Yamaha Portasound PSS-460 FM keyboard - the 'Soundblaster' chip in action...

Music: "Night Vision" (C) Copyright 2019 Alfonse
Download here: alfonse.bandca...
Yamaha Portasound PSS-460 keyboard (1986)
All sounds you hear in the track were made using the PSS-460; some were run through delay pedals (the Vestax DDX vintage digital delay and the more recent Boss DD7). All parts were recorded to a DAW, where compression, EQ, and reverb were added as required. I also double-tracked the lead synth part (each part tuned fractionally differently) to give it a fatter sound. Individual drum hits were sampled from slowed-down rhythms and processed to allow fresh beats to be built, rather than using the rhythms found on the PSS-460 itself.
The aim of these videos is to see what you can create using sounds from ageing home keyboards together with current production tools. The 460 was one of a few of Yamaha's PSS range to use the same YM3812 sound-generating chip used in the Soundblaster soundcards of the late 80s/90s.
Synth settings are editable via the sliders on the top right of the control panel. If you have one of these keyboards and want to recreate the sounds, here are the parameters:
Bluesynth (edited): 2 5 1 1 3 3
Synth 1: 2 3 5 4 5 3
Vibes (edited): 5 5 5 5 3 3
Synth 2 (bell): 3 5 3 1 3 3
ALFONSE
Store: alfonse.bandcam...
Twitter: / alfonsemusic
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[@molowytch]

I love portable keyboards! And demonstrated by someone with your talent makes the video very satisfying!

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks very much! 🙂 I'm quite keen on them myself...

[@Ilmoskat]

0:52 - This is one of the best pads I've heard. Thank you for choosing to share your music. Cheap keyboards sometimes surprise you with their sound. I have a cheap keyboard, but it's based on PCM synthesis.

[@alfonsemusic]

Yes, it has a lot of character, this portasound.

[@footballman4]

Don't tell anyone about this video!!!! I'm still trying to buy a PSS-460 and if more people see this the price will skyrocket... Seriously great job!

[@alfonsemusic]

Haha. Don't worry, it's a slowburner in terms of views... Thanks, and hope you find a good one.

[@javierzubizarreta2933]

Excellent track! I have tons of these keyboards, I really love them.

[@Arcrinato]

I found one of these in a Goodwill today for $10! It is really interesting how creative you can get with what people say is a "toy." Then again the skill of the creator carries it, this song is super sick so props to you, damn. I don't know how to compose, but your music really makes me want to learn...!

[@UserUser-zc6fx]

You're so good at getting the most out of these old synths. Cheers!

[@th3buddysyst3m]

That's such an amazing track with so little! Perfect example of it's not what you have, but how you use it.

[@MrShiffles]

Hitting this video again on a Christmas morning reminiscing back when I got my PSS-480 for Christmas...I couldnt imagine making anything as good as your songs...Merry Christmas!

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks, and Merry Christmas to you too :)

[@ethanoreilly2002]

I was just watching a video about this keyboard last night! I love the Blues Synth and the analog horn section! It sounds like an analog synth from the 1970s!

[@alfonsemusic]

Coincidence again! Yeah, there ar two or three particularly useful stock sounds on here, but also the synth sliders are handy for making small customizations.

[@ethanoreilly2002]

@@alfonsemusic I have the Yamaha PSR 36 which has those sliders as well it's great fun!

[@alfonsemusic]

@@ethanoreilly2002 nice. I like the look of those, but keeping things compact for the time being...

[@muraya_music_NL]

I bought one on my local ebay-like site for 5 euros, labeled as ''child keyboard''. It arrived taped into a plastic bag, but he managed to survive. I have other portasound ''synths'' which really suck in my opinion, but this thing is different. It really got some good decent sounds in it, Add a multifx pedal and the sounds you can create are really much for such a simple synth. I used it in the studio for years now, It stars on almost every song I record. Only thing is; It doesn't have banks or whatever. But after some use you can quixkly remember what does what, and how to get certain sounds. If you can grab it for cheap, do it! You won't be dissapointed.

[@pandasdream2588]

Beautiful music! I listen to it with pleasure.

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks again! Appreciate all your support 🙂

[@nielsblume]

You make this thing sound magical.

