BOOcast - Synth of the Month: Yamaha PSS-480
Вставка
- Опубліковано 20 гру 2022
- This is taken from BOO-cast episode 5 (bit.ly/boocast5).
To celebrate ten years of BOO we are streaming live on UA-cam, 7pm UK time on the first Monday of every month. Answering your questions, playing songs, meeting guests, talking synths and sharing stories.
If you enjoyed this then why not subscribe on Bandcamp for bonus content?
bit.ly/BOOsters
Synth of the Month title poster and tee available here:
bit.ly/BOOswag
Buy music/merch on Bandcamp: booelectric.bandcamp.com
Join our mailing list at booelectric.com
Hardware is oh so much more satisfying than softsynths on a laptop. Sigh. Incredible demo and workshop. Thank you so much!! Toys back then were so much more immersive, so much smarter, allowing the user to be more creative.
Thank you very much, and we completely agree... so much good stuff for kids/casual players back then... mind you now's not bad either...
Lmao, youve obviously never used a proper PC setup, a computer is the most powerful music making tool on the planet. FL Studio will replace 100 keyboards and sequencers.
I had one of these back in ‘89. Wonderful keyboard for its time. This was after Yamaha added new waveforms to FM instead of just sine waves, hence the different preset having unique characteristics.
I never had one when it came out, but I'm pretty sure it would have blown my tiny mind!
I think I told you guys at the time that after seeing this overview first time round I had to get one for myself! ( It's alright Chris - I forgive you - *grin) It's a LOT of fun! Even if you just hold down one key and play with the parameter values you can get some quirky sounds and rhythms out of it! I already have a PSS-560 (no MIDI) which I got many many years ago and was amazed at how flexible it was even for what is considered a " toy" keyboard. Put through some effects and both of these can hold their own in the mix in my humble opinion. Cheers guys!
Thank you for forgiving me sir!!!
This was the synth that I learned FM on. I’ve got a DX7 now and that’s lovely, but I do miss the 480 and its lo-fi charm.
It has a lovely quality to it, sweet but dirty! Congrats on owning the original DX!!
I just pick one of these up! I'm excited to dig into this further!
Nice one! Have fun!
I really like this synth. I run mine through a QuadraVerb. Really great together.
It's surprisingly great isn't it?
The digital synth is extremely versatile and powerful. Again it would enhance the sound put via an EFX unit including reverb, chorus ect.
Yes indeed. Imagine it thru an eventide H90! It would sound incredible, though the price differential might sour the mood somewhat!
My first keyboard. It's still going strong after 34 years. I wish it had a mono mode to make better use of portamento. Could've done with a few more drum sounds (I envied those who had the 680 with those pads under the keybed) and it's sorely lacking a swing control.
Great to hear that cheesy demo again, I had one of these in the late 80's and a mate who had the model with drum pads under the keyboard, we MIDI'd them together and had hours of fun, really useful little synth, thanks for bringing that back!
Oh yeah! We love the demo... Love to know who wrote it.
My first synthesizer. It was a good buy, as you could put together a track just using the onboard sounds and the simple sequencer.
I bought mine in 1988 and it stopped working after years of abuse. I ended up getting the PSS 580 which is the same synth with a different colour scheme.
It's a fantastic synth. 12 note polyphonic and also completely multitumbral over midi. You can also fully edit the synth using utilities like PSS edit.
The 12 String guitar preset was one of my favourite presets.
What a lovely first synth! All those PSS keys have a really nice quality, and two operators is just managable to my feeble brain! So many recent synths with an FM portion seem to stick with just two operators. It's enough!
That thing has a Sega Genesis vibe (of course, being a FM synth).
Awesome ! I have the PSS 680 and found a software editor online to easily tweak the parameters. It works via MIDI signals
Good work! These 2 op Yamaha's have a very particular sound, well worth exploring properly with all the parameters at your fingertips.
Neat - I never paid much attention to the Yamaha PSS series. I think I wound up with a preset one at one point I picked up at a thrift store, but didn't do much with it. This is a quite cool little instrument.
Yeah, we were surprised by how flexible it was when we got it, I always wanted one of the programmable PSSes when they were out but never got one.
@@BOOelectric I wonder what MIDI CC it responds to… might have to see if I could dig up a manual. I’m a bigger fan of Yamaha’s analogue synths, but this would be really super cool if some of those parameters you were playing with could be modified over MIDI.
I got this out of a skip a few years ago. Got it working but after a good time it glitched to death. Picked it up today years later and it works again! Except this time every 6 keys don't work. Whaaat...
U play extremely well not bad at all.
Thank you sir! That's most kind of you!
