Al Krow

Brilliant thanks! I was just thinking it's a real shame that they didn't think to make a bass version, except they did! Really interested what you were pairing your GK3B with in terms of pedals and if you have any clips of you what you produced, that would be marvellous.

Aha! So what would be really interesting would be to hear just your latest isolated bass line for the FI and the one for C4 alongside it.

Cheers matey. How did you go about stripping out the original bass line to leave just yours on this and the earlier clips?

Even a Bass VI which has guitar spacing? But it's a useful point to be aware of regarding using it on a normal 18mm / 19mm 5 string bass i.e. it's not going to work for me; so thanks for the reminder!

Could you just not use the GK3 as an additional pup, in the interim, or indeed as a much cheaper alternative? (Although I know from your general approach / other purchases, you don't scrimp on costs!) Yeah - I totally get your keyboard point. But worth checking what a blo*dy good synth bass tone @Quatschmacher is getting from his monophonic (if I remember correctly) FI at the end of the "blown away by the bass tone" thread in Gen Disc. Bodes well for bass + synth pedal combos IMO and tech is only going to get better. And the SY-1000 is poly which should further assist with tracking. The issues / risks with the keys route for me are (i) another piece of kit to carry / set up and integrate (and learn!) and (ii) in my case I won't be the best keyboard player in the either of my bands by a long way and if we start using keys where the band are thinking "eh up, the bass line sounds better on keys", it's then a very short walk to a pure "band management" role for me 😂

Ah the code word is "bass" these days? Makes sense 😁

@BigRedX - that now makes very good sense. If you're comparing any bass synth pedal to a decent keyboard synth, it's game over: the keyboard synth is going to win out every time. If, however, you were comparing the tracking of the Boss SY-1 / SY-1000 to any other bass-synth pedal currently available, my money would be on the Boss no question! Do you have date pencilled in for when you are planning on getting yours?

There's just been a really good (albeit somewhat unexpected!) discussion of some of the key pros and cons of both pedals at the end of Bass Tone thread that Q has also linked to on the FI and C4 threads. Plus a couple of clips from Q nailing the keyboard bass synth tone from Mel C's recently released album. I found the discussion very helpful and some pieces of the jigsaw have finally fallen into place for me!

I'll have it give that another careful listen then as I missed that first time around! At which time-stamps on the last 3 mins was the glitching noticeably bad / obvious? What is it about the overall concept that you still particularly like - is it having everything under one bonnet?

Last 3 mins of this shows how crazily good this is on guitar! Still not much out there showing its equivalent use on bass yet though...

Cheers - look forward to it. I think what's been particularly useful for me is to hear the difference in action on an actual "real life" synth bass line - makes the theory that you have previously articulated (loads of times I am sure) come alive / sink in. VERY useful thread side-track, thank you!

Cheers buddy - please do share your updated patch and let's give it a listen! PS what is it on the FI that is allowing you to get so much closer than the C4 on this one?

Haha - that was never in doubt, mate! In relation to your question on synth emulation vs synth waveform generation - well it's quite a significant point IMO. I'll leave our recognised gurus e.g. @Woodinblack or @Quatschmacher to go into detail if you're wanting any more on that point, as they will no doubt be able to explain it far better than me. Sadly I will likely be on my own on that one, if I do end up going for an SY-1000 as I'm not sure any other BC'er has gone down the SY-1000 route yet? But I'll hopefully manage to find the on-switch once I have RTFM 😎

Peter - your FI patch is REALLY good / close!! And I'm guessing that was just a "first stab", i.e. you could get even closer with a bit of tweaking. You're right that the FI trumps the C4 for this, which is good to know 'cos it's not an uncommon "classic" modern synth keyboard bass tone which is to be found on a bunch of other recent massive hits. Definitely making me reconsider getting an FI as this is the synth bass tone I've been looking for for a while.

Thanks Darren - and agreed. It's just that if you're buying this stuff new, then the cost of SA C4, Neurohub and midi pedal for scrolling through the patches starts to add up (£400+ ?) - I appreciate if you have several SA devices the cost of the hub and midi is a one-off. It does make the FI, which is pretty much "good to go" without the additional bells and whistles needed for the C4, other than a Roland UM-One Mk2 midi cable to connect to your PC for patch editing, surprisingly attractive in comparison in terms of both cost and pedal board real estate - particularly if it gets rehoused in your excellent bespoke casing - shameless plug! 😊 I guess it's kinda reminded me of why I went for the poor man's synth emulator of the Boss SY-1 at "just" £175 with the immediacy of dials, which can be relatively quickly adjusted between songs, / no PC editing, very decent octave down and arpeggiator; plus the ability to sustain the synth whilst playing over it. Completely admit that as a synth engine it's not in the same premier league as the FI and C4, but horses (or maybe mule in the case of the Boss 😁 ) for courses eh? Right, really must get my headphones on and listen to Peter's patches!...

That's good to know. I'm guessing that most folk are unlikely to want to access more than 6 usable sounds from the C4 for typical live sets: more likely a couple of decent up and down filters and maybe 2 or 3 synth sounds. Bit annoying if you have to fork out another £100+ for a midi pedal to quickly scroll up and down your patch selection though during a live set - or is that something that can be easily done on the pedal itself? But I guess you still need the midi pedal to tell you which patch you're actually on due to the lack of indication from any display? I guess that's where the FI does have quite a big live use advantage, with a built in display to tell you which patch you're on and the ability to store and scroll through 99 patches on the pedal itself.

Thanks for whacking these two clips out Peter, you're an absolute gem. I'm going to give them both a careful listen to in the morning. For @krispn's benefit, who is thinking of getting the C4, is it possible to edit that without the Neurohub and to store presets on the pedal, just via your phone? If you can do on your phone, then also possible to do the same via your PC using WiFi without the hub? Just thinking that the hub is another slug of cost, particularly if you're just getting one SA pedal.

Nope, just the the SY-1000, as it is basically the GT Core + capable synth engine (actual not emulation) under one bonnet, give or take.

Good luck! And what a great idea - let us know how you get on.

Yeah lots of love on here and TB for the C4. I've managed to avoid a C4 so far, but Ian (aka @dodge_bass) who is as much of a neo-luddite as me, is getting some great tones from his C4 and obviously @Quatschmacheris our resident guru. And, unlike me, I know you will roll up your sleeves and get down into the detail of the PC editor, whereas I'm preserving what little headspace I have for PC editing, for my multi-fxs. Kinda hoping the SY-1000 will kill two birds for me, being both a multifx and an actual synth ie it's basically a Helix & C4 all under one bonnet. Well that's the hope, anyway!

Nope, not that I've found yet anyway. As @Quatschmacher mentioned - it really needs a square wave generator ie be an actual synth rather than a synth emulator which the SY-1 and Helix are. But if even the C4 is going to come up short, that's a decently high hurdle.

Look forward to your next upload on the FI thread then...may have to consider getting another FI if it can deliver that tone! (Plus @GisserD's excellent compact housing, plus a replacement Roland UM-ONE mk2 midi cable...ok I may need to just check my budget first - haha!).