Yamaha PSS-480

You can get almost any sound out of it and dump the sounds via MIDI to a comuter so that you can keep them. It's annoying though that they go after you switch the unit off.

I find it better to use an external MIDI keyboard as the keys are too small. The sequencer is O.K but it does'nt hold enough for a long song. The MIDI dump is useful.

The sounds are more for synthesiser sort of songs. They aren't particualy realistic.

It has always worked for me

I've never needed to although a memory upgrade would be nice.

I would find another one somewhere as the sounds are endless. I love the sound editor but it would be better if it could store them. I control it with a cheap Yamaha keyboard.

If you buy a MIDI PC interface and link it up you can use the free programme from Alesis (freeloader) to dump the MIDI data to be used at a leter date. You can download the software off the Alesis website.

The PSS480 is easy to use if you understand FM synthesis,though there is only one carrier and modulator,mine has a worn out rubber control key,which I am attempting to replace. Manuals can be downloaded from http://www.yamaha.co.jp/manual/english/. The manual is good as it contains the entire layout of the internal RAM

The external facia controls give limited control over the voice parameters ,but the MIDI filter is excellent. Updates can be done via System Exclusive. The MIDI in and out ports can redirect information on a channel basis and the external clock and be set to sync.The 5 track sequencer records melody and chord sections.

The internal sounds are not good approximations to real instruments,but this FM system is better at making it?s own noises.The voice parameters are better accessed via SYSx which can be done with MIDI-ox (www.midiox.com). I have files available for the PSS480 at members.aol.com/templarseries/synths.html. There is a volume response in MODE99,which responds well to my Casio DH Horn.

I have opened the case several times,soldered the speaker back on,and even soldered buttons to replace my faulty rubber keypad,and it is STILL working.

I have phoned Yamaha over this and the guy on the phone said he liked the MIDI filter in it.I have contacted DAWSONS to replace the keypad and the guy there had one of these too,he likes it. I intend contacting Yamaha to try and get a new keypad.

Worthwhile getting one off Ebay as they will be cheap now,though may have faults like mine,however,even if you just want a MIDI filter,it?s worth it for that alone.Add the wide range of FM synth and SYSx dumps and it?s well worth it.

good

great

good sounds

sometimes if i leave it unplugged and without batteries in it, it'll just delete my saved sounds, but other than that, talk about a-ok

n/a

i like it a lot, i used it for a song on my band man factory's cd called 'walter malone'. check it out - www.manfactory.info. i used on of the drum beats, played the keyboard as if it were a piano, then used the portamento thing for a instrumental part. it was a dream!

Pretty easy to use.

I think poly is 28 note, it has a few effects, like reverb, sustain, really cool portamento. It has mini keys, and there is a 5 note polyphonic sequencer.

It is a two operator FM synth, it doesn't sound realistic, but nice to my taste, i tweaked the patches a lot. I made it sound kind of like Dali's Car, and i did some The Cure songs on it.

Well, i got it used, and used it a lot, so the buttons stoped working.

This was my first synth, i loved it, when it died i got another pss480, then it died too, then i got Korg n364, Yamaha tg77, tg33, Nord Lead 2, and Korg z1, but i still miss this synth.

Wow, very easy to use. I wish professional synths had such easy parameter mods. You really don't need a manual for this one.

Polyphony? Well the on board sequencer is limited to one note per track so unless you use an external equencer yu will never test the limits, maybe around 10 notes.
Sounds, well I don't think anything else sounds like it. I have actually made tracks using this board that got radio airplay. The keybard is noisy it has a poor signal to noise ratio, I keep a compressor on it.
Effects? at least it has some.
Keys are chessy and they can break.
Sequecer is good for little loop melodies.

The sounds don't sound that realistic but they aren't bad for an 80's small board and it has a warm sound and you can get some thick basses if you try. You don't want this board for pristine sound quality.
Effects are not effective.
This board should be triggered by a bigger board with sturdy keys.
No velocity or aftertouch.

I got my first 480 in 86 as a teen. This thing survived all kinds of drops, bumps, heavy use etc. The heavily used touch buttons began to stop working, I opened the board up and lined the contacts with tin foil worked great! I finally gave it away in the 90's and it was destroyed. I had to fight on ebay to get another for 80 bucks.

Never had to use them.