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks :)

[@Zack-xz1ph]

I got into these keyboards after I picked up a little PSS-270 at goodwill for 5 bucks, I love the simple FM sounds on these guys, and I can put batteries in it and not be chained to my computer anymore to play off VSTs (or haul around my big casio). I might even bring my 460 to my next camping trip lol. oh and the single finger comp is pretty cool, been playing christmas tunes on it for a couple days, just wish it had single finger diminished, or even when you put it in auto bass and try to play dim or more advanced chords manually it automatically goes to the closest maj/min/7th. But it's an old keyboard that was marketed towards kids so what can ya do

[@darrelldourte9455]

Kill deal for the PSS-270 Seen one for $5...sad is didn't have a $5 in pocket. Have you seen the Haxxor 460 mod? Too bad he doesn't riff on it. Same with Daniel Baum. Baum almost always goofs on the beats Great mod tech though.

[@karolhorvath.1985]

Fantastic for my ears every moment I hear this song is energy ...

[@izzzzzz6]

Nice and thanks for the info. This one is also in my collection. Love it.

[@coyotesynth]

Great track. There is no chance you can find anything better done with such a small config !

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks very much! I like working with limitations - helps focus the mind...

[@charliehack12]

Your videos RULE

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks Charlie!

[@generalerror2938]

One of my favourite tracks of yours -- perfect for any night drive playlist :)

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks. :) I love a good night-drive soundtrack myself.

[@saundersclose]

I used to have one of these when they first came out as a kid, spent many hours editing sounds and discovered a life long love of enjoying synth production - Watching this made me smile...Good job

[@alfonsemusic]

Cool - thanks Stuart. Good place to start, simple but rewarding.

[@npartridge12]

Just brilliant, great use of the digital delay line which really brings these sounds to life, fantastic composition and playing. I have the PSR 36 which I believe is the big brother to this little beauty and these 2 operator PSS keyboards can create some lovely sounds, as have you here of course. Keep up the great work.

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks for listening! :)

[@audioartisan]

I had one of these in the 80's, and you just made it sound like I never could. This is awesome.

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks. I had the PSS580 back in the day, but I particularly like the sound of the 460.

[@opd_org_uk]

Satisfying.

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks :) Was satisfying to make.

[@opd_org_uk]

@@alfonsemusic Just bought one.

[@alfonsemusic]

@@opd_org_uk A fine choice. Enjoy!

[@alfonsemusic]

One of my favourite patches: the Saxophone preset, then 2 2 3 1 4 4 on the sliders. As featured right at the end of kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJK0nmZ3baZ8nKM

[@donpirla]

Beautiful

[@Fantishow-is-a-butt]

This is excellent. I love using the single finger accompaniment combined with duet mode to compose chord progressions

[@racso20000]

Chill ass video

[@user-zj2he7on8m]

❣❣❣😁✌😎respect those time and amazing sound of thoses machines

[@NPrescott]

Outstanding video demonstrating the true power of this keyboard. I have one of these as well and absolutely love it!

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks Nathan - yep, it's well worth having around!

[@notsofunnynowisit]

Man I love the synth section on this keyboard. Nice job!!!

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks. Yeah, it kept surprising me with the range of sounds available from just a few parameters.

[@JohnBMusic]

I'm glad I bought one

[@chrisjunosmusic]

Excellent synthesis!! This PSS sounds fantastic!

[@alfonsemusic]

One of my favourites, I think

[@chrisjunosmusic]

@@alfonsemusic I hope I find one on ebay.

[@alfonsemusic]

@@chrisjunosmusic Happy hunting!

[@thepeller210]

sounds like a sega megadrive! love it

[@Leedoggie6677]

Amazing

[@user-fj5zk7bj5i]

SUPER !!!

[@pandemicaudio]

Awesome

[@globanusopp3046]

Awesome video and channel! This keyboard looks like it came out of a parallel universe or a dream. The colors, proportions, materials etc. look familiar but unfamiliar at the same time. Sounds good too!

[@Gainn]

Amazing. I've got this one, the 480 and the PSS-580 and spent far too many hours recently playing around with them a bit. Not switched my MODX on for a week cos I'm having so much fun with them.

[@alfonsemusic]

Nice! That's the thing they got totally right with the 1980s PSS keyboards: fun.

[@BruceHarms]

Truly truly amazing, decided to get it as my sound generator with a Casiotone MT-100... Ableton Live and my telecaster. Thank you!

[@alfonsemusic]

Nice combo. Enjoy!

[@BruceHarms]

@@alfonsemusic Thnx, bought the album also on bandcamp, my synth alterego is lowtidefy... ;)

[@alfonsemusic]

@@BruceHarms thanks, so I saw. Much appreciated!

