Yamaha HandySound HS-200/HS-500 - Review

[@The8BitGuy]

Great review as always. A real pity about the lack of octave selection. Even the VL-1 had that. But you still pulled off a pretty cool song!

[@SimonTheMagpie]

Ooh Ive used the hs200 in so so much music! Lovely sounds

[@inthefade]

Very lovely, indeed. A bit of reverb and it sounds good for a cheesy but beautiful production. I want a sample set!

[@DeiNostri]

Ofcourse you did, you are the Magpie. I will be shocked the day I you compose with a Prophet, Memory Moog or Yamaha CS80 :D

[@robscouto]

I'm amazed at how you can play so many beautiful tunes using only these two octaves

[@big_b_radical3985]

A musician and artist in the traditional sense of the word, not just a knob twiddler in a room with tens of thousands of dollars of equipment.

[@ohnose4455]

I absolutely love how you narrate those videos, you're like the David Attenborough of old synths!

[@andre.79]

Definitely! 😄👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@inthefade]

Your understanding of music theory to write modular and chromatic music yet have it sound so poppy is admirable; Just enough spice to keep it interesting.

[@visuelliot]

Great video as usual! So cool with the "in-between" sounds. Amazing playing and songwriting as well, you're such a musical inspiration!!

[@mrbungledisco]

Wow, I had never seen this one before. Amazing sounds. The polyphony is the best part, most of my older toy keyboards are single note. Thank you for sharing this!

[@excessofficialTV]

It was impossible to not give a thumb up for this, it has a very special place in my heart as the very first synth offered by my mother when i was 2 years old. What you did with it is so beautiful.

[@jimmydavismusic78]

I just listened to your handy sound album on band camp while i was painting a bedroom, great stuff man I’m a fan. The 400v record is amazing also. Keep up the good work!

[@yohanzo]

This is the most relaxing channel. After a long hard day at work, I'll watch 3 or 4 episodes. And I'll try a few riffs on my little keyboard as I'm watching. Thanks for making these!

[@davidwilley8147]

I just discovered your channel and I can’t get enough. Love what you do and how you show off both the advertised features and hidden features of these keyboards. You also have a fantastic since of harmony in your arrangements. I would very much like to see a intro to synthesis from you like you talked about in your Behringer Cat video. Keep up the great work! Ps, I laughed so hard at the VL-1’s appearance in this video. Haha well played!

[@ominkan3129]

I love when you take the keyboards apart. It is good to see what's inside and how good the construction is. You do a nice jobs restoring the messy and nasty keyboards as well. A man of many talents indeed. But what is really cool is the music selection you play for your videos. They are intricately created and sound amazing. 👍👍👍

[@icefaceH]

I just bought HS-200 from a Japanese free market site pretty soon after watching this video. Thanks a lot and I'm still looking for HS-400 too!!

[@mr.9931]

15:04 Casio VL-Tone: Hey, what's goin' on here?! Keen On Keys: Not now!

[@supertakumar4728]

I would love to hear a full album with those sounds !

[@KeenOnKeys]

Here it is: keenonkeys.bandcamp.com/album/yamaha-hs-500

[@Polaventris]

Fantastic review as always. Even the little Casio wanted to join the final performance.

[@summerlaverdure]

thank you so much for these videos you make, i love seeing these little toy keyboards get the same love that is usually only commanded by vintage synthesizer classics!

[@BxCx666]

Damn, you are the best! I really love how you demoing these keyboards!

[@andre.79]

If he was a VGM composer he would be forever immortalized. His songs are so amazing played on those keyboards for kids that sounds like some RPG music made for SNES.

[@mackadresse6095]

Great video!

[@tch717]

This is literally fully utilized the item. Great work!

[@lundsweden]

I just love the naivity of the 80s, its funny how we thought this stuff was hitech back then. But I love these cheesy little keyboards!

[@Mad4400]

You opened them up!! A truly complete review in my opinion.

[@kjell159]

The final performance 15:02 reminds me of the melody of 'Kim Wilde - You Came'. 15:06 Why that keyboard creeps up towards his left hand, remains a mystery though.

[@Jake-Balibari]

Poor VL1 at the end. i love him too 😢

[@Kumodot]

Makes me rethink all my life every time I blame something for sounding bad. Think it was actually my fault.

[@sethurk]

The way you are playing is mesmorizingly good. Amazing talent..

[@himasa]

at 15:08 vl-1 tryin’ to hijack the show

[@leukostad1592]

You made those otherwise not so interesting keyboards interesting again, especially with the multitrack recording!

