Boss SY-300 - (User Reviews) Make Some Noise!

Started by mixman, June 30, 2015, 09:56:42 AM

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mixman

#25
Quote from: Elantric on July 02, 2015, 09:11:39 AM
Yes- here in the (growing) Boss SY-300 User to User Patch Exchange Area
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?board=191.0
I actually downloaded the driver & Boss software before you had mentioned this.
I went to town with it having a blast! They are starting to appear for Sale here & there, one on eBay.

BackDAWman

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha lol

They want $1995 Australian and $71.83 for postage for one of these!!

They're dreamin'!

Syph

I'll admit to believing the Australia tax, but I had to check it for myself...

First 2 decent results:

$869
http://www.bettermusic.com.au/boss-sy-300-guitar-synthesizer-sy300

and

$806
https://www.turramusic.com.au/pages/CatalogueItem.aspx?CIID=8827

According to those 2 sites the RRP is $949 AUD.

Turns out it's not so bad :p

BackDAWman

#28
I was looking at the one on eBay from Japan. At that price I would never get one.

I've bought stuff before from Turramurra. They're pretty good. At that price I would consider it  ;)

gumtown

The best price so far, has to be the SY-300 group buy, the "group buy" seller does international shipping.

https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=14602.msg104496#msg104496
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

BackDAWman

The shipping and the exchange rate is usually the killer. It was with the GP-10. :'(

gumbo

#31
Turramurra pricing is always good..   
...I've also dealt with BetterMusic (in ACT)..  they have been known to be advertising units without actually holding stock, ...although they were good to me when I kicked up about that in the past.

Haven't looked at what delivery is proposed for Oz..it all breaks back in the finish to what Roland Australia is capable of providing to its retailers..

...and yeah, as of this morning, our exchange rate fell to a six-year low courtesy of Greece  (work that out if you can..)

Peter
Read slower!!!   ....I'm typing as fast as I can...

mixman

#32
To everyone who is wondering what the SY 300 is gonna do! Just go get one it is really good especially when you use Boss tone central with the driver downloaded!
No 13 pin to deal with plenty of guitar sounds that sound real good if you know how to get into the unit! Effects excellent too!
Forget all the technical nonsense and just get one!  Trade some gear towards it. Etc..
My advice is to at least go and try it when it ships to a local dealer or store. You have nothing to loose! I have already recorded with it and have tweaked it and am having a ball  it.
I have had every guitar synth under the sun!

gumtown

Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

thebrushwithin

#34
 ;D :o ;D
      Just received mine a couple of hours ago, and have only tried it with voice! Since I'm preparing for the road early tomorrow morning, I just did some quick patch design, hooked up a sennheiser wireless to a VoiceLive 1, that I had prepared for both chordal voices, and single voice soloing. I took an empty preset (it had saw waves, but not much else), and quickly dialed in all 3 oscillators for sine, tuned them an octave up, and added a dual S delay after all of them. The verdict is that the tracking is absolutely flawless on voice, as I suspect it will be with any instrument. BUT, what is very curious to me, as I listened only through headphones, is that it sounds like the oscillators take on the input instrument's characteristics. Now, I made sure that I eliminated the input source from the mix, but it still sounded like a vocal oscillator, if that makes any sense! Wish I had time to record it, so I could determine whether I am just hearing my voice acoustically, or if somehow the oscillators' sounds are indeed shaped by the instrument as well as the wave source. When I get back on Monday, I will record it from the mixer I was running it through, and judge it from there. Didn't bother using the editor yet either, but it is pretty intuitive to program, so far. One other thing to note: I had set up one voicelive patch with an on board echo, so I could see how sensitive the SY is, and each incoming echo triggers the oscillators flawlessly! So, no matter what instrument goes in, don't be afraid to add an effect or two.
       As I mentioned sometime ago, you can get alternate tunings simply by going out of, for instance, a GP 10, that is using odd tunings, or a twelve string, add a delay, and straight into a mixer, use the aux out of the mixer to feed the SY, and bingo! , you have an alt tuned synth, twelve string synth, etc., although I won't try this till Monday afternoon. The SY responds to ANYTHING coming in! I also used the user hold button, on my voicelive, to hold a chord I sang, while my voice then soloed over the top, using the same sound(of course). This piece of gear is going to be an experimenter's dream!
So far, I am quite impressed, and really looking forward to really get into the unit, with the editor, and maybe even "resynthing", using different recorded audio as input to the SY. By the way, my unit, when initially turned on, did not have the error reading, as some others have mentioned, and went right to the user presets, which are the same as the factory presets.

