Boss GM-800 Guitar Synth: How to Be Advanced

Here are the 5 coolest ways to use (and to think about) the GM-800 guitar synth. The link to download the sounds I created for this is below, as are my affiliate links. Stop-motion animation by John Marty.
Click here to listen to my album HARD FEELINGS on all platforms, it’s glitchy and hyper just like this video: distrokid.com/hyperfollow/cyb...
The link to download the sounds I created for this video is here:
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TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
01:12 Pro-Tip #1: Falling Marbles
02:30 Sound Example
03:18 Pro-Tip #2: Sitar of Death
03:48 Sound Example
05:09 Pro-Tip #3: The Atonal Goldmine
06:15 Sound Example
07:12 Pro-Tip #4: Lost Treasure of the 90s
08:42 Sound Example
09:35 Pro-Tip #5 The Cyberattack Special
10:12 Sound Example

[@CyberattackWorld]

PRO-TIP #6: if you want to buy the GM-800, you can support my channel by using this affiliate link to make the purchase with Perfect Circuit, and I'll get a small commission: bit.ly/3Q2vyG2

[@jeebsa4m3]

My favorite KZbinr. I don’t even think of you as a “guitar KZbinr” or anything like that because I feel like that’s a pretty vast understatement because there’s so so much more than just guitar stuff. I also find that most guitar tubers are pretty tropey and fixate on old sounds that are done over and over. I really appreciate your emphasis on CREATING THE NEW and how important it is to pave your own path. The best to do it.

[@CyberattackWorld]

when people play guitar, i consider it a personal attack. creating something new is the only reality!!!!!! thanks for the comment

[@erichausmann]

Pro tip: "Don't be afraid to disobey Boss."

[@ZetaCarinae]

Damn dude that stretched sitar sound is fantastic.

[@HomoChomsky]

Yeah, I'm very impressed. It can be hard to make these Roland/Boss units sound like anything but cheesy.

[@CarlosCotalloSolares]

So good! Now I know that there is one person who can get me excited about playing samples with a guitar.

[@SlowToe]

Loved this. Not enough inventive demos of this wonderful alien technology ❤

[@ericamoretti5148]

This is amazing, cyberattack. I have never seen anything like this!😀

[@davidsummerville351]

Loved all 5 tips. Thanks

[@PatrickWard4]

These videos are always a gold mine.

[@drewkemp]

dope noises

[@theroadhomefromwrestling1788]

Love your version of Ordinary Pain at the end. Tremendous video.

[@yadrichikchaya8245]

Haha thanks to the GM-800 being released today I found your channel for the first time! Really enjoyed this video! :) From your cool way of explaining things to the aesthetics in the graphics and the vibe of tracks made with those 5 presets. Downloading the presets and subscribing. :)

[@CyberattackWorld]

So glad ya dig it

[@yadrichikchaya8245]

@@CyberattackWorld How is the tracking on the GM-800? Can you go wild and play fast without the usual glitches or wrong notes popping up here and there like on other older Roland/Boss boxes? The tracking is the most essential thing since I'll use it with a fretless nylon 13-pin Godin

[@CyberattackWorld]

​@@yadrichikchaya8245 I'm gonna copy and paste what I wrote about this on a gear forum: I would say the latency/responsiveness is good but not perfect. One advantage to messing around with the attack times-which I did a lot in the video, it's the coolest thing about the GM-800 in my opinion-is that with slower times, where the note fades in, you can sort of cover up any weirdness. But the opposite effect can also be cool. My single favorite sound is the one where I smashing the koto instrument with a lo-fi compressor, and I also lowered the velocity sensitivity and the attack time, so that every note began with a very abrupt smack. That sound was glitchy and brutal in a way that made the tracking errors super in your face and positive, in my opinion. I left the tracking errors in the musical part of Pro-Tip #5 because I thought they were cool and also because I figured it'd be useful for people to see. It's also possible I could have improved the responsiveness by raising the GK-5 pickup on my guitar, but I didn't want to get into testing different heights and making adjustments, after I already set it up once. So instead I just worked around the tracking and designed sounds based on the reality of that, and also altered my playing. Used that way, I think the GM-800 can be powerful and cool. But if you tried to play Giant Steps with one of its saxophone sounds, and your goal was to be realistic and tight, you would probably be disappointed.

