Boss SY-1

joetele

@Fuengi still like mine, still tons to explore with it. I need a band practice to really let it rip I think. These one hour occasional escapes using headphones aren't really giving me much opportunity to explore it. Need to write down my favourite settings too. 

sweepy

Still haven't had chance to fire mine up, work gets in the way, however this weekend I'm building my silly pedalboard

Jonathanthomas83

Fuengi said:

How's everyone getting on with theirs? I've gone a bit lukewarm since watching the only Mike Hermans video ever that I didn't like on it. 

Everything he's done recently has bored me senseless.

Fuengi

Jonathanthomas83 said:

Fuengi said:

How's everyone getting on with theirs? I've gone a bit lukewarm since watching the only Mike Hermans video ever that I didn't like on it. 

Everything he's done recently has bored me senseless.

It wasn't great. Going through the motions. I'm enjoying the Alberto Barrero demos at the moment but disappointing they never sound the same when I play! 

joetele

Fuengi said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

Fuengi said:

How's everyone getting on with theirs? I've gone a bit lukewarm since watching the only Mike Hermans video ever that I didn't like on it. 

Everything he's done recently has bored me senseless.

It wasn't great. Going through the motions. I'm enjoying the Alberto Barrero demos at the moment but disappointing they never sound the same when I play! 

Try the Pedal Zone review again. It's really nice. 

Beexter

Back in stock at Sound Affects if anyone is still looking 

joetele

Well, tried it at practice this weekend, and had a few nights with it last week - it's fine, it's got tons of powerful sounds and tone shaping options, but for me I think I'm cooling on the idea of synth sounds in my setup anyway. If anyone's interested, I'm selling mine. 

BintyTwanger77

Necro-bump for this thread, because this pedal passed me by when it first came out, but saw one today in Wunjo’s, tried it out for about ten mins, and instantly loved it. Swore I was going to leave Denmark St with the millionth H9 Max I’ve ever owned, but went home with an SY-1 and a Nano POG instead. Tried them with the rest of the board. Absolutely love it.

Anyone still using and enjoying their SY-1 now that the initial release hype has long died down?

Musicwolf

BintyTwanger77 said:

Anyone still using and enjoying their SY-1 now that the initial release hype has long died down?

Not an SY-1 but I'm still enjoying my SY-300.

You have to remember that this isn't a guitar-synth, so don't expect realistic piano samples.  I use it in the effects loop of my Helix and I can select different patches via MIDI PC messages.  I use it most often to cover brass parts as well as the odd organ or washy pad.

BintyTwanger77

Musicwolf said:

BintyTwanger77 said:

Anyone still using and enjoying their SY-1 now that the initial release hype has long died down?

Not an SY-1 but I'm still enjoying my SY-300.

.You have to remember that this isn't a guitar-synth, so don't expect realistic piano samples.  I use it in the effects loop of my Helix and I can select different patches via MIDI PC messages.  I use it most often to cover brass parts as well as the odd organ or washy pad.

I didn’t expect that at all. Expected some emulations of analogue synths, some pads, sequencing, synth strings, bass sounds, and it really delivers.

ICBM

Musicwolf said:

You have to remember that this isn't a guitar-synth, so don't expect realistic piano samples.

I would have said the exact opposite - it specifically *is* a *guitar* synth, so don't expect piano samples! What it isn't is a guitar-to-MIDI converter...

I've tried them a couple of times now, and absolutely love the sounds, but the lack of any programmability is a complete deal-breaker unfortunately.

It really needs to be an SY-20 with somewhere between about four and ten memories.

Beexter

BintyTwanger77 said:

Necro-bump for this thread, because this pedal passed me by when it first came out, but saw one today in Wunjo’s, tried it out for about ten mins, and instantly loved it. Swore I was going to leave Denmark St with the millionth H9 Max I’ve ever owned, but went home with an SY-1 and a Nano POG instead. Tried them with the rest of the board. Absolutely love it.

Anyone still using and enjoying their SY-1 now that the initial release hype has long died down?

Yep, still really enjoying mine. It's one of the few bits of gear I bought new. 

Funkfingers

ICBM said:

Musicwolf said:

You have to remember that this isn't a guitar-synth, so don't expect realistic piano samples.

I would have said the exact opposite - it specifically *is* a *guitar* synth, so don't expect piano samples! What it isn't is a guitar-to-MIDI converter...

I've tried them a couple of times now, and absolutely love the sounds, but the lack of any programmability is a complete deal-breaker unfortunately.

It really needs to be an SY-20 with somewhere between about four and ten memories.

Until that day, there is still the Roland GR-20. 

meltedbuzzbox

Funkfingers said:

ICBM said:

Musicwolf said:

You have to remember that this isn't a guitar-synth, so don't expect realistic piano samples.

I would have said the exact opposite - it specifically *is* a *guitar* synth, so don't expect piano samples! What it isn't is a guitar-to-MIDI converter...

I've tried them a couple of times now, and absolutely love the sounds, but the lack of any programmability is a complete deal-breaker unfortunately.

