Boss SY-1 synth pedal

[GuitarBilly]

So I bought one of these pedals today. Not for my guitar but to add to Kimmi's bass rig, so we could have a synth following her bass lines to fill up the mix.

It works incredibly well for this purpose.

We chose a low register lead synth sound, in the cello range so its not too far from the bass sound. We also mix it low so the synth sound doesn't overwhelm the mix, since we're not exactly a synth based band. The bass dry tone mix is set to unity gain (full pass through) and the synth is mixed at about 30%. So while I'm playing rhythm you don't really hear much of the synth, maybe a bit of it here and there but when I switch to leads, there's this great string bed to solo over and completely makes up for the lack of a second guitar.

There are also some cool Hammond organ tones that give a great 70s Deep Purple type of vibe and we will experiment with those sounds too.

The best part is the pedal doesn't need a special pickup or anything, we are just running it in the fx loop of her SansAmp Bass FlyRig and sending the whole thing into the FOH.
There's a switch to choose either
Guitar or Bass as the source instrument and the tracking is fast and accurate.

Anyway, I highly recommend this for anyone working in a trio format. Probably not for metal or punk (unless there's some industrial influence mixed in) but for hard rock and other lighter styles, it's great. We literally spent 4 hours just playing with tones and jamming. Really inspiring.
We were considering using tracks to fill up the mix but this is much easier and better.

[crankyrayhanky]

oh that sounds awesome!
I used to run a midi pedal into a laptop to trigger samples and play the big chords, but I gave it up as it was hard to balance. Probably much easier for a bass player or drummer to incorporate than a lead guitar anyway lol. This SY-1 appears to be a seamless add in

[GuitarBilly]

oh that sounds awesome!
I used to run a midi pedal into a laptop to trigger samples and play the big chords, but I gave it up as it was hard to balance. Probably much easier for a bass player or drummer to incorporate than a lead guitar anyway lol. This SY-1 appears to be a seamless add in

Yeah that's the main appeal of this for us. It's no different than adding a delay or something similar. Just put it through the effects loop and you're good.
I guess we could do more advanced routings with an ABY box to send it to a separate channel etc but it's necessary. It sounds fine when used like a regular pedal.

[kissmyace]

I have the Electro Harmonix Synth 9 & B9 pedals.Use them basically for the same thing, just to fill out the sound. It's also fun to see people trying to figure out where some of those sounds are coming from.

[GuitarBilly]

I have the Electro Harmonix Synth 9 & B9 pedals.Use them basically for the same thing, just to fill out the sound. It's also fun to see people trying to figure out where some of those sounds are coming from.

Yeah I looked at the EHX pedals as well. Reading reviews, the consensus seemed to be that the Boss tracks a bit better with a bass guitar, while for electric guitar both track equally well. I'd like to try one out eventually.

[JiveTurkey]

Very nice. I had a few of the EHX series and they both had issues. I am semi-magnetic for defects lol but just in case. Had to power cycle both and they would work again but probably wouldn't gig with them. Synth 9 tones are great though.

The SY-1 is Boss so rock solid and for the purpose you are using it for; perfect for the task at hand. I bet it fills things out quite nicely for you guys!

[GuitarBilly]

We had full band practice with it today and wow it made such a huge difference. The mix is really full now and it freed me up to play some cool inversions, licks etc. I wasn't at all happy with our live sound, our drummer doesn't really know how to fill up spaces, but that completely solved the problem and without having to resort to tracks. One of the best purchases I've made this year.

[Devin]

This thing is polyphonic too right? I'd love to check one out

I have a Pigtronix Mothership 2 analog synth pedal that sounds incredible (with bass and guitar) but it's monophonic and needs to be manually tuned. Really like how it has a seperate jack you can use to send the bass sound out to it's own dedicated amp (in my last band I'd use this in to a bass amp for faux bass player action while we were between bassists)

The monophonic thing isn't a huge deal when playing bass though, and I've actually found that the glitchy stuff you can get while playing multiple strings can actually be cool as shit in the right situation

[GuitarBilly]

This thing is polyphonic too right? I'd love to check one out

I have a Pigtronix Mothership 2 analog synth pedal that sounds incredible (with bass and guitar) but it's monophonic and needs to be manually tuned. Really like how it has a seperate jack you can use to send the bass sound out to it's own dedicated amp (in my last band I'd use this in to a bass amp for faux bass player action while we were between bassists)

The monophonic thing isn't a huge deal when playing bass though, and I've actually found that the glitchy stuff you can get while playing multiple strings can actually be cool as shit in the right situation

Yeah it's polyphonic. That was the selling point to us. We first tried the EHX Bass Mono Synth and it had an awesome analog tone but being monophonic was a bit of an issue because even a poorly fretted note or sympathetic vibration would throw if off. Kimmi is not super precise with her playing yet, especially because she is singing at the same time, so it didn't really work out. The Boss is much more forgiving.