The low-cost way of using Boss SY-1000 and Boss GM-800 Guitar Synths in serial mode

In August 2023 I posred a critrical review (https://shredecon.wordpress.com/2023/08/25/the-very-annoying-boss-gm-800-guitar-synthesiser-pedal/) the Boss GM-800 that focused on the very expensive and cumbersome way that Boss offered for integrating its 13-pin guitar synth gear with its new generation equqment based around the GK5 digital pickup. At the time, I had been impressed by the sounds of the GM-800 in demonstration videos, but I had not bought the product because I was unhappy with Boss’s failure to include a 13-pin input to make it easy to work with both generations of its technology. But I ssuspected that ut might be possible to get around Boss’s vision simply by using guitar-to-MIDI from my Boss SY-1000 to drive a GM-800 via its MIDI-in socket. On 1 June 2024, with Australia’s end of financial year sales season in progress, I decided to test my hpyothesis and purchased a GM-800 for about $200 less than I would have had to pay at the time I wrote my specification-based post.

To make sure I had got the GM-800 set up correctly, I first connected it to the MIDI-out from my Yamaha YC73 keyboard, for which it may also serve as a secpmaru sound module. The GM-800’s manual isn’t very helpful on how to do this, but there is a page at Boss’s website that explains what to: set the inpub to MIDI instead of GK and then set all the MIDI channels to channel 1. It then worked fine, and the sounds are truly sparkling, though there are a few presets where the layering doesn’t seem to work as it would with a GK5 input.

I then hooked up my SY-1000 instead, and after a few tweaks in the guitar-to-MIDI setting I found a combination that worked with no odd screeching effects. The tracking is superb, even on sax samples that have always been a bit of a challenge with ghost notes in my Roland GR-55, and there is good velocity sensitivity even with the settings that I arrived at, which are as follows:

MODE: Poly; Alt Tuning: Off; Chromatic: TYPE 3; Dynamics: 2; Play Feel:  Feel 1; Power velocity: 2.

It is worth having separate volume pedals for each unit, but certainly one volume pedal is needed for the GM-800 as you can’t control it from the guitar in the way that you can control the volume level on the SY-1000.

It sounds very good with both my Roland-Ready Strats and my Godin LGXTs, though it may be worth noting that the LGXTs are best set at only 20% input volume for the SY-1000 as the RMC piezo units are vcery powerful. One of my LGXTs has a partially deaf A-string piezo due to sweat from my wrist, but this still works perfectly OK for guitar0to0MIDI, and balanced with the other strings, when it is turned up to 80%. By contrast, the input volumes for the Strats are set at 60-65.

Having got a serial system happening with the SY-1000, I then checked to see whether I could get similar results from the MIDI0out from my GR-55 and even my ancient GR-30. The answer was a resounding yes, and with no tweaking of their MIDI output. In all cases, there were no appreciable latency issues.

In short, if you have earlier-generation Roladn/Boss synths with guitar to MIDI capabilities, then do not buy the Boss GLC-AD converter and Boss BGK cable until you have tried the neater and very cheap (if you even need to get a MIDI cable) untili youo have tried using the guitar-to-MIDI strategy.