Product: Yamaha PSS-680
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted
03/10/1998
at
01:09pm
by
Anonymous
Ease of Use
:
No Opinion
um.. i've had this thing for over 10 years so i can't really answer about the software. the presets sound pretty synthetic, but over time i've grown used to them. that's not to say i wouldn't get a better synth. it has some simple edition section, but you can't get to all the tweaks from there, so.. i've read that you can access them via midi, but i'm not very midi savvy .. the manual has two parts: the first is completely useless, and the other is absolutely necessary.
Features
:
5
i don't know how many notes at a time you can play. it _is_ polyphonic. the keys suck, they're not natural size and they have no velocity. it has some built in effects.. they do the job, barely. it does not have any expansion capabilities that i know of. it has midi, which i've used somewhat over time, but never got anything big out of it. besides it's old, so i think it's not general midi compliant, which throws away many sequencers, etc. it has an on board sequencer but it's really, i mean really limited. it isn't even polyphonic!
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
3
the instruments are really really bland. you shouldn't be caught using this thing for any pro or semi-pro activities so i guess that doesn't matter too much. the effects kinda suck but all in all they must be about the best things this unit has to offer, so go figure.. the bloody thing does _not_ react to your playing, which i _hate_.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
i've had it for quite some time now and if it hasn't broken i don't think it will anytime soon. if i dared to whip this out in any kind of gig i'd undoubtedly end up shot.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
never dealt with them i believe
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
i wouldn't buy it again.. hell, i could never find another one again! i'm not a huge synth nut, but i'd like to replace it someday. i'm not even a keyboard player.. i play some piano but i guess i'm mainly a guitarist these days.. i can't really say i hate it.. it's been with me for a while so i kinda like it now.. it gets heavily used as a drum machine for my puny recording project.. actually that's one of the things i haven't written about; the rhythm section is great.. it has these pads.. the sounds are somewhat cheesy, but the basic (bass drum, snare, misc. cymbals) are there, and it's friendly to play.. the only bitch is that the 32 sounds are arranged in 4 groups of 8 of which you can only play one at a time, so sometimes one of the sounds you want is unreachable. i wish i could play them all from the keyboard [actually i could once, but i had to tweak something via midi]. i didn't compare it to anything at the time of buying. a guy i knew had one and i thought it was cool, so.. looking back, i guess i can say it _did_ help me make music over these years.
