trying out my Yamaha PSS 680

Just testing my Yamaha PSS 680. So much fun with only 2 FM Operators :)
Oh and sorry for the bad picture and soundquality. I'll do it better next time. I promise ;)

[@mrexcellent1]

Wow! I still have mine when I first bought it in November 1989. I have used it for several cassette-based albums I have created from 1989 to 1993. This thing produced a lot of great sounds. Although I don't use it since I have upgraded to professional keyboards and studios since then, but I keep it for sentimental purposes.

[@LittleRichard1988]

January 2009 was long before I even had a KZbin channel, back then I used to watch videos of this keyboard ( although at the time it was hard to find videos of a Yamaha PSS-680 which hadn't been modified ). But in 2021 I finally bought myself a Yamaha PSS-680.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

Congrats :D i hope you didn't have to pay too much for yours. Back in 2009 these were still rather affordable. I think i paid about 80 bucks for mine. I still have it and would never really wanna part from it because there simply is not much FM Synth hardware out there that has that Soundblaster OPL2 or MegaDrive soundchip sound and even with full MIDI support. I think there's even much better software Editors for this thing now than the one i used back then to break out of the editing limitations of the actual Keyboard. Because even though this FM Synthesis is pretty simple, it's still very capable of great sounds. And if you send it through an effect pedal, that's where it really gets interesting.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

oh and i mean "sounds" not "sound". Silly typos..

[@jjovereats]

@Brunettebabii123 If you have a yellow parallel-like 15-pin port, get a breakout cable and a Midi crossover cable.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

well you better check out the Soundeditor for the PSS 680 first before "violating" the circuits ;) I'm planing to upload a video containing a audiotrack featuring sound created with the PSS edit software. You can record your tracks to a sequencer and shape it with some filters or effects.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

thank youuuuu ;)

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

I dunno for sure. The instruction manual isn't really saying anything about the quality of the DA converter but the drumkit samples for the trigger pads are 12 bit samples. And the overall soundquality is (according to my ears) definitely not 8 bit, regarding aliasing noise. So, yeah. it might be 12 or even 14 bit.

[@nidzio93]

My first synthesizer :) Nice

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

@Brunettebabii123 You should get a USB MIDI cable (one side 2x DIN connectors and the other end has an USB plug). This is what you need :)

[@MsMadLemon]

I've seen these Yamaha PSS series around a couple of times, they seem to be nice keyboards, I know nothing about them but i'm curious haha.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

Yeah they are really fun to fool around with :D Some of them have soundchips that sound like a keyboard version of a NES or Game Boy, others sound like a Adlib soundcard or Mega Drive. Just like this PSS keyboard here. Which is no mirracle because they all share the same soundchip. So you really get playable OPL2 synthesis on a keyboard like the PSS680 or the Philips PMC 100. A neat little taperecorder/keyboard combination. However it has only a foil keyboard.

[@albertsciarronsky2251]

Hi! i have got a question for you, is it possible to plug the keyboard with a midi usb cable to the mac? i tried it but it doesn't work, but maybe i did something wrong

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

Hi. Oh this should work, if your system has a driver for this USB MIDI cable. I was using one as well. You also have to set the MIDI channel of the keyboard right so the communication between the Keyboard and the Mac works. I think it was one of the first 3 or 4 channels, from 00 till 02. I'm not sure anymore. It's been a while since I used mine for that.

[@Jachai100]

i got that keyboard

[@suspiriaprofundis4513]

hello,this synth is 8 bits or 12 bits ?thanks.