Circuitbenders Forum
Circuitbenders Forum => Circuitbending discussion => Synths & Samplers => Topic started by: Signal:Noise on June 13, 2006, 08:06:51 PM
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Which model numbers are best to bend or are they all essentially the same?
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i've got a pss-6. it bends! ;D
the weirdest bend i found on it was a short which is connected to a light dependant resistor. when there's enough light it kicks off playing a sequence of fast and randomly timed/pitched notes with whatever voice is playing at that time. sounds amazing with some of the patches. looking at it now i reckon a toggle switch might have been a better choice. hmmm. ......getting twitchy with my screwdriver again...
also found a great buzzing distortion and equipped the case with body contact which adds a lowend honk.
i'll try and get round to opening the keyboard up again later and describe some more details of the bends. i've been meaning to give the little pss another tweakage for a while now.
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hadn't quite woken up when i wrote the last reply...
so, here's some more pss info. these are all bendable:
pss-6 -- oddball wavetable synth. good sound quality, weird bends.
pss-80 -- it's a digital squarewave keyboard. love the 'c64' type sound.
pss-100 -- similar type of synth to the pss-80.
pss-140 -- fm synth. great bends by adding 8 toggle switches to cut the datastream between the cpu and fm chip. let the tuned drones begin!
pss-270 -- it's the same synth as the 140 with a chorus effect built in and stereo speakers. it's a nice chorus though. :D
140/270 fm mod : http://circuit-bent.net/pss-270-tutorial.html
there must be lots more!
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Hi - I have the PSS-12 which I think is the stereo version of the PSS-6. Good sound quality but I didn't find many exciting bends, just a few bends that alter some of the voices.
I have a pss-480 and 580 which seem almost identicle bar a slightly different case. Both have fm editing capabilities, and a seperate PCM rhythm chip that can really easily be bent to make a variety of noisey distorted/flanging drums. Both have midi too. If you can get one cheap they are easy to bend and they even have an audio out too so you don't even have to bother installing a line out!
Most of the higher number pss are fm, but a couple such as pss-790 are 'awm' synthesis and I hear they are quite fun to bend too. There are definately loads of pss's out there.
I think there a pss-570 which is one up from the pss-470 which i wouldn't mind getting my hands on. I saw one around christmas time but I didn't have the money or space to accomidate any more of what my girlfriend calls 'clutter' ;)
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The pss-140 sounds interesting. 8)
Time to get on teh hunt on ebay.
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Taken it apart today and found loads of bends, and that's not including the data stream thing. ;D
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Wich Yamaha do you have? Im also planning to buy one, tough i prefer the VSS series or the Casio SK series
Im bidding on a Casio SK-10 wich seems to be the least of all the sampling keyboards.
Do you guys have any idea where to get the VSS or SK series cheaply? (in Europe!)
Most of the Ebay sellers who has one only sells in the VS.. -_-!
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Got a Pss 140 dude, I'd recomend it, not fitted the mods yet but there's plenty there to do.
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Has anyone else done the data stream mods on teh pss-140? Is the keybaord meant to stop working properly?
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the data stream mod, when in place works like this....
the 8 toggle switches you've put in which connect the data streams, when all of them are on, do nothing. the keyboard should be the same as normal...
now, when you turn one or a few (i wouldn't do all of them at once) of the switches to the off position and then change patch, press a key or two and then turn them all on again. you should hear a patch which has parts of the former selected sound in it. chances are it will be a bit more random than you expect. eg, you can't think, hmmm, i'll mix a piano patch with a string patch. well, you can, but the bends don't seem to be the same every time.
it's also worth noting that whilst any of the data streams are off, the keyboard can exhibit 'crash' type tendencies where the keyboard won't track pitch or make a sound at all, sounds will only play when three or four keys are pressed etc. the drums get a bit, er, funky too.
so, if you've wired up the switches, turned them all on and having issues.... then i'd suggest you've done something a bit odd. maybe soldered something wrong or not made a complete circuit on one of the data streams. my pss-270 didn't work correctly when i first wired it up but gentle tugging on the soldered points soon exposed a dodgy connection. it's all a bit fiddly...
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I thought that might be the case, I'll take the back off again tonight. Though even in it's current form it's a complete beast.
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Much resoldering later and it works
Mwaaa haaa haaa haa. ;D
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nice one!
hope you're enjoying the wonders of the fm madness!
has it performed it's drone trick yet? after a few bending patch changes my pss-270 can lose control of it's envelopes and start making wonderful deep tuned drones where the polyphony of the keyboard produces a chordal effect as you press more keys and then the last note is replaced with the newest once you hit the 8-10 voice limit. lovely!!
drums go way wonky too. not had much joy out of them though... bit too wrong to be used in a musical context.
;D
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i wanted to do this to my pss 280 but the cpu pins are so close together i dont think i have the soldering abilities to do it properly
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Yeah, it's done the tuned drone trick, it's brilliant, I've also goy complete glitched out madness from it.
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The keybaord's just getting better and better, keep on finding interesting points to add switches and stuff across, and it's no got a bright blue power on LED ;D
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i've got a PSS-780 ready to bend. does anyone know of what fun maybe had with this, possibly the least popular of the pss series!? :P
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Find the chip that controls the drums and there should be loads of bends. I have never done one of these but I think most of them are a similar set up. Two large chips side by side that control the fm, and one large chip on its own that is home to the PCM percussion. You won't get much out the two chips side by side unless you really know what you are doing, though like in previous posts you can do the datastream mod if you know what you are looking for. If not concentrate on that one single large chip - There are so many bends on this one chip you could do a patch bay if you like, and probably add few capacitors betwen the bends too.
