Yamaha PSS series keyboards.

[nochtanseenspecht]

lovely indeed !
i just finished my pss140, i did the 8 switches and also a small (8 point )
patchbay, i took some of the other pins on the fm chip for that. recomendable !!
it surely adds a dimension to the already insane sounds
it will make a nice couple with my evs1

[nochtanseenspecht]

hey, thats also nice : you can go some octaves down on the pss140,
realy low infact...if i open her up again, i'll let you know wich points to shortcut

[nochtanseenspecht]

okay : connect pin 16 from chip xe 56280 with pin 11 from chip ym 2420,
to get access to the lower tones of your keyboard.real low, at least several octaves. nice : you realy hear how the operators build up a sound. and usable to.
( talking about pss 140 and i guess pss 270 keyboard )

[Orangery]

Hey Andy, did you get any further with the PSS-6... sounds like my kind of instrument!

[migraneboy]

Im just now bending a PSS130 and  didn´t find any mention of it here so I thought I´d drop in a few lines about it..

First off it sounds nice as is! It´s surprisingly "warm" sounding  and the tonebeep drumpatterns are pretty crisp too.. of course you need to make a lineout to really hear this baby

I found some good  bends out of it by connecting pots between the synth IC and the little 6 pin IC on the power PCB. 

Heres what I get by turning the pots:

(by the way, I tried taking off the little bump inside the pots that stops it from
going 360, and it seems to be working OK..  I put really wide knobs on them so I can spin them for some manual "glitch loops". Im thinking of little DC motors here..

1. The keyboardsounds do seemingly random glitching, distorting and pitch "jumping". The glitching is quite smooth  and un-noisey..
2. The drumpatterns can rhytmically "pump" the overall sound (got some insane IDM/gabber outof it) 
3. A static sawave sound can be pitchifted and distorted and mixed with the keyb.sounds and drumpatterns.
   (Its actually a goddamn good analogue bass sound, real dirty but warm and smooth.. makes the windos shake )
4. The different keyboardsounds give a lot of different textures, mainly in the lower frequencies, this thing is real easy    on the tweeters.
5. The machine still works in "normal mode"
6. Never crashes
7. Different sounds can be recreated easily, it seems really stable

Overall it came out a quite good, especially the variety of "quality" basssounds. Also because its so stable, and "holds" the sounds well I can have long "progressive" jams.. hehee..
I would recommend big knobs for the pots, cos there is a wealth of variation in there to get your hands on..

Anyways, it may not be the craziest, glitchiest, random thing out there - quite the opposite - but its a nice sounding machine, easy to bend and  built like a tank !

Im definately on the look out for it´s bigger brothers...

[nochtanseenspecht]

i just bended my PSS 390 ,and its F*CKING AMAZING !!!

unbended i found it already the best that i know from the pss series, with its 100 pcm rhythms and
4 operator fm: 100 waveforms and 6 sliders to control modulation, attack , decay etc.
stereo, chorus.
not so quick you'll find a fm synth with slider control ! the only thing i miss realy
is midi, but for the rest it is a wicked toy synth.

anyways, i build in a 25 pin connector wich connects with an external patchbay box.
the 25 pins i soldered to the YM7129 , LC3564PL and the XG314BO.
i wanted to finish it quick, so i didn't invest the other ic's somuch as they didn't seem interesting
(but who knows....)

the results realy blow me away ! sa1 style glitchloops, reversed rhythms that modulate the fm operators,
random algorhythms, waveforms.... and fast.. the stereo panning is beautyfull...realy i get tears in my eyes
from only the stereo. And it doesn't crash ! and the display.the display ! the display can make a sick man
better, a politician honest....that display tells you things ! i saw GOD. i saw UFO. i saw 666. it is all
there in the display...but so FAST !! for me no more mushrooms.LSD don't need ! just my PSS390 !!!!

so guys...fellow benders... leave your sk1... leave your speak&spell....  GET A YAMAHA PSS 390 !!!

[iqoruvuc]

I have got one of these.  The rhythm seems to be the same as my pss-480/580 though a slightly different tone.  Did you do the datastream mod for it?  It sounds like you made connections between the pcm rhythm chip and the fm voice chips - is this right?  I have to finish this odd bontempi keyboard I am working on first but I'll give this one a go next.  Sounds awesome!

[nochtanseenspecht]

You have one ? you're rich !
datastream mod is very well possible, but i didn't do it.
tricky thing is that circuits are layered over each other, i guess they would have needed
to many jumpers otherwise.But that makes it impossible to trace a line.
also no datasheets on internet.i found one, but in Chinese.
i think the YM7129 is the fm chip. i guess i connected it with the pcm chip, according
to the sounds.
with a patchbay you're always safe on this one. Good luck, and i let you know what i find more

[bendboy]

I love my PSS 470 and 570, lots of chips, data lines to scramble, no surface mount.
May have some easter eggs (unconnected data lines)
The DAC is external! fun!
PCB mounted bottom-up, a bit of a pain to work on.
I have got some NICE guitar-like distortions out of them with crazy harmonics...
1 note=OK, 2 or more it breaks up-amazing....
Seems almost uncrashable (don't try too hard)
Thumbs up from me!!

PSS 480 crashes very easy-any data line mess hangs it with no sound.
Has anyone had any luck? Besides messing with rhythm chip and its rom, it will crash...

Thanks for the tip on the 390 !!!!

[iqoruvuc]

nochtanseenspecht thanks for info I'm gonna give this one a go at the earliest chance, and also bendboy thanks too.  Yes the 480/580 crash and then need resuscitating if you even look at the fm chip and I assumed all the fm PSS keyboards would be like this, I am so glad to hear the contrary. 

If I remember correctly somewhere around the power switch on the 480 is a point which can be fed into the PCM chip which adds a bleepy tone to the sound, with different pins being different pitches.  You will need a resistor 750K or higher (if I remember correctly) but I managed to arrange it so I had a rotary switch to select the pitch of the bleep, a pot to control depth and a latching p-switch to turn it off - it added a bit of noise to the sound I think so an off button was needed.  However when I connected to my amp the effect was not as pronounced as it had been though the speakers so needs a little more experimentation.

I will post a link to a recording of the demo tune for the pss-480 played with me flicking all the switches for all the bends on the drums (i used switches rather than a patchbay) a bit later - it was really good fun but my keyboard is as destroyed from over exertion as some of the sounds....

[Signal:Noise]

Anyone know where i could find some info on the pss30?

[iqoruvuc]

Here's a link to my PSS-480 playing the demo and me flicking the different toggle switches and rotary switches that alter the sounds of the percussion: http://www.garageband.com/mp3player?|pe1|S8LTM0LdsaSlaFW2amA

I don't know what the recording will be like since i can't get the link work at home though it works at my work.  Hopefully it gives you an idea.  I will post a link to my Casio MT-140 and SA-5 in the relevant sections too.

[AttDestroyers]

Here's my pss-140, just finished painting it yesterday...

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l169/justindeininger/IMG_0151.jpg

[nochtanseenspecht]

nice one, AttDestroyers ! what's the other one laying in the background ? cool looks too !

[AttDestroyers]

thanks man, that's a Casio PT-1, here's a pic of that

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l169/justindeininger/CHEESE084.jpg