb.

Does anyone who owns or has owned a Bigsky comment on what sounds like an abundance of compression that exists? Does the Bigsky allow you to adjust the dynamics?

The H9 seems to sound more like a natural reverb, but doesn't sound as transparent about the original source signal staying unchanged compared to the strymon. Is it dependent upon the high and low filter? Or is the high and low filter based on the reverb response algorithm itself in terms of output? Just really confused on positives and negatives of each. Would love opinions from fellow sso'ers.

Thanks


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## Spinedriver (Jun 5, 2015)

Have you looked at the Eventide Space as opposed to the H9 ? As far as I know, the H9 only has a few reverb modes where the Space has a dozen.


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## Given To Fly (Jun 5, 2015)

glpg80 said:


> The H9 seems to sound more like a natural reverb, but doesn't sound as transparent about the original source signal staying unchanged compared to the Strymon.



From Eventide's website:


> *Audio I/O*
> Does the H9 have "true analog bypass"?
> When in relay bypass, the input signal is hardwired to the output signal through relays so that the signal is unprocessed and does not go through the converters. There is an alternate setting for DSP bypass whereby the signal goes through the A/D and D/A.
> 
> ...



The H9 allows you to buy the specific algorithms you want from all 4 Factor pedals. And that is just the beginning... https://www.eventideaudio.com/products/stompboxes/multi-effect-processor/h9#adhoc_1

I'll let the Strymon experts chime in on the BigSky.


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## glpg80 (Jun 6, 2015)

My comment was more along the lines of the reverb algorithm affecting your source tone when using the DSP and nothing to do with true bypass - although that is nice that they have taken the effort to use relays for signal bypassing 

As far as the space versus H9, to my ears they are using different AD/DAs than the eventide space. Never cared for the pedals that much however the algorithms are rock solid.

It's nice that you can load multiple pedals and also the fact the pedal comes with bluetooth support. That's a great selling factor once you start loading more than one pedal which helps keep the gear footprint small.

I'd be really interested in loading it with modfactor, space, and pitch algorithms knowing it could do that much without much of a struggle.

Any personal experiences with the BigSky? Really wanting to know about the compression it seems to have or if that is youtube being crappy as always :/


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## Sparkfriction (Jun 9, 2015)

i prefer eventide over strymon in any case. but thats me who have not so much Need for crazy modes and algorithms. So if you Need a few solid reverbs, with the option of super deep tweaking. i would recommend eventide... H9 is an Overall different animal and you have to ask yourself if you want fiddle around in your presets and patches via Copmuter/Phone or if you Need a pedal with knobs. And as a pedal, i would still recommend an Eventide Product. The Space!


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## cwhitey2 (Jun 9, 2015)

glpg80 said:


> Does anyone who owns or has owned a Bigsky comment on what sounds like an abundance of compression that exists?



 I'm not sure what you are referring to as compression...I don't notice any added.


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## glpg80 (Jun 9, 2015)

cwhitey2 said:


> I'm not sure what you are referring to as compression...I don't notice any added.



Compression is the effect applied to clean signals to boost low dB signals and cut high dB signals to an equal amplitude. IE no picking dynamics = compression.


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## glpg80 (Jun 9, 2015)

Sparkfriction said:


> i prefer eventide over strymon in any case. but thats me who have not so much Need for crazy modes and algorithms. So if you Need a few solid reverbs, with the option of super deep tweaking. i would recommend eventide... H9 is an Overall different animal and you have to ask yourself if you want fiddle around in your presets and patches via Copmuter/Phone or if you Need a pedal with knobs. And as a pedal, i would still recommend an Eventide Product. The Space!



Are the majority of the bigsky reverb algorithms not something useful? Having never played one I was concerned about there being too much that is of no use other than the usual spring, hall/cathedral, etc.


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## Sparkfriction (Jun 9, 2015)

glpg80 said:


> Are the majority of the bigsky reverb algorithms not something useful? Having never played one I was concerned about there being too much that is of no use other than the usual spring, hall/cathedral, etc.



for that you have to go and check out demos. this is subjectiv and i think its to much of a pedal if i am just use two or maybe three of the standard reverbs. For me at least... Some People rave about shimmer etc. But this depends on your needs and the Music you want to play. Sure it is nice and sounds cool...

you asked about the tone and how transparent it is. i guess this depends on the way you use it. Eventide has sadly not really good demos on the web, but like i said in my first post. i prefer eventide over strymon. i am not a toneguy, i am really not picky. But the strymons has something going on what other people call "sterile"


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## cwhitey2 (Jun 9, 2015)

glpg80 said:


> Compression is the effect applied to clean signals to boost low dB signals and cut high dB signals to an equal amplitude. IE no picking dynamics = compression.