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I've got a PSS-16 but it seems to be a "one chip wonder" only one IC inside. >:(
Anybody has an idea of possible bends? (except for CPU-Clock bend)
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Hi I've got PSS-12 that I bent that wasn't fm just plain PCM. That had just one main chip (I think). I think it is a stereo version of the PSS-6 (which appearantly makes some good bends. It's a curious keyboard because it looks totally crap but the sound quality is quite good. I didn't find many bends on it though, no streams of noise just variations to some of the voices. I imagine the Pss-16 will be similar no doubt bettet then the PSS-12. The rubber pads at the bottom of the keyboard had turned into liquid on mine, and therefore the entite keyboard was covered in smearings of black tar when I found it - that was about the most interesting thing for this model!
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i'll dig my pss-6 out soon and see if i can give you the bend to get the random sequence. it would be interesting to see if it's repeatable.
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i think to do the datastream mod with a patchbay instead of switches...
(pss 140) maybe interesting to mix up the data for even more possibilities.
Any opinions on that ?? by the way; thanks for all the nice info !
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I'll be trying this, at the very least it'll look fucking cool. Just need to source another suitable PSS keyboard.
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hmmm, it might be interesting to try a patch bay with a pss. it has to be worth a try although i'm not sure you'll get any different bends to the switches.
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Find the chip that controls the drums and there should be loads of bends. I have never done one of these but I think most of them are a similar set up. Two large chips side by side that control the fm, and one large chip on its own that is home to the PCM percussion. You won't get much out the two chips side by side unless you really know what you are doing, though like in previous posts you can do the datastream mod if you know what you are looking for. If not concentrate on that one single large chip - There are so many bends on this one chip you could do a patch bay if you like, and probably add few capacitors betwen the bends too.
OK, i think i've found the PCM chip in my 780: it's conviniently partially-hidden beneath the 2nd, smaller circuit board. i've gottn a few cool sounds out of it... but not much... i think this may be because one of speakers seems to be erratic at best. do the drum sounds come from a different speaker to the keys? the speaker that's playing up is of the right hand side if yr looking down at the keyboard (in the normal. non circuit bending playing position!). i dont know if it's a bad speaker or a bad connection, cos sometimes the speaker will let rip the odd skreech/crackle but is mostly silent...
cheers dudes!
;D
Chris
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Hi - I imagine the sound should come out of both speakers really, it certainly does on mine. When I get home I will post a picture of mine with the back off. Probably completely different circuitry but it might help. If I can work out these mp3 sharing sites I will put up some sounds too :)
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i think to do the datastream mod with a patchbay instead of switches...
(pss 140) maybe interesting to mix up the data for even more possibilities.
Any opinions on that ?? by the way; thanks for all the nice info !
i was thinking about this last night (i really don't know why.... obsession?) and had a thought that a patch bay might not work very well for the data stream hack mod. the reason being that you mostly use the synth with the hack switches in the 'on' position, only turning them off to change patches and 'edit' the sounds. a patchbay would have to be set up so you had all eight of the streams connected for the majority of the time. not such a great idea. switches make more sense in this context.
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Thanks for your reply, Andy
i think about what you say, i hope i get it right...
the idea of the patchbay is that i can not only put streams on and off
-wich is easyer with a switch- but also route the data to another point,
like mixing up several streams. i have no idea if it would give an interesting
result, what do you think ?
anyway, i just got my pss140 yesterday.i will first search for other bents
and think what i will do with the data mod...
unbended i found it a horrible keyboard by the way. just 3 or 4 interesting
patches. the 8 voice polyphony is nice .
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yeah that's better! sick shit is coming out of the speaker. that's how i like it.
now i know what to do: i'm gonna put 8 pushbuttons (breakcontact) for
the datastream mod, and also a small patchbay, i found some shortcuts on
the fm chip also not bad. i guess there is plenty more to explore,
found also a resofilter type noise somewhere, but hard to control.
i realy start to like this keyboard !
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hehehehe, nice one ;D
the yamaha pss fm synths are lovely.
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lovely indeed ! ;D
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 ;D
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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
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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 )
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Hey Andy, did you get any further with the PSS-6... sounds like my kind of instrument!
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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...
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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 !!!
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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!
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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
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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 !!!!
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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....
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Anyone know where i could find some info on the pss30?
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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.
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Here's my pss-140, just finished painting it yesterday...
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l169/justindeininger/IMG_0151.jpg
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nice one, AttDestroyers ! what's the other one laying in the background ? cool looks too !
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thanks man, that's a Casio PT-1, here's a pic of that
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l169/justindeininger/CHEESE084.jpg
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cool ! never saw it before...
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I can report success with a PSS-170, there are 5 lines going between the two main chips that can be shorted out and produce a range of new squeaks and bleeps. I havn't tried cutting these lines yet, but I suspect it could be done, and wire them to each other. No pitch bend, and I've yet to find a bend that effect the drums.
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i bent a pss 780 last weekend : (simmilar to pss680)
with the pcm drums/ rhythms some freaky things can be done,
loads of distortions /overdrives on the FM sounds
strange enough i didn't seem to get real access to the FM chip... it crashed everytime
at least i found a kind of random arpergiator wich mixes up the fm tones....
but a bit disapointing after all.
expected a bit more from this former yamaha flagship...
it is a nice keyboard anyway ; midi, synthparameters witch can be changed, rhythm pads
see if i can get rid of it ;D
for me, the pss390 remains the best from this series
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How did you get distortions overdrives on the fm sounds? I have only managed to bend the rhythm chip on this range of keyboards. The random arpegiator sounds good too. I have heard the pss-790/795 is quite good fun all 'AWM' synthesis so loads of randomness appearantly. They tend to go for a little bit too much on eBay though :-[
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hmm, i don't remember exactly...didn't connect the distortions after all...
but i think it was a shortcut between the points where the keyboard flatcable comes in the main
circuitboard and one of the opamps... at least 5 differend distortions orso. some quite nice in fact,
a kind of flanging distortions. yeah i like the pcm rhythm chip on this one. pitty i wasn't able to
modulate the fm with the rhythms, like with the older yamaha fm keyboards, but maybe
i'm just not smart enough (or lucky) :-\
or , could we say that later generation yamaha fm chips are not so bendable ? (dataprocessing
and fm together in the same chip ?)
