New BOSS SY-1000. The Hex-pickup is not dead. Long live the 13-pin plug!

I've received my SY-1000 today and I am very happy with it. I've spent the first 5 hours messing and playing with the Nylon Guitar modeler, starting from scratch (factory presets do not fit my taste, but I already knew that Roland/Boss requires tweaking to extract the juice from their multi-fx) . It is amazing. Better quality than the VG-99 and GP-10. I do not regret having sold them and I am not going to miss them at all.

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Interested in the pitch to midi performance of the SY1000.

Just sold my GR55 and now use a GP10 which imo tracks a little better than the GR55. Still use FTP too but the software is a DOG (Apologies, dogs.)

One more question. Are the synth models in the 1000 evolved a long way beyond the GP10? Because for me, these models (ie GP10) just don't cut it, which is sad. If you use Diva, Omnisphere, Serum, Dune etc etc you are never ever gonna to get excited about the synth modelling in the GP10.

Would be v wonderful to have state of the art noise out of a g-synth, but for me that hasn't happened yet, I'd love to hear the SY1000 has solved the problem?
 
I still haven't tried the pitch-to-midi or the synth models of the SY-1000. Five days with it, and I still haven't moved from the Nylon Guitar model.

Some people gets Option Paralysis with the endless possibilities, but now I have Amazing Tone Paralysis. o_O Not only with the SY-1000 but with the Axe-FX III. Millions of possibilities, but I am addicted to one tone that I like and I cannot stop playing with it. The SY-1000 Nylon Guitar processed through the Axe-FX mixed with the regular guitar pickups through the Axe-FX AC30.

You may find better reviews at VGuitar Forums
 
Glad you are so enthralled. I do use the Jazz guitar model on the GP10 quite a lot. And it's Nylon is not too bad tho It sounds like its come a long way on the 1000.
 
I can't say how much better the ptm is vs. the GP10. I will say it's solid; but I am still going the route of a US20 splitter and using the GR and SY versus using the 33 via SY1000 midi.

The SY1000 synths are great. I didn't think the synths in GP10 were good at all. I dug the instrument modeling and alt tuning on it, but synth stuff compared to the 55 (PCM) or the 300 was pretty much a joke imo. Whether it's worth ~$1K to you or not is hard to determine. I use it for amp and instrument modeling and the subtractive synthesis stuff. The acousitc models are great and the alt tuning is much better than the GP10. The addition of my 55 into the rig will add PCM horns/sax sounds.
 
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I still haven't tried the pitch-to-midi or the synth models of the SY-1000. Five days with it, and I still haven't moved from the Nylon Guitar model.

Some people gets Option Paralysis with the endless possibilities, but now I have Amazing Tone Paralysis. o_O Not only with the SY-1000 but with the Axe-FX III. Millions of possibilities, but I am addicted to one tone that I like and I cannot stop playing with it. The SY-1000 Nylon Guitar processed through the Axe-FX mixed with the regular guitar pickups through the Axe-FX AC30.

You may find better reviews at VGuitar Forums
thanks for the inspiration....curious what your routing and setup is..here is mine, stereo in 2 from the SY with panned string placement .Screen Shot 2020-02-19 at 10.38.11 AM.pngScreen Shot 2020-02-19 at 10.38.52 AM.png
 

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Jive T, you say the synths are great. Sounds hopeful, I will have to check it out

Roland own (or owned) Cakewalk. Cakewalk's Rapture was an underground legend, a fantastic synth (superseded by Rapture Pro which was a total flop and seemed to bankrupt the company). Cakewalk also produced Z3ta, another famous soft-synth which made a lot of waves a few years back. Either of these synths wrapped up in a GR55 box would have put guitar synthesis on the 21st map. But no! Roland's 'synth' engine in the GR55 was a little bit of a joke for anyone wanting to design cutting-edge sounds.

I'm worried the SY1000 is another such machine.
 
Jive T, you say the synths are great. Sounds hopeful, I will have to check it out

Roland own (or owned) Cakewalk. Cakewalk's Rapture was an underground legend, a fantastic synth (superseded by Rapture Pro which was a total flop and seemed to bankrupt the company). Cakewalk also produced Z3ta, another famous soft-synth which made a lot of waves a few years back. Either of these synths wrapped up in a GR55 box would have put guitar synthesis on the 21st map. But no! Roland's 'synth' engine in the GR55 was a little bit of a joke for anyone wanting to design cutting-edge sounds.

I'm worried the SY1000 is another such machine.
I do not believe that what I have heard so far synth wise, while sounding as good as I’ve heard from a Roland guitar unit. will compare favorably to the best of the softsynths. But I have admittedly not dug too deep...
 
Jive T, you say the synths are great. Sounds hopeful, I will have to check it out

Roland own (or owned) Cakewalk. Cakewalk's Rapture was an underground legend, a fantastic synth (superseded by Rapture Pro which was a total flop and seemed to bankrupt the company). Cakewalk also produced Z3ta, another famous soft-synth which made a lot of waves a few years back. Either of these synths wrapped up in a GR55 box would have put guitar synthesis on the 21st map. But no! Roland's 'synth' engine in the GR55 was a little bit of a joke for anyone wanting to design cutting-edge sounds.

