BOSS SY-300 Guitar Synth Demo
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ต.ค. 2024
- Reviewed in Guitarist issue 399
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5:31 That's the sound Robert Fripp used for "The Sheltering Sky." This pedal is literally a Gr300 but more current, and with the plus that you don't need a special guitar to use it.
It's completely beyond me how people can bash this thing so much.
This, quite easily, is close to a revolution. Nothing like that has been possible before.
Now, you may argue that the sounds are not like those of a high quality synth. That's due to the nature of the beast.
And fwiw, that's pretty much a problem I have with BOSS's demos. They try to tell you that this is a real synth - which it clearly isn't. It's a super kickass FX unit. And it should be seen as that. Of course, for some things it makes sense to use synth terminology, but there's a lot of things that just don't work as in a synth.
However, that doesn't change anything with this thing being fantastic - even if you don't like the sounds presented too much.
Right now, there's only a handful of pedals that could perhaps be used to sort of compete, namely those of EHX, especially the HOG2. But their doing quite different sounds.
Anyhow, considering that this is really the first of its kind, I think that we will see quite some units to take this approach a lot further. Bright times for those into really new sounds.
And fwiw, why not just run this into your normal guitar rig? I'm sure quite some sounds could profit from a bit of dirt or, for example, a nice delay coming from a Timeline or so.
Whatever, this is on my "must have" list for sure.
did you buy it?
Along with EHX B9, C9, Mel9 etc, this is a leap forward and I haven't seen many. I can't get one of them now, but it makes me happy that they finally exist.
Well, I was browsing guitar synth demos and landed here...and I just gotta say to Alex - that 10-second solo section starting at 5:44 was righteous & screaming like a Lee Morgan or Clifford Brown trumpet solo on a hot night in Harlem! Good job doing your homework learning to program the innards of this device & share some of its features with us (for me - 5 years in the future)!
In 83, when I was 15, I played in a cover band with Simmons electronic drums and the other guitar player had the Roland guitar synth(lexactly what Steve Stevens played on Eyes Without A Face video) and huge synth pedalboard! It's taken 3 decades but I think this is finally the one!! I think I'm jumping on it though my son does play keys for us sometimes!
Sweet demo. Many trolls here that can't see the potential.
In context many of these presets are the kind that works great. Now if Matt Bellamy was playing the same thing they'd be fanboying like idiots.
If you get moist from late 70s synth sounds in 2019 then fill your boots, kid. Matt Bellamy, overrated and relies on gimmicky sounds.
@@booshting3520 What's wrong with 70s you twat?
i bought 2 after our keyboard player left, one for bass and one for guitar and i added 12 step
midi pedalboard with a sound module, won't be looking for a keyboard player anytime soon, these machines are great. they can't do everything but they do a lot.
As a guitar player who's actually played keyboards longer than guitar this is right in my wheelhouse. I can easily see creating versions of favorite keyboard synth patches and having a blast. Gotta get some hands-on time with one to make sure it works for me…but I'll definitely be checking it out.
jesus the sounds coming out of this thing and having that modeling amp along with it... I think I'm looking at my next piece of gear..
Wait, did he say that the guitar is plugged directly in?
Like no tranducers, simple audio jack in?
Wow, that's some innovation, nevermind the sounds...
When will we see a demo of the SY-300's sound designing capabilities? It looks like it has a user interface where you can change the parameters of the oscillators and filters and such and even reroute them, but the only thing I've ever see anyone do in an SY-300 demo is play patches. I thought the point here was to give us the same kind of sound-designing control that keyboard analogue synth players have.
Exactly.
It's the approach. When they demo guitar "pedals" they only show presets/sounds. I guess they think most guitarists are not prepared to take the leap... wich sadly is probably the case...
I play the guitar like a keyboard, with eight finger tapping. I need this. Now.
I play guitar like 2 keyboards with ten finger tapping and twelve toe tapping as well and a bass drum on my back complete with cymbals too.....
This is actually a really awesome pedal, surprised at the dislikes. The only thing i didn't like was that little black "modeler" pedal because it is not included with the sy-300
... awesome pedal ... I especially like the last tone Alex played, it's truly like playing a keyboard ...
Do you need the extra unit to blend the sound of your instrument with the synth sound? There is a "Blender" tab on the pedal . I thought it was for that.
When he says regular pickup
what is he using that is irregular?
