Electro-Harmonix Bass Mono Synth and BOSS SY-1 Bass Pedals

Attack

In the beginning, there was bass. And horns. There were some other pretty old, bowed, stringed instruments, too. But then there was technology, and … perhaps it was good? Technology sought to simplify the load-in, sound check, and payout scenarios of the live and recorded musical spheres, and emulated said instruments of yore – often, not very well. But verily, those emulations became target tones in and of themselves, becoming new classics in the pantheon of requested and desired sonic traits, and now we’ve come full circle, playing some of those original instruments through emulators that are doing their best impressions of circuits meant to emulate us in the first place. “Let there by synth!” Of course, as bassists we’re all hyper-aware of the great synthetic bass sounds that have been used on recordings since the ‘60s, but especially up through the electro-funk, hip hop, and neo soul movements. Some of us play some form of key bass ourselves, but for the rest, to cop those authentic, syrupy or sawtoothy textures, a good number of us stick to our strings and step on a synth effect, instead. Electro-Harmonix (EHX) and BOSS both have recent additions to the field of said sources of synthy goodness that you should know about.

Decay: EHX Bass Mono Synth

One of the biggest differentiators between the Electro-Harmonix and BOSS options is right there in the EHX’s name. The Bass Mono Synth employs a mono synthesis engine, responding to one note played at a time, while the SY-1 is polyphonic. Neither is necessarily better; sometimes monophonic synths fare better in tone quality, allowed to be more focused on a single input pitch, and sometimes poly synths compromise in order to achieve polyphonic operation, suffering in timbral depth and quality.

The Bass Mono Synth offers four controls across the top: DRY, SYNTH, SENS, and CTRL. Another control below this row, labeled TYPE, selects from 11 different synthesis voices. The CTRL knob has multiple uses and functions differently, depending on which synth voice you’re using. EHX provides an expression pedal input, as well, which together with the CTRL knob can achieve quite a few tone-tweaking feats for real-time swells and filter frequency sweeps, as well as set-and-forget voicing options. DRY and SYNTH are each independent output volume controls, affecting exactly what they claim. It’s kind of a cool touch to have independent level controls for both signal outs, rather than a blend, as it not only allows you to get the right mix of dry bass tone to wet synth vibe, but also gives you more control over the overall volume level of the pedal. There are also separate output jacks, labeled DRY and SYNTH, for those keen on experimenting with parallel signal processing on their boards. The expression jack accepts a TRS ¼” from a typical passive expression pedal.

Two modes of operation are possible with the Bass Mono Synth, which speaks to the inclusion of the PRESET footswitch to the left of the on/off BYPASS switch. In one mode, affectionately referred to in the EHX documentation as WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) mode, the LED state is green and the pedal reacts to your real time control tweaks and turns; in other words, it functions like you would expect to be able to interact with most any pedal. But a red LED signifies that you’re in PRESET mode, which allows you to recall one previously saved preset for each of the 11 separate synth voices. The LED will briefly flash orange in either mode of operation when you’re beginning to clip the input section of the effect. One great inclusion to PRESET mode is that a saved preset also saves the state of a connected expression pedal, whether or not that pedal is connected later when the preset is called up. This would allow you to get very granular on your tones in a home studio setting, for instance, saving your perfect patch, and then leaving the often large and heavy expression pedal at home and taking just the Bass Mono Synth to a gig. The online manual for the Bass Mono Synth does a good job of explaining the operations to save and recall a preset, so I’ll defer to that source for more specific instruction on those accounts.