Gotcha, I notice no difference with the pedal on or off for the compression. The pedal will take some tweaking to get your sound IMO 

I freaking love mine and it's worth every penny IMO



glpg80 said:


> Are the majority of the bigsky reverb algorithms not something useful? Having never played one I was concerned about there being too much that is of no use other than the usual spring, hall/cathedral, etc.



I have a total of 9 patches I use consistently (most of them are diff reverbs). If you add a delay pedal to your board as well that helps more than you can imagine.


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## glpg80 (Jun 9, 2015)

Sparkfriction said:


> for that you have to go and check out demos. this is subjectiv and i think its to much of a pedal if i am just use two or maybe three of the standard reverbs. For me at least... Some People rave about shimmer etc. But this depends on your needs and the Music you want to play. Sure it is nice and sounds cool...
> 
> you asked about the tone and how transparent it is. i guess this depends on the way you use it. Eventide has sadly not really good demos on the web, but like i said in my first post. i prefer eventide over strymon. i am not a toneguy, i am really not picky. But the strymons has something going on what other people call "sterile"



Yeah I can hear that sterility a bit, but I think it comes down to personal preference. You can say the same about eventides having a high end emphasis for detail that compliments your tone rather than uses whatever already exists. I like to think that reverb is a hard effect to use live, and anything that benefits a tone rather than re-creates it will work to your advantage. Have you used the H9 for anything other than guitar? I would like to use it to record piano/keys later and I am curious how well it plays with MIDI units or other instruments.

I'm not big on shimmers and auto-harmonies, I do like nice modulation effects though to add deepness to the original tone and remove some of the normal guitar sterility.



cwhitey2 said:


> Gotcha, I notice no difference with the pedal on or off for the compression. The pedal will take some tweaking to get your sound IMO
> 
> I freaking love mine and it's worth every penny IMO
> 
> I have a total of 9 patches I use consistently (most of them are diff reverbs). If you add a delay pedal to your board as well that helps more than you can imagine.



I love my damage control timeline delay, but the H9 caught my eye. That's good that you don't notice any compression or loss of dynamics in your playing, that is most definitely post-recording compression being added by youtube or editing software for the videos then. Which is sad, at the level these units are, having that put in there makes a difference.

I really with there were high-quality recordings of both pedals.


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## Sparkfriction (Jun 10, 2015)

glpg80 said:


> Yeah I can hear that sterility a bit, but I think it comes down to personal preference. You can say the same about eventides having a high end emphasis for detail that compliments your tone rather than uses whatever already exists. I like to think that reverb is a hard effect to use live, and anything that benefits a tone rather than re-creates it will work to your advantage. Have you used the H9 for anything other than guitar? I would like to use it to record piano/keys later and I am curious how well it plays with MIDI units or other instruments.
> 
> I'm not big on shimmers and auto-harmonies, I do like nice modulation effects though to add deepness to the original tone and remove some of the normal guitar sterility.
> 
> ...



damn, browser crapped out while i was posting. -.-

i didnt checked out the H9 with other gear and just had a really short test run. But i liked it and i know some people who are using synths and other stuff with the H9. they seem happy with it.

i stick to the pedals and just use the Time Factor because i dont play in a band or live and my D.A.W. is full with lots of nice stuff. It is a simply a money thing 

in the end, both units will get flipped easy without to much loose in money.


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## PBGas (Jun 12, 2015)

Love the H9s! I have two of them on my board that I just finished recently. They work and sound beautiful. I run one in the loop and one in front. So easy to tweak with IOS. Really happy with them!


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## glpg80 (Jun 12, 2015)

Cool - thanks for the help guys.

I do own an Ipad and I think I prefer the H9 tone for tone. It's a close call, but it seems to spark more tonal interest - sounds that I am more prone to using.

It's nice that I can also load it with other eventide pedals - I do own an analog tube pedal and it would be nice to have the H9 loaded with a backup timefactor pedal just in case my damage control timeline decided to chit a tube

Thanks for all of your help


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## decreebass (Jun 16, 2015)

I appreciate this thread. I was having the same dilemma.

I had eventually settled on the Eventide stuff just for something different (I have the Mobius & Timeline from Strymon) so I ended up ordering the H9 Max. I was considering just getting the Space, but it's about an inch too wide for my pedalboard's curent configuration - this way, I get ALL of Eventide's algorithms and then some.

Although, since the orginal intent was to round out my pedlaboard with a good reverb pedal, I probably could have been fine with the H9 core. But it says it comes pre-loaded with just a few algorithms and I would prefer to pick my own (even if could only choose 9) or get ALL of them.


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## 4Eyes (Jun 16, 2015)

the biggest + is that H9 can do it all, you can buy max or core/standard + algos of your desire. I was lucky enough I upgraded my standard to max using they upgrade program when they announced Max version and it was best investment I did in regards of my guitar rig.


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