Elantric

#35
QuoteBUT, what is very curious to me, as I listened only through headphones, is that it sounds like the SY-300's oscillators take on the input instrument's characteristics.

Thats been reported by others too - SY-300 will sound diffferent depending on what current Mag PU (Neck / Middle / Bridge pickup) is currently being used too.

QuoteBy the way, my unit, when initially turned on, did not have the error reading, as some others have mentioned, and went right to the user presets, which are the same as the factory presets.

Curious if you report your SY-300 serial number range - (omit the last two digits for security)

Bill Ruppert

#36
Tracks great
Fully polyphonic
Oscillator wise its what I thought.
Think of it as subtractive synthesis. The wave starts as a very bright square wave. Kind of a crude wave and the note is filtered to create the other wave shapes.
Can be a little dirty sounding but with filtering can be very pleasant.
Its Cosm sound, not the traditional oscillator sound or the osc in the GP-10.
Again it can sound a little dirty or crude.

I was a little bummed to see they stole the preset name Lord Purple from the EHX C9 organ machine.
That said it does not sound near as good as my C9 Lord Purple.
Bill
 

Quote from: Elantric on July 10, 2015, 03:11:34 PM
Bill, any 1st impressions on the Boss SY-300 sound / chord tracking /etc?

mixman

The reason the guy from Japan is selling that SY -300 for $1499.00 is he is trying to cash in on it because they are not shipping yet! I could try and do the same thing! No one is going to pay that especially when the start shipping. It is just like when the play station used to come out and people would go grab one and sell it on eBay for $1000 to some lawyer or doctor who does not care about the price just as long as he can have it under the tree in time for Christmas day for his kid!

mbenigni

Quote from: Elantric on July 10, 2015, 04:13:35 PM
Thats been reported by others too - SY-300 will sound diffferent depending on what current Mag PU (Neck / Middle / Bridge pickup) is currently being used too.

IMO, that is very much a "feature".

Bill Ruppert

And it changes how you drive it with the input settings.
Huge difference in setting.

Rhcole

Two simple questions:

1. Can it produce pleasing pads and background synths for chords?
2. Do the pitch shifters turn into garbage on complex chords?

Bill Ruppert

#41
QuoteTwo simple questions:

1. Can it produce pleasing pads and background synths for chords?

Yes but you will have to program it. Most presets in the box are very distorted or buzzy.
It sounds like your in Guitar Center on a Saturday.
It can programed to be nice.
Quote
2. Do the pitch shifters turn into garbage on complex chords?

When shifting the pitch of the Osc's it plays complex chords great.

Phillip Eno

I got my sy-300 today. So far so good.. i've played through the presets a couple of times, let the blender do it's thing... i'm pretty impressed. it tracks well, translates 5 voice chords, and doesn't have any preset sounds that make me jump back and say WTF?! the sequences can get a little wonky with chords, but i expected that.  it handles aggressive picking acceptably, tho it responds better to a tighter picking hand.. strumming also yielded usable results, with the right preset. 

mixman

Quote from: Phillip Eno on July 13, 2015, 04:05:31 PM
I got my sy-300 today. So far so good.. i've played through the presets a couple of times, let the blender do it's thing... i'm pretty impressed. it tracks well, translates 5 voice chords, and doesn't have any preset sounds that make me jump back and say WTF?! the sequences can get a little wonky with chords, but i expected that.  it handles aggressive picking acceptably, tho it responds better to a tighter picking hand.. strumming also yielded usable results, with the right preset.
I would download the driver & software!  Then get use to all the settings and you can tweak it to your liking even to play those chords. You can make changes to the fine tuning & pitch etc..

mixman

#44
Quote from: Rhcole on July 11, 2015, 09:19:11 PM
Two simple questions:

1. Can it produce pleasing pads and background synths for chords?
2. Do the pitch shifters turn into garbage on complex chords?
The answer to your first question is yes & the second question is that you can play complex chords if you tune the pitch & fine tuning and other settings using the boss tone central software.

mixman

Quote from: mbenigni on July 11, 2015, 08:22:53 AM
IMO, that is very much a "feature".
It is really noticeable on switching between the neck & bridge on a stray rather then the middle or in between sounds. Same with hunbuckers too!