Ive been under the impression this unit needs no irregular pickup
The sound is awesome so I'd like to know what other special fixtures will my guitar need in order to achieve sounds like that
I have many great playing guitar but they aren't equipped with anything other than humbucking and single coil pickups
I bought an SY-300, and was told that I needed a GK-5 pickup. After fiddling around installing the pickup, I got the synth out of the box & discovered that it works fine with a regular guitat. Was I ripped off, or is there still a point to having the GK-5? For example, can I use the divided pickup to run different patches for different strings?
I'm pretty sure you can not use the GK-5 with the SY300
Is this synth for old people?
An interesting video (even 2.5 years later), and a nice overall presentation.
Starting at 14:34 Alex outlines the important differences between the Roland's GR-55 and the SY-300. An important (sometimes confusing) aspect is tracking and its latency. The SY-300 does not have tracking at all, since there's no conversion of the signal to digital and no PCM attachment (see Roland's video for clarification: th-cam.com/video/TLrul6ZruvQ/w-d-xo.html). Thus the latency is virtually non-existent. Great job, Alex!
The FX section + audio interface and routing worth half of the price alone.
Great sounds mate, I’m a fan of Pat Metheny and his synth tone. Your lead tone is close (take away some effects of course) is there a video showing your personal lead patch? Cheers
Squashed Lizard the only reason I’m getting this pedal is to have a pat metheney lead tone, i love his music
A Boss shoe is controlling a Boss synth pedal... ... Looks logic!
TruthSurge is right .. I'm already drained on that GOW frequency sweep and I'm sure my wife already hates it - even if it's got major quality built in. it's a fantastic step in the right direction among many many latency- mis-steps andddd-ency latency mis steps (SEE WHAT I MEAN!?) from the past decade with live audio to MIDI conversion. That being said, LIVE AUDIO to MIDI via METAMORPHOSE for MAC iOS & OSX along with some other leaps in a broader band than ever, data transfer rate progression MIDI over Bluetooth.
Currently it's pretty transparent for me to use my 1980s Japanese Strat w/SeymourD Live Wire pickups as a MIDI controller - playing both iOS and OS X virtual software with a bussing app like Kyumatica's AUM to keep the malaise in some kind of control
It might not feel or sound as correctly FAKE as the SY-300, but it's also less than $20 compared to $700.... but if I had $700 laying around ! *
In a perfect world we all have 2 of every pedal out there and I would even let you borrow any of them with some collateral.
See the problem here is, why not show what the device can achieve instead of just presets? that would be the selling point!
BTW, is it just coincidence that his shoes are Boss as well? :)
Because it's aimed at guitarists :( -more than 3 knobs? Are you crazy? I want to play, not waste my time "tweaking")
can you plug in your guitar to the BOSS SY-300 then right to you amp ?
What about recording the midi "out notes" into you're DAW. Is that working correctly?Would be nice .....
The David Brent of guitarists. Has he ever watched himself playing??
0:15 the guy on the left is wondering what the fuck is with this guy?
08:15 ...guy saying "man am I stoned"
With this unit, can you do something like an arppegio part, as in "Legs" by ZZTop ? And then play over that with a slightly louder part ? It sounds like you can have two guitar parts going at once. Is that right ?
Is it possible to play sounds of an external sound module like the integra-7 with the SY-300 by using midi output? Thanks for help
Nope. It processes audio signals strictly, you can feed the audio input with notes in the range of a guitar though.
Is there any current software plugin that can give you similar tracking?, the pedal looks and sounds great but I was wondering if something similar can be achieved with a soft synth
+Areku San No, the whole point of this is the DAC inside it. The closest you can get to perfect tracking without a quality DAC, directly into a computer is still very, very noticeable.
You can mess around with stuff like ASIO4ALL which allows you to cut out some latency, however, fundamentally it is impossible for a software synth to match something that is being converted to digital on-the-fly like with this pedal.
The whole selling point of this unit is the fact that there is no noticeable latency, people have been waiting for this for a very long time.
+Areku San Well, get yourself a GR55, or a TRiple PLAy, and put your guitar through some real synths instead of this little piece of shit, that's what don't get about this device, there is stuff out there which does this better, a lot better
+Aristurtle I concur. & it also has a free version to try it out. Can't go wrong really
+Marvio Botticelli
Two COMPLETELY different pairs of shoes, really.
No matter which MIDI PU and converter you chose, you CANNOT play as you normally play. Period. The MIDI protocol is not even remotely able to translate the various sounds you can do with a stringed instrument. So, no scratches, no slurs, very limited bendings and so on and so fourth.
With the SY-300 you just plug in and play as you always do.