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Sorry I'm dumb, but does anyone know which of these 2 chips has the data lines that go to the big chip? yellow or red?
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l169/justindeininger/Whichchip.jpg
thanks
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Probably the yellow, as it is right next to the big chip. Turn it over and follow the lines out of the yellow chip, they should run right into the big chip
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Aight. Thanks. I'll start cuttin
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Voltage Drop for the PSS-270 - how is this setup and what items do I need? Gonna start on this bad boy this weekend as I've put it off for too long.
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I am close to completing a bend of a PSS 270. I hav been following the tutorial by Kevin Rees at http://www.circuit-bent.net/pss-270-tutorial.html and im stuck, can anyone help me? Iv tried contacting him but iv had no reply so far. He explains how the green dots on the diagram provided indicate the four solder points that should be de-soldered. He goes on to connect a wire to each of these point but then I am confused as to where these wires go. He says to 'put wires through to make the connections for pin 17 and 18'. Does that mean to solder the other ends of the wires to pins 17 & 18 on the chip? This would mean that three wires would be soldered to pin 17 & 18 of the chip. Is this right? It may seem like a stupid question but its pickling my head - help!
Nick
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Heh, new poster to new poster...
Look at the next photo below. He has removed the 2 jumpers (bare wires) and used the now empty holes to attach the wires for the switches. The 2 brown wires to the switch for pin 18, 2 green for pin 17. It's just easier than soldering to the IC, plus, no traces to cut through.
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So does that mean i solder the 2 brown wires to the same switch as the wires for pin 18 (meaning that 4 wires will be soldered to that one switch)? and the same for the green wires but using the switch for pin 17?
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No, not 4 wires on one switch. The browns are for one switch, and the greens are for one switch. The traces from the jumper holes connect to the IC pins.
Or, just solder your wires to the IC pins (blue dots and red dots), and cut the jumpers.
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So how many switches will i end up with all together? From the pic provided it appears that it should be 8, but i have 10 pairs of wires which would obviously result in 10 switches. This is waht could be confusing me. Iv got this far under the impression that i will end up with 8 switches, only to find now that i should have 10. Is this right? 10 or 8? Thanks.
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Eight. The far right two red dots on top ARE the same connection as the top two green dots. The two far right blue dots ARE the same connection as the bottom two green dots. It's just an easier solder job to pull the jumpers and use the green dot pads.
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PSS-460 service manual posted here:
http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19333
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I've been working on a PSS 6 for a bit and am wondering if anyone else out there has found anything on it that I haven't yet.
I found two bends that work with about a third of the presets and make a pretty nice mess out of the rhythms and jam tracks. They're off the main chip in the first few pins on the top right, if my memory serves. Kaseo has some similar bends on his [bEnt or diE] site.
I also found a pretty good low synthy buzz that works ok on a pot as well as some screechy body contacts. The voltage drop crash mod works on this fella too, and though it isn't as flamboyant as on some other keyboards it's still worth adding.
If anyone has any more info on this model (or would like more specifics about what I found) please let me know.
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HI to all!
I'm new here, and I have never had bent any instrument, so I'm completely new in all this. I'm guitarist and ambient/drone/noise/dub music composer, so I'm very interested to make and use new strange sounds. I have Yamaha PS 100 for years and yesterday I tried to make some noises bypassing it's IC. Does anyone here is familiar with how to bend Yamaha PS 100? I need help. If someone has scheme or some instructions how to bend this little peace of shit.
Many, many thanks!
Cheers!
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does anyone know anything about PS100 bending? need help. Thanks guys.
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Are you sure its a PS100 and not a PSS or PSR?
I don't really know which machine the PS100 is but i'd suggest trying the data line cutting mod detailed in this thread if it has separate FM and CPU chips, if its even an FM synth that is.
A while ago i had an ancient huge yamaha home keyboard with a white case that had analogue percussion and some weird squarewave synthesis. i couldn't do anything with it and then it caught fire..........which was fun. I've got a vague feeling that might have been a PS100?
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sorry, Circuitbenders, I'm so stupid. it's PSS100.
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I don't wanna bother anyone, but it would be really nice if someone could tell me how to bend PSS100. :)
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I don't wanna bother anyone, but it would be really nice if someone could tell me how to bend PSS100. :)
well, the lack of replies might suggest that nobodies ever bent one, i certainly haven't
As i said before, if it has separate CPU and FM chips (look for datasheets on chip numbers to find out) then you might be able to do a dataline cutting mod which is detailed somewhere on this thread i think.
Otherwise its just poke around and see what happens.
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many thanks man, i should try that. i'll post some clips with results. cheers!
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I bought a pss-120 for a dollar today. could only find some random body contact distortion off the main IC. :(
Any tips?
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I LOVE THE PSS-280
Sooo many possibilities - almost all pattern changes, but all with bizarreness and too many combinations results in amazing crashes.
Thinking about using this baby to do my first patchbay - but there isn't much room on the case and switches just look so much more sexy.
Considering doing the dataline cut mod aswell.
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140/270 fm mod : http://circuit-bent.net/pss-270-tutorial.html
Hey i'm really new to all this but i'm guessing this bend could be applyed to a PSS-570?
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The drums sounds on the pss-680 are PCM and so can be bent ive added a 14point patch bay usuall gringding and glitch pitch sounds quite harsh i found nothing that affected the tones as the traces to the chips are very thin etc
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140/270 fm mod : http://circuit-bent.net/pss-270-tutorial.html
Hey i'm really new to all this but i'm guessing this bend could be applyed to a PSS-570?
Its entirely possible but it depends how if it has an FM synth chip conneted to the CPU with 8 data lines. Find the biggest. most hardcore looking chip and see if theres another one nearby that has 8 traces linking to it. The FM chip will probably have a code starting with YM something.