[@yadrichikchaya8245]

@@CyberattackWorld Many thanks for the answer! :) I already knew the successor to the Boss SY-1000 would contain realistic instruments but honestly I'm a little dissappointed by the GM-800. Maybe the Roland Zenelogy has tons of great sounds but I was really hoping for a guitar synthesizer based on physical modeling that is VERY tweakable. With Physical Modeling it would be like having the ultra-realistic MPE sounds of Pianoteq (pianos, electric keys, harps, hammered dulcimer, tounge drums etc.) Audiomodeling SWAM (brass/winds/strings) + various ethnic instruments from all over the world (like those found in Geoshred and SwarPlug) and PM synths like Plasmonic/Chromaphone and the new amazing Objekt synth by ReasonStudios where we could create all new, unheard of, realistic sounding instrument hybrids that sound real and unreal at the same time! :) I still hope the successor to the GM-800 will be just that: PM-1000 ;)

[@kernz160]

Man, I was worried about Sub-Zero for a minute there, but it seems like everything worked out. Really affective tune on that one.

[@vurnt22]

Brilliant Tops!

[@andrelafosse]

Fantastic!

[@CyberattackWorld]

Thanks dude

[@jessetoews2446]

great covers!!!!

[@riverstone5994]

I think you my favourite editing. It’s just so cool

[@christianmendoza5449]

Dang man you’re good

[@GearSounds]

Bro, your tones at 3:00 were EPIC and I love the random images you put haha.

[@fakebitrebel]

Loved this! I just wanted to let you know, you definitely inspire me to break genre boundaries and inject that good video game sound into all of my stuff. I am a huge fan! Also from the Tri-State Area originally.

[@CyberattackWorld]

thanks for the comment. tristate is the only reality

[@rollittakeit]

I owned a Roland guitar synth & pickup combo in the 00’s. I never messed with things like attack & decay, and consequently got bored. Especially with all the reverb & chorus glop Boss/Roland puts on all their stock sounds. Great for musical pit or worship type, but not for me. This gives me hope and interest in trying again.

[@JasonMcFly]

Subbed. Your channel rocks

[@distor_sean711]

Rad! #5 brings all the boys to the yard.

[@ianstawin]

I love this channel so much

[@CyberattackWorld]

my man

[@ricopaxton]

Thx for a different take

[@savoirfaire8979]

The GM-800 just released a few hours ago, and Cyberattack is already “advanced” at the expert level. 😅Impressive!

[@CyberattackWorld]

thanks, but FWIW I had it for several weeks

[@ChrisBuonoGuitar]

DUDE 😮

[@CyberattackWorld]

🥊

[@gooseman480]

Nice. waiting for that reverse mode c video !

[@user-cn4or8iq4t]

Great presentation... you used sounds that I mostly ignore and made them interesting. The Koto was dope. I have the SY1000 but I am starting to think that I might find this more usefull. The tracking seems to be way better too. 1000 for modelling 800 for classic keyboard Juno Jupiter fat. Your little videos took me to a different place. Keep up the good work. More video's please.

[@CyberattackWorld]

Thanks for the comment. The tracking is good but there is still some weirdness-you can hear some during the Koto example, but I left in because I thought it sounded cool in that context (and because I thought it would be good to give some demonstration of the tracking). One of the reasons a lot of these pro-tips used artificially slow attack times is that it also helps cover up some of the tracking issues.

[@JeremyAndersonBoise]

I really like your style as a producer and guitarist, and as a “creator personality.” Probably as an actual person, too. You should have like 8 million subs, in my opinion. Keep it glitchy, sir.

[@JeremyAndersonBoise]

Also I like your voice. I used karaoke to become a much better singer and it changed my whole game as a lifelong musician and amateurish producer.

[@JeremyAndersonBoise]

6:00 this is f🎉😢😮😅ing gold

[@CyberattackWorld]

thanks dude i really appreciate it

[@Sugarloaf_Games]

Sub-Zero falling through an underwater Sonic map is a vibe, my guy. Best reviewer in the business.

[@CyberattackWorld]

oh man I'm glad you caught that it's a Sonic map. you made my day. the places he runs through first are from the X-Men game for Sega Genesis if you remember that

[@Sugarloaf_Games]

@@CyberattackWorld Don't remember that specifically, just recognized the art style. Clear you put a lot of care into the visual aspects of these videos, it doesn't go unnoticed.