I would buy it again, it is my friend.
I've been producing for over 14 years.
If you can find one chearp it wouldmake a great tinkering board.
It also has some cool presets that you can use for songs.
I have 3 professional boards but sometimes I have to whip this back
out to get that certain sound.

This is so easy to use that even a blind monkey could get good sounds for it. The presets are as pretty useless are normal. Don't have a manual but then I don't need one to operate this.

The only good features are the 'Digital Synthesizer' features ADSR. It has MIDI in and out and a stereo out. The keys are those stupid mini size ones that were made for elfs and the keys are not touch sensitive.

Realisic instruments? ha ha ha...I have used this on loads of evil dark sounding recordings and it never fails to impress me, I know that sounds crazy for a cheap Yamaha keyboard but once you play around with the ADSR and put it through a bit of reverb and distortion it sounds great. Really nice warm ambient synth sounds are easy to produce on this little piece of plastic.

I bought my PSS 480 for #20 years ago and it's been dropped god knows how many times, stepped on had tea thrown over it and it still works a treat. I would gig with it because if it got stolen then you could get another one for next to nothing.

Never dealt with them.

If it was lost or stolen I would replace it. I use Roland and Korg synths but my little Yamaha stays with me too.

This mini synth is pretty easy to use... I don't have the manual, but the functions are pretty obvious. There is a diagram of the synthesis parameters inked on the front. So, it's easy to see what it can do. The presets are not real exciting, but they are useful to give you an idea of the range of the instrument. Yamaha says they will send me a manual free of charge, so the couple of things I'm not sure on should be easy at that point. This is a very basic FM synth and if you are not familiar with FM you may have some trouble getting the sounds you want out of this little box. But, as far as FM goes this is as simple as it gets - two operator AD with feedback and modulation. So a real good starting point to introduce you to the way FM works.

I don't know the polyphony, but it must be at least 10 cuz I got notes out of each finger... There is a built in reverb, portamento, sustain, vibrato and a "duet" mode that I don't really get... This is a Portasound - no upgrades. It has MIDI in and out. It can store melody lines and chords, but that is the section I don't understand, so I can't comment on how useful it is.

The tonal range is pretty limited, but it excells at bells and odd detuned timbres - very FM. You can get sweeps and 50's sci-fi tones out of it without much trouble at all... There is feedback in the synth section so you can get some decent resonance out of it, but it isn't earth shattering. Realism is not what this thing is about. String sounds are basically a wash... but basic weird tones - not bad. The stock patches are mostly very dated. It can hold 5 patches in nonvolatile RAM. On the positive side, patches are made with nine screens, so patch description is really simple - nine numbers and you've got it. You can scratch them out on paper in a very short time and I think it will actually export them as sysex dumps, but I haven't tried. The keys are not velocity sensitive and there is no aftertouch. No mod wheel, no pitch wheel... Pretty limited, but it sends the vibrato and sustain through MIDI which is kind of nice. I basically bought this to use as a portable master keyboard for messing with my QY70 sequencer when I'm on the road and it works great for that. It covers four octaves, but is transposable to cover 6 in total - 4 at a time and it will fit in a suitcase! Mini keys, which a lot of people dislike, but it does the job and makes large jumps between notes really easy... Also, when you plug headphones into the board it cuts the external speakers which are not the greatest.

Hey, it was built around 1986 and it's still working - what do you want?

I wrote Yamaha an email and they got back to me in about two days - I'd say that's pretty good. I'd have given them a 10 if they had just sent me the manual instead of making me call another number to request it myself. Why have me waste two people's time?

I bought it for use with my QY70 - period. It's really small and looks like a toy. But, it has surprised me - I actually got some decent sounds out of it in a very short period of time. I figure that is a bonus. With a Yamaha power supply (the one I use for the QY) it is surprisingly quiet. I'll probably sample a few of the sounds into my other gear... I have the QY70, two Casio VZ-10m's, a Casio CZ-1000, an E-mu E-Synth (which is my baby - wow is that a great board!!!) and an Emax II. The PSS-480 is not a pro instrument, but if you find one cheap it has its uses... And if you want 50's B movie tones it can deliver the goods... Sounds almost like a theremin when you set it right. I don't really know how to rate this thing... Depends on what you want it for... But, it's kind of cute... Would fit on a computer table pretty well, too. Think small...