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Hey guys, just bought a PSS-11 from a market the other day for 7quid :)
Has anyone fiddled with these at all - going to attack it tonite hopefully!
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The PSS-11 has only a couple of bends, but they are fantastic on some of the voices. It produces probably two of my all time favorite stable and musical bends. I bent mine about a year ago just doing straight point-to-point stuff and found maybe four things, but I haven't been back in to try any of the more advanced techniques.
My only issue with this keyboard is that there isn't an LED to indicate when the power is on, and you can't tell by a quick glance since it uses that big round knob instead of a slider switch. I ended up builidng an LED into mine without too much hassle.
I'll crack it open this evening and post the points I found. Unfortunately, as I'm currently without camera I'll have to give you a verbal description.
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Hey there, recently got into circuit bending and thought I'd try it out on my old PSS-80 I've had since it seemed as big as a full sized keyboard. Anyway, I have found some interesting glitches and loops but have yet to find anything on the board that I can change the pitch with, I've tried wetting my fingers and shorting out a few resistors near IC's but no luck. If anyone could help.
Also I am having trouble working out how most of it is connected, the PCB trace seems to be inconsistent and neither the light green or dark green lines and patterns seem to connect the whole board.
Also, also I'm having a hard time finding bends that can be manipulated by pressing keys.
Cheers.
N
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To change the pitch you will have to replace the crystal with a range of crystals with different speeds or else create your own oscillator. This is the same for all but the cheapest toy keyboards. Some the older semi analogue keyboards can be manipulated by finding points on the circuit board but most cannot.
You can find details for making your own oscilator on sailmouth's website, though I have never made one myself...would be interested to know if anyone else has?
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Ok, thanks. Is the oscillator your talking about basically a variable 'crystal' then? Like the relationship between potentiometer and resistor?
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Yes, basically.
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Hey Ne7,
I finally got around to opening up my PS-11. The really fantastic glitch is a straight jumper between pins 31 and 29 on the big chip. It doesn't sound like much with the piano setting, but if you fuss around with other sounds there's some really amazing stuff.
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i get more and more questions by mail about bending the yamaha pss390
so i want to ask if anyone has question about it, to post them here in the forum,
so that others can take profit/ give answers to
however ;D i don't remember exact details, it has been some time ago that i bended it...
what i remember : it is a multi layer circuitboard, witch makes it very difficult to trace the lines.
so the regular FM dataline cut mod would take a lot of investment if even possible
if ever i open it up, i will take some pictures and post them here
but still one of my favourites, the pss390 4 operator fm keyboardsynth with slider control
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Hey all, new to the forum. This topic led me here. I just finished my first bending project. A Yamaha PSS-30. I added two pots that make nice feedbacky squelches on their own and modulate the voices and beats really well. Also a "distortion/glitch" switch that isn't that useful but sounds good with most voices.
Here's a pic so you can check out my "awsome" paint job :P
(http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t73/arniepics_2007/crunchyshrimp.jpg)
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That actually looks really professional, nice job. ;)
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That actually looks really professional, nice job. ;)
Much appreciated!
Kudos on the WSB quote in your sig, BTW :)
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Kudos on the WSB quote in your sig, BTW :)
;)
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Just completed the data cut mod on a PSS-170 and I wanted to post some additional info:
I didn't have the room (or skill :D) to use them this time but there are at least 7 more points that could be added to this mod on the PSS170. I believe they control the drum patterns and maybe the sounds as well. I've recycled a pic from Circuit-Bent to show where they are:
EDIT: Oops. Skip the point on the far left.
(http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t73/arniepics_2007/PSS170-InsideChips-752512.jpg)
When I get my camera back I'll post a pic of my new toy. I did a "SK-1" style patchbay in the speaker specifically to try and unravel just what can be done with the data lines. To use all the lines you'd definately have to have a breakout box.
Later!
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i get more and more questions by mail about bending the yamaha pss390
so i want to ask if anyone has question about it, to post them here in the forum,
so that others can take profit/ give answers to
I got one of these on Sunday and I have already used it in a track (unbent) and was really chuffed with it.
I am even more chuffed to find its the one you have been raving about! ha. I remember reading your post a while ago and thinking I that it would be amazing to get a 390 but the chances are slim as the ones you see in junk shops always seem to be the wrong ones. Not this time though! ha
I really want to bend it but I am scared I will fry it as I don't really know to much about particular bends, I just delve in and try and find stuff that sound interesting. I don't want to ruin it as I know I will definately get use from it unbent aswell.
Are you able to help me?
I have just been given a PSS580 this morning aswell and while it has no synth sliders it has all that the 390 has and it even has Midi!!, could I test stuff out on the 580 and get the same/similar results as the 390?
Are you able to give me any help on the 390/580? you would be helping a very happy dude!
Cheers
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congratulations with the pss-390 :D
i read back from my old post, that i found only 3 chips interesting ;
.
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
my other investments i don't remember, but certainly you would find more if you take time.
but on these 3 ic's you will be save i guess. mine always recovered from a crash after powering up again.
i did it patchbay style, with an external box. i found most bents pretty stable, in the sense that you always get the same madness in a certain patch. on the other hand it could be totally unpredictable. in some patches it sounds totally strange, but the sliders still function as usual, in other patches they trigger glitches.
on some of the patchpoints i used to connect an antennae, so it could interfear with digital streams in the area,
like cellphones, bluetooth etc, wich seem to modulate the fm carriers (or something ;D)
very nice. also the display acts realy superb, almost scary sometimes :o
the sound of this keyboard is also very nice. the stereo can be very wide.
in general i see this board bended as an intergalactic broadcast receiver, at least that's how it sounds :)
580 i don't know. just be carefull around the DC inlet area . try to search for datasheets on ic numbers.
if it has the same ic's as the 390, your a lucky basterd ;D with midi !
and dont forget to interconnect them ! and let us hear some mp3..
good luck !