[@aldeanblair9727]

Omg that's was phattt!💯💯💯💯

[@alfonsemusic]

Thank you kindly! 🙂

Please keep uploading.

[@rossparker4374]

One of the best thrift store purchase I ever made!

[@BendApparatus]

That Vintage VESTAX pedal!! wow...I never knew they made FX pedals... I have a pair of their of PDX A1S turntables and a PMC 06A I can't believe all their stuff is Vintage now...

[@alfonsemusic]

I think they were fairly under-the-radar - well built, but nothing spectacular for the price. Borrowed that one from a pal and it was worth it.

[@WVLFRVN]

Not exactly the same but I have a 480 gathering dust in the studio. Thanks for reminding me. Setting it up!

[@alfonsemusic]

No worries. Enjoy!

[@vtechk]

Awesome work!

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks :)

[@matiasgrimoure4533]

I really like your work. Im another lover owner of lofi amateur keyboard stuff and i use to produce on those. You are an amazing composer and its really evident beyond the instrument gear.

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks Matias! :)

[@Pieriv]

great 🙂

[@marsupialmicron]

Very cool!

[@IanKilpatrick801]

Dude this rips

[@WeeInnovate-uk]

Awesome sound and a good explanation of how to thicken the sound, informative. Don’t know if this is something you would consider, but could be pretty interesting to do a behind the scenes with one of your videos, playing the same track, but fading bk and forth pre and post-processing, along with popup text comments as to which effects we can hear. I.e. an audio demonstration of the differences rather than a technical or voiceover.

[@alfonsemusic]

That's a good suggestion - I'd been planning to do something behind the scenes for a future video but hadn't quite figured out how it would look - that could be a good part of it. Will give that some thought...

[@geloumaineimis]

This sounds amazing. Thank you!

[@alfonsemusic]

You're welcome! Thanks for listening :)

[@serratusx]

Fantastic! Great chords too

[@toddnielson883]

Still have mine from 19-what-88? And still use it! Thanks for showing what its capable of!

[@farkku76]

How do you reduce the hiss coming out from the outputs? I´ve Lexicon multieffect that helps a little, but it´s still kinda noisy. Great video btw!

[@alfonsemusic]

This one had a fairly clean output, I think, but I've definitely had that problem. If it's just hiss, a low-pass filter or a noise gate can make it less noticeable. If it's more complex noise and/or I want to preserve the high frequencies, something like Waves XNoise can rescue a recording, if used carefully. Airwindows has a dehisser plugin for Mac for free/Patreon.

[@jesseturton]

I just got one but it didn’t have a power adapter so got one from a used store with the right polarity and 9-12V with 2A pulse capability and there is no sound! Can anyone help? The person I bough from says it worked but the batteries had died.

[@tiny3794]

I have the same keyboard

[@dankro279]

When you move the modulation fader it does not sound as if they snapped into the 5 positions, though sometimes I think I can see, they do. Did you make any adjustments on the device? You managed to get excellent sounds out of theses machines!! Like your videos a lot!! Now I am looking for the right portasound for me!!

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks :) I didn't make adjustments, just got lucky with some of the moves - recording two or three takes and picking the best helped, and using the delay pedal also smoothed things out in places.

[@darrelldourte9455]

What are the numbered patches from Mr A.? I have this key. Love the sliders, except the few setting that introduce the white noise. Thanks for another expert demo multitrack

[@alfonsemusic]

Cheers! The numbered patches give the synth slider settings for a few custom sounds - if it starts with "synth" then the digital synthesizer button was on.

[@William_D._Cope]

I just picked one up this week for five dollars!

[@alfonsemusic]

Nice work! Enjoy it

[@pplvuh]

Did you have to do much EQing and compression work to this?. I own one of these and noticed the Jazz Guitar preset at the beginning sounds a lot deeper and richer than mine, lol.

[@alfonsemusic]

I put a slight low shelf EQ boost on the Jazz Guitar and added a touch of saturation to bring out the harmonics - I didn't want to process it too much, just make sure I had a decent bass sound for the track. For the rest of the track, no compression on the individual channels and a light compressor on the drum buss, so in general the compression/limiting is in the overall mastering.

[@javiceres]

Superb ‼️ I’m gonna get a 480 next week There’s a hell of a lot you can do with 2 operators and a couple of FX used cleverly I’m kinda tired of FM8 xD I need true grit plus something I can carry around with batteries

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks! Yeah, these FM Portasounds keep surprising me - have been on the verge of selling this one a few times, but then I find a fresh sound I like and.....

