Behringer Bass Synthesizer BSY600

Sweet Little Unit ! I got the FCV foot controller with this and this makes it really easy to "tune" the Fuzz and/or sweep, right where you want it to be. Be sure to notice that the "Decay/Rate" pot will work in reverse for some like for the Rise and Fall Wave modes and the sweep is static when you set the pedal right with the FCV.

When you unplug the FCV(btw: no Battery required for this use) the BSY becomes a completely different animal with a whole new pallette of sounds available.

Most fun I've had with just about any FXpedal in a long time and I play guitar as well.

ease of use 10 with FCV foot Controller but 9 for gettin used to it for all around usage.

You really need to have some kind of Booster and when pushing high output from the BEQ700(+8 or 9 dBs) with an EQ to taste but not too radical I get little or no problem with tracking. You have to play more carefully with some modes more than others.

The Mix knob is great to have for keeping the low end intact. The fuzzes that can be dialed in with the FCV controller(and without it)are awesome and I dont care if its not an analog fuzz, it sounds great when blended and tuned nicely to the key your playing in and the sounds are all a bit different depending on the Mode.

Also this unit even when cranked really hard is Very quiet with my humbucker

8 for me as it seems fairly sturdy but keep it out of the way wherever you use it anyhow so it doesnt get stomped on

Tech help, USA is great, dont know much else yet

Value to Effects available is insane ! After about 2 or 3 days with this I got up and announced outloud that this pedal is the most fun I had in a long time ! Works pretty nice on guitar too and doesnt seem to have the limited tracking the Boss unit gets complaints for, although I never tried it.

In typical stompbox fashion it has a dedicated knob for every function which makes it fairly hands on. If you have some idea of how it's supposed to work and what an envelope generator is (or simple analogue synthesis basically) you should no problem getting to grips with this pedal. What this pedal needs however, is a sensitivity knob to adjust the trigger levels to the signal level of you instrument. Since that's not the case you have to adjust that with either the volume knob on the instrument or a preamp or booster in front of it.

It's essentially a copy of the Boss SYB-5 for about a third of the price. And made in plastic. I haven't had the opportunity to test the Boss so I can't say anything as to how well it stands up to the original. Also, I'm not a bassplayer and have only tested it with guitars, keep this in mind when reading my review.

It has 11 different modes, 9 of which uses an oscillator with 3 different waveforms (saw, square and narrower pulsewave) that tracks the pitch of the incoming signal. The final 2 modes uses some sort of dist/fuzz instead and therefore avoids tracking issues and works with chords as well.

It sounds decent, making typical analogue synth sounds, resonant sweeps and basses. The range of possible sounds is a bit limited though and its hard to make other sound that typical basses and bleeps.

The big letdown however is the tracking, which is at best acceptable, at worsta totally useless. On an electric guitar it only tracks well on the 2 lowest octaves, above that it's more or less impossible to make it track.
Moderate shredding or 16th note rpeggio riffs like Muse or similar stuff is out of the question, it simply can not keep up with faster playing. For slower single note playing it tracks ok though.

The expression pedal input is a nice feature but I would have preferred that plugging in a pedal didn't disable the filter modulation from the LFO or envelope.

The Behringer plastic boxes obviously cannot compete with the metal Boss pedals but judging from youtube videos where people have kicked them around the do seem to be able to take a fair bit of abuse. FWIW I have two Behringer pedals and they are still working.

Haven't dealt with them.

It makes decent analogue synth sounds, but the only reason I would use a guitar instead of a synth for that kind of sounds is for more intricate parts since I play the guitar way better than I play the keyboards but the tracking quite simply isn't reliable enough for more complex playing. With improved tracking this pedal could infact be a lot more useful but as it is now it's best suited for occasional fx sounds or sweeps.

I find it to sound best with some distortion after and some of the uneffected signal mixed in to mask the occasional tracking errors.

The lack of a settings for trigger levels makes it a bit cumbersome to use since you have to set the input level right to get the most out of the tracking and if you have weak single coils you'll probably find that you need to boost the signal beforehand to make it track ok.

If you're interested in trying a SYB-5 without shelling out lots of cash, then give this one a try. Judging from the reviews of the Syb5 the tracking doesn't appear to be stellar on that one either so I dont believe the Behringer to be a lot worse than the boss but don't expect it to be a full blown guitar/bass synthesizer.

Not too complicated. All of the different settings 1-11 do their job very well to me. No mistaken settings can be done - just lots of variations are being obtained! The RES/DECAY/FREQ sliders operate in a wide range. Fantastic! I have had two Behringer pedals, the octave and the slow motion; both i disliked, but this one definately is a keeper.

Yes! Great sounds, also with a guitar. I will give it a try by using it with theremin and microphone. It is true, it does sound like vintage analog synth! Setting 11 is a down-auto-wah. A pedal just doing this job would be worth the price. Depending on the settings it can sound low-fi or hi-fi. And the possibility to mix the DIRECT and EFFECT signal is just great. Hey - you even get those signals in different OUTS. Keeping the pedal depressed plays the momentary pitch, which is fun to mess around. Well: i bought it new for EUR 39 and don??t think, that the Boss bass synth might be better!

