SY-300 - Rethinking the external loop in the SY-300

Started by Rhcole, April 21, 2017, 12:44:46 AM

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Rhcole

Somehow the SY-300 has become a kind of meditation device for me. I think I know all of its tricks, and then I do a double-take and wonder how I ever missed something that has now become frighteningly obvious to me.

Take the effects loop, for example. I've mostly ignored it because it parallels the rest of the signal chain, entering in back at the end to rejoin the rest of the path. So, if you put a phaser in the loop, all you get is the phaser added to your input guitar signal blended in with the rest of the signal, right?

Sigh. I've had this box for almost two years and never looked at the simplicity of it and how powerful it actually is. Here's the application that set this off for me. Elsewhere on this forum, I have been talking about EHX's ___ 9 boxes and combining them with the SY. But, for many of my purposes, I don't want my straight guitar run through them and blended with FX- I would rather soup up and mess with the EHX boxes without destroying my native guitar sound. That's hard to do if you go straight into the input on the SY because it is mono and you can't split the signal off.

Or can you? By luck my SansAmp direct box has a parallel output, so I ran the main out into the loop return on the SY and the parallel into the input with the EHX boxes. NOW, they are split off from my regular guitar IF I WANT THEM TO BE, or combined, if I want it that way. I can mix ANY combination of FX with or without the guitar being affected. This is a massive benefit because I can create partial blends of all kinds between the guitar going into the regular input and the guitar going into the return loop jack.

But there's more. Just because the return jack is in parallel doesn't mean you can't affect it in the SY. OF COURSE you can drop any and all FX the SY has into the return loop and use them there, AND you can decide how much to blend the internal guitar versus the loop return guitar together. AND, if you really want to, you can add additional effects into the return loop and process them internally with the SY effects or not as you wish.

This is massively powerful, and you can send it all out of the outputs of the SY in stereo if you wish.

Think of the SY as having three channels: The channel with the Oscs, which can also include the inputed guitar; The regular guitar input channel outside of the Oscs, which you can add effects to at will, and the Return jack which you can add effects to independently of the rest of the unit AND ALSO can share any effects you choose to place in the shared regular guitar channel. You could place a looper into the return jack, for example, and modify it internally with the SY FX and pump it out with everything else.

What this did for me is it eliminated an additional foot pedal and a number of cables and boxes designed to give me more parallel controls. All I needed to do was split off my input and run one signal straight into the return jack and the other through the EHX boxes into the main input. Wonderful.

Is this interesting to anybody but me? Did everybody else already think of this and I am just a slow study?

Brak(E)man

I have realized that SY 300 has many more features then I understood at first.
I have to get over the fact that it's not polyphonic which still bugs the crap out of me
and get on with the semi monophonic monster guitar synth it really is
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

acousticglue

As I have noticed that if input guitar to SY then outputs L/R to soundcard input on Saffire of 7/8 and choose stereo input on card I get very little on channel 7 but complete on 8. If I choose mono input of 8 on soundcard I get full both channels. I had given thought of inputting my Digitech to return of thru wondering what that might achieve but at times I want just Digi interface to Saffire.

JiveTurkey

You're not a slow study at all. The SY is really just stupendous in a lot of ways. It's about as deep as you can get and I find I am not even at a point that I could be considered dangerous with it  8)

Also, having had the GP10 and now the GR55 as of late to compare; I can completely envision a monster product. That won't exist in the real world; I am sure  :-[ Fast tracking of the 1/4" based SY for synth lead runs, 13 pin PCM based stuff ala GR for alt-tunings, instrument and synth pad tones. Incorporate updated amp modeling from GT series and I am not really sure how my head would avoid exploding.

Back on topic. When I was running my SY centric board; I ran into the SY then out to other signal chains to be blended in via EXP. Your suggestions are very intriguing and I am probably going to have to look into it further :) Once I get the 55 dialed in  ;D