Anybody not realizing how much of a difference that is, should better not get into discussions about this thing.
We may argue that the sounds are not up to whatever "high class" synth. And they certainly aren't. But seriously, I'd rather not deal with a Hex PU, a Guitar-to-MIDI-converter and all the various MIDI conversion issues.
Sascha Franck I've got a gp 10 & I've just downloaded Midi Guitar 2 so I'll let y'all know how it stacks up.
is this for guitar without gk pickup?
It has MIDI out. Not all MIDI outs will trigger another synth. Can this? Could this be the guitar interface to use another synth for actual sound?
+InsertName125 Obviously not.
Lots of bleep, bloop & blop, but can we get a grand piano sound? Can't find it anywhere
Thanks !! Super demo !!
This is all great and blah blah, but what is that GREEN beautiful guitar? I'm in love with that....(Actually I'm also researching the sy 300).
What is this black controller at 4:11?
Interesting however I would have liked to hear more pads.
Does it work with a Hothand?
Lol, he's using BOSS Shoes.
I wonder if this unit has decent string sounds?
alex is putting more thought into not making wah wah faces than playing the guitar:) in all seriousness though he such a good guitarist its almost pointless listening to him demo gear as what he can do and what humans can do are very different things
This is okay but not my cup of tea. I really wish Roland would concentrate on improvements to the GR-55 - things like improved tracking, options to run more effects in a given patch and switch them on and off, improved midi integration (plug and play?) with DAWs (e.g., why does a GR-55 bass patch need to be mapped to a midi bass plugin?), an editor! (although gumtown's floorboard works well - Roland, pay the guy!)... The list goes on and on. Cheers.
@ 00:16 is when the dislikes start stacking up. LoL
+YordMusic They should have taken the ending with the pads and put it right at the start
+YordMusic The dudes face on the left is priceless at 00:16 as well. Ha!
one listed right now on e-bay starting at 430.00!!
[01:28] was really really beautiful
If I had a decent income I would definitely buy one of these
Sounds to me like the only answer is a life of crime
finally none of those dumb ass gk midi pickup worthless attachments, those midi pickups droveme nuts, never stayed on because of the crappy adhesive,forget it!!
mental tracking! wonder if you can get nastier mellotron sounds on it...
it looks feckin awesome... esp for jazz..
I'd say yeah. As good as your programming abilities.
Amazing tool...
Hutchings is a gem
Damn. He was just getting going at the end and then it faded! £500 is a lot of money.
The 1980's called, they want their sounds back! when are they gonna make something that sounds more current like native instruments massive?
Dirty Clide I reckon you could probably get sounds out of this that are pretty close to Native Instruments quality, the trouble with these demo videos is that the guy is clearly an outstanding guitarist, but I'm not sure if he's particularly synth savvy, so while his playing is great, his synth sculpting seems pretty basic.
Need to find someone who can play guitar AND know how synthesis works!
Reminds me of my wife's 1980s Yamaha keyboard/synth we sold for $40 last year.
aaaand they cut it while he just started playing in the real context. why, just why? this unit is fantastic. too bad it comes so late.
this shit is fucking awesome, I want it!
This is better than when James Bond woke up to "Pussy Galore".
Alex could make it sound good any way he plays got that deep purple organ thing conquered
Boss makes shoes too?
Hugo Boss perhaps?
That's fucking class!
This is damn cool.
Should be renamed “guy with 1/4th of a head of hair plays weird noises”.
hi ! is it possible to emulate properly the sound of the old GR 300 with this device?
Very cool pedal, I don't really get all the hate and dislikes...
cutoff filter should be used more slowely and progresively
Why not just get a midi guitar? I don't play so I don't know, just interested.
Balithazzarr because of tracking issues. This has none because the sound you hear is actually your originally guitar sound just heavily modified hence no tracking issues.
Thank you
A MIDI system that works like this alone costs a little fortune.
very nice video
I like it,and I'm a drummer !!!
SPACE ALIEN SOUNDS FOR THE AREA 51 GIG
The action at 0:13 - 0:19 ...
Every sound is a Dr. Who episode, not a great array of sounds
You could probably do the same and a lot more by just running the guitar trough your computer.
ahaja007 actually unlikely. The DSP in this device is likely ASIC technology. No Pentium processor would be able t get close to the kind of performance needed. Well, no one has made any software that competes with this yet.
Wow! This is sure to be a major distraction from learning how to master your playing. Hutching does not use this gimickry in his playing, I am surprised he is promoting this.
