The Strymon Cloudburst Ambient is something simultaneously something old, new, borrowed, and blue. It takes the beloved Strymon Cloud algorithm from the famed Strymon Big Sky pedal and puts it in the spotlight alongside a new, dynamic Ensemble feature that adds synth-like string pads to your playing.
It’s made for ambient guitar—I mean, it’s called the Cloudburst Ambient Reverb, so it’s right in the name—but the Cloudburst pedal has something for everyone, from house of worship guitarists to indie guitarists.
Video Transcript
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welcome to get offset my name is Emily and
aren’t you a sight for sore eyes it’s
really always great to see you
especially today because I have the
newest pedal from Strymon their first
in this form factor and I think y’all
are really going to like it it’s called
The cloudburst and it’s based on the
Beloved Cloud algorithm for their Big
Sky well I’ve never really spent a lot
of time with a big sky I know lots of
people who have and most of them say the
cloud is their favorite of the
algorithms some say they even only use
the cloud algorithm the thing about the
Big Sky is it’s quite big requires menu
diving and you have to remember what
those two control parameters are or look
them up each time the Big Sky obviously
a great powerful pedal people love it
understandably and after playing the
cloudburst I really see why people
gravitate toward that cloud algorithm
it’s beautiful for ambient stuff for
worship stuff and this makes it even
more ambient friendly I think you’re
really going to love it stick with me
I’m going to talk about the controls and
uh play through some of the options we
have here let’s start with the controls
at the top we have very normal controls
actually these are all pretty standard
for a Reaver pedal except for the toggle
and we’ll get into that I’m playing my
Fender gold foil Jazz Master through the
strymon Iridium on the round B setting
and uh yeah let’s get into this
first we have Decay that’s the length of
the Reverb Trail AKA how long it takes
for the Reverb to fully decay
so let’s hear the Decay a little bit I
obviously have mix and a few other
things in the middle or all the way down
so no decay
kind of almost slatbacky and then full
decay
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so no that does not go on forever
however via a foot switch you can
activate uh freeze and infinite controls
so there you go that foot switch is in
the back here well that’s also where the
TRS midi is
you have TRS ends and outs I just have
the TR I just have a TSN right now the
TRS out is going into the strymon
iridiums TRS and I also have the stereo
mode turned on right now so I would it
would it might behoove your experience
to uh wear headphones during this but I
also think it sounds really good in mono
I pick up more dry signal and currently
my right ear and more of the wet signal
on my left so let’s talk about the mix
this is nothing
[Music]
you’re probably only getting it in one
ear because
who does that and this is a full wet
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and you’re probably getting that in both
ears
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so it’s not a full like dry one side wet
one side
just definitely get more of that dry
signal on one of them
[Music]
all right
let’s talk about pre-delay that’s not
uncommon to see on a Reverb pedal uh
it’s the amount of time between when you
hit the note and when the Reverb kicks
in so this is pre-delay all the way down
you’ve been hearing it
immediate let’s turn that up to noon
[Music]
not too much and then you can get a lot
of pre-delay on this it’s kind of wild
[Music]
and that was I think the perfect example
of being able to hear the wet signal in
both ears with a dry signal and just in
one because you had that spacing so
let’s do it again
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I love it I love it I’m Gonna Keep the
pre-delay down for a bit there’s also
tone that controls the tone of the
Reverb Trails I’ll turn that up a little
bit along with the mix and let’s hear it
all the way to the left so as dark as it
gets
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in the middle
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I think it’s really key to have that
tone control on anything that’s kind of
like shimmery because Shimmer can get
quite ice picky to my ear
all right let’s listen to the modulation
we’ve been listening to No modulation so
let’s turn up to noon
it’s a little bit of a vibrato thing
going there
[Music]
all right I’m Gonna Keep the modulation
in the middle of the tone in the middle
in the mix in the middle
um the one thing we haven’t really
talked about is The Ensemble toggle
that’s brand new that was not from my
understanding ever part of the actual
Cloud algorithm on the Big Sky what that
does is it allows users to create
synthetic string like pads that
organically follow your playing they are
triggered by harmonics
um I should say the detection scheme is
based upon harmonics so changing the
space you’re playing in the pickups it’s
going to affect how that sounds I’ve
been playing it on this gold foil guitar
I hear a difference even playing the
bridge versus the neck I’ll try to get
that conveyed to you all as well let’s
uh play with it first I am going to not
have that on and then I’m going to put
it in the middle and then I’m going to
send it full blast
[Music]
so very beautiful but what if we want
more beautiful
[Music]
it does a really good job following your
playing it’s not like
the world’s most perfect tracking but it
feels very organic and natural to me
foreign
[Music]
a little bit better let me try that
[Music]
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foreign
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[Applause]
thank you
I’m gonna try that now on the bridge
pickup and see if it sounds different
[Music]
back to the neck
[Music]
I hear a little bit more in the high end
on the bridge pickup
oh nothing’s on
[Music]
turn the mix back maybe turn up a little
bit of pre-delay we haven’t really
messed with that pre-delay so I’m gonna
turn that up a little bit
[Music]
foreign
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foreign
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foreign
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foreign
what I really love about the string The
Ensemble feature is that you know the
petal is really enough without it
but it’s really always cool and great to
have extra oomph I think you could get
really beautiful cello-esque pads on
that um perhaps with a base
maybe try that
but yeah let me give some final thoughts
on on this pedal the form factor 10 out
of 10 this is a beautiful small petal
will fit on any board
like a a small board like the kind that
fits in the mono tick bag another thing
I like about this pedal is that there
are no secondary functions so what you
see is what you get I think the Ensemble
sounds really really great I love how it
follows the playing I love the idea that
it would sound kind of different with
different pickups it makes uh I like
predictability a lot but I also like it
when you can uh find joy in spontaneity
or things just that aren’t quite the way
you expect it as long as it sounds good
if it’s not what I expected as long as
it sounds good I’m a very very happy
person the modulation I think is tuned
really well
um I like that it goes full wet full dry
the Decay has a lot of range and the
pre-delay has a ton of range there’s
definitely some other stuff I wasn’t
able to cover uh concerning this pedal
in the video so let me know if you have
any questions about it in the comment
section I’d be happy to perhaps film a
YouTube short or Tick Tock or Instagram
real that answers some of the most
common questions about this pedal I just
want to make sure that you know my
videos work for you and help you better
understand something that you’re looking
to to buy thank you again to Vintage
king
um check them out in the video
description and streiman for letting me
do a demo of this so to everybody out
there please like comment subscribe
thanks for watching thanks for
understanding check us out at
patreon.com get offset for perks until
next time my name is Emily goodbye