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some pictures from inside the pss 390
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:)
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I just bent the PSS-20 as my first bend
There wasnt a lot of bending possibilities on it (as far as i could find anyway) but i did find one really interesting one, because the keyboard has an 'auto arpeggio' feature where you press any bkey and it will do an arpeggio around that key. I found a bend that speeds up whatever is being played so that when the auto arpeggio feature is on you basicly have a really interesting oscillator sound that moves up and down in pitch as you move up and down the keys. This sound can be altered loads by simply changing the speed of the arpeggio, the type of drum rhythm, and 'voice' selected.
The only other worthwhile bend i could find was a kind of distortion that makes a lot of the voices sound like a distorted trumpet.
Those sounds are really interesting but as i say they are the only worthwhile bends i could find on it.
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Wow! thanks very much nochtanseenspecht
I have been shockingly busy at work this week and gutted I have not had time to open her up again, But I will asap and let you know how it goes.
Thanks again!
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you're welcome :)
hope you find some fresh bends
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just a quick warning - i managed to fry my pss-140 within like an hour of opening it up - i guess theyre a lot more delicate than they look.. (or maybe im just unlucky!) ..so watch out our if youre prodding around the 'speaker side' of the board! it seems its probably safest to stick to the documented (data stream) mods unless you have a few spare or like living dangerously 8)
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Did you try to discharge all the capacitors? That may bring it back.
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Did you try to discharge all the capacitors? That may bring it back.
good suggestion, i didnt think of trying that...
..but still no luck unfortunately. :( have you had that happen to you with this particular keyboard before then?
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Not with a 140, but I've had other things come back to life that way.
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just a quick warning - i managed to fry my pss-140 within like an hour of opening it up - i guess theyre a lot more delicate than they look.. (or maybe im just unlucky!) ..so watch out our if youre prodding around the 'speaker side' of the board! it seems its probably safest to stick to the documented (data stream) mods unless you have a few spare or like living dangerously 8)
I've done similar to the last two I tried to modify, though I didn't outright kill them, I fucked up the patches...drums would sounded fine, but the patches we very quite and through a lot of white noise.
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Ugh, i'm just about to mod my 140, thanks for the heads up :)
I don't intend to do anything fancy with it all (ie: I'm not going to probe for bends, unless i find another one ;)), just the data cut mod... which i'm already confused as hell about.
Thanks for the heads up :)
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yeah, the datacut mod ! and you can make other shortcuts on the fm chip of the pss140 savely as well :)
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I picked up a PSS-200 today for cheap at a yard sale (I think UK members call it a car boot sale? I'm in the US)
I've found some really nice distortion bends on it and drum triggers, but I can't seem to find much else. If I was to locate the FM chip (Assuming the data cut method would work with this) I was considering the data cutting method but, (pardon noobish question) I'm a bit unsure on exactly how to do it. Should I just use a small blade and slice across the circuit board in the one area I'm supposed/add switches to correct spots to or is there more to it? only part I'm unsure about is the slicing.
Thanks in advance for any help :]
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if you can find the datasheet for the FM chip you'll see 8 pins labelled D0-D7 or D1-D8. These are the 8 data line pins which wil connect to the main CPU via circuitboard tracks. You should just cut these 8 board trackss with a sharp knife and i usually prize up and roll back some of the copper track just to make sure of the cut.
Install switches accross the tracks you've cut so you can turn them on of off and there you have it.
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Hi. I have a PSS-140 and PSS-270 on the way from EBAY. In the meantime I have been researching any info I can find on these. I plan on doing the data cut mod to them. I have read that the results when, for example, patch 1 is chosen, a data line is switched off, then patch 2 is chosen, will give you random results. Then i read this on the tablehooter site. http://weltenschule.de/TableHooters/WarrantyVoidFAQ.htm states in the "build your own FM synthesizer" section, "Solder at the soundchip side a pull-up resistor (each about 22 kOhm) to each data line and connect their ends to a single alternating switch ("0/1 switch") that pulls the resistors against GND or against +Vs. To use the instrument as normal, switch all DIP switches "on". (The pull-up resistors are necessary because the open data input lines would otherwise pickup EM noise and thus cause random results." Has anyone tried this, and also could someone dumb this down for me. I find it unclear exactly where/how to place the resistors.
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I've got a question about the pss-270 too;
I attempted the data cut mod, and i fucked it up. I soldered and re-soldered and did it all over again. I'm assuming now every pin on the CPU / Synthesizer chip is soldered to either another pin or somewhere else it shouldn't be.
The machine is impossible to use in "normal" operation.
I don't need to turn the switches on or off to get strange patches. i get a paranoid mess each and every time.
When in drum pattern mode, my machine spits a never ending stream of noise, static, giltches, and the occasional melody. At times, it's a drone machine. Other times it's silent. Other times still, the pss-270 will produce wonderful and strange melodies.
The best bit is, that in demonstration mode, it changes to a new random patch at the start of every measure. So if you find a sound you like, you press "stop", and the last patch in memory is still there for you to use/abuse/sample.
So my question is this: Does anyone know what the fuck i did? It's amazing, and i'd like to try do it again.
PS: Jing; I don't know what any of that tablehooters stuff means but if picking up "EM noise" and thus causing "random results" is what my machine is doing, i highly recommend it.
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it looks like the pss-120 is virtually unbendable. i think it's sample based, not FM. shorting pins on the one chip inside, i only get sounds from the various instruments and drum presets. i did find one bend point which creates a feedback loop that's inaudible when the AC adapter is plugged in, but still combines with the instrument that you play and gives it a nice overdriven sound.
the keyboard itself has some decent sounds, but generally not worth buying if you're looking for glitchy goodness.
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anybody have any info on the yamaha psr-77? it's been sitting in my local thrift store for quite a while now (way overpriced, i'm waiting for them to pull it off the floor, knock down the price and then use my employee discount =]) but it looks pretty big and i generally stay away from the keyboards that are bigger than 25 keys for circuit bending... so has anyone tried one out?
