BOOcast - Synth of the Month: Yamaha PSS-480

To celebrate ten years of BOO we are streaming live on YouTube, 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?

Synth of the Month title poster and tee available here:

[SunflowerFlowerEmpire]

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.

[Mokkers_stuff]

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!

[AFuturePresentation]

I just pick one of these up! I'm excited to dig into this further!

[ho]

I really like this synth. I run mine through a QuadraVerb. Really great together.

[johnthecloud]

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.

[bigheadfred]

I got my Yamaha PSS-480 as a gift about a year after it was released, and I never had any problems with it after all these years.

[bestrickie]

The digital synth is extremely versatile and powerful. Again it would enhance the sound put via an EFX unit including reverb, chorus ect.

[kgbinfo]

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.

[rozzgrey]

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!

[gula_rata]

I have PSS 390 (with sliders for synth edit) and 680 (with midi and blue drum pads) and love these cute reliable little guys. They all have that same optimistic 80's demo song in all of them. lol

[miggz]

Awesome ! I have the PSS 680 and found a software editor online to easily tweak the parameters. It works via MIDI signals

[_OopsieDaisies]

i got one of these as my first synth a few years ago and though the bug bit me and I have other FM synths now, I can't part with the 480. I love the cheesy stock sounds, i love the editable 2 op banks which helped me wrap my head around fm synthesis before i really knew anything about subtractive or anything else. always glad to see it get some love :)

[PaulBoos]

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.

[DiscoCitizens]

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.

[bestrickie]

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.

[dinogoldie]

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.

[kaitlyn__L]

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.

[Beuwen_The_Dragon]

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.

[MovielikeCinema]

That thing has a Sega Genesis vibe (of course, being a FM synth).

[TheBroDotTV]

Nice video dude. I got the 780. These are FN great synths.