These 2-op PortaSounds are a lot of fun. The ones with editors are especially cool though. I have an ongoing side project to replicate all the presets of my 270 in my opsix, haha. Of course it’s not quite the same due to DACs etc, but yeah.
Wow, that's an amazing project you've got there. I hope it's going well, we'd love to hear the results when you're happy with them!
@@BOOelectric I do them here and there after I get burned out on exploring the wider sonic possibilities, haha. I’ve got about 10 so far, the easier ones.
I keep stumbling across them though when I go into 2-op mode, so I think they must’ve been made in a fair bit of a hurry! There must be a bit more possible with 2 operators than any of the presets go.
Of course another fun thing to do after getting all the sounds down would be to replicate the operator settings 2 more times in parallel, with pan and detune, to make the presets bigger than they ever were originally!
I shall try to remember your interest when I get round to making the A/B track!
Oh yes, doubling up the sounds would be brilliant. I think you just gave me an idea! More than 2 operators always feels a bit daunting for me anyway! Genius!
Not a bad little synth. I’ve owned many keyboards over the years including the big brother PSS-680 featuring the same FM synth and PCM drums including extra drums, blue drum pads, 61 keys, a pitch bend wheel and other features.
These keyboards sound so beefy when put through an EFX processor.
Blimey, found my old 480 after being in a barn for nearly 20 odd years. Booted it up, tested the system, all functions worked perfectly.
Definitely gotta get in some practice with me fat old fingers.
There's something very Christmassy about your story! Maybe it's the barn? Have fun with your resurrected 480!
Amazing synth. I wish they included some physical controls for the sustain time of the operators. I am too lazy to use the editor.
Yeah, being tethered to a computer is a pain. I haven't seen any bent examples with knobs on, but it must be possible?
@@BOOelectric Pretty sure these controls are accessed via freaky old school SYSEX and NRPN MIDI messages. Not something you can access via circuit bending/ just randomly soldering pots to the PCB.
Circuit bending is pretty much only good for turning half decent instruments into unusable noise core garbage machines.
@@Patriotic_Eagle1995 Cheers for the info! And thanks for saying what we're all thinking re circuit bending... However I modded my older CS-01 with the filter resonance fitted to the breath control pot, and that cetrainly did expand the pallete of sounds... until, that it, it broke the synth.... Might do a synth of the month on that one!
It's possible to add a sustain pedal to the PSS480/680 by using another keyboard that not only supports a sustain pedal but also has midi... Example a DX Reface, plug the pedal in, midi lead from DX Reface midi out to PSS midi in, play your PSS with the sustain pedal and enjoy! Also another trick is to extend the decay of your sound and hold the notes longer, the second piano sound has something like 13/12 for decay, change it to 12/06 and hold notes to get a longer sustain type effect.
i want to get my first keyboard and i find the pss series wonderful and this one especially but i dont know if an older keyboard with less refined and convincing sound for things like strings and woodwinds is good as opposed to the newer pss-f30
Your first keyboard, what a joyous decision to make! I guess it depends on what's important for you, and if more natural instrument sounds is what you're after, then these old FM keyboards might not do the job, and the new f30 will most likely cost the same as, or even less new than one of these on eBay... Another thing that might be of interest to you, and if you don't mind being tied to a computer: with a controller keyboard and a free DAW like Reaper, there are loads of free sample packs out there, like the Spitfire Audio Lab collection of pianos, orchestral instruments etc, that sound great. Have fun choosing though, there are tons of options out there...
its not a toy keyboard
What are the setting for that but you played at 10:40 that was awesome
Pretty sure it starts with a percussive preset, probably an already detuned thing, but with a lot of feedback, and a short attack and decay, zero sustain and a long release... apart from that, I can't remember, sorry. But it should be pretty easy to find... happy hunting!
Thank you so much for the reply I appreciate that
Me gustó el synthe y el video. Ahora... por qué tenés la mano derecha tan lastimada?!
My cat. She's lovely, but a very enthusiastic biter and scratcher!
@@BOOelectric
Ah... jajajajaja
oh...by the way, meant to mention this before. You guys like WFMU huh? Same here , been listening to them for years.. Did you know there was a film about them? ua-cam.com/video/BrYgqMIL66I/v-deo.html. You probably did but thought I would mention it anyway. Hope you are both having a cool yule!!! Cheers.
Thanks man! Yeah, we saw the film when it came out, but we might take a break from the horror-thon we seem to have fallen into and rewatch it! Forgot to mention when answering the question what are the best memories of the first ten years of BOO, that near the top of the list was getting three different songs from Snare played by three different DJs in the same week on WFMU. We truly felt like we were in with the cool kids that week!! Merry everything!! xx