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Hell Yeah!
I found a beat up PSS 50 in the trash pile out at my practice space today. The case is pretty destroyed but the keyboard seems to function as stock, though I can't really get my head around it just yet. It has an 'ad lib' button, and it plays Hey Jude.
Super jazzed to bend it tomorrow evening. Details to follow.
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Not so much success with the PSS 50...
I've found a couple of drum mods that aren't that special and nothing else so far. I've been poking around with a 555 oscillator and that hasn't turned up anything either.
Speaking of PSS models and 555s, here's a link to a video of a PSS-6 with a 555 osc in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84VozcvseG8
€There's a diagram over here:
http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,799.0.html (not really sure why I didn't post that in this thread)
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Is there anything that can be done with the PSS 80? Ive added an audio out cable in order to connect it to a mixer so far. Is there anything else worthwhile? Something similar to the PSS 140/270?
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To check if there's a dataline mod available, look for a big chip connected to a smaller one by 8 traces.
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lovely indeed ! ;D
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 ;D
Did I miss the pics on this? Sounds way 8) cool and would love to see what/when/where/how of it all please.
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hmm.. thats some time ago.. no pictures i'm afraid..
but looking back in my diary ;D i found :
xe 562b0 pin 16 connect to pin 11 on ym 2420 will transpose keyboard down (a few octaves if i remember well)
for the sweet fm bass
certainly there's more to explore apart from the datacut mod, it will crash, but not lethal if you stay on this chips
(i hope ;D) yes there's more, but i dídn't wrote it down that time.. just experiment !
and here is my killer advice to turn the pss140/270 into breakbeat riddim machine :
search for an electromagnetic buzzer, like the kingstate kss1206 or simmilar.
you might find it on an old soundcard or modem.
connect this in series with an 100 ohm lin pot and a trimpot, set at +/-50 ohm , between pin 11 and pin 12
now start a rhythm and slowly tweak the pot... suprise suprise :o :o :o ;D
you betta do it before s-cat reads this and run with the patent ;)
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Y'know, you could probably graft a little microcontroller in there, to act as a "proxy" for the data to the YM2413 and mangle it in really complicated ways...
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Goddamn you guys! This is why I check this site four times a day!
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Y'know, you could probably graft a little microcontroller in there, to act as a "proxy" for the data to the YM2413 and mangle it in really complicated ways...
I am a total newb who has dreamed of this stuff for years and as a middle-ager, am finally getting the courage to do this. Would appreciate all the hand holding and whatever background info you could give on this. am surrounded by a bunch of older computer cards and such, so I have plenty of things to choose from and all that.
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Well, the YM-series chips basically talk to the host CPU over an 8-bit bus (that's the data lines you fiddle with). There are also a couple of control lines. What you'd do is wait until a /WR pulse (goes low to tell the YM chip we want to tell it something) and latch the data that appears from the host CPU, and then buffer it in the microcontroller. After mangling it in some suitable way (swap the bits around, switch bits on or off, make up entirely new values) you'd write it back out to the YM2413.
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hmm.. thats some time ago.. no pictures i'm afraid..
but looking back in my diary ;D i found :
xe 562b0 pin 16 connect to pin 11 on ym 2420 will transpose keyboard down (a few octaves if i remember well)
for the sweet fm bass
certainly there's more to explore apart from the datacut mod, it will crash, but not lethal if you stay on this chips
(i hope ;D) yes there's more, but i dídn't wrote it down that time.. just experiment !
and here is my killer advice to turn the pss140/270 into breakbeat riddim machine :
search for an electromagnetic buzzer, like the kingstate kss1206 or simmilar.
you might find it on an old soundcard or modem.
connect this in series with an 100 ohm lin pot and a trimpot, set at +/-50 ohm , between pin 11 and pin 12
now start a rhythm and slowly tweak the pot... suprise suprise :o :o :o ;D
you betta do it before s-cat reads this and run with the patent ;)
Do you by chance happen to mean a kc-1206? I just happen to have an old modem here on my desk with one on it.
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could be, it s a little black can with two leggs and a small hole on top.
but i guess my mod works with any magnetic buzzer..
they're nice to use in other bending projects too, because they act funny if not used as buzzer :P
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pss-790 geat bends and space to install a patchbay. possibilities are endless with this. I get mad d=b drums but by patching to others get great analogue type gated drums. some sinister bass sounds and well modifying the awm sounds the uniqueness is endless - i did fry my first one so tread carefully.
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i did fry my first one so tread carefully.
This, my friends, is what I am wanting to avoid and is clearly why I am taking my time on this.
Thanks
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you're welcome :)
hope you find some fresh bends
Right I left this for quite a while as I needed fresh bending supplies but got back to bending at the weekend.
I opened up the 580 first as I didn't want to break the 390 because its good on its own, I found some nice bends in it but nothing crazy (still think there are more though) so I moved on to some other ones (Sa10 - suprisingly poor up to now)
was feeling a bit deflated so I thought why not open up the 390. I was expecting it to look similar to the 580 as they seem similar on the outside but...... chips galore! the first pins I touched sent the demo tune into a crazy spiral of doom! I was overwhelmed by the amount of bends there was and how quickly they were appearing. I didn't even need to look at you pics I printed out nochtan! ha
I have just checked and we have found the same areas to bend pretty much but I reckon I got a few more (I hope)
I have just made a box and put a ton of bolts through it (+ some switches) as alot of the bends respond to pressure and body contact as it can vary so much just on one bend.
once finished i'll let you know but I might actually be to excited and busy to come back! ha
thanks again nochtan...
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(Sa10 - suprisingly poor up to now)
And it won't get better... this one IS as poor as you assume...
