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Boss SY-1 Synth

Curious if the sy-300 will come down a bit in price. $699 is a pretty select market size for a synth pedal. I think the sy-300 is pretty rad but I’ve never been a fan of boss multi fx UI. They always pack in the right functionality but not really intuitive. I find some of the Roland synths to be a lot of the same menu dive approach. All that said, if a used sy-300 gets to be down in the $300 range, I’ll be adding it to the collection.

Yeah sy300 is closer to 900 aud... which is pretty insane cos I can get a proper Arturia or Korg synth for half the price..
 
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Where I'm landing is as follows, the SY-1:
  • is an update of their current SYB-5, but has gone from 11 to 121 available sounds, better tracking and poly capability;
  • seems closer to the SY-300 in terms of available sounds but doesn't have the tweakability or presets of the SY-300. However, importantly, it's just one third of the price and size of the SY-300, both of which are major plusses;
  • has the immediacy and easy work-flow of being able to adjust in 'real time' via six pedal knobs rather than needing to deep menu dive via a PC editor;
  • the flip side, and the only major negative for me, is a lack of presets for being able to switch quickly between your favourite 3 or 4 settings which would have been very welcome for live use;
  • sounds good and tracks well, certainly on normal guitar.
Overall - this packs in a great deal and seems to deliver a lot of what we could be asking for when it comes to synth, other than presets.

For me, the new Source Audio C4 seems much more akin to the FI in terms of needing to deep menu dive via a PC editor and I'm not yet convinced about the C4's tracking from the short clips I've seen so far - hopefully the final version will prove me wrong and be very good at tracking as that is such a key feature for live use. Whilst the SY-1 doesn't have presets, it's accessibility via its six knobs provides a welcome break from having to menu dive on yet another of my pedals - HX Stomp, FI and two existing SA pedals are plenty on that score!

Would love to hear a few more bass focused reviews to see if it tracks equally well on bass. If it does, I'm in!
 
Where I'm landing is as follows, the SY-1:
  • is an update of their current SYB-5, but has gone from 11 to 121 available sounds, better tracking and poly capability;
  • seems closer to the SY-300 in terms of available sounds but doesn't have the tweakability or presets of the SY-300. However, importantly, it's just one third of the price and size of the SY-300, both of which are major plusses;
  • has the immediacy and easy work-flow of being able to adjust in 'real time' via six pedal knobs rather than needing to deep menu dive via a PC editor;
  • the flip side, and the only major negative for me, is a lack of presets for being able to switch quickly between your favourite 3 or 4 settings which would have been very welcome for live use;
  • sounds good and tracks well, certainly on normal guitar.
Overall - this packs in a great deal and seems to deliver a lot of what we could be asking for when it comes to synth, other than presets.

For me, the new Source Audio C4 seems much more akin to the FI in terms of needing to deep menu dive via a PC editor and I'm not yet convinced about the C4's tracking from the short clips I've seen so far - hopefully the final version will prove me wrong and be very good at tracking as that is such a key feature for live use. Whilst the SY-1 doesn't have presets, it's accessibility via its six knobs provides a welcome break from having to menu dive on yet another of my pedals - HX Stomp, FI and two existing SA pedals are plenty on that score!

Would love to hear a few more bass focused reviews to see if it tracks equally well on bass. If it does, I'm in!

Having a lot of easy access but in depth interface is a welcome break for me... as much as I love the tweakability of SA stuff like aftershock, the way you can’t really tweak on the fly at a live gig makes it hard to use (for me anyway)... this looks like a good relief, and to be fair, compared to the current ehx, digitech, keeley etc small stomp box synths this has a LOT of versatility for the same price... the dirty robot on bass to me has only a few good sounds, this seems to have loads more usable for me. Although funny that the pedals and effects video made it sound average, the sample stuff on the site and other videos made it look pure awesome!
 
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As long as there is a filter sweep one or a way to use expression pedal to filter sweep, this thing looks like it will tick all the boxes then

Don't know, this one has a different flavour.. Didn't hear any simple square or saw waves which the SYB5 is mostly known for in the SY1 demo.
This new stompbox sounds more like some complex oscillators of a polyphonic digital synthesizer while the old SYB had more straightforward wave sounds, like the oscillators of a generic analog synthesizer.
 
Don't know, this one has a different flavour.. Didn't hear any simple square or saw waves which the SYB5 is mostly known for in the SY1 demo.
This new stompbox sounds more like some complex oscillators of a polyphonic digital synthesizer while the old SYB had more straightforward wave sounds, like the oscillators of a generic analog synthesizer.

Answered my own question... after seeing the pedal zone video... using expression pedal for string synth sweeps with fuzz in the loop and delay afterwards... arg neeeedddd
 
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Kinda interesting that SA are finally now rushing to get their C4 out having announced it six months ago! But feels like their delay in getting to market may have cost them.