[@RetroPlus]

That's cool that you found that trick with the slider in-between the instruments, that's very fascinating and a nice look into how these keyboards work

[@keyhoarder]

Just bought it yesterday and waiting for it to arrive. Violin is also my favourite patch. Very rich and warm. 4 note polyphony is the gamechanger. Also the secret sounds. Im thinking of playing it along with the slightly detuned PT-1 for a minimal portable setup.

[@angusmcnaughton]

Grew up on a HS500 and VL-tone combo. Now have a HS400, originally blue in colour, UV faded it to a pleasant shade of green. Much better than beige turning yellow when left in the sun!

[@notsofunnynowisit]

Sneaky VL1. Lol. Tutes Fun, Keeno!!!

[@discodave6153]

Lovely video, as ever.

[@douglasw.7864]

The HS-500 was my first keyboard. Bought it at The Game Player at our local mall (anyone remember that store?) in 1983. In 2005 I was able to buy a mint HS-200 on eBay. My HS-500 was long gone by this time.

[@ezion67]

The in-between sounds will probably vary per unit, de pending on what contact happens to change first. Independent switches for wave, filter and env could make for a simple but effective mod.

[@cheapnoiseinthehouse5578]

I absolutely love your content. And these samples, as noisy as they are, they're very impressive for 1982. Even though Casio and Yamaha are the most known for sampling in the 80s, I wonder if other toy keyboards from other brands came out with sampling functions or sampled sounds of this type.

[@celestinocamicia]

Yamaha's PortaSound range included some sampling keyboards in the mid 80s. The VSS-30 was the coolest, with quasi-poor-man's-Fairlightesque sample editing functions including loop and reverse with sample trim capabilities, U-turn (sample plays back and forth), distortion, pitch and volume modulation, all of which can also be combined! You couldn't do all that on a Casio SK-series!

[@endorphinsmusic]

HS-200 is my first keyboard, and I'm planning to use it in a new recording :)

[@LorraineTuazon]

My most favorite Christmas gift ever (back in 1983)!!! Mine doesn't work anymore though!! I wish I could get someone to fix it!!

[@tomelwich49]

Tease city...Ill take 5 of them. Great vid Keen.

[@barebarekun161]

I just found and bought HS-501 in Yellow for $10 from Japanese recycle store, Little scuffed up in the corners but still mostly in good condition. Simply too cool of little toy synth to pass up.

[@MattGreerMusic]

Really does sound a lot nicer than a VL-1 or the VL-5 (which I would consider a closer comparison). A lot of access to the "Tone Filter" section of the board. I bet it would be pretty easy to add some adjustable filter settings like maybe cutoff and resonance sweeps to it. Amp section looks pretty simple too. Maybe mods for the decay would be possible.

[@TooSlowTube]

You could make an octave divider circuit for the pulse or square waveforms too. The only problem is, you'll always get a square out of it, so you might want to mix in some of the original signal too, to get a different tone. The main part of it can be done with a D type flip flop. If it's running on 5V, you could use half of a 7474 or 74LS74 for each octave drop, or failing that half a 4013, or similar. Depending on the strength of the signal, you might need to boost it a little, before it reaches the clock input of the D flip flop, with an op amp or just a transistor. If you connect the inverting output to the data input, on a D flip flop, it toggles on every rising clock edge (on the clock input), so either output is at half the input frequency - but always a square wave, with a 50% pulse width. The EHX Octave Multiplexer (which has schematics available) does something similar, but that has to be able to handle a wide range of signals, so it's a bit more complicated. When you know the signal is already a square or a pulse, it's a lot easier. A lot of the Octave Multiplexer circuit is filtering the square that's produced too, which you also don't really need.

[@greanhare5270]

So with the way the instrument selection slider works, maybe it's possible to modify it so that you can select waveforms and filters independently. Then you could have the violin waveform with the organ filter, or the organ waveform with the harpsichord filter.

[@RickJBerubeArtStudio]

Interesting facts and video my new friend! Liked and subbed for support! 👍😀👏

[@kjamison5951]

I owned an HS-500 back in the day. I’m suspecting the box has long gone but the keyboard and the silver cover bag are likely still in the attic at my mom’s house. They might even have made it to my own atttic. I’d need to check. I remember buying a bigger Yamaha keyboard as well but the HS-500 was taken to school and the polyphonic feature was a big draw. Some of the other students bought Casio keyboards but they were only monophonic although they had rhythm accompaniment and chord keys.

[@cien1975]

"… and no calculator" 😂 Because we all know a calculator is THE most important thing on a musical Keyboard

[@7evive]

Do you think you could do a review of the Yamaha VS-200 (sampler)? Thanks I LOVE your channel

[@KeenOnKeys]

Yes, if you mean the VSS-200, but it may take a while.