As with many previous synth pedals and patches I’ve used in the past, I found it a little too easy to outrun the internal note detection and oscillators in the Bass Mono Synth when playing faster passages, and getting the SENS control parameter right for your bass and your playing style is a big part of optimizing the pedal for your personal usage. But it seemed to be that even when dialed-in to the sweet spot for me, the synth voices most often reacted best when I played longer, fatter notes. This is a true synthesis instrument, in that it determines the pitch of an incoming note and produces its own matching tone from the synth engine you’ve selected, as opposed to a type of “synth” effect that mainly functions by extensive filtering of an input signal, rather than doing any real tone generation. This necessarily involves some latency, due to the fact it’s essentially translating the analog audio you’re giving it into a generated, synthesized tone of its own. Generally, the only times I’ve been really blown away by the ability of an effect like that to keep up with fleet fingers have sprang from using a divided pickup or built-in MIDI system, and the latency of the Bass Mono Synth is not severe or unusual for its class, at all.

The ACID synth voice stood out to me as a fun tone to wield, which has kind of a pulse or square wave type of tone and is pitched down 1 to 2 octaves (I found it difficult to tell which, and it could be a mix of 2 octaves), however, this pitches the output down so low that you might only be apt to use it above the 7th fret on your A string, or so. Impressively, the pedal does track down all the way to my open B string! Very impressive, and uncommon in my previous pedal synth experience. My personal highlights also included the WUB mode, which, with the use of an expression pedal, was the perfect thing for achieving a very fun (if not cliché) dubstep bass vibe, with all the real-time wubwubwubbing your heart may desire. The TWIN voice, with a healthy dose of dry bass tone mixed in, gave an excellent EHX Bass Balls-like twin filter envelope tone – very throaty and guttural – and also responded very well to quicker playing. Setting the CTRL knob down to around 10 o’clock on this voicing made for some great, laser-like, pew pew note attack downward sweeps. SPECTRE offers an octave-up sound, but didn’t track as well as I would have liked. Still, it may be a great option in an ensemble situation when mixing in with the lower-pitched dry bass tone, to fill out more midrange or get into lead territory. While these tones were the ones that stood out to me the most, I must admit that in general, I didn’t see the Bass Mono Synth fitting into the picture with the showbands and original groups I’m currently playing with. This is obviously dependent on repertoire and player taste, and will of course vary immensely from one low-ender to another.

Sustain: BOSS SY-1

As mentioned earlier, while the EHX pedal is a monophonic one, BOSS’ latest offering is polyphonic – meaning you can play more than one note at a time, and its synthesis engine will generate more than one note at a time. Or, as poly always translates in my mind … CHORDS!! But, as also mentioned earlier, that doesn’t always mean the actual quality of the effect is any better, or even very good. In the case of the BOSS SY-1, however, it’s actually surprisingly good. With just about any voice and variation I chose on the pedal, I was able to play tight voiced chords, major 7th chords, and other go-to’s that will typically throw off other pitch-tracking pedals that have come across my floor space; the SY-1 was not deterred.

The BOSS box offers a feature not found on the EHX, but not unfamiliar to BOSS users; a “sound hold” function that will freeze the internal synth at the point in time you press down and hold down the footswitch, allowing you to freeze that output in time and play over it using your dry, unaffected tone (provided you have the dry output level set appropriately to do so). It’s one of those features that always makes me think, “Oh, cool…” but that I find I rarely, if ever, use. While this stompbox isn’t specifically geared towards bass, it has a switch at the top of the pedal next to the DC in jack that optimizes its input and function for either guitar or bass – kudos, BOSS!

Mirroring the number of basic synth voice categories the EHX unit has, the SY-1 also offers 11 different synth instruments or voices – but the comparison ends there, because there are an additional 11 variations available for each synth instrument category (some of which are wildly different from the next), essentially providing an order of magnitude more tonal variety than the Bass Mono Synth. When you compare their prices, roughly $125 for the EHX and $200 for the BOSS, that disparity is a little surprising. For less than double the cost of the EHX effect, the BOSS serves up 100+ more sounds and polyphony, in a smaller (but taller) footprint, as well. However, there’s no preset saving or recalling – a feature I would have really loved to have seen, but I suppose is also a differentiator and value proposition for BOSS’ larger (and much more expensive) synth powerhouse, the SY-300, or the newly introduced SY-1000.

