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SYB-5

Again with the poor tracking. What are you guys trying to do, play flight of the bumblebee with the synth pedal on?

IMO, most of the effects coming out of that pedal lend themselves to sustained notes anyway. The tracking has never bothered me.

I like the SYB-5. It's a good enough synth pedal that it displaced the aging, and too large, EHX Bass Micro Synth on my pedalboard.

My one wish would be to have three (or even two) programmable presets on it. It does a pretty good Minimoog grind (a la Tom Sawyer) and also a pretty good synth bass drop (a la Chameleon) - but the knob settings to achieve those two sounds are so drastically different that there's no way I could make the switch during a show, much less a set.

I would love to be able to push a button to have it go from one to the other. I guess you have to get one of those $600 Chunk Systems pedals for that.

+1 on the tracking. If I were to grab this pedal again, I would use it for long, deliberate, sustained notes. I am not looking to do Boogie On Reggae Woman with this thing. I would be looking to add some drone type things to select parts of the music.
 
+1 on the tracking. If I were to grab this pedal again, I would use it for long, deliberate, sustained notes. I am not looking to do Boogie On Reggae Woman with this thing. I would be looking to add some drone type things to select parts of the music.

That's fine - each to his own.

I had one if these and sold but I'm considering picking up another one... despite its genuinely bad tracking.

The fact is, the SYB-5 tracks poorly compared to almost every other synth-in-a-box pedal. You can play Boogie on Reggae Woman with other synth pedals - but not the SYB-5.

It would be great if it tracked better. Every synth pedal has its own flavour and the SYB-5 has some very cool sounds - that's why I'm looking to pick up another one.
 
Again with the poor tracking. What are you guys trying to do, play flight of the bumblebee with the synth pedal on?

IMO, most of the effects coming out of that pedal lend themselves to sustained notes anyway. The tracking has never bothered me.
It's not just tracking fast notes. It sometimes craps out on sustained notes, not to mention it cuts off abruptly instead of fading them out. That said, I don't completely despise the SYB... it's just something I can't find a use for right now.

By the way, you could play flight of the bumblebee with the microPOG and it would probably track it well enough... different beasts, I know. Still.
 
The boss synth can get nice and juicy.
I have BMS so I'm not looking for anything else right now...
...but if I had to pick a replacement that'd be on my short list.

Some people say the OC-2 doesn't track well either.

I like its sounds.

have fun.
 
I have one and find it useful, but it's off my pedalboards at the moment.

Like others, I find it can track as-s, as long as I keep my articulation crisp and don't get all shreddy on it.

I like it best combined in a loop with distortion and either a flanger or another envelope filter. (I like it quite a bit with a Sans Amp original and Maxon envelope filter.) Tracking is also less of an issue, even at extreme speed, when I put the whole set of pedals in a blend looper.

In short, not my fave synth as a stand-alone: useful for some things that way, but not an all-around synth solution. OTOH, quite useful as part of a FX loop.
 
So what reasonably affordable bass synth product DOES track and perform well? I have a Digitech Bass Synth Wah that seems to track well and fast. But the usable sounds out of it are somewhat limited IMO. I have a BOSS GT-6B and while the synth can generate some great sounds there's always a split second lag between my playing and the synth generated. It tracks decent, it's just always lagged for the synth effect which makes it difficult to play with.

How do the older Boss VF-1 and Boss SE-70 1/2 rack units fare? Not a foot pedal, but a racked multi-effect with synth sounds available. I've seen the VF-1 sell for around $100 which is about the same as a used SYB-5.
 
what also helps me with tracking is i have my loop a in the following order
1) Boss CS-3 compressor/sustainer
2) Boss SYB-05 Bass Synth
3) WH Swollen Pickle Fuzz
4) Boss LM-2B Bass Limiter

i use the sustain at about 12 o clock when being used by the synth and it helps with holding notes and tracking