Bass Synth Pedal Shootout ($90-$285)

[@billlukes2557]

C4 really impressed me, very consistent in all the clips

[@louie8604]

And he barely touched the surface of what sounds it can do

[@whah-nah-nahjack-bandit5867]

c4 is the shit

[@Scoots1994]

You should also check out the SourceAudio Spectrum ... same DSP and I prefer it to the C4

[@sjeffy5137]

I bought myself a C4, it really didn’t work very well with my Ibanez BTB, only picked up right above the bridge and cut out a lot, it’s also a very steep learning curve to tinker with, so buyer beware

[@AloysiusChowBass]

@@sjeffy5137 Same here. I didnt feel very much in control using the C4. Always afraid then an accidental turn on the knob will cause a suddenly jump to the settings. It is not as easy to use.. really not so straightforward.

[@having765]

The digitech synth wah is my favorite

[@ampthebassplayer]

Man, that last section really brings it all together. Synth pedals are hard to compare because they're all so dramatically different. I had never even heard of the C4 but that one seems like the one I'd be the most interested in.

[@MyBassistChris]

AMP yes the comparison for synths was quite difficult compared to the fuzz shootout. The C4 is the most powerful synth for sure, but for someone like me with little synth knowledge the learning curve was steep. It’s still my favorite synth pedal by far though. Also glad to see you’re uploading more videos again!

[@ampthebassplayer]

@@MyBassistChris Yeah, the extra software for the C4 seems pretty intimidating. I might just end up getting a keyboard synth because it would probably hurt my wallet less in the long run. And thanks!

[@101fng]

That’s because nobody seems consistent in how they describe or demonstrate the effect. The waveforms need to be the focus of comparison (e.g. demo each pedal modulating the signal into a square wave, then a triangle wave, etc., etc.). It really doesn’t help that none of these builders are consistent with how they control signal shaping or at least in how they name their shaping controls. It makes it super difficult to get a proper comparison without an oscilloscope.

[@ThePunkasaurusrex]

c4 sounds dope, digitec wah sounded surprising good for being the cheapest. the mono bass synth had some good sounds too

[@rockinsteady]

Agree!

[@vincentpettit5841]

The c4 is so advanced and he did not even remotely scratch the surface of it's capability in this demo. It literally can do any and of of these pedals plus so much more. Do yourself a favor and do a deep dive into it before you settle on one.

[@SocksworthRiffs]

C4 nailed Time is Running Out, Synth Wah is definitely up there with just how insanely good it has remained

[@drpibisback7680]

Ah, the days when a Bass Synth Wah was only $90...

[@Patrick33194]

Im getting one atm for €150,- with power supply xD I find myself lucky to get it as good as new this 'cheap'

[@horrorshowbass]

Lol yes

[@traversclark8876]

I had one of these and the guitar one. I sold the bass one and swapped the guitar one for an octaver. They weren't great then and aren't great now. I don't know why people want them.

[@DaCostaGuitars]

Honestly, the DIgitech sounded great throughout. Definitely my next pedal once i find one :)

[@bartonamon]

Agreed, with the C4 being my next favourite

[@joshfromjuniorstudios]

As much as everyone seems to hate it, I got to say the monosynth is probably my favourite

[@criticaltheist3992]

Mono synth took second place for me, which might put it close to the c4 considering price. C4 for live full sound I say and mono synth for studio recording

[@SuperRichyrich11]

C4 is my overall favorite

[@modemlaugh]

Man that C4 seems to track really well.

[@Metalgopher]

It absolutely does, most fun I’ve ever had with a pedal

[@jkees6751]

This video helped me decide on the C4. Thanks!

[@lionmarcusania]

Definetly C4 and the EHX Bass Micro Synth are the best for my ears. Digitech's do a really good job as well.

[@irvin8651]

Electro harmonix pedal sounds rad! Digging the Distrokid demo, pretty nice to see a quick tour without taking away from the rest of the review

[@gurobear6658]

Which one? Mono or micro?

