Boss has announced two all-new additions to its 200 series pedal family, the IR-200 Amp & IR Cabinet and the SY-200 synthesizer.
The two units will join up with the rest of the 200 lineup, which currently comprises the DD-200 delay pedal, EQ-200 equalizer, MD-200 modulation and the OD-200 overdrive pedal.
In a nutshell, the IR-200 aims to provide class-leading impulse response performance for live playing, studio recording and practice by way of over 150 hi-res cabinet responses, while the SY-200 seeks to supply an extensive array of library-expanding sounds with added room for preset saving.
Read on for a full breakdown of Boss’s latest 200 series stompboxes.
Boss IR-200 Amp & IR Cabinet
Coming in first is the IR-200 Amp & IR Cabinet, which employs two custom mono and stereo-supported DSPs in its quest to provide high quality IR performance. In terms of the nitty gritty, the pedal boasts up to 32-bit floating point/96 kHz resolution, as well as up to 500ms length for natural bass response.
A slew of guitar cabinet and mic configurations are also available, thanks to 144 Boss-designed IRs and 10 Celestion Digital-designed ones. Up to 128 third party WAV IRs can be further added to the pedal’s depository through the IR-200 IR Loader software.
Control-wise, the unit features preset-selecting knobs for Amp and Cabinet, as well as parameters for Gain, Level, Bass, Middle and Treble. An Ambience control and a Memory dial also feature.
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The control layout is completed by two independent footswitches, which are used for bypassing and preset recalling, with third-party pedal and MIDI compatibility available for dictating onboard functions.
In practice, up to two IRs can be used at once – with the pedal also boasting the ability to send independent signals to different outputs – and can be used alongside the unit’s effects loop, mono input and mono/stereo output for a smorgasbord of output opportunities.
Further appointments include a USB audio interface for recording and streaming, a headphone jack for sound monitoring and an aux input for playing along with external music sources.
The Boss IR-200 will be available in the US in January 2022 for $399.
Boss SY-200 Synthesizer
With its SY-200 synthesizer, Boss has promised a “universe” of analog-inspired polyphonic tones all from the comfort of a compact, ‘board-friendly unit.
Said to be a spiritual sibling of the SY-1 and built on its predecessor's own sonic features, the SY-200 promises more tone-tweaking powers, an increased sound set and augmented preset-saving capabilities.
Controls arrive in the form of three sound-dependent tone controls – which, for example, can materialize as Tone, Resonance and Depth parameters – and three additional knobs for D. Level, E. Level and Variation.
A selector wheel is charged with flicking between the pedal’s effects library, composed from Lead, Pad, String, Bell, Organ, Bass, Dual, Sweep, Noise, SFX, SEQ and Arpeggio settings.
Up to 171 sounds organized into the 12 categories listed above are on offer, which users can experiment with and save using the 128 available memory slots. Again, two footswitches feature for performance control, dictating the pedal’s bypass and memory-recalling powers.
In terms of hooking it up to your rig, the SY-200 can be paired with electric guitars or bass guitars via a standard 1/4” cable, and features a Send/Return loop and TRS MIDI compatibility.
The Boss SY-200 will be available in the US in January 2022 for $299.
To find out more, head over to Boss.