[@7evive]

@@KeenOnKeys I can't wait!

[@disarmsox]

Nice melodies once again.. how do you get started learning to play keyboards, and what are your musical influences?

[@KeenOnKeys]

I had piano lessons as a kid and I was mainly influenced by New Wave and Dark Wave when I started to make my own music.

[@EviLSiLenZ]

i still have a working HandySound HS-501 from 1983

[@stefano.a]

What do you use to have a so uniform illumination in the zone where the camera is pointed on?

[@KeenOnKeys]

Just a couple of daylight lamps

[@mkiswatoo]

The sounds are very nice. or maybe it's because you can play very well. Or maybe both.

[@stefano.a]

15:06 ... you are the best :-)

[@kentaccordionist]

For a bit of chorus, delay, and phaser, these sounds could be quite nice. How did you come across the in between sounds, I’m assuming they weren’t listed in the manual.

[@KeenOnKeys]

I just tried it out. With sliders for sounds there is always a chance that something happens in between.

[@benh.635]

I'd be interested in knowing if there's a specific key or scale you use when performing these demos. Your demos always sound amazing and I was wondering if there was anything specific you used. Great keyboard, by the way. Has a certain simplicity to it I love.

[@j_c_93]

He usually plays in major keys. Most or all of the music in this video is in the key of F, because that allowed him to use two full octaves. It's not really the scale or key that makes his music great. He's just a brilliant composer.

[@benh.635]

@@j_c_93 Ok, cool! Thanks :D

[@Clairemewsic]

The hs 200 sounds good for chiptune

[@slmgmt1]

Hey Mr Keen On Keys, It would be nice if you showed us the key size in comparison to a coin or something so we could grasp the size better :)

[@emiel333]

Cool 😎

[@CCV334]

How can I learn to just make melodies on the fly like that?

[@blahdelablah]

Ear training (especially learning the sounds of intervals), learn chords, and then learn scales or just let your hands explore the instrument until you find sounds you like.

[@Dewabarasunderan]

Absolut super Kanal:) Gruß nach Berlin

[@Lachlant1984]

The song you played on the harpsicord sounded to me quite a bit like Better Way by Ben Harper.

[@chriswareham]

The violin and harpsichord sounds are really usable - would sound great to put them through cheap chorus and delay pedals.

[@adamzboril9154]

4:27 Song name?

[@Ni5ei]

Makes me wonder; if you'd replace the slide switch with 5 separate switches for each sound, would you be able to combine more sounds? Now I want one just to try it out.

[@andretmadrid]

I would like to own one of these small keyboards when I was a kid

[@luigikoopa8771]

15:05 why does the VL-1 wanna join the party

[@pianokeyjoe]

huh! I thought I heard and even played these keyboards but no. I had or have the TY blue keyboard. So this is the first time I hear these keyboards. Nice sounds. I would have preferred these keyboards over the Casio PT1 as my first keyboard.. sad I never knew these as a kid but hey, I did borrow a Casio MT11 which was much nicer.

[@hutti]

4:08 sounds a bit like "Xylophone" on the pss130

[@minaKozluk]

Hi Guys. I have a Yamaha Handysound Hs-200 with the bag that goes with it. It works fine. What would be the value for this keyboard?

[@DejanMarkovicTO]

Does anybody know any modern synth that has music games like HS500?

[@crasheffort]

Teenage Engineering's synths have games built in, but I'm not sure if any are musical learning games.

[@hardlines2635]

Suddenly want to play Day of the tentacle.

[@roundchaos]

Does anyone know where I can find an HS-200? Cant seem to find any on ebay. Yes, there's a few HS-500 but most don't ship international.

[@hermeslord]

The big win for HSS over casio PT series then was polyphony

[@nathanrhale]

Impressive aural skills!

[@mumbaimirror5603]

❤

[@blimolhm2790]

just found a hs-500 at a thrift store for $9

[@Medniex]

Whoa smallest yamaha!

[@remyvl4204]

Hey mom can I get a Yamaha DX7? No we got a Yamaha at home. Yamaha at home:

[@olivierrossi5295]

15:07 :)

[@EDUARDOGARCIA-jk3qh]

Yo aprendi en pequeños teclados Tengo uno grande Pero práctico en chiquitos El Yamaha pss 9 Tiene acompañamiento automático Como los grandes Y puedo usarlo en cualquier lugar Son lindos los sonidos Yo los mantengo me ayudan estos teclados pequeños No sé si ese es de tecla más pequeña Este es mini tecla

[@caseytator2264]

Why would yamaha waste time making these kind of instruments........damn!!!