Boss SY-1

[Rollin Thunder]

Bit the bullet, mine should arrive tomorrow, unsure whether to get this or the future shock, but this seems a better unit and easier for just using on the fly. The future shock has some very good presets but reckon only about 12-20 would ever rally get used. Plus its like £100 more. 

[Al Krow]

On 06/05/2020 at 14:39, Rollin Thunder said:

Bit the bullet, mine should arrive tomorrow, unsure whether to get this or the future shock, but this seems a better unit and easier for just using on the fly. The future shock has some very good presets but reckon only about 12-20 would ever rally get used. Plus its like £100 more. 

What did you think? 

[Al Krow]

Just been trying to get my head around Tap Tempo with the SY-1, following a little discussion on the Filter and Synth Sounds thread, which would be particularly cool for syncing the ARP speed to the drums. 

Seems that a Boss FS-6 does the trick, but it's a bit bigger / pricier than I was looking to fork out, given the limited use I'll be putting it to:

Just wondering whether something like the Mosky Tap Switch  is going to cut it? Not entirely clear from the info online whether the Mosky is TRS compatible and / or if TRS is going to be needed for the SY-1? In which case I might need to be looking at something like the Mr Black Tap-Exp pedal, which clearly is TRS. This has the added neat feature of connecting up to an expression pedal, but comes in at more than double of the Mosky once you add in P&P (doesn't seem to be available on Amazon).

Bright Onion also do a little pedal which is decent value although the price creeps up if you want it painted. The additional point they make is Boss pedals normally have "closed" polarity and their pedals can be set up accordingly (there's a polarity option at no exta cost.

Given that I'm pretty clueless about electronics (amongst a host of other things - lol!), hoping that one of our electronic experts e.g. @Woodinblack can jump in and provide a steer.

Edited July 25, 2020 by Al Krow

[Woodinblack]

Well, a quick look on the net shows the wiring of the boss FS switch, which isn't that involved. So any footswitch could be made to do the same thing with very little effort. As it is, I possess literally no foot switches for anything (oh, untrue, I guess I have a Yamaha piano pedal), but if you want definite proof, I can happily wire up a switch to something to see if I can make it work?

 

I notice on ebay there are plenty of dual footswtiches for under £20, sure something like that either works out of the box or could be made to

Edited July 25, 2020 by Woodinblack

[Al Krow]

17 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Well, a quick look on the net shows the wiring of the boss FS switch, which isn't that involved. So any footswitch could be made to do the same thing with very little effort. As it is, I possess literally no foot switches for anything (oh, untrue, I guess I have a Yamaha piano pedal), but if you want definite proof, I can happily wire up a switch to something to see if I can make it work?

I notice on ebay there are plenty of dual footswtiches for under £20, sure something like that either works out of the box or could be made to

You're a hero. It's really whether the SY-1 is going to need TRS or not and be normally "closed" polarity for tap tempo bearing in mind I'll need it to work "out of the box"! 

Edited July 25, 2020 by Al Krow

[Quatschmacher]

39 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Just been trying to get my head around Tap Tempo with the SY-1, following a little discussion on the Filter and Synth Sounds thread, which would be particularly cool for syncing the ARP speed to the drums. 

Seems that a Boss FS-6 does the trick, but it's a bit bigger / pricier than I was looking to fork out, given the limited use I'll be putting it to:

Just wondering whether something like the Mosky Tap Switch  is going to cut it? Not entirely clear from the info online whether the Mosky is TRS compatible and / or if TRS is going to be needed for the SY-1? In which case I might need to be looking at something like the Mr Black Tap-Exp pedal, which clearly is TRS. This has the added neat feature of connecting up to an expression pedal, but comes in at more than double of the Mosky once you add in P&P (doesn't seem to be available on Amazon).

Bright Onion also do a little pedal which is decent value although the price creeps up if you want it painted. The additional point they make is Boss pedals normally have "closed" polarity and their pedals can be set up accordingly (there's a polarity option at no exta cost.

Given that I'm pretty clueless about electronics (amongst a host of other things - lol!), hoping that one of our electronic experts e.g. @Woodinblack can jump in and provide a steer.

Source Audio make a tap tempo switch too. 

[Woodinblack]

OK, so the definitive answer is:

Shield to tip (which is all you would get on a 2 pole switch) toggles the hold function, which I note is sort of different to the hold function on the pedal, in that you press to hold and then press again to uphold.

Shield to ring (ie, TRS cable) gives you the tap tempo, which goes from crazy to hardly moving.

So a two switch footswitch that is momentary closed would give you all the functionality.

 

Looking at the description of things that call themselves tap tempo buttons, such as the Harley benton one, that wouldn't work.

Edited July 25, 2020 by Woodinblack

[Woodinblack]

9 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

Source Audio make a tap tempo switch too. 

And neither would this

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Just wondering whether something like the Mosky Tap Switch  is going to cut it? Not entirely clear from the info online whether the Mosky is TRS compatible and / or if TRS is going to be needed for the SY-1?

I missed this bit. The mosky tap switch won't work, but they do a dual footswitch which is TRS which I suspect would work, and is probably worth a try at that price. Certainly if I was in the market for one that is what I would go for. 

[Al Krow]

That's excellent thanks Woody. Sounds like I need a TRS featured tap tempo then, but that a single switch should suffice in that we already have "hold" capability on the SY-1 itself.

That Bright Onion is probably the "safe" option then. As a FYI, I think they're a local outfit and I seem to recall that @bassfan had v.good experience with them for a bespoke footswitch for his Mesa M6 amp.

...Ah just seen your subsequent post on the Mosky dual footswitch...looking that up right now!