[@marcelojozic902]

Who needs a DX7? Nobody...

[@jakelencher817]

What did you have the auxiliary plugged in to, trying to get mine to bigger speakers

[@alfonsemusic]

I had a stereo splitter cable from the headphone output running to inputs on my audio interface. For some of the parts, first ran the splitter cable to inputs on the boss delay pedal to get stereo delay effects.

[@vitivv999]

классная мелодия

[@rythmwarrior3443]

Look like a keyboard with yamaha2612 soundchip (sega Genesis soundchip)

[@butterbagelgaming3654]

1:03 how do you change the modulation so smoothly? i try to replicate this on mine but it always comes out sounding super rough and stepped instead of smooth like you have it

[@butterbagelgaming3654]

also great video

[@alfonsemusic]

@ButterBagelGaming Thanks :) Running it through the delay pedal masks the stepped transitions between the slider settings, but it's still a matter of luck - I probably discarded any takes that didn't work as well.

[@statelessmars]

How did you connect guitar pedals to the board? I have this exact model and couldn’t find a jack to plug the pedal in :(

[@alfonsemusic]

There's a mini-jack headphone socket, so plugged in a splitter cable that ended in left and right large jack plugs to go into the DD7.

[@statelessmars]

Alfonse nice, unfortunately will have to sacrifice using headphones to listen but I love to experiment :) thanks!!

[@alfonsemusic]

@@statelessmars No worries :)

[@statelessmars]

Alfonse just got the splitter cable! But then I realized I have no sound playing through, is that normal? Sorry to ask.

[@alfonsemusic]

@@statelessmars if you normally hear stereo sound through the headphones, stereo cable should work too. Could be an issue with stereo going into mono? If you're going in to a pedal, try each of the left and right jacks of the cable alternately in one input of the pedal, in case it only works one way.

[@UkeJamUK]

Love this tune, I have two of these, and love them, but I think I'll have to get retro midi fitted to get anywhere close to your performance, I am a string player not a keys player :-)

[@dronexfun8469]

I would love to make music but I don't know where to start. Is there an easy to use app or free windows program that I could use to make beats to go with music I play on this keyboard? I'm just too lazy to record the instruments separately nor do I have the recording equipment. Thanks a million for sharing.

[@jonnno243]

Hi. I downloaded a free app. Pc Drummer Trial. Its good, and the trial seems to last for ever.

[@Zack-xz1ph]

what keyboard do you have, the same one in the video? It has beats built in, and you can change the style/tempo. pretty much any keyboard from the 80s or newer is capable of this. but if you want to start making your own beats, definitely check out VSThost, you can get free drum machine VSTs from VST4free or other websites. Or if you want to get a DAW (which is a lot more complicated) reaper is free and lightweight, and keeps working past the trial period. There's also hardware drum machines which don't need a computer, like volca beats

[@arv4434]

I have seen few of ur videos and is really inspired seeing that from even small keyboards u have produced a great sound which is something beyond imagination. Can u plz tell which technology u have used to create all this. Great videos....hats off.

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks very much, Arvinder :) I record straight into a Focusrite audio interface and arrange everything in Logic, then edit the video in Final Cut. I made a video showing a bit more of the mix process here, if you're interested: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o4LNqmaamLyUZqs

[@arv4434]

@@alfonsemusic thanks.

[@Jimmyknapp2]

What do you use send/return for? Awesome sounds, and a very nice piece to listen to. Cool to see effect pedals used with keys

[@alfonsemusic]

Thanks! Glad you liked it. The effects pedals were inserts between the keyboard and the audio interface, rather than on a send/return loop (if I interpreted your question right)

[@Jimmyknapp2]

@@alfonsemusic I have a pedal that says send and return and I don't understand where/how/why to use those. Scared of a feedback loop so I just run audio straight through.

[@tiny3794]

My keys are making a funny static sound how can I fix it please send help my way

[@alfonsemusic]

Sorry, I'm not a maintenance guru, but for starters you could try taking the back off and giving it a clean inside with compressed air or something, if you haven't already done that.

[@butterbagelgaming3654]

what kind of static do the keys make? is it a static that comes through the speakers?

[@Roland6596]

I threw mine away but I never had that sound in mine

[@dicklaurantisdead]

Beautiful composition !! Love it