An expression/control pedal input lives just south of the instrument input on the SY-1, which allows for similar synth parameter control as the Bass Mono Synth, but the additional capability for external control pedal usage means that you can tap tempo and carry out other switching operations on the SY-1, as well. The expression pedal controls the tone or rate of an effect. A stacked pair of output volume controls (EFFECT and DIRECT) sits at the far left of the SY-1’s control panel, adjacent to another stacked pair of controls for TONE/RATE and DEPTH. Right of that is the 11-position VARIATION selector, and finally the TYPE control all the way to the right. BOSS provides an additional send/return effects loop with dedicated ins and outs as well, both located just above their standard in and out jack counterparts.

There isn’t a way to fine-tune the sensitivity of the BOSS pedal’s input to your playing and instrument dynamics, as there is with the Electro-Harmonix, but in practice, that didn’t matter in the slightest. In fact, the SY-1 responded noticeably faster and more coherently to my playing, catching speedy flurries, chordal strums, and my general articulation decidedly well. Tracking was excellent on the BOSS, also reaching all the way down to an open low B, and it also responded instantly and musically to any vibrato I applied.

Sounds that I particularly dug on the SY-1 included many of the PAD type’s variations, as about half of the 11 variations of that voice presented a really nice swell on the front side of the note and worked fantastically with chords, going a long way towards emulating a real analog synth for vibey backings and moody textures. This voice with a looper was killer for creating the framework of a piece, and the sound hold function is a great match for this voice, as well, maintaining a chordal pad after its swell-in for dry bass playing on top of the pillowy pad texture. The STR (string) variations were also particularly enjoyable. Many variations featured the same in-swells as the PAD variations I liked, and worked very well for more monophonic playing, as several of the variations involved octaves and/or other intervals to create denser sounds from a single long, sustained note. The ORGAN type may have been my overall favorite, boasting options that seemed to me to be very usable in a real musical situation. It sounded surprisingly like a pipe or electronic organ in some cases – one of the only modes of operation on either unit that sounded discernibly like a real-world instrument. Its neighboring voice, BELL, offered up many octave-up tones that were mostly thin on the bottom, but married to some dry signal could be a good way to bring some more upfront tones to a band situation.

Finally the SEQ (sequencer) types were ultra-analog synthy and super vibey, immediately bringing to mind music from Stranger Things, Tron, and other works of that ilk, and certainly many Muse compositions, as well. This could be a very usable voice type with the optional control pedal for tap tempo control, but would be even better if there were a way to sync to a MIDI clock or something more global (there doesn’t appear to be, sadly). One specific variation of the last SEQ type on the dial I wanted to single out was variation number 1, which was an applause-worthy arpeggiator that functioned cleanly and very clearly on each note I played, even when I was playing major 2nds and minor 6ths apart. Each degree of each arpeggio came out impressively clear; an exemplary display of the quality of polyphonic pitch tracking the SY-1 is imbued with.

Release

The Electro-Harmonix Bass Mono Synth and BOSS SY-1 both offer some very convincing, fun sounds with minimal tweaking and learning curve required. Both stand head and shoulders above many synth engines I’ve come across before, and better than nearly any synth tones incorporated into larger multi-effects systems I’ve used – or even plug-in suites. Due to their varied targeting as monophonic and bass-specific or polyphonic and instrument-agnostic, their use cases are perhaps somewhat different, although for many bassists, they will mostly overlap. Either is well worthy of a listen at your local music store, and one feature set may be more right for one type of player than another. Specifically, the ability of the Bass Mono Synth to create and save separate presets for each voice type, as well as recalling expression pedal settings when the expression pedal isn’t available, and the SY-1’s polyphony and depth of tonal field (but also slightly increased complexity that stems from it) may be the deciding factor for one player or another, as may the variance in cost. If you’re in the market for a synth pedal and are considering both, let us know which one you decided on, and why!