[@XYz-vy7tr]

The Boss pedal is just another goddamn Metal Zone :)

[@Jack-pp2ng]

I like the synth 1 the most

[@sl3102]

Boss is just happy to hang out with the big kids.

[@manny75586]

Probably the first “shootout” with more than three pedals where I left thinking “ eh...I kinda want all of them.” There is usually at least one where I’m just a straight up nope on. Not this time.

[@pjmuck]

Panda Audio's Future Impact deserves mention. Excellent.

[@MyBassistChris]

I definitely wanted to include this pedal but wasn't ready to drop $450 at the time. Looks like the price of the pedal has gone down since

[@randygotrhythm]

Thanks for this! Man that C4 sounds killer. Putting it on my pedal buy list.

[@ShaighJosephson]

C4 smokes them all with synth sounds, tracking, and overall capabilities... The only pedal to come close to it is the SY-300 for $700...

[@livebassngames]

im just so confused now between the SY-1 SY-200 Monosynth, microsynth... BASS or GUITAR version ? I think any one of them will beat the tracking I get out of Rakarrack for sure...

[@OneManMutiny]

Also look into a Future Impact Panda Audio, I’d take that as my only synth pedal any day. Been the only one that stays on my board

[@alexanderhemming9148]

I have and love the Keeley but the tracking definitely isn't that great, probably going to change to the C4

[@chriscuthbertson]

IMO the C4 has a couple of really good sounds in it. but the Digitech has lots of good sounds in it. I'm pretty disappointed with the rest. I used to have a Digitech and a BOSS SYB-5 on my board back in the early 2000's, ended up replacing them with one of stu zender's BOSS ME8B 's

[@joelalexander4513]

dude that c4's fuckin crazy

[@thegratefulned]

Nice work my guy

[@johannsoncrusoe5589]

MonoSynth really surprised me! Nice shootout!

[@rockingjoh]

Great comparison, thank you, man!!

[@pogotheclown5642]

I have the Boss SY-1 and just now purchased the Source Audio C4 because I watched your video, especially at 5:57! 👍

[@hishykot]

Like for the dead weather 😎

[@richardlinnane6555]

This is a really good comparison. Great job.

[@BLUTSERV]

Thanks for this! Great comparisons!

[@thomasfioriglio]

This was really interesting. All very very different. I think the Digitech was my favorite. Nice job at the end playing what you think works best on each. Thanks for sharing.

[@cuzOoba]

This was just the kindof video I was looking for - thanks!!

[@boogie404]

C4 synth sounds awesome!

[@josephjones2410]

C4 and the EHX micro win for me.

[@veerchasm1]

Damn, that Digitech pedal still kicks ass

[@patbassman8251]

To my ears the the Digitech and C4 sounded the best , I have watched loads of vids on the Boss SY1 and was impressed but the settings you used sounded like each note had an annoying wah sound on the end of each note.

[@bsbazzman]

was looking for the perfect sub synth bass pedal and this video thankfully got me hip to the Synth 1. I mean holy shit that pedal sounds good

[@kevmac1230]

I'm addicted to synth pedals, they're so much fun.The Meris Enzo is great and the Subdecay M3 is old school ELP sounding goodness.I'm also impressed by the DigiTech Dirty Robot that has a very cool 80s vibe,and is reasonably priced.You play well!

[@ianto3540]

Awesome video, thanks man

[@Tombo_Glock]

You should have tried the Boss SYB-5 Bass Synthesizer, specific for low frequencies. It sounds much more better than the one (for gtr) you used

[@jacobsaldana9661]

The sy1 has a switch that can make it for bass

[@victormoran83]

c4 all day long im on my way to buy one now

[@Bertanerny]

Great Demo, have been thinking of adding some sort of Synth effect, this has helped a lot. I really like the Digitech, C4 and the the EH Micro Synth.

[@Yadeehoo]

Dope demo, so helpful, thank you very much !