[@beenay18]

What sound engines does it use? Midi(sampled sounds), synth(oscillators) or amp modeller? Sy300 gets its sound from synth(oscillators) only. But i liked the midi or sampled sounds of gr55? So i am confused what are the sound engines that gm800 uses? Is it just upgrade to sy300 or it has midi engine too like gr55 does?

[@CyberattackWorld]

thats a good question, and I don't know the answer. my guess is that it's canned sounds they produced one way or another, so maybe that counts as samples or MIDI, but it's not oscillators.

[@bitcrusherco]

that Ordinary Pain got me. might be my first affiliate link purchase ever

[@CyberattackWorld]

a NECESSARY pain

[@troublesomecorsair]

I assume it's GK In only like its predecessors but it's Zen Core now so it gets me thinking... can the Midi In be used with a keyboard controller?

[@luciojara8267]

Yes, is in the manual

[@ricardbennett6487]

Wow, I love your videos, really inspiring!! How is the tracking? do you find it's an improvement over the GR-55 for example, or is it, you know, midi guitar like always? All the best!

[@CyberattackWorld]

This is the only one I've ever played, and I thought the tracking was strong, but it's by no means perfect. Part of the reason I liked that lo-fi compressor sound so much is that it kind made tracking errors sound good-there are some real jackpot ones in the video if you watch closely. Otherwise, another advantage of slow attack times is that they help cover up some of the issues as well. I don't think it's a dealbreaker, but you'll probably get the best results if you can make choices and alter your playing based on what you find works. It's also possible that the tracking on mine would have been better if I'd raised the pickup a little bit, but I didn't want to get sucked into making a bunch of adjustments with that.

[@luciojara8267]

Hey man i was wondering how is the integration with the other pedals I understand that you can’t get the clean out and doesn’t have a mix option……do you find possible integrate it into a live rig ?

[@CyberattackWorld]

one option would be to use the normal jack on your guitar and the GM-800 simultaneously and just run them both into a little parallel mixer or blender, I think EHX makes one.

[@thestudiesshow]

Does this work seamlessly in a pedal chain with other pedals? For example can I use this, then add a delay after it, an overdrive before it , all connected to a looper? etc. I am still slightly confused given it has its own special pickup etc.

[@CyberattackWorld]

There's no such thing as effects before it, because the special pickup has to run directly into the unit using a special cable. But the output is a normal guitar cable, so you can run that into whatever effects you want afterward.

[@thestudiesshow]

Thanks a lot for the reply@@CyberattackWorld . I love your channel. If I have an amp with dual inputs, I could play a synth signal through the GM800 pickup and route it to an amp, then blend it with my standard pickup signal, routed to the same amp right?

[@CyberattackWorld]

I think so yes

[@redcomn]

I'm going to my local rep to test this. Interesting if i can combine sy1000 with it

[@casanovafunkenstein5090]

Looks like it has an output for the signal from the pickup to pass through, so yes I think they can be chained and used in parallel for more complex sounds. I assume that it's not just the same as using midi, except with a really expensive cable that only works with these synths, but I'm not 100% sure. You should also be able to use the regular guitar output into the other pedal, though it may not track as well and you won't be able to set the sounds string by string. You could probably also use the audio output from this pedal and send it through to the SY1000 to see how that sounds, though it may be a bit difficult to get a decent sound unless you mix in the dry signal to make up for the fact that the SY1000 definitely wasn't intended to do that and may not track that kind of an input signal without glitching out

[@SandauxBeats]

What would my electric guitar sound like without the GK5 pickup?

[@CyberattackWorld]

I don't think it works without it

[@RyanMcQuen]

Your channel is awesome! How do you create the graphics?