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hey Zoom,
thats great !
if it rains, it pours they say about this kind of keyboards ;)
hehe, i imagine how you feel ; when i finished my 390, i spend long exciting nights exploring the thing..
to many strange noises :o
hope you post some pics and mp3's !
and dont forget to connect an antennea on the interesting points ,for the intergalactic fun :D
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davethedoobie,
Have you finished your Yam PSS-790 project?
I have borrowed one from a friend. I know of only three bends which I saw on www.Klangbureau.de (http://www.Klangbureau.de). One of these produces outrageous avant-garde melodies... superb! :o
What should I stay clear of (apart from the chips that are covered)... do you have any examples, images and such like?
Orangery.
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davethedoobie,
Have you finished your Yam PSS-790 project?
I have borrowed one from a friend. I know of only three bends which I saw on www.Klangbureau.de (http://www.Klangbureau.de). One of these produces outrageous avant-garde melodies... superb! :o
What should I stay clear of (apart from the chips that are covered)... do you have any examples, images and such like?
Orangery.
Circuit Bent PSS 790 Drone (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI4noev2ulQ#lq-lq2-hq-vhq)
PSS 790 Glitchout Circuit Bent (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cBhBU9kHKw&feature=channel#lq-lq2-hq-vhq)
i'm shit at describing this but basically there is a chip above one of the two square chips (if the circuit board is exposed, with the keys facing you) you can see it's legs exposed but the chip itself is on the flipside of the board, anyway you want to just try linking these legs to other points on the circuit board as well as linking them together to get a great range of results. - I remember on the left hand side of the board (with the keys facing you) there is a straight row of 6 - 8 pins and when i first starting making connections there i was triggering drum samples, but when I tried exploring this a little further it killed the keyboard and I nearly cried - but after a couple of minutes of cursing, poking and pulling the batteries out it did spring back to life.
Sorry I don't have any internal images, I'll take some when I open it up next so you can see where I've been fiddling - I have a little more I wish to do - if you find anything cool let me know - I would really like to put some pots/photo resistors on but haven't found anywhere decent enough yet.
I hope this helps a little at least ;) there is plenty of cool bends in there and this is a great keyboard as it stands, it's also great fun to play when you've modded it - my fav project to date
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Thanks for the info and video clips...do you mean the 16 pin chip? It looks like the same chip as in Klangbureau's diagram.
You might find this interesting if you scroll down... http://lemarchanddesable.blogspot.com/ (http://lemarchanddesable.blogspot.com/) The circuit board on this guy's machine is slightly different to mine in that his has two rows of 16 pin chips.
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@orangery
That is very interesting :-* yeah, mine is the same I just have the one 16 pin chip and thats your bend g-spot! as mentioned above, I linked some of the pins together with swithches and got some really cool effects with that, mainly distortions but you tend to get really bizarre stuff when you switch more than one bend on at once. I opened it up again the other day but still found nothing new :( I was disappointed i didn't get any variables in there.
what diagram are you referring to, is there anything good on it?
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Try this... http://www.klangbureau.de/PSS790_E.html (http://www.klangbureau.de/PSS790_E.html)
There are drones, chance compositions (easily my favourite), and arpeggio effects...
Orangery.
PS... the dog didn't seem that impressed. ;D
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Ok, cool yeah those are pretty much the points I found, I didn't care for the arpeggios that much - right then the pic isn't great but I couldn't really produce something much better, you see where the square chip is on the right, above that there is a line of 8 pins, these need to be avoided - i think, I was poking around there and it killed the keyboard for a short while (i think this means I discharged a capacitor as it did come back to life after a short duration) above those 8 pins there can you see the 3 fat solder points that bend around the screw? those are great for distorting and mashing up the drum sounds, again connected to the same chip
PS... the dog didn't seem that impressed. ;D
what do you mean? he's an avant-garde genius!! ;D
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I scored a (dirty as hell) PSS-470 at a yardsale yesterday for $11 (it sounds so fucking good!). When I got it home and opened it up to clean it I found this honkin' capacitor. Is this one of the ones that can throw my dumb ass across the room like a rag doll?
(http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/4923/img4280j.jpg)
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No, thats fine. If you were working on a valve amp or something the caps would be rated at more like 350v or so and that might make your eyes water, but 2200uF 16v isn't going to hurt you.
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Oh good, thanks. Do you think it would be a bad idea to use it as a test contact for bends?
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I wouldn't mess with it, that looks like part of the power supply circuit and theres no point messing around with that. You won't get anything interesting happening and you might fry it.
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Is this one of the ones that can throw my dumb ass across the room like a rag doll?
As Crustypaul says, no, that won't hurt you. You did the right thing by asking though.
If you're in any doubt - either for your own safety, the safety of others, or the safety of your equipment - STOP AND ASK!
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^^^ Thanks again guys! I've got another one for everybody:
PSS-680 drumpads
I got my second 680 in the mail today and it has the exact same problem as the first: very unresponsive drumpads (and I asked the seller about it specifically before winning the auction GRRR!). Short of completely rewiring the pads up to new switches, is there anything I can do to make them playable?
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Ok, so after further experimentation I've found that it's the pads themselves, not the circuit board. sensors. The pads are made of thick heavy blue rubber squares with 5 black dots per pad (they all hit the same trigger).
It might be fun to rewire the pads to a Tiger Lite 3 (http://www.decodesystems.com/games/tiger-lite-3.jpg) I have, which has a red and green LED for each button. Only problem with that is I don't know how (I've been fiddling with it for the last hour with no results).
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Computer at sea, you mentioned connecting pins 29 and 31 on the large chip of the PSS-11. Depending on the orientation of the keyboard and start point those pins could be any one of four permutations. I'm assuming you read left to right (starting top left) with the keyboard face down and piano keys closest you?
Orangery.
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It's been an awful long time since I bent that guy! I usually have the keys facing me and I do read from the top left corner of the chip. As I recall the keyboard was oriented so the chip in concern was closer to the left of the board than the right.
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Ugh.