[@HapyLLIuTeJIb]

I liked Boss more than others most of the time, except the sub-octaver demonstration. Very open and straight-forward sounding while still keeping the low frequencies. Keeley was consistently the worst.

[@patrickbrogan8770]

These pedals sound 🔥. I currently have the Bass Mono Synth on my board and it has so many cool tones, and it's probably one of the easier ones to use for those who are new to synth pedals.

[@prevailstudiob793]

Cool video!

[@noisemakers929]

I dig your style. Thanks for showing me more cool bass stuff

[@afxmnstr]

It seems like you mostly use your bass synth pedals to do fuzz effects.

[@pclindholm]

Digitech and EHX microsynth FTW

[@leejohnson3209]

The digitech sounds great.

[@AJbassist]

fck that final clip of source audio just made me go opppps there goes my wallet

[@illadeligut]

Great format for a shootout vid. Possibly do a few longer clips next time in addition but overall thanks for posting!

[@AKingOfBass]

Cool review...C4 is super strong and clean

[@billlukes2557]

Great shootout, keep them coming bro

[@RyuatNight]

The boss seemed to really let me down in your video. Was it hard to find the sound you were looking for cause of all the sounds it has or is it just not that good of a pedal for the songs you chose?

[@b1lahb1ah]

I had the big version the SY-300, for me the oscillators just seemed to fit better as a 'lead' sound, I couldnt get get mine to have any sort of fullness, its sounded really brittle and obviously digital 👎 Theres also the Boss SYB-5 which is loads of fun with an expression pedal, and the Future Impact which I love!

[@grizelda4526]

Great shootout! Thank you

[@jmgmarcus808]

The C4 is not a straight forward plug and play device. It's for people who have some engineering and actual modular synth knowledge. Get ready for firm ware updates and reading a thick manual. Also, get ready for the best pedal on this video by a country mile because that's what it is. It's complicated, but worth it.

[@Patrick33194]

Why do synth pedals at that price have such bad tracking, while the digitech does it flawlessly?

[@SlashinAces]

Digging the vid man loved hearing the pedals!

[@Scyber_Official]

The DigiTech has the best sound for the price, and the Boss sounded really disappointing.

[@patrickbrogan8770]

I love how the C4 sounds. I assume the circle on it is a sine wave, triange is sawtooth, and square is square.

[@MyBassistChris]

The C4 is the one still on my board! You can program the 6 settings however you like (there are two banks so you get two presets for each shape). My circle on bank 1 is set to sawtooth

[@patrickbrogan8770]

@@MyBassistChris Oh, cool! I also liked how gritty the Keeley sounded.

[@bluecollarbuddha948]

Cool stuff. I'm surprised at how terrible that Keeley was (IMO). Everything else was decent.

[@jasonbarton9352]

Sorry guys-the Boss SY-1 overall does it for me. Yeah the C4 was slick, but comprehensively- Boss baby!

[@DeadPool-qj9np]

Micro synth all the way

[@PingPongPix]

This is a fantastic comparison video of synth pedals available. Trouble is, I don't ever fancy my bass to sound like this!!

[@paulleeming5733]

This was a great Video and actually got me to buy the digitech bass Wah as its sounds had better tracking and also an Octaver - a great pedal. I think if you have a reasonable technique, it shouldn't be that hard to get a bit of musicality out of a pedal. The Mono synth just struggled with the tracking no matter how close I played to the neck, muted the strings etc. Maybe slow songs and slow movements from one note to another are more its Jam.

[@MyBassistChris]

Glad you found the video helpful! The tracking on the Digitech is superb, it's a shame they stopped making it. I agree the Mono Synth has great synth tones but awful tracking. Enjoy your new pedal!

[@ainsbass]

Nice comparison! Would have been nice to see how the future impact compares though!

[@louie8604]

I think the c4 is kinda similar to it

[@sidneiribeiro3883]

C4 and digitech ❤️

[@mahoganymarco9199]

Digitech is just great

[@garywillacey9979]

The C4 & Digitech are the ones for me. I own the Boss SYB 5 pedal which does not track very well & is poor just like the Boss pedal on this video, it's the worst of the bunch.