It really needs to be an SY-20 with somewhere between about four and ten memories.

Until that day, there is still the Roland GR-20. 

Exactly what I was going to say.
Loads of fun and relatively cheap

ICBM

Funkfingers said:

Until that day, there is still the Roland GR-20. 

But requires the hexaphonic pickup/13-pin cable lash-up, which defeats the entire brilliance of the SY-1 and SY-300...

And the SY-300 is too big, too expensive and has those switches I hate .

Musicwolf

ICBM said:

And the SY-300 is too big, too expensive and has those switches I hate .

I overcame this by mounting mine is a 4u shallow rack along with my VoiceLive 2 processor.  The rack sits 'off stage' underneath a 3u rack housing the XR-18 mixer and I hook up both effects to my Helix (the SY-300 is in a loop, the VoiceLive takes its 'pitch' feed from a send).  Patches and switching on both effects, plus scenes / controls for the XR-18, are via Helix controls / MIDI commands.  It took a while to setup initially but now I'm very quick setting up new songs.  I've got the set lists for two bands all just a few clicks away and I'm also linked to a laptop running the XR-18 mixer plus some software called Cantabile which lets me record and playback audio files (track selection plus start and stop from the Helix of course).

Now we just need venues to open up so that we can play some bloody gigs

BintyTwanger77

Well the novelty wore off quicker than I thought . Amazing pedal but I’m spending way too much time tweaking the SY-1 and just playing sustained single notes, changing the note every 2 or 4 bars, this doesn’t feel like guitar playing any more… Jeebus, Graeme, you’re an eejit.

Huge amount of fun, but a GAS buy purely on impulse. Stupid boy. I blame the heat.

Trude

I missed this thread but I’ve recently picked up a SY-1, mainly because my main cover band just dropped from a 5 piece down to a trio with me on guitar and lead vox. I have the SY-1 in a loop of my GT-1000 Core, in a parallel path with expression pedal to blend between 100% guitar and 100% synth.

For me, it’s a total game changer. So far I only use a couple of organ sounds and a pad, but with the sound hold function it’s easy to sustain each chord on the synth whilst you bash out riffs and flourishes on the guitar. It means I can play stuff like Gangsters by The Specials or Town Called Malice and it really does sound like we have a keyboard player. Then you let go of the pedal when you want to double a riff on the organ, or press the exp pedal down to play an isolated keys riff. 

Identifying your main go-to sounds is the key. For me it’s organ #4 and #5, pad #3 with the tone at about 11 o’clock. I can change between them very quickly on stage but I agree a version with patches and MIDI (but smaller footprint than the SY-300) would be amazing 

26.2

Trude said:

I missed this thread but I’ve recently picked up a SY-1, mainly because my main cover band just dropped from a 5 piece down to a trio with me on guitar and lead vox. I have the SY-1 in a loop of my GT-1000 Core, in a parallel path with expression pedal to blend between 100% guitar and 100% synth.

For me, it’s a total game changer. So far I only use a couple of organ sounds and a pad, but with the sound hold function it’s easy to sustain each chord on the synth whilst you bash out riffs and flourishes on the guitar. It means I can play stuff like Gangsters by The Specials or Town Called Malice and it really does sound like we have a keyboard player. Then you let go of the pedal when you want to double a riff on the organ, or press the exp pedal down to play an isolated keys riff. 

Identifying your main go-to sounds is the key. For me it’s organ #4 and #5, pad #3 with the tone at about 11 o’clock. I can change between them very quickly on stage but I agree a version with patches and MIDI (but smaller footprint than the SY-300) would be amazing 

Sounds great. I like the sound hold but would like to be able to latch this. I think the dual Boss foot switch might allow it? I’d like one side of the foot switch to switch the pedal on and off and the other to act as a sound hold. Anyone know if this is possible? 

Trude

26.2 said:

Trude said:

I missed this thread but I’ve recently picked up a SY-1, mainly because my main cover band just dropped from a 5 piece down to a trio with me on guitar and lead vox. I have the SY-1 in a loop of my GT-1000 Core, in a parallel path with expression pedal to blend between 100% guitar and 100% synth.

For me, it’s a total game changer. So far I only use a couple of organ sounds and a pad, but with the sound hold function it’s easy to sustain each chord on the synth whilst you bash out riffs and flourishes on the guitar. It means I can play stuff like Gangsters by The Specials or Town Called Malice and it really does sound like we have a keyboard player. Then you let go of the pedal when you want to double a riff on the organ, or press the exp pedal down to play an isolated keys riff. 

Identifying your main go-to sounds is the key. For me it’s organ #4 and #5, pad #3 with the tone at about 11 o’clock. I can change between them very quickly on stage but I agree a version with patches and MIDI (but smaller footprint than the SY-300) would be amazing 

Sounds great. I like the sound hold but would like to be able to latch this. I think the dual Boss foot switch might allow it? I’d like one side of the foot switch to switch the pedal on and off and the other to act as a sound hold. Anyone know if this is possible? 

Nope, you can only get the hold feature and bypass via the pedal itself. The only external input is for an expression pedal.