It's also interesting that gigging bassists on this side of the pond are already thinking of opting for the SY-1 over the C4, particularly where they don't already have SA Neurohub and midi, both of which are going to be needed (together with PC editing) to get the most out of the C4.

For me the C4 is very much an alternative to the FI which I already have. I might have got a C4 out of curiosity rather than expecting it to displace the FI; but the easy workflow and accessible real time tweakability of the SY-1 is really attractive for live use and the fact that it's 2/3 the price of the C4 is a canny pricing decision on the part of Boss.

I've not considered getting a Boss pedal in a long time, other than the LS-2, but Boss seem to have really raised their game and I'm suddenly thinking of getting both their new releases.
 
Kinda interesting that SA are finally now rushing to get their C4 out having announced it six months ago! But feels like their delay in getting to market may have cost them.

It's actually been even longer than that, the thread on TGP was started in Feb. of 2018. But yeah I feel a little bad for them even though their product is about as different from the SY-1 as you can get being monophonic with super deep editing capabilities.
 
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It's actually been even longer than that, the thread on TGP was started in Feb. of 2018. But yeah I feel a little bad for them even though their product is about as different from the SY-1 as you can get being monophonic with super deep editing capabilities.
Imagine putting one in the loop of the other

EDIT: Upon further thinking, how would that work given one is monophonic and the other is polyphonic?
 
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Kinda interesting that SA are finally now rushing to get their C4 out having announced it six months ago! But feels like their delay in getting to market may have cost them.

The SA guys announced the 7/16 release date a few weeks ago, I figured both companies are just trying to get things out before SNAMM.
 
Trying to get my head around limited pedalboard access and the use of the send / return feature... basically if I wanted to use the sy1 as a pad or sequencer or something and then play my normal array of effects over it with the sy1 held down, would I just plug it in the normal input output with all pedals after the sy1 or is it plug the rest of my board through the send return so it plays parallel with only the direct being used while the synth part is held? Do other loop pedals play like this? Only ever used an ls2 which was used more as a blend anyway
 
I've just ordered a Boss SY-1, sold my EHX C9 Organ Pedal for the same price. This'll be my first Boss purchase and it looks like they're out to destroy the competition with this.

I wish I could watch more SY-1 Demo's I can't get enough!!. My pedal board is current;y a Zoom B3, volume / Wah pedal, Digitech obscura delay, polara reverb, dittox2 looper in that order. Will be dropping the Boss first in the chain once it arrives. it's going to feel like a lifetime
 
Kinda interesting that SA are finally now rushing to get their C4 out having announced it six months ago! But feels like their delay in getting to market may have cost them.

It's also interesting that gigging bassists on this side of the pond are already thinking of opting for the SY-1 over the C4, particularly where they don't already have SA Neurohub and midi, both of which are going to be needed (together with PC editing) to get the most out of the C4.

For me the C4 is very much an alternative to the FI which I already have. I might have got a C4 out of curiosity rather than expecting it to displace the FI; but the easy workflow and accessible real time tweakability of the SY-1 is really attractive for live use and the fact that it's 2/3 the price of the C4 is a canny pricing decision on the part of Boss.

I've not considered getting a Boss pedal in a long time, other than the LS-2, but Boss seem to have really raised their game and I'm suddenly thinking of getting both their new releases.

Not all of what you say here is accurate. It's true that the C4 was announced a while ago (longer than you said actually), but I don't think this Boss announcement has anything to do with them releasing the C4 now. They just want to get it out. It has huge hype (take a look at the SA thread) and has reportedly been selling well (just came out yesterday) in North America at least.

Also, you don't need the SA Neuro Hub or true midi to get the most out of it (I'll be getting the C4 and I don't have either). All you need is DMC Micro, which is a small USB/Midi controller. With that you can cycle through your 128 presets. It is true that having to buy an extra piece of equipment will turn some people off though. It should be noted that you can have six presets just on the pedal itself without needing any extra stuff.

I'm a gigging bassist and I'll definitely be going for the C4, but I've been interested in modular synths for a long time, so this is right up my alley. Definitely not for everyone, but the SA guys have made it extremely simple and user friendly, and at this point there are already so many community presets out there that you can download, so you don't really need to do any of your own editing. The on-the-fly tweaking can be both good and bad. It's nice to be able to adjust in real time, but it can also mean having trouble dialing in what you want, where having a preset would allow you to just call it up.

I'm sure the Boss will sell more, as it is Boss after all, and definitely less to think about, plus it does sound fantastic. The polyphony is truly amazing on it. I think the C4 will do just fine as a niche tool though, especially when they get it up and running with all of the Hub's "scene" capabilities with other SA pedals. This truly is the year of the synth pedal apparently.