[Al Krow]

£15 posted looks unbeatable value. Although weirdly the compact form factor may go against it. I could easily see that being knocked over with my size 12s!

Edited July 25, 2020 by Al Krow

[Woodinblack]

1 minute ago, Al Krow said:

That's excellent thanks Woody. Sounds like I need a TRS featured tap tempo then, but that a single switch should suffice in that we already have "hold" capability on the SY-1 itself.

The hold doesn't do quite the same thing (you have to hold down the pedal for it to work, it doesn't toggle like the footswitch). 

1 minute ago, Al Krow said:

That Bright Onion is probably the "safe" option then. As a FYI, I think they're a local outfit and I seem to recall that @bassfan had v.good experience with them for a bespoke footswitch for his Mesa M6 amp.

Safe in that you can get them to make what you want, yes. You could just get an ordinary footswtich (like a one off) and just change it to be the ring rather than the tip

[bassfan]

14 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

That's excellent thanks Woody. Sounds like I need a TRS featured tap tempo then, but that a single switch should suffice in that we already have "hold" capability on the SY-1 itself.

That Bright Onion is probably the "safe" option then. As a FYI, I think they're a local outfit and I seem to recall that @bassfan had v.good experience with them for a bespoke footswitch for his Mesa M6 amp.

...Ah just seen your subsequent post on the Mosky dual footswitch...looking that up right now!

Yeah. I contacted bright onion for a bespoke pedal and they were great. Highly recommend 👍🏻

[Al Krow]

21 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

I missed this bit. The mosky tap switch won't work, but they do a dual footswitch which is TRS which I suspect would work, and is probably worth a try at that price. Certainly if I was in the market for one that is what I would go for. 

Ordered - will let you know how I get on. Thanks for that really useful input!

[Al Krow]

Arrived today - just over £15 from Amazon Prime

Works just fine as a tap tempo (left switch). The right switch activates the "hold" mode which plays / sustains the last synth note at the pitch when pressed, allowing you to play your clean bass line alongside this. To reset hold mode need to switch on and off with Boss pedal but this still usefully leaves at the adjusted tap tempo.

For non SEQ/ARP effects, the left switch engages an octave glide up, with the right switch for "hold" mode. Boss pedal on / off to reset both to normal synth settings.

For the money, I'd say worth getting.

[Woodinblack]

14 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Works just fine as a tap tempo (left switch). The right switch activates the "hold" mode which plays / sustains the last synth note at the pitch when pressed, allowing you to play your clean bass line alongside this. To reset hold mode need to switch on and off with Boss pedal but this still usefully leaves at the adjusted tap tempo.

Thats the behaviour I would expect from my testing. I was tempted to get one but then realised that I didn't need it

 

[Al Krow]

41 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

That's the behaviour I would expect from my testing. I was tempted to get one but then realised that I didn't need it

I thought you were a keen user of the ARP setting with your bands? If so, a tap tempo should add something?

PS - thanks again for your assistance on this - much appreciated!

[Woodinblack]

7 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

I thought you were a keen user of the ARP setting with your bands? If so, a tap tempo should add something?

haha - no I haven't ventured into arp, I am mostly in the pads with the occasional lead.

Not a question of wanting tap tempo, yes, it would be a great thing, just a question of not having room for the pedal on my board!

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

haha - no I haven't ventured into arp, I am mostly in the pads with the occasional lead.

Not a question of wanting tap tempo, yes, it would be a great thing, just a question of not having room for the pedal on my board!

Lol! I have zero space on my board too! 

The Mosky is unceremoniously connected up off board! Fortunately it doesn't require any power  

What's your SY-1 board currently looking like?

Edited July 27, 2020 by Al Krow

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Lol! I have zero space on my board too! 

The Mosky is unceremoniously connected up off board! Fortunately it doesn't require any power  

What's your SY-1 board currently looking like?

Until I get something to replace my voice live and work out what to do about my loop station, I dont' actually have room for the SY1 and it lives on its own!

[Al Krow]

On 11/07/2019 at 11:03, Woodinblack said:

So, in the general scheme of mentioning some new effect pedal which @Al Krow will eventually go out and buy, use, be impressed by, get fed up with and then sell before I get round to trying it, has anyone tried the new Boss SY-1 on the bass?

Bugger! I really should have put money on that!

Anyway, in celebration of Woody causing me to drain my wallet of funds (yet again - I'm still blaming my entire Ibby collection on him too and my Zoom B1-4), here's a few settings I'm finding decently usable:

 

Edited October 4, 2020 by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

Nice little run through of the 121 settings on bass with fixed filter settings (even more variety available on top of that by adjusting the filter dials) - but gives a pretty good intro to the pedal on bass.

 

[PatrickJ]

Took delivery of this today.. 

it doesn't normally take me long to get to grips with a pedal, especially if there's editing software . 

However this little synth is a bit overwhelming with the sheer volume of presets and tweaks that can be made.  It's going to take some time

[stewblack]

19 minutes ago, PatrickJ said:

Took delivery of this today.. 

it doesn't normally take me long to get to grips with a pedal, especially if there's editing software . 

However this little synth is a bit overwhelming with the sheer volume of presets and tweaks that can be made.  It's going to take some time

I love mine. I have the rest of the board in the loop of the SY-1. The amount of options is a bit daunting but on the flip side they're nearly all usable 

[PatrickJ]

1 minute ago, stewblack said:

I love mine. I have the rest of the board in the loop of the SY-1. The amount of options is a bit daunting but on the flip side they're nearly all usable 

Yes, I need to explore the FX Loop and how that works since I'm planning on using Octave and Dirt with the synth