SY-300- "driving the SY Oscs only"

Started by jcaman, May 11, 2017, 06:47:56 PM

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jcaman

after reading rhcole's post about driving the SY Oscs with a Synth9 I've gotten inspired to start experimenting more with my SY.
I'm not quite sure I understand what it means to "driving the SY Oscs only". Does it mean simply plugging into the SY or is there some setting one has to make to remove anything that's not an OSC from the signal path.

chrish

#1
Just plug whatever audio source you want to into the sy300 input and that audio will be used by the sy300 DSP and processed through any of the oscillators you have turned on.

The sound that comes out of the Sy 300 will take on some of the characteristics of the audio input source.

For example a sy300 patch will sound sound completely different if you use a gr 300 emulation patch from a VG 99 as the source audio input rather than just a guitar as the source  audio input.  Or use both the guitar and the gr emulation as the source audio or mix and match choirs and strings Etc.

Same thing happens if you use a cello to drive, for lack of a better word, the sy300 oscillators instead of a guitar.

You can add more or less or none of the the dry audio source input signal by adjusting the direct level.

You can also edit the oscillator wave form. By selecting "input" as the oscillator wave, any audio source input will not drive that oscillator however it will be passed through to the filter section such as the high pass or low pass filter.

loopman

Hi chrish

I'm very curious, what do you mean by " Or use both the guitar and the gr emulation as the source audio or mix and match choirs and strings Etc." ?  How can you mix the signal coming out from the VG-99 and the normal guitar pickup directly into the only Input of the SY-300?

I'm curious about, let me know

Thanks

Brak(E)man

you can do that internally in the VG 99
swimming with a hole in my body

I play Country music too, I'm just not sure which country it's from...

"The only thing worse than a guitar is a guitarist!"
- Lydia Lunch

chrish

Quote from: loopman on May 12, 2017, 03:01:10 AM
Hi chrish

I'm very curious, what do you mean by " Or use both the guitar and the gr emulation as the source audio or mix and match choirs and strings Etc." ?  How can you mix the signal coming out from the VG-99 and the normal guitar pickup directly into the only Input of the SY-300?

I'm curious about, let me know

Thanks
as Brakeman suggest the VG 99 allows you to mix your normal guitar signal with any of the VG models.

As far as inputting signals from other synthesizer tone modules into the Sy main input I just use pre fader sends from an audio mixer.

For example,  directing the outputs from say my Korg wavestation and my minimoog Voyager into the input of the sy300.

In the studio I have Allen & Heath GL2 mixer which has 14 channels where all my gear is mixed so I can send anything with an output to anything with an input via the pre fader sends.

When our band used to play gigs I carried a smaller Roland m12e mixer to mix all the various guitar preamps and synthesizer modules and sent that mix to the PA system. I'm sure you could find even a smaller mixer if you're just wanted to mix a few audio sources and then input those into the sy300.




jcaman

awesome, thanks!!!
I'll try some of the GR50 sounds into the SY.
and mess with the OSCs

Rhcole

You can really change the behavior of the SY with this approach. I didn't think the Mel-9 was that interesting into the SY, but I recently changed my mind because the Clarinet patch (of all things) when set to maximum sustain causes notes to overlap one another on the SY, a very cool effect.

If any of you guys were ever into the Minimoog or similar back in the day, the SY reminds me of the unpredictable nature of some of those early synths, and in a very good way. The problem with digital this and that is that digital products always respond the same way every time, which can be quite sterile. The SY is a bit wild and unpredictable, I love it for that!

jcaman

#7
got to experiment today running some GR-50 patches into the SY300 and got some really nice tones.
was hoping at some point to post MP3 samples so you folks could hear them. I checked the How to and help forums and did a search but couldn't find any info on how to do it.
If someone could direct or instruct me on how to do it I'd appreciate it.
thanks.

*edit*
Think I found it.

Rhcole

#8
I have tested driving the SY-300 thoroughly with the Mel 9 and Synth 9 in series into the SY. Bless the Mel 9, it patiently endures the Synth 9 driving it and still retains its own voice. This is not what EHX envisioned for it but it is quite useful. You get some really weird effects, such as the Mel 9 choir with their eyeballs bulging out and somewhat panicked expressions as they try to interpret the Synth 9 OBX being played through them. What a hoot.

This setup covers all reasonable pad demands I might have for synth sounds through about 1982 or so (pre DX7 and wavetable synths). It isn't as full-bodied, clear, and high-fidelity as the best synths of that era but it is damn good, and surprisingly polyphonic. You can do a great job with "Chariots of Fire" Vangelis type patches.

For the first time ever, it feels like I'm playing an actual synth. I've never had that feeling before, not even with the FTP because of the layer that the MIDI translation puts in the way. The VG-99 for all of its massive power is its own instrument, not a synth per se. The SY-300 by itself, well it's a very talented super-FX box but it needs more to play like a synth.

But this combo of boxes gives you the kind of feeling you might have gotten from dialing in sounds on a Roland Jupiter-4.

jcaman

You got me gassing for some EHX pedals ;)

chrish

#10
Quote:"-For the first time ever, it feels like I'm playing an actual synth. I've never had that feeling before, not even with the FTP because of the layer that the MIDI translation puts in the way. The VG-99 for all of its massive power is its own instrument, not a synth per se. The SY-300 by itself, well it's a very talented super-FX box but it needs more to play like a synth."

You got me thinking about that MIDI layer between the guitar player and synthesizer. Now I'm wondering about digital code  (dsp,cosm,hrm) being a similar layer versus the guitar string as an oscillator in an all analog signal path.

imerkat

Just got my SY-300 and the first thing I drove through it was the COSM wave modeling mode with the color parameter off. I always thought the SY top end sounded harsh but with the Square and Triangle wave the sounds are much more round and sweet. IMHO

JiveTurkey

Quote from: imerkat on June 08, 2017, 06:51:03 AM
Just got my SY-300 and the first thing I drove through it was the COSM wave modeling mode with the color parameter off. I always thought the SY top end sounded harsh but with the Square and Triangle wave the sounds are much more round and sweet. IMHO
Can you explain what you mean by this, Imerkat? I've got another 300 coming in  8)