Boss SY-300

[moogboy]

I love it. There are a lot of resolutely terrible sounds, yes, but there are also a bunch of amazing textural pads and things that are insanely useful. the programming of it using just the front panel sucks but once you get it figured out its much easier to figure it out.

[chrisdermo]

Did anyone pick up one of these? Would love to hear some opinions and non 80s throwback sounds!

I gave one a spin. I think if you are looking for a crazy deep and strange effects box it is just the ticket. Unfortunately it is marketed as a synth. The oscillator tones themselves all have an odd character, saw doesn't sound quite like saw, sine isn't sine, triangle isn't triangle. Due to the way it generates the oscillators the timbre of the oscillators is influenced by the source input.

Also the note attack tracks flawlessly but the envelope or tail has some overhang. If you want to play staccato parts it will drive you a little nuts.

I think if you want very different sounding ambient tones then it is a great unit.

Ugh, that's basically exactly what I wanted to hear. Now to figure out what the hell I'm gonna sell to get one of these....
Thing is they seem to drastically lose value for resale, so I'm going to try and resist paying full price and snipe them in the usual locations til I find a steal. One on ebay in the UK atm for £180 2 days to go....

Has anyone made some noisy/sound fx-y demos of this? I've scoured YouTube and soundcloud and there's been enough to prick my interest but waaaaaay to much to make me very doubtful.

[chrisdermo]

Does it actually track chords?

[Jwar]

I would pay 300 max for one of these because I saw one sell used for that much, which means it sucks. At least that's how I read it.

[Pepe]

Does it actually track chords?

It tracks everything like a charm. It's supernatural! I almost couldn't believe it when I tried it last year in Frankfurt. I played freaky chords and plucked like crazy - the SY-300 was perfectly in sync.

A bit sad to hear that the classic waveforms don't sound like the real deal. At that price I had expected to have the possibility to create all kinds of vintage sounds.

[chrisdermo]

Jwar, I like that theory. However I can imagine all kinds of guitarists hating a synth pedal for reasons that would make me love it.
I'm not too worried about the waveforms, ive been mainly a synth player for the past 5 or 6 years and kind of had my fill of classic monosynth sounds, as long as it doesn't sound like a microkorg I'll be ok I think. I want to run this thing with some weird shit in its fx loop like rainbow machine and antichthon and Geiger counter

[Jwar]

Oh I'm not saying I wouldn't buy it either. I was literally going to buy one last week full price, then saw that there had been that sold for 300 not that long ago. Needless to say, I stopped dead in my tracks and said "fuck this I'll wait". LOL. I'm a glutton for punishment, so I'll try it, most likely hate it and flip it. LOL

[rfurtkamp]

I half want one but not sure it'll give me anything I don't have with my 13 pin guitars.

And at that price point, even used, it has to.

[chrisdermo]

Well if you get one before me Jwar, dibs on your inevitable flip

I had a brainwave and trawled instagram for short clips
Still not loads but did find some sounds I haven't heard elsewhere from this unit and got me more gassy over it:

vocal into sy300!
https://www.instagram.com/p/6sj_YiFa8M/

horror movie sequence
https://www.instagram.com/p/66NEddymk8/

psych flutey accompaniment
https://www.instagram.com/p/8dwiNmTW9q/

filter swell 2 preset expression tremolo speeds
https://www.instagram.com/p/89jcbIHQBp/

ambient chords and weird spacky sequence bit
https://www.instagram.com/p/-UZXrWAXf5/

ring mod-y sequence that sounds AWESOME
https://www.instagram.com/p/6QkcL8oj8u/

space sci fi with memory boy and reverse clean guitar ditto loop
https://www.instagram.com/p/-y1l2wIj1I/

keyboard input, expression control tremolo
https://www.instagram.com/p/_LTmKbIj28/

phasey filtery flangey delay swell ominous doom
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCtmZKXOOjK/

fucked up distortion madness!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDLhTHPIff9/

[chrisdermo]

pretty
https://www.instagram.com/p/9E16aboj1-/

another pretty cool sequence
https://www.instagram.com/p/6iVqG-yjGC/

[chrisdermo]

I want to run this thing with some weird shit in its fx loop like rainbow machine and antichthon and Geiger counter

My bad, I thought it had an fx loop, but it just has a dry signal send and return (which can then be blended with the oscillators and processed with internal fx alongside them), still could be very interesting

[Jwar]

Wow that sounds fucking amazing! I haven't heard any of those sounds before! That phaser!!! OMG.

[chrisdermo]

Wow that sounds fucking amazing! I haven't heard any of those sounds before! That phaser!!! OMG.

I KNOW RIGHT

[chrisdermo]

Instant endless summer style Fennesz?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KikWXYRUcmc[/youtube]

Using ctrl switches to hold each oscillator for drone (like Snazzy Mini Ark!)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_VeLjQzFLw[/youtube]

[Inconuucl]

SY-300 -> Dream Sequence -> Nemesis

Someone with more funds that I needs to put this together so I can live vicariously through then.