So I'm doing the data line mod on a PSS 270 and I can't tell what the hell is wrong. I've looked it over a bunch of times and checked everything with a multimeter for unintentional connections and it all looks good. However, there's something awry. It behaves a lot like some of the data lines are open, but everything looks ship shape. Most keys don't play, but some will rumble a little when it's set with the one of the accompaniment features.
Could I have fried the YM2314 or the CPU? I've done this mod on a couple of 140's in the past and my technique has gotten tighter since then, so my solder joints are all done pretty fast and on the green side of the board. I guess I have a hotter iron now (I'm using a WLC100) so maybe that's the culprit? I thought that the YM2314 chips were somewhat rugged, so maybe its the CPU?
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
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Well it was, of course, something much simpler, but a problem I'd never run into before.
I've been using salvaged printer cable for wire for about the last year, since it's small and multicolored and I hadn't had any problems before. Turns out what was going on was that one of my wires was broken inside the heat-shrink. There was no visible evidence on the outside of the wire, but it was cut inside. I replaced it and now the 270 is up and running.
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Fixing drum pads --- if you ever get a toy or keyboard with unresponsive drum pads its normally just a case of opening it up - and checking how the drum pads actually function -
If they are connected to little piezo type pads check the solder points on these for loose connections (and the board) i
If they are connected as on the pss series keyboard to black dots or other contact points grab yourself some isopropyl alcohol and give each of the pads on the underside of the rubber pads a good clean with some cotton swabs/cotton buds then move onto the board and clean the corresponding contacts - you'll soon have functioning drumpads again :)
most poor drum pads / buttons are due to kids having grubby fingers and dirt getting into the keyboard and caking the board and contacts with crap - always have a good go at cleaning them it always makes a difference :)
hope that helps!
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These are really large, heavy pads, all connected to each other than run across the bottom of the keyboard (http://www.ozdeals.com.au/sale/Yamaha-PSS680a-a.jpg). By design they're able to keep out any outside dirt from grubby fingers, but I'm going to try that when I get a chance just the same, so thanks!!
If that doesn't work I was think about cutting thick heavy watercolor paper in thin strips and gluing it to the circuit board to slightly elevate the pads. They really seem like they're just resting on the contacts and the lack of space is the reason for the unresponsiveness. I'm always too damn busy to monkey with it though.
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Hey guys, sorry for the threadomancy, but there's no point in starting a new topic just for this question ;)
I just bought a PSS-580 (not for bending, I like it as it is ;) ) and I'm wondering - If I connect a MIDI keyboard to control it will it recognize the velocity sensitive keys and/or the pitch wheel?
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I've been working on a PSS 6 for a bit and am wondering if anyone else out there has found anything on it that I haven't yet.
I found two bends that work with about a third of the presets and make a pretty nice mess out of the rhythms and jam tracks. They're off the main chip in the first few pins on the top right, if my memory serves. Kaseo has some similar bends on his [bEnt or diE] site.
I also found a pretty good low synthy buzz that works ok on a pot as well as some screechy body contacts. The voltage drop crash mod works on this fella too, and though it isn't as flamboyant as on some other keyboards it's still worth adding.
If anyone has any more info on this model (or would like more specifics about what I found) please let me know.
Hopefully you still have yours, because the PSS-6 is great. I keep reading about the 'voltage drop' mod, and maybe thats what I'm gonna describe. If so, sorry. When I got my PSS-6, I immediately lost the back battery cover. I was playing it one day and it fell off my lap. I grabbed the keyboard in mid-air and when I did, one finger went into the battery area and separated two of the batteries, just for a moment. When I let go, a big rush of static and a marimba note pounded out of the little speaker at about 120 beats per minute. The bend stopped as soon as i turned the machine off. I kept trying my new discovery, which yielded either silent crash or one of many different random (but related and similar) loops as the first one. About a month went by and I was putting the keyboard through some heavy abuse, and the batteries were dying. As they lost power, the loops grew longer in length and more complex musically. I cut one of the battery holder wires and inserted a pot and normally-closed switch in the gap, and now the thing goes and goes. I recommend using a very small value pot (1K-5K). I wired mine up with a 50 and it's usable range is about 10 degrees. I hope that this is informative to everybody. I've never seen anybody else describe this.
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Hey guys, sorry for the threadomancy, but there's no point in starting a new topic just for this question ;)
I just bought a PSS-580 (not for bending, I like it as it is ;) ) and I'm wondering - If I connect a MIDI keyboard to control it will it recognize the velocity sensitive keys and/or the pitch wheel?
PSS-680 definitely responds to velocity, so I expect the 580 would too.
Google for "PSS-580 manual", and look in the MIDI implementation section to confirm
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My curiosity got the better of me.
Page 45 of the manual (page 48 in the 50 page PDF):
Receives: Note on velocity, Pitch bend, Vibrato, Sustain
Sends: Vibrato, Sustain, Portmento
You can also get 1 octave higher via MIDI than you can thru the keyboard.
The rest you can read yourself.
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Thanks for posting this Samspike - you've indirectly helped me with my salvaged PSS keyboard project.
Well, you've helped me sack it off but at least that's one less thing to worry about and one less bit of clunky old gear lying around the house! ;D
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Here's a work in progress and some documentation. The Yamaha PSS-270 is a FM keyboard with a multitude of cool presets and an analog chorus. Here's the first round of discoveries: an octave drop, chorus depth, chorus morph feedback, overdrive, and a sustain twister.
This is still a work in progress, so I'm not sure how these modifications will interact with each other. The connections are marked with colored circles, with an explanation of the provided for each color.
You can find the schematic at:
http://seaweedfactory.blogspot.com/2011/12/yamaha-pss-270-modifications.html (http://seaweedfactory.blogspot.com/2011/12/yamaha-pss-270-modifications.html)
as it is too large to post here.
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Hey all, first post, been lurking a while and got some great tips for you guys. Quick question, does anybody know where on the circuit board to solder in a