Phillip Eno

Quote from: mixman on July 13, 2015, 05:19:53 PM
  I would download the driver & software!  Then get use to all the settings and you can tweak it to your liking even to play those chords. You can make changes to the fine tuning & pitch etc..

i absolutely intend to =D i was just excited, and wanted to take it for a spin and just feel it out first.

Elantric

#47
Just took delivery of my Boss SY-300

Some observations:


My LCD display looks fine

I had 15 minutes so far  - Right out of the box, no setup, plugged in my JTV-69 - ( which had a dead battery so only a review using the Mag PUs ( Super Strat S-S-H pickup set) and SY-300 directly connected to Audio -Technica ATH-50M Headphones

I observe great full chord tracking, although my early opinion is the SY-300 user might benefit from a guitar with squeaky clean signal( using EMGs, Fishman Fluence Pickups, or a Modeling guitar ( Antares, GP-10, Variax)  - I'm in an industrial location with lots of stray EMF  - and any stray noise in your guitar electronic's  signal path might pass through and be heard slightly in the back ground, worst case example of hum for me is when Mag PU Volume is at 50% up = the most hum heard  on many factory SY-300 patches . But Most folks will never hear this.

Right out of the box - ( no setup) The tracking for solo notes  seemed to fall off on the high E string above the 12th fret ( requiring harder picking to trigger the note, so it could be heard at the same volume level as picking the low E & A &  D strings above the 12th fret. I think a guitar with balanced output string to string output would yield more uniform results ( typically my Seymour Duncan Humbuckers on my LGX-SA or a MM Luke with EMG's.)  ( avoid Vintage  Staggered Magnet Strat Single coil PU's)

But I expect if I follow the detailed SY-300 Input Signal Setup procedure - most of this observed high E signal drop off will be tamed / cured / solved)
       
Some patch highlights for me

P06 Gt+Bs+FluteLAYER - String splits with bass on low E & A strings only!

P29 Dripstone Cave - (good demo of the deep stereo delays )

P30 Rotary Drive ( CTL 1 changes the Leslie Speed with ramp up / ramp down acceleration/deceleration  ballistics

P31 Psychadelic Lead  - (good demo of the deep stereo delays )

P32 Fat Pad - (smooth synth  - no buzz)

P34 Church Organ ( CTL1 is a Hold, for soloing on held chords)

P57 Decelerated ( smooth sounding synth

At our Group Buy price -  I'm happy


Phillip Eno

I spent some time with my fretless guitars today.. one i use with ebow, and the other has a fernandez sustainer.  both yielded very inspiring results.  intervals that are off by microtones, translated well.. i thought fretless guitar was pretty interesting on it's own, but with the synth, it's a whole new dimension.

also, i've found that active pickups give the most consistent results, and have the least consistent results with single coils. 

=D

Rhcole

#49
By my estimation this is the week when a number of members on this forum really get to sink their collective teeth into the SY-300. Unlike the last two major products from Boss/Roland, I've been sitting on the fence on this one rather than buying right away.

It's been a bit quieter here than I expected. Last year after the GP-10 was released there were people all over it debating the Osc synth, discussing how they would use it, loving or criticizing it. It was noisy!

There are not many of these types of posts- yet. Perhaps it didn't have quite as many rabid orders right out the gate? Is it too soon?
It makes me wonder if people tried it and went, "OK, that's nice", but were a bit underwhelmed. I don't know.

Owners, make some noise! Do you love it? Is it amazing? Is it - meh-, just OK or only kind of interesting?
Is it going to CHANGE THE WAY YOU MAKE MUSIC or just be an interesting add-on effect (hope not at the price)?
Do you LOVE the sound or at the end of the day is it too buzzy dirty COSM sounding for you?

C'mon team VG- whaddya' think?