[@TapiaBernie]

Huh i really only liked the digitech and C4 sounds. Cool vid tho! I might just pick up the C4

[@gedeondeak8888]

agree...I'm thinking I might just save my $ and grab an old digitech!

[@jeffjeff4477]

Great job Man👍

[@breaker_6663]

I really don't like the sy-1 souds that you use. Did equelice after there?, by the way all the other ones were awesome.

[@MyBassistChris]

I don't think the problem is the EQ with the pedal. While the pedal is very versatile with 121 different synth tones I think they are more geared for guitarists. While bass synths may not be the pedal's biggest strength it does do synth pad and ambient noises quite well.

[@samlynn79]

@@MyBassistChris the BOSS SY-1 is a guitar synth pedal - you need the BOSS SYB-5, specifically a bass synth pedal!

[@MyBassistChris]

@@samlynn79 The BOSS SY-1 has a knob on the pedal which changes the sounds for guitar/bass. It's sad because they advertised it for both guitarist & bassists but it really should only be geared for guitarists. The SYB-5 has pretty bad tracking but at least it has bass synth tones unlike the SY-1 haha

[@samlynn79]

@@MyBassistChris That's good to know!

[@johannsoncrusoe5589]

It can sound pretty good on a bass. Not all features sound nice with bass though.

[@RQBassist]

I've owned a digitech bass synth for ages and it was and still is to a degree by far the best bass synth for me. When Source Audio released the c4 though, I can't deny it is better in certain ways like the sheer amount it can do........I'll just have to have both I guess ! Also I wont fault the ehx micro synth either as it is kind of a one trick pony for me but that one thing it does really well...........the boss synth.......well let's just say I'll keep my opinions to myself on that one. The Ehx mono synth is a bit gimmicky for me and then the keeley I guess could be useful for something super specific. Excellent video for comparing.

[@criticaltheist3992]

C4 sounded the best for my hiphop sound, next I like the bass mono synth pedal was decent actually. Maybe someone who is into metal or harder music would like the micro synth but it seems the c4 sounds more full and just as nasty. What is up with the s-1? Sounded so uninspired

[@SuperRichyrich11]

DAMN IT why can’t I save this into a playlist? I have one for guitar pedals and I need this video... I’m doing my research on which synth pedal to pair with a fuzz for my guitar and bass

[@michael_caz_nyc]

Which one Tracks the Best and sounds like a Moog?

[@MyBassistChris]

I don't think any of them get that close to a Moog, you might be able to get some cool Moog sounds with the C4 or Future Impact pedal but there's no real replacement to a real Moog

[@michael_caz_nyc]

@@MyBassistChris Thanks for the input. Maybe my Thorpy Muff, my Boss Dimension DC-2W and purchasing a Great Octave Pedal - would get me close enough?

[@johnhareiel5118]

The Digitech Synth Wah had the best sound. Most the rest hurt my ears with headphones. Crazy! Best tone was the Digitech!

[@freddiesoverbite6162]

I completely agree. As a matter of fact I thought it sounded so good I bought one and I haven’t been able to stop playing with it for the last week. I also heard it tracked the best out of any of them. 👍

[@johnhareiel5118]

@@freddiesoverbite6162 I put one in my basket on ebay

[@wmdbassplayer]

I want the EHX Bass Micro Synth, but after listening to this, I really like the sound of the DigiTech. The Boss synth sounds really good too, and I've been hearing bassists talk about for years. The Keely sounds like ass and while you made the C4 sound better than I've heard it in other demos, I still think it's too square wavey for my taste. My board is almost all EHX, but I'm seriously considering the DigiTech or Boss now. Nice video!

[@peterb7435]

DigiTech bsw for the win

[@eliotmontesinopetren1764]

Is something wrong with the boss one or what

[@organisedchaos8208]

I just bought a c4 and a keeley to me they are the best at tracking and they can go ultra low in sub freqs. I also own a zoom ms60b which has can imitate many pedals on the market including qtron named ztron. I had a micro sytnh for a while and its just too thin sounding also its hard to get the dry and wet signal the same level throughout a specific track.