Hmm, wear safety glasses when trying to get through to the battery.. PING...ZACK..SQUUTSCH, and there it is! Hopefully this will last forever! I always cannot believe that the Behringer people are serious with this solution. But ok, it is a good joke anyhow..

Never dealt with them.

See above. I like it. It is a 10 cause being that unexpensive. Humm, maybe this should be suspect... But i saw it for EUR 59, too. Which is more realistic.

Getting a useful sound requires a lot of tweaking and patience. The manual is really more of a leaflet, & not very informative. Honestly the hardest part was getting a battery in it.. The hinges are spring-loaded pins that must be pushed in, so that the foot pedal comes off to reveal the battery compartment. weird. On the subject of batteries: don't bother using one.. mine died in less than an hour. This thing will suck a battery dry in no time.

At first I was disappointed, it seemed that some notes would not register a synth tone. Performance seemed random and extremely frustrating.. But I saw a HUGE improvement when i put another pedal before the BSY600 to boost the signal going in. I think that may be key to behringer pedals, they need a loud signal going in. The sounds you get are good, especially with the ability to blend in the dry signal. Don't expect to plug it in and get instant Moog sounds. Getting this pedal to sound right takes some trial and error.

It's no Boss, DOD, etc. It's thick plastic. I'm OK with that, but I don't "stomp" on my stomp boxes either. I think it could handle moderate abuse. I've definitely seen worse that cost more money. I would not use it on a gig without an AC adapter. I haven't had this pedal for long, but I have two behringer rack-mount devices that have been very reliable.

I write drum'n'bass music in my home studio. I've been playing bass/guitar since 1987ish. This is my first bass synth pedal, I was always curious about the Boss SYB3&5 and the EH microsynth, but I never wanted to take a gamble on them because of the mixed reviews & high price. So the BSY600 made it possible to have one without dropping $160. ((Heres a little tip too: if you plug a pattern sequencer into this pedal it's like having an instant tb-303 (for <$40!))). If behringer would come out with a microsynth clone I'd buy it immediately. I'm considering the behringer "harmonist" pedal in the mean time.

Damn this this sounds great straight out of the box! It's a copy of the boss sythesizer but it sound better and is way cheaper. You get 10 different "wave form" setting and they all sound awesome!
the best way to control the decay is if you add an expression pedal. The other knobs are resonance and frequency which are OK but the resonance knob isn't radical enough. i also play guitar through it, and it does ok but starts to have fluttering tracking problems on higher notes. A cool feature: hold the pedal down and it gives you infinate sustain on the note while you fiddle around with the knobs making crazy sounds.

I use this mainly with my precision bass and my daneletro guitar. Going through a tube amp to warm things up a bit. The sound is a little grainy, metallic and unpredictable but in general the waveforms sound great. Number 9 and 10 will accept chords because the pedal changes the input signal directly into and filtered synthy sounds. funking out with this setting and an expression pedal is awesome! It demands precise playing or else it starts to make tracking errors and it sound like an android being strangled. Really cool but clearly not for everyone. I doubt it would be able to track a fast shredding type player but for someone that wants to destroy their sound totally on a budget, this can produce some freakly wobbly 8-bit sounds yeah.

no problems so far and I have 7 behringer pedals.

I was looking for something that would do some messed up things that some fashionable boutique pedal makers are doing now. At extreme setting this pedals will freak you out! ear melting shreiks and gurgles. metallic farts and even talkbox style yelps. fun and funky but not really for serious musicians who need to repeat the same thing over and over. it's a little unpredictable and doesn't always get the right pitch. it's a lo-fi sound crime!

Very easy to get good sounds right from the start - even better sounds after you get used to the different filters and adjustment knobs. Manual was very basic and just told me what each knob is for and what each knob does... no examples of settings. Very easy to use after about an hour of playing with it.

Here is where I am blown away... I 1st purchased the Digitech Bass Synth, it was thin and lifeless.. I went back and purchased the Boss bass synth.. it too sounded more like a toy and no bass balls... I then noticed while researching that this Behringer had a separate mix knobs for bass and effect.. wow what a difference! I had my ballsy bass back with the effect! I am back in business! I am playing a fender V through a Carvin BR615 600 watt amp... NO noise, NO coloring of my tone! I cant believe it! All of the different synth sounds are really good... not all are practical, but I did get about 5 different tones that I've been able to use out of it ( my band is a 70's - 80's band that does classic rock and some disco ) this pedal has filled a void without exception.

Been reliable for 3 gigs already, without backup - as with anything, you have to take care of your stuff... In saying that, I keep this in an effects floor board so it stays put and thats worked fine for me... Yeah it's made out of some heavy plastic with a heavy metal base and rubber bottom and foot pedal.. so it'll last as long at you don't use it for a hockey puck!

Never dealt with them on a customer service issue.. I have called for advice on using thier products and they've been helpful in that respect - I've never had a probem with Behringers stuff.. I've owned 2 bass cabinets, 1 412 guitar cabinet, Guitar V-Amp pro, Bass V-Amp pro, Behringer Feedback eliminator and the Behringer BTR2000 rack mount tuner ...all without a glitch.

If someone stole this pedal... I would definitely buy another because nothing on the market other than a moog sounds as good as this pedal... period!