Al Krow

Congrats! Hope the gig goes well!

That's fair - part of getting a set of programmed presets that you can use.

Loved the arp synth & electronic drums you've got at the start of this track. What kit are you using to deliver that?

I've never really understood 'normal' drive being incorporated into other pedals. Just been discussing the same point about having a saturation (aka drive) in the excellent Becos Stella comp with @51m0n - we both agreed it was pretty pointless; 'cos if folk want an excellent drive they're totally spoilt for choice - it's probably the single biggest / most popular genre of pedal available. I'd much prefer arpeggiator over 'normal' drive in a synth pedal every day of the week. When I say 'normal' drive I'm getting at additional 'optional' overdrive in contrast to a drive unit that forms a core part of the synth tone generation or a gated fuzz. If the FI drive is either of the last two then I agree it's a core feature rather than an optional extra.

@Kiwi have to say, I TOTALLY agree. I really didn't know what I'd been missing until I picked up my SY-1 a couple of months back. The arp feature is one of the best of many good things about this pedal and a big reason why it's such a creative fun pedal. It is, after all, such a classic synth sound. What's the big advantage of programmable over manually tweakable when it comes to arp for you? Playing live manual is much more immediate if you need to tweak, although I'm a big fan of presets which is a key 'weakness' of the SY-1.

Having an apreggiator is really cool agreed! But it feels like a lot of cost and pb space to be delivering that with the FI + Freeze + Adrenalinn vs using a single pedal e.g. the Boss SY-1 or SA C4?

Haha. Wish I was!

...in the meantime, to get you re-engaged and not feeling too left out would it be helpful to state that, unlike harsh comments from others about your recent MB amp acquisition, this bit of kit is clearly pretty? 😄 😁

If you feel that, then you need to defo steer well clear of any C4 or FI discussion threads, as you will need proper brain power for both of those 😂

My guess is that it would be the SY-300 tech under the bonnet. Given that the SY-1 is one third the price of the SY-300, commercially it would be hard to justify the SY-1 being more advanced, and being able to 'cannibalise' existing tech both allows them to provide the SY-1 at a much lower price point. But it seems to me that the buzz around the SY-1 is rubbing off on other Boss products including making us have another look at the SY-300, which a lot of folk had I suspect dismissed. This is my first Boss pedal in many years since acquiring the PS-6 harmonist (great in principle, let down by latency) and the excellent Boss RC-30, which I will look to replace with a more compact looper. I suspect it won't be my last!

On the understanding that the SY-1 is a cut down version of the SY-300, the following extract from a Sound on Sound 2015 review of the SY-300 is quite informative on what's going on under the bonnet and how Boss have managed to eliminate latency on the tracking. "The engineers at Roland/Boss are understandably a little secretive about what’s going on inside the SY‑300 but, given the way other devices work and some knowledge of recent advances in polyphonic real–time pitch extraction, I have a good idea of the essentials. As you’d expect, some form of polyphonic pitch–extraction is used to control the sound processing but, unlike with most such systems, there’s no latency between plucking/strumming the strings and hearing the sound. This is because the sound you hear actually starts life not as a sample, but as the waveform that comes directly from your guitar’s pickup, just as with any conventional effect. You might not recognise it as such because its harmonic makeup is augmented and re–arranged to produce the familiar square, pulse, triangle, sine, sawtooth, and noise waves used in basic analogue synthesis, but that’s what it is — the processed sound from your guitar. This approach overcomes the problem of latency, of course, but it also means what you hear is directly affected by the way you play or the guitar’s pickup; the SY‑300 restores that organic connection between player and instrument that previous guitar synths sacrificed. Some form of digital pitch–shifting is then used to detune or retune the individual oscillators by up to 24 semitones (in either direction), and synth–style envelopes, filters and modulations can be applied."

Sold Jack a PT2 flight case. Fast payment, great comms and a pleasure to deal with...you'll no doubt soon be wanting to purchase some more pedals to make use of it methinks 😀 Cheers, Bas

Cheers Dave. Yup on true bypass. Clicks are fine. Chunky loud thuds / pops that you know your speakers are not liking, much less so! Let me know if you find 'pretend' bypass any better in this regard, I might have to settle for that if it's significantly better.

Just fire your existing guitarist and get this guy...I'm going to be putting a bit of pressure on my lot after seeing this! 😁

^^ This And it works both ways.

I'm still on the fence, mate. 😀

Chap who I was using in Hackney has left London, so I'd be really interested in any techs in the London East area, too! Edmonton is likely to be a 2 hour round trip for me, so any other recommendations more central / east would be very gratefully received.

I think we've managed to clarify between us why polyphonic capability can result in better tracking. In summary, as we discussed: It seems the best tracking results on the FI are achieved when using a staccato / muting playing technique for the more rapid notes you might find in a typical bass line e.g. when playing octaves, by making sure your thumb mutes the lower string at the instant (or just before) you pluck the higher one. A polyphonic pedal will certainly be more flexible in accommodating different playing techniques. For me, not having to modify my playing technique to get the best out of a pedal is a significant plus point - I like that the pedal is working with and for me and not the other way around. So it's definitely looking like the SY-1 is hitting the mark, beautifully, for what I need it to be doing: a quality synth pedal that is both very straightforward and a pleasure to use; small footprint with great tracking and a varied soundscape.

Sandberg TM4. Lovely well made bass and my goto bass for several years. Limitations for me were mainly finding the Delano pups too civilised, and not wanting to spend ££s on another set of pups; but also transitioning to active basses and preferring 3 band EQs over 2 band. So it was not for me and I've since moved mine on and subsequently discovered the delights of Ibbys, Yammys and most recently Spectors (having flirted with a couple of Warwicks along the way). But there are plenty of BC'ers who hold Bergs in very high regard and are very happy with them.

Go on finish it in a stunning gloss white, buy yourself a NE1 pedal for £60 (used) and you've got yourself a Nathan East sig for a fraction of the price. Now there's a thought!... Yup selling a Sandberg (with Delano pups) is the very definition of liberation - I can vouch for that! 😂

You do realise that your much heralded flirtation with possibly getting a BB 435 / 735A / P35 has a bunch of us sellers feeling like a Yammy version of Love Island don't you? 😁 Btw if you ever refi your N5 in vintage white, or that lovely gloss black that @TheGreek has, it's going to be a head turner! Although I appreciate there is quite a head of steam for orange being the new black on this thread. It isn't 😂

+1 ^^ Will preserve your tonal range intact below the volume threshold. @ped is a big fan of this approach.