[@robertcrist3822]

You left out the two best: Boss SYB 3 and Boss SYB 5 .... just sayin' ... I did like the C4 but it left my board because of very little on the fly control that is essential playing live. It ruled in the living-room though!

[@Brinta3]

I have the SYB-3 and the tracking is absolutely terrible.

[@danielebrignone8507]

Nice video!! I have digitech synt wah. I'll put in my chain a carl martin envelope filter, can you tell me the exactly chain? I have comp,pog octaver,digitech synth, carl martin envelope, and then a darklass microtube. Thanks

[@Stancedogs]

SY-1 Better than this video but I still like C4 ;p

[@clydebillingsworth8574]

Battle of the farts. But yeah the c4 seemed the least cheesy. But he's the digitech definitely stood out as bang for buck.

[@jamessmith-zk4co]

Awesome video Chris! I just got the C4. I love it but digging the digitech synth wah. I'm trying to put a bass pedalboard together but I'm not quite sure what I'm doing. I play in church and with a couple Corporate party bands. I also do a fair amount of freelancing and some jazz gigs. You seem to know a bit about pedals. Can you offer some advice to a pedalboard novice?

[@MyBassistChris]

james smith cool that you’re building a board! Personally I’m a guy that will have like 10 pedals on a board but it really depends on your specific needs. If I had to have a bare bones board it would be a tuner, compressor, overdrive, and my sansamp DI. My ideal board is compressor, octave, synth, overdrive, fuzz (maybe 2), noise gate, chorus, sansamp, tuner. Adding pedals can definitely open up your playing but you also don’t want to pedal crazy too fast. I tend to use a ton of pedals because of all the different songs I cover. Hope this helps!

[@jamessmith-zk4co]

@@MyBassistChris thanks so much. I'm going with compressor, octave pedal, C4 synth, DMC Micro midi controller pedal looper and bass wah. I love to play funk.

[@fetu505]

Awesome

[@curtisclark13]

I’ve tried the Bass Mono Synth...it’s terrible. I currently run the Digitech Bass Synth Wah...it’s good but very limited in the sounds it’ll produce. The C4 is where I’m headed next. It seems to be a high quality pedal and I’m super excited to try it out.

[@nastyhardcore7641]

I thought they all sounded good. I want to mess with all of them

[@isetta4083]

God I wish Digitech synths were stil that price :// they're absolutely amazing but now cost £150

[@AllAboutBasses]

C4 sounds the best, followed by the Mono Synth. The Boss sounded the worst.

[@velcro62]

Dope shirt, where can I get one?

[@tonycot]

There is nothing about a sound...any sound can be managed manually by other devices or knobs :). The key here, I think, is a Tracking. So what I can say about C4, that tracking abilities is a lot more rude than on a Boss device. So I hope that they will fix it with firmware. But Boss looks more mature in this way now.... Other devices- they are already toooooo old....

[@Turak_64]

Cool video, but maybe sell one of these pedals to get some new strings and some lemon oil 😂

[@liminaldreamer]

Great shootout! If you ever want to sell that Mikey Way Mustang, give me a shout!

[@MyBassistChris]

Glad you like the shootout! You're not the first to ask about that Mustang lol

[@AusJamesStudios]

Do you think I can recreate the synth sound from Phoenix's 1901 on bass using the EHX mono synth?

[@sisterzzbro4215]

Nice video! 👆

[@jimmyperullo947]

Was the digitech really only $90 just 8 months ago? Seems they are hard to come by now. Not available new and $150 used

[@MyBassistChris]

I got it for $90 back in 2012 or 2013, but when I made this video they were going for about $100 used online. It seems the price has gone up since then. I think they discontinued this pedal because the Digitech Dirty Robot was supposed to replace it but the Dirty Robot isn't as versatile.