• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Boss SY-200 Synthesizer

It's here finally after poor service from USPS, 8 days for priority shipping is bogus.
Digging the sounds after a factory reset, slowly going thru the presets and making them mine.
? I wish the direct and effect levels would default to my analog settings instead of saving each one. Is there a global setting for those levels? The manual an I are at odds, but that is normal for may products.

Tracking is a breeze no matter what I throw at it. :thumbsup::bassist::hyper:
 
My current pedalboard with Boss SY-200:
PB - 2310.JPG


Little clip of a SY-200 patch as an example of it being used in a band mix.
 
Been enjoying using the Arp setting + Ctrl switch to "hold" for a fixed pitch to avoid it sounding too busy when playing a riff + an expression pedal for either fx volume / arp pitch shift with ability to tailor the interval.

The SY 200 maybe has a wider use on pitch shift, particularly given how good its tracking is - definitely able to rival the multifx and dedicated pitch shift pedals I've previously tried out.
 
Arp = Arpeggio, correct? What are you doing with the volume pedal? How did you sync the tempo?

Yup, arpeggio, correct. You can manually set the tempo on the patch to match the drums - set here at bpm = 117.

Similarly the volume/expression pedal can be assigned to do different things (via the menu switch) - in this case I've assigned it to pitch shift to +5 semis to match the bass pitch shift on the chord change. Although it doesn't seem to retain this and defaults to back to effects level vol on a power-up, so I'll need to remember to re-assign it when setting up before playing this live.

Oh and in case it's bugging anyone, the key is the one our singer prefers :)
 
Last edited:
I didn't see you match tempo so was wondering if something else was going on. To change pitch why not use your bass for that, using the sustain button? Is there an advantage to your method or is it just "because I can and it works"?
 
Sure thing - you can definitely use the bass to change pitch, however it will then either pitch shift on every note, rather than maintain the root, and changing arp pitch on every note felt too cluttered in a band mix, or be tricky (for me anyway) of trying to hit the exact right key change root note that also had sufficient 'weight' to it in the middle of the correct riff and then change back down again.

So this approach was to come up with fix that I can use live - everything is effectively preset.
 
Last edited:
Question to any who may know ... My live setup involves a splitter where I send a bass signal to the sy200, then I use the sy200's effect loop out to go to a DI. The SY200 is set to not send a bass signal through loop output, only the resulting synth sounds. In this way I can separate the bass signal from the synth.

The issue is that the volume of the effects out seems to be variable with no ability to change it.

Can anyone think of a better way of isolating bass from synth? Or perhaps, a means of controlling effect loop output volume per patch?
 
Question to any who may know ... My live setup involves a splitter where I send a bass signal to the sy200, then I use the sy200's effect loop out to go to a DI. The SY200 is set to not send a bass signal through loop output, only the resulting synth sounds. In this way I can separate the bass signal from the synth.

The issue is that the volume of the effects out seems to be variable with no ability to change it.

Can anyone think of a better way of isolating bass from synth? Or perhaps, a means of controlling effect loop output volume per patch?
E. Level cannot be stored in a patch?
 
Yes it can but not how I'm using it.

I'm looking over the manual and I think I can change the effect level using midi... Actualy, if I set instrument level to 0 maybe I can use the normal output..... I thought I tried that last year but had some issues with it.... Will try it again.
 
Yes it can but not how I'm using it.

I'm looking over the manual and I think I can change the effect level using midi... Actualy, if I set instrument level to 0 maybe I can use the normal output..... I thought I tried that last year but had some issues with it.... Will try it again.

Yes, midi works there. And yes, you can use the normal output that way.
 
Yes, midi works there. And yes, you can use the normal output that way.

So realized why I didn't use the output - and that is as soon as I turn off the sy200 a bass signal is sent.... I need the SY200 to be silent with no bass signal when it is not being used.

So to go back to my use-case, I am splitting my bass signal so that I can have unaffected bass going to FOH, and then have synth going to FOH as well. I'll occupy two channels on the board. I don't want a bass signal mixed in with the synth effects.

If I use the SY200 output and turn off the pedal I'll have two bass signals. One from my bass going to the "bass only" channel at foh and then suddenly the synth channel will also have a bass signal.

One solution I had landed on for a while was to use the SY200 effect loop out since I can configure it to send synth only. But, the levels are not controllable. One synth patch might be louder than another one.

I am controlling the SY200 with a Boss MS3. I did have things setup so that the SY200 was in a loop in the MS3 with the SY200 on all the time. To disable it I would not turn it off but would instead turn off the loop. Problem there was that there was some sort of hum occurring when the loop was off that would trigger the SY200 resulting in a low-volume synth effect that while not loud was still noticeable.

I've now settled on using the SY200 output, with MIDI to control the effect volume (0 for "off" and "on" being whatever volume I select), with the direct (bass) level to 0 and the SY200 on all the time. Seems to work the way that I want.

On the MS3 I'll setup a patch that when activated sends a MIDI program change to the SY200 to pull up the desired synth patch. Then I put the MS3 into manual mode so I can program the 4 foot switches to further control the SY200. I set one of them as the "on/off" switch to toggle the synth effect volume from 0 to whatever is needed via MIDI. The other foot switches I set to temp "hold", toggle "hold", and "octave up" by using the trs "control 1/2" output on the MS3 to the trs "control 2/3" input on the SY200.

So now I am able to send a dedicated synth effect out to FOH to be landed in the overall mix as needed separate from the bass signal.
 
So realized why I didn't use the output - and that is as soon as I turn off the sy200 a bass signal is sent.... I need the SY200 to be silent with no bass signal when it is not being used.

So to go back to my use-case, I am splitting my bass signal so that I can have unaffected bass going to FOH, and then have synth going to FOH as well. I'll occupy two channels on the board. I don't want a bass signal mixed in with the synth effects.

If I use the SY200 output and turn off the pedal I'll have two bass signals. One from my bass going to the "bass only" channel at foh and then suddenly the synth channel will also have a bass signal.

One solution I had landed on for a while was to use the SY200 effect loop out since I can configure it to send synth only. But, the levels are not controllable. One synth patch might be louder than another one.

I am controlling the SY200 with a Boss MS3. I did have things setup so that the SY200 was in a loop in the MS3 with the SY200 on all the time. To disable it I would not turn it off but would instead turn off the loop. Problem there was that there was some sort of hum occurring when the loop was off that would trigger the SY200 resulting in a low-volume synth effect that while not loud was still noticeable.

I've now settled on using the SY200 output, with MIDI to control the effect volume (0 for "off" and "on" being whatever volume I select), with the direct (bass) level to 0 and the SY200 on all the time. Seems to work the way that I want.

On the MS3 I'll setup a patch that when activated sends a MIDI program change to the SY200 to pull up the desired synth patch. Then I put the MS3 into manual mode so I can program the 4 foot switches to further control the SY200. I set one of them as the "on/off" switch to toggle the synth effect volume from 0 to whatever is needed via MIDI. The other foot switches I set to temp "hold", toggle "hold", and "octave up" by using the trs "control 1/2" output on the MS3 to the trs "control 2/3" input on the SY200.

So now I am able to send a dedicated synth effect out to FOH to be landed in the overall mix as needed separate from the bass signal.

the way I get round this was to pick a preset and call it bypass and set the volume to zero any patch I don’t want synth I send the pc to change to that bypass patch
 
That's one way. Currently all patches have bass and effect volumes set/saved to zero. Then I send pc effect volume change to whatever, then back to zero when I rifle the effect off. With the patch's volumes saved to zero they are always off by default when I switch to them.