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Boss SY-1 Synth

#141
I use two Digitech pedals on my board - polara delay and obscura reverb - easily worth 100 quid each. They sound and look amazing. If I remember rightly though, the Dirty Robot sounded quite limited, and cost around the same... At the time, I had more variation in a Zoom B3. the tracking wasn't amazing but it had some cool playable synth sounds built in.

I liked the dirty robot design though, it's a cool looking pedal. I was inspired by the design and made a bass OD pedal, here take a look
IMG_20190726_223911.jpg
 
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#144
theunknowndude said:
You forgot the digitech dirty robot... although lacking in volume cos if it’s single wet/dry blend, it got my attention with a lot of parameters for controlling chorus / flanger, filter pitch sweep start and stop as well as the time of the sweep start and stop plus the vocal dormant filter.. maybe nowhere near as crazy but as a lot of other synths but does some good classic sounds and good controllable long filter sweeps without another pedal needed.
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Well, well, this is proving to be an expensive thread for me...:D

Just pushed the button on a used (but hopefully vgc) Dirty Robot from Amazon. This pedal has been getting mixed reviews from fellow synth loving bassists I've enquired from, but kinda keen to find out for myself and, besides, I need something synthy to keep me out of mischief whilst I await the arrival of the SY-1!! And, believe me, my Helix Stomp ain't going to be that 'something' when it comes to synth! :laugh:
 
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#145
Al Krow said:
Well, well, this is proving to be an expensive thread for me...:D

Just pushed the button on a used (but hopefully vgc) Dirty Robot from Amazon. This pedal has been getting mixed reviews from fellow synth loving bassists I've enquired from, but kinda keen to find out for myself and, besides, I need something synthy to keep me out of mischief whilst I await the arrival of the SY-1!! And, believe me, my Helix Stomp ain't going to be that 'something' when it comes to synth! :laugh:
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My only issue with the Dirty Robot was lack of volume when engaged. It got lost in the mix. I’d personally recommend a boost pedal to use with it, live. I used a TC Spark Mini after it with great results. But I finally got annoyed with having to do that, so I got rid of it. Other than that, I really liked the pedal.
 
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#146
Thanks very much for sharing that. So is there a noticeable volume drop when engaged with the Dirty Robot?

I guess I could leave a bit of volume headroom on my bass active EQ and just dial that up when the DR is engaged?
 
#147
Al Krow said:
Thanks very much for sharing that. So is there a noticeable volume drop when engaged with the Dirty Robot?

I guess I could leave a bit of volume headroom on my bass active EQ and just dial that up when the DR is engaged?
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I found there was for me. Not huge, but noticeable. And in a band mix it became completely lost. YMMV, of course, as maybe it was just my settings? But the Spark Mini fixed it for me.

I thought it was a really cool pedal otherwise.
 
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#149
Ryan L. said:
My only issue with the Dirty Robot was lack of volume when engaged. It got lost in the mix. I’d personally recommend a boost pedal to use with it, live. I used a TC Spark Mini after it with great results. But I finally got annoyed with having to do that, so I got rid of it. Other than that, I really liked the pedal.
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Just closing the loop on this little side track!

I checked out the Digitech Dirty Robot today. More pronounced volume drop-off in filter mode than in 'synth' mode, where I found there was very little vol drop off. IMO a very elegantly crafted piece of kit. Filter was not too bad, but not in the same league as the SA Manta and a bit meh as a synth. Can't really justify holding on to it.
 
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#150
Al Krow said:
Just closing the loop on this little side track!

I checked out the Digitech Dirty Robot today. More pronounced volume drop-off in filter mode than in 'synth' mode, where I found there was very little vol drop off. IMO a very elegantly crafted piece of kit. Filter was not too bad, but not in the same league as the SA Manta and a bit meh as a synth. Can't really justify holding on to it.
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Yeah I hear you... considering I only used mine as synth sweep with dry at 50/50 it was liveable...
still waiting for the sy1 to drop officially in Australia, everywhere seems to still have it as pre order... if I can Sell just one or two pedals I think sy1 will be on my board ASAP!
 
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#152
Just thought I'd give an update on the Boss Sy-1 - I've had more time with it and plugged a few more things into it. Nylon strung classical - works but very prone to feedback if I get too close to the amp!
(not the pedals fault but I'll test it live at a gig with a bung int it this weekend).
I also plugged an SM-58 into it to see if I could try vocoder effect, but it seems the only information it takes is the pitch of whatever is going in, my vowel shapes made no effect - sounds cool if I blend in my vocal with the effect though - Nearly Daft Punk but not quite... . I also plugged in a uke-bass, tracked fine... less feedback issues than the electro-classical as it's a tiny bass, there isn't much room for resonance in there.
 
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#153
Shaggai said:
I got mine on Friday. I think it has excellent tracking. I'm new to pedals so I only have the C4, Synth9 and Bass Mono Synth to judge against. C4 may be more configurable in the long run, but sometimes all you want to do is turn a knob instead of download or tweak a windows program. I don't think you'd be disappointed with the SY1.
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Post a picture of your pedalboard - I expect neon lighting !!
 
#154
Regarding Digitech Dirty Robot, agreed the synthy-sound can get lost in the mix. I've complained on another thread that it would be nice to have a separate volume knob to the blend knob. Otherwise, a great synth sound but for bass I believe it's a bit of a one-trick pony with variations of that trick.
 
#160
Patiently waiting for mine at the end of the month. I use to own the SY-300 (just way too damn big!) and really miss many of the tones I could get with it (like the pads,atmospheric stuff and so on). I’ll report back one I get it and see how it is as well as being fed and feeding other things.
 
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