Synth Stuff Yamaha PSS480 Music Station
The Yamaha PSS480 is a 2 operator digital FM keyboard synth ‘music station’ from 1988 sort of similar to the PSS380 (which I used to have and was given away as the 1st prize in the 2016 drawing competition). It seems a littlebit more advanced then the 380, the 480 having memory for own programmed patches, quite advanced MIDI implementation, polyphonic (!!!) portamento and some more sequencing capabilities. The sound is a littebit less rough and more delicate…thats probably because it uses a different FM chip (the YM7129 OPK2). It doesn’t have sliders like the 380 but programming is still very easy with just a few function buttons and using up and down keys under the LED display to alter the parameter values. A cool thing is that there are lots of ‘secret’ sound programming functions that you can access via MIDI (with the CTRL PSS480 programmer for example). Overal its quite a useful warm sounding snazzy little keyboard synth that can bring a smile to any lover of FM synthesis…excellent for vaporous digital artefact ambient.
Here are some demos/improvs with some Chinese cheap MOoeR shimverb pedal and chorus pedal connected to the PSS480 through a Signature edition Soundcraft mixer…the PSS480 really sparkles with some chorus effect over it:
SnazzyJazz
The few drum sounds available are rather nice
Majestic synths & Panflute patch
The PSS480 has the best pan flute patch on any synth – its so perfect, especially when with portamento…
FloatingLikeABalloon
Floating like a balloon with Strawberry Mousse with mellow FM tones
FMbrassBlissssss
perfect FM brass sweet spots
TweakingParameters
Tweaking the parameters while its being sequenced with MIDI
Moody Rainy Spy Soundtracks
cloudy Cold War FM pastels
Download all the mp3’s in a zip here
The multi platform universal MIDI CTLR editor is available here and the PSS480 panel is available here. I just discovered that CTLR program it seems pretty darn cool might dive into it and make some cool editors for synths that don’t have one widely available (EMU Vintage Pro or Roland D10!?!!)