[@CyberattackWorld]

thanks for the comment. i go over a lot of the tricks i use to create graphics like this here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/inLMhmetm7uagqs

[@GoergLewroll]

Thanks for your video ! I bought the GM800 and it's incredible. I'd say there is only a minor issue with sensibility of the guitar pickup. Would you have some tips to share to improve the latency time occuring sometimes and also to get the maximum precision with notes when playing strings ? The precision is huge in your playing, I'd love to have the same! Best, Benoit

[@CyberattackWorld]

If my notes seem especially precise it might help that I'm pretty uptight in general about muting unplayed strings, and isolating my notes as much as possible by muting unplayed strings constantly whenever I'm playing anything. But even so, I did encounter some weirdness with note detection-it came up especially in the last song in this video, but I left it in because I thought it sounded cool in the midst of what I was playing. In addition to that, it definitely helps to use slower attack times, which is something I was experimenting with in a bunch of these sounds anyway. I think slower attack sounds cool, for the reasons I describe in the video, but it also helps cover up a lot of the pitch detection weirdness, while the notes are fading in etc.

[@GoergLewroll]

@@CyberattackWorldThank you so much for answering. I will try to apply your advices in my playing. There is also a feature in the GM800 that allows to adjust the sensitivity a mic/sensor for each string, I will also go further on that. When you see Alex Hutchings on the Boss demo videos, the precisions is impressive (seems 100%!).

[@beenay18]

Should i buy gr55 or gm800? Can gm800 play piano like gr55 does? Or gm800 is just an upgrade to sy300?

[@CyberattackWorld]

I've never played the GR-55, but the GM-800 has piano sounds.

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

What about a Lightwave pickup would be much better than standard magnetic pickups.

[@RyanMcQuen]

2:30 hell yes!

[@MusicChannel-rf5zz]

Will a regular TRS cable work?

[@CyberattackWorld]

My understanding is that it won't

[@FunkyMuziq]

Sound on tips #3 : Old Dirty Bastard - Got Your Money 🤘

[@GTChris]

How does it track vocals? Has anyone tried?

[@CyberattackWorld]

If there's a way to do this, it would be pretty advanced, because as far as I know the only way into the synth is through the special guitar pickup. But I would love to see a workaround to get vocals in there.

[@jgvideo5512]

Ableton does vocal to midi and you can export the midi clip. Could an audio interface with midi port then send that into the Boss pedal midi cable input? What if Boss made this pedal into a VST?

[@jimicrumb3700]

could you control the OP1 with this?

[@CyberattackWorld]

I think so, and I still want to do that at some point, but I didn't have the MIDI setup to make it work in time for the release of the video. The GM-800 can do guitar-to-MIDI but it has 5-pin MIDI outputs. The OP-1 can take MIDI but it's input is mini-USB. So my understanding is that in order to connect them, you need to go through a computer and use a MIDI port and stuff.

[@jimicrumb3700]

@@CyberattackWorld Maybe it would work with an OPz with the line module. Then you could even maybe sequence your guitar playing.

[@sons7429]

Do you need the extra pickup?

[@CyberattackWorld]

yes

[@cybresquid]

Every time I watch Cyberattack I feel the need to go out after the video to buy a new pedal and a donut

[@CyberattackWorld]

it's an unbeatable combo

[@bikashrana1811]

Hey Dirty Baby I got your money! Loved it ❤

[@CyberattackWorld]

don't you worry

[@adams115]

I dont even have this but i yearn to be advanced with it

[@RobFlaxMusic]

Your face at 10:29 = all of our faces

[@chrisdunnam4490]

Pro-Tip #2 is so Sub-Zero ❤

[@CyberattackWorld]

Friendship?

[@addy_hits]

what is that music video at 7:26? it’s going to kill me.

[@CyberattackWorld]

here ya go: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jYO4qIahbrqHqKM

[@addy_hits]

@@CyberattackWorld thank you

[@EricMarinko]

I was counting all the things that are awesome about this video but I ran out of fingers and toes.

[@89ji76]

I play koto and hearing the koto play guitar voicings breaks my brain haha

[@CyberattackWorld]

brain destruction is one of the sacraments of my channel

[@cleancut4062]

You should do a Line 6 FM4 video. A very wild and often labelled unusable

[@CyberattackWorld]

i don't have one but "unusable" is the magic word, i definitely want one now

[@71musician]

No Normal Guitar In and Out. So I'm Out........Very Bad BOSS, Come On! The Fishman Triple Play is quite old now and adding a Guitar signal to a wireless unit would make you a winner Boss...You missed your opportunity.....always something missing on Roland/Boss Products.......to add it to the next product.....I will wait for that one....