SYB-5
Bass Synthesizer

Here's a review from reader Kulten:

BOSS SYB-3 and SYB-5 "Bass Synthesizer" review :

_____

I - THE MACHINES


The SYB-3 is a compact pedal built for electric bass
players in 1996. The SYB-5 was born in 2004. Plug a sound
source with a jack into the beast, and play ! Programming
a SYB is very simple : select the waveform or the filter,
then adjust frequency, decay (or LFO rate) and resonance.
That's all !

SYB-3 :

* 1 DSP sound generator : 3  wave forms : saw, square,
PWM, and 4 variations : saw + noise, saw - 1 octave, PWM +
noise, saw + noise - 1 octave. (the "noise" is just an
added effect)
* 4 filters for external sound : wave-shape normal/reverse
and autowah normal/reverse
* frequency, resonnance and decay knobs

SYB-5 :

* 1 DSP sound generator : 5  wave forms : saw, square,
pulse 1, pulse 2, PWM, and 4 variations : saw - 1 octav.,
square - 1 octav.,  saw + LFO, square + LFO
* 2 filters for external sound : wave-shape normal/reverse
* frequency, resonnance and decay knobs
* the “decay” knob is also the “LFO rate” knob

Well, as you can see, the SYB-3 miss the LFO... but the
SYB-5 miss the “noise” sound effect.

SYB-3 goodie : the "noise" effect can be trigged alone,
but you must experiment and search for it...

SYB-5 goodies : the square - 1 octav. mode is a duophonic
mode, the lower sound and the original sound are played
simultaneously. An external pedal input jack has been
added to the SYB-5 for connecting the Roland EV-5
Expression Pedal ($old $eparately), which allows you to
control filter cutoff and LFO rate in real time.

With both SYB you can use the onboard pedal to hold a note
while playing phrase over it.

It was built for bass players but... in fact the tracking
is horrible with a bass guitar (I mean what I say, I'm a
bass player too !). Better use it with a keyboard, a drum
machine, a sampler : you can experiment with a genuine and
simple synth module. It can be hazardous, but it's always
exciting.


II - THE SOUNDS

1) SYB-3

The SAW wave can be deep and liquid, soft, thick or
aggressive. The PWM is really a good one, could be the
coldest wave never heard or the noisy thing you can
face... and the VCF is powerfull, and will increase the
output level, so carefull ! The SQUARE is a bit light and
soft... and not very usefull.

The autowahs sound clear and the wave shape will evolute
with the external sound level from light distortion to
amazing noises.

Of course the deep bass sounds are excellents, but the
SYB-3 is good for noises, laser beam, powerfull leads,
percussive shots, weird sequencing... it's not an effect,
it's not a toy, it's a real analog monophonic synthesizer,
with its own personnality.

2) SYB-5

Enter the industrial machine... SYB-5’s sounds are
aggressiv, metalic, hard, distorted. The PWM is a
modulated “pulse” waveform, instead of the SYB-3’s
modulated “square”  waveform, so it’s very, very
different... SYB-5’s PWM is the ultimate drone
generator...

SYB-3’s saw is better than SYB-5’s saw, but SYB-5’s square
is fatter, and the duophonic mode is a good idea. The LFO
is excellent, very usefull, and the SYB-3 really miss that
stuff.

The “pulse 1” sound is dreadfull... but the “pulse 2” is a
“vocoder like” sound effect, cool ! There are no autowah
filters, but SYB-5’s wave shape is sharper than SYB-3’s.
And the “expression” input is very usefull.

The SYB-5 is also cheaper than the SYB-3, with a better
tracking.


III - SOUND SAMPLES


I only use BOSS SYB bass synths in real time for all my
stuff... go there :

http://go.to/kulten

You’ll find pictures, complete tracks and sound samples.


IV - SO WHAT ?


SYB-3 is an oldschool analog-like machine, SYB-5 is a
thick industrial synth. Only 4 knobs each, but...
thousands of sounds ! So let's try it !

OFFICIAL LINKS : Boss Corp. :

http://www.bosscorp.co.jp/products/en/SYB-3/index.html
http://www.bosscorp.co.jp/products/en/SYB-5/index.html

SYB-3 = 250 euros
SYB-5 = 160 euros