Woodinblack

Oh yes, almost certainly digital, but no pitch to note conversion involved

certainly worth a try, keep us all informed, we are interested in that kind of stuff

In fact, now I am back at work from holiday and I have my 'thinking about things' head on, I would say I reckon that at no point does the SY-1 actually do pitch to note conversion. It is just too fast and the difficulty of doing that and having polyphony I don't think would work in that box with its current power requirement. I think it just converts the input to a signal which it then modifies, and triggers on so more like the VG than the GR synths. So basically replace the oscillators in a synth, and then use the existing signal with a bit of signal processing for the different sound types, and some dividing / multiplying for pitches (and I also think the switch on the back just full wave rectifies the input) and take that and feed it to the filters and envelopes like a normal subtractive synth.

No, not a minimoog, it would have to be polyphonic and also accept pitch bend per note (see the bit I mentioned about rolands pitch to midi). For this to work it would probably have to have MPE, and most hardware synths don't support this. No, the expense of that would be fractional compared to the extra processing requirement, which might need additional power requirement. Also not forget the additional development to do it. This we don't know. I suspect there would be additional production costs. Certainly a lot more development costs (that need to be factored in). Actually, like I mentioned, it would be a very limited number of available synths. I have a recording somewhere from the GR-5 midi out. It is not very good at all, and only a few synths would handle it (like logic). The synths that are allready in the SY-1 are picked specifically for that task. And that is assuming it actually has synths in and isn't just signal processing. Agreed. Most people are surprised at the complexity of doing things, because they haven't looked into things. I suspect if it was simple, which I know it isn't., it would already be being done.

The preamp is a standard ibanez preamp. For all the stuff you read on a forum about high quality pre-amps vs low quality, there are barely pence of difference in component costs at the manufacturing level, so it would cost more to have different preamps. The barts in the 805 are pretty uninspiring, or at least I believe it is them, but maybe it is the positioning. I looked into getting nords in an 805 (I had one), but it was expensive as they were custom pickups (they will do any size you want), and I didn't see the point in putting £3-400 pickups in a bass that I could only sell at £600 so decided to sell up and stick with the 4 digit SRs that I have. Barts themselves aren't an issue - I have them in the SR5005 and they are great, but they sounded lifeless in the 805. Unfortunately due to the length / shape of the pickups there aren't many options apart from the custom nords (maybe there are now, I sold mine a while back). There is a SR prestige that has the fan frets, but they are very uncommon, I would certainly look at one if I saw it. I like the idea of fan frets. I think dingwall got the neck done well, better than ibanez on the 805, in fact I would say it is one of the nicest necks I have used, and doesn't have the awkward headstock end, but again I found the combustion very uninspiring (actually more so than the ibanez) from a pickup point of view, and as I have never had a chance to try a better model I wouldn't be prepared to take the chance with the cost they go for. Ironically thinking about it, I have some dingwall pickups, which I could have probably wedged in the 805, but as I didn't like the combustion sound either it wouldn't have probably helped.

Sometimes these things are easier than they seem. I know on a technical note on the midi out on the GR-33 / GR-5 etc, uf you look at the midi out of those devices it isn't very good. Problem is the time it takes to convert a bass note is quite long, but to get rid of the delay you need to make a 'best guess' of the note. The GR-5 does this by picking a pitch and then as it stabilises what that pitch is it whacks the pitch bend to get it to the right note - it is very very messy. There is also quite a lag on the midi out compared to the internal synths which don't have to deal with midi. Also midi itself is fairly slow compared to the internal sound.. So by the time you have worked out what you think the pitch is, you start the internal synth, then you have to send out a note on, which is a channel number, note on message with pitch, note on velocity, which is 3 * 10 bits at 31250bps, or just less than a millisecond. Or if you hit 5 string at the same time, 5ms. ok for pads, less use for leads. And this is at the same time as doing everything else. So i agree, it would be good to have, but maybe this pedal is already fantastic value and maybe we hope for the next one for that

Probably why it is going to take so long

He would but he was a constant tinkerer, and this is what he had come up with with another 20 years experience so I think he meant it. If you look at all his basses there was a constant evolution going on. And yes, I would say he was right.

Interesting point of view, but one I don't share. Tracking being flawless is what I want in a pedal. If I want character I want it to be because I have added it, not that it is just not working properly. I know you are talking about the SY300 which I haven't used, but the SY1 is very 80s yes in that it is JUNO, Prophet, Analogue type, (so I guess more late 70s), but it is not even slightly DX7. Obviously not, I assumed that goes without saying. i am sure those other pedals are great for some, I am different from al in that for me the polyphonic element is the bit that sells it (as well as the tracking)

I think mike patton tended to do that sort of thing too.

They will do you one without the J pickup if you want.

Never been convinced that an extra 1" scale made any difference, as if so the sound of the C would be different to the sound of the B.

I think this is a jazz pickup thing entirely. I haven't heard a 5 string jazz bass I liked that much either, but I have several 5 strings with single coils and they sound massive, so I don't think it is the concept, it is just specifically a fender thing.

One day I will set up for making video! Until such time: SY1 tracking.mp4

Yep - all the way down.

The thing about that video, you see these videos for effects pedals (especially synth stuff) and you try it and you can't get the same effects at all, but with the SY1 it isn't like that - I could just make all those effects from the video without any issues.

Its going to be 1972 everywhere in the UK by the time he gets here

We haven't turned hardly anything down, in fact, quite often I wish we would turn more down. We try to put blank weekends in at least once a month so it doesn't cause problems with the singers wife (and it is nice to have a break), but frankly there isn't much space. The only ones we have turned down were either money based or if they were just dead gigs - there is one place we play, they are good with money but there is never anyone there (not just us, everyone), there is only so many times you can look at a gig as a paid practice. The furthest place we played which is about 30 miles, we would like to do again but trying to get a space in the calendar is tricky. We would like to play some further away places but we never really had the opportunity, we are always playing locally. We have a quiet month next month for holidays so there is nothing in october, so it will seem quiet but if I look at the rest of the year there are 12 confirmed gigs, 9 are within 3 miles of my house, 2 are within 10 miles, and one is about 15. And no, we aren't with an agent.

Out of the last 100 gigs I did, 2 were further than half an hour. And I live in the middle of nowhere.

Yep, it is hugely fun, and one of the most fun things of it is its immediacy, you turn a knob it makes a new noise, you work with that noise. Its not something that would work that well with an editor I don't think. Don't get me wrong, it would be nice to have presets, but the balance they have managed is pretty good.

Always love the Ska songs in our set - we do monkey man, more specials than toots, and always much faster than that even if we try. A lot of our songs end up getting a bit ska'd from time to time. We do the reel big fish brown eyed girl and 'party like its' version of timber. We are generally a conflict of people who want to play different things. I hadn't heard 5, sounds a good one to try. My normal favourite is Impression I get from a bass playing point of view. I want to do madness stuff but apparently our sax player has the wrong type of sax!

I have had a few like that. No, you don't automatically get a make offer button, you have to select that. If I do it, I add an auto accept and auto decline price. If there is a best offer price it seems wrong to pay the full price. If I put something up for £250, I would probably put an auto accept at £240 and an auto-decline at £200, the rest will depend on the person making the offer.

You do know you can switch that off right?

Yes, there are some questions you forget to ask because you think they would be obvious to everyone.