I'm worried the SY1000 is another such machine.
I do not believe that what I have heard so far synth wise, while sounding as good as I’ve heard from a Roland guitar unit. will compare favorably to the best of the softsynths. But I have admittedly not dug too deep...
It's still a Roland unit :eek::D So there is that.

Here's a video of the dry oscillators. He is going back and forth between the SY300 and the 1000. As far as softsynths go; I know there are much better out of the box ones than something in a Roland guitar based hardware unit. But I think the tools are there to make something unique. It will take some work on the end user's side for that to happen.
 
thanks for the inspiration....curious what your routing and setup is..here is mine, stereo in 2 from the SY with panned string placement .View attachment 63960View attachment 63961

My setup at the SY-1000 is similar, and this is what I have at the Axe-FX:
2020-02-20 05_30_47-.png

I wish the Axe-FX III had 3 AMP blocks, because in order to run the SY-1000 in Stereo we need two AMPs fully panned L and R. Two would be for the SY-1000, and one for the regular pickups.

The SY-1000 AMP is also mono, so it has to be disabled when you PAN the strings

Cliff said a while ago that he was considering adding more AMP blocks. I am wondering if that is still feasible or if it has already run out of memory after the latest firmware updates
 

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It is a great experience when the tone you get from your gear inspires you to play something that you've never done before. While I was testing the Nylon model, I instinctively started to (try to) play the first chords of Mozart's Lacrimosa, from the Requiem. Since that moment, I have spent 100% of my guitar time trying to learn it. Totally absorbed. I have put aside the Nick Johnston tutorials I've recently bought, the Eventide H9, the Axe-FX new firmware features, exploring the other sounds of the SY-1000, and everything I was working on.

I cannot read music, so I have to figure it out by opening the MIDI file at Cakewalk's Piano Roll and scrolling the chords with the mouse. It is a challenge because, unlike a skilled reader, I have to fully memorize everything. The main melody is easy to retain, but the harmonic structure is quite complex. I am arranging it for 3 guitar tracks.
 
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To be totally transparent I'm itching 4 1 of these.

Y'all know that, hehe

All this babblemouth (above) is just tryin to invent reasons not to even think about.

Ain't workin ;-))

Hot damn the OSC synth in my GP10 ain't too bad, it's adds a unique roughness when layered up beneath a more sophisticated softsynth.

Imagine a stack of three of these (nicely-evolved) babies going thru waybetter internal fx, mmmmmm

Stoppid!
 
And now with the mention of Mozart's Lacrimosa I'm shedding big phat tears (of joy)

& composing a quick begging letter to the bank!
 
After I got the SY-1000 and was really enjoying the stuff you can do with a divided pickup, I pulled out my old VG-8. I hadn't played through it in a long time and I have to say there are a lot of sounds in this 25 year old box that are still pretty cool. The amp modeling stuff is nothing to write home about, but the synthy-trippy stuff is very nice.

I made a quick demo of some random noodling this morning of some VG-8 sounds that I like. As always, the clams are no charge.

 
I am still waiting for my SY-1000.
I liked to hear your VG-8 demos.
I sold mine long time ago but I still miss those sounds.
 
MIDI Guitar and V-Guitar are different technologies that provide very different results.

The FishmanTriplePlay is only suitable for MIDI guitar, not for V-Guitar, and it requires a computer in order to work

MIDI Guitar converts the guitar notes to MIDI notes (to trigger a MIDI synth), with all its limitations. e.g: velocity and picth bend limited to 256 steps, tracking errors, not capturing playing nuances... Basically, it is like playing a keyboard with the guitar but prone to tracking errors

V-Guitar is a Modeling Technology (real time signal processing), but it is not limited to model Amps and Cabs. It also models string instrument or pickups, from a Nylon guitar to a Rickenbacker, and all kind of synths and weird things. And, as any other modeller, it captures all the playing nuances of the guitar.

The Boss SY-1000 (like the VG-x or the GP-10) does not have an internal MIDI synth. All its sounds, guitars or synths, come from V-Guitar (modeling technology). However, it also has a pitch-to-MIDI converter to trigger external synths through its MIDI output.

Try to play this with the Fishman or with any other Guitar-to-MIDI converter:


Good news: beta testers say that the quality of the nylon and other v-guitars is better than the VG99 and GP-10. Probably as a result of the 32 bit processor. I've already sold my VG99 and GP-10 :p


Awesome playing and tone on this video! I recently bought an SY-1000, but am just getting started with it. The guitar emulations (acoustics, altered tunings) and the nylon emulation in particular are some of my favorite parts of the VG sounds, aside from all the synth voices.
 
I'm really tempted by this new SY-1000, I used to have a VG-99 that I really enjoyed. I don't have a 13-pin guitar at the moment so that would mean getting either a GK-3 or another guitar... what are you all using?
 
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