I don’t think you’re applying your large-picture goggles here. These days, as a live player and especially side-man, you are more often than not asked to fill the shoes of more than one album musician, so if you’re for instance able to be the guitar player and keyboard player, you are infinitely more employable, and as a front man you save the money you would have to pay for an extra touring member. Having a guitar synth also saves you a lot of grief when you’re in your studio writing music. No pulling out your rusty keyboard chops, just turn on your guitar synth and record the necessary parts using whatever instrument you are the most proficient in.
Sounds like a radio shack keyboard in a box
$699 ..... LOL.
its because you are buying the brain of a real synthesizer (without the keyboard). So if you are a guitarist and you want you sound to be a synth, then here you go. Unless you want to buy a real synthesizer (check the price)
cool
use with a bass amp
Good👍🏻
Funny how the dude on the left manages to part his hair, with only 3 strands of it. It looks like if Homer Simpson tried to put a part in his hair.
so, $700 for a few fuzzy synth sounds you can play from your guitar.
TruthSurge Is this your way of saying your broke and not very imaginative with tones?
No, i'ts my way of saying this sucks.
TruthSurge So who cares about the price? And if all you hear are fuzzy synth sounds then you missed a lot. Nothing this guy played was terribly exciting to me but I'm looking for potential to do something different from stock guitar sounds and this seems promising and $700 isn't an insane amount of money but that's going to be different for every person.
Put a GraphTech MIDI system in your guitar and buy a GR-55 and then you
can trigger all kinds of MIDI sounds and use the sounds in the synth,
too. Heck, just $1400 plus a PC and some sound libs.
TruthSurge Well yeah but that's obviously much more expensive, requires some modification from your guitar or each guitar you which to use with it and those Roland units aren't as pedalboard friendly, using a PC adds a number of other issues that many people might not be interesting in dealing with.
08:15 Ｖａｐｏｒｗａｖｅ ｃｏｎｆｉｒｍｅｄ
Jeez, I bought this when it came out and it sounded utter gash even back then. Now I have a Quad Cortex, the sounds from this Boss are just cringe.
Cheeeezzeee!
Quite awkward
I just turned 55, I have been playing my guitar through ARP synth envelope filters, using ancient yamaha , Roland and hagstrom synth rigs, gk, gk2 , gk3, gr30, gr55, sy99 ....and let me tell you...this Boss SY-300 sucks bad, sorry Alex , I love your playing, I think you are amazing, but this is one turd you cannot polish. This is a step backwards in guitar/synth/modelling technology. I realize I may be weighing in on this at a late date , but I like to give things a chance, and the SY-300 is a dust collector, THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES!!! Cmon get real , the SY should be for SAVE YOUR...money and buy an acoustic guitar
i realised these videos are a completely new phenomenon, and theres a reason why people like this never saw the light of day before!!!! cringe!! dont listen to what anyone says on here about gear , its how you use it , the simplest piece of shit pedals can be the best . far too much gear wanking
拿fender的大哥 直接给看傻了
boss, mandá uma para mim, de natal,,,
I cant believe Roland has introduced this. Its completely unpractical for just about any use. They should quit dabbling in mediocrity and continue the next Gen GR series with TOP of the line internal guts, not the 3rd gen roland guts and processors of the GR33 and 55. They are not far away with the 55 unit which has adequate internal sounds. Why not put the best foot forward Roland just once in a guitar synth?
This is a fuckin joke!
Alex I love ya buddy but I can't stand anything about this gizmo.
What a bunch of boring old sounding analog sounds. The thing that is exciting is that it takes the direct output from the guitar.
This is a soloists pedal. It would be great for making video game music too. You need to think of how this could be used for music that isn't typical music.
I have listened to all of the demos of this pedal and they are all lame and boring. You can make all these lame boring sounds already with any of the VG pedal-boards. Very expensive for the sounds it makes.
+Rick Bogan you should look up Nathan Navario playing super Mario Bros on it. it can be useful for certain things. I wouldn't use it live though.
Why would I care about seeing someone play super Mario Bros on it? Boring!! If you find a use for this great. But sonically this is a major step backward. I think it is lame you do not, nough said!!
+Rick Bogan No need to be rude. I was only suggesting you to look up a player that uses it well. Take care
All these reviews sound the same.
Playing guitar style on a synth patch.
Just not very good.
Playingbskils are great but not making any serious use of such a great pedal.
Sounds like a variety of wet farts.
can you plug in your guitar to the BOSS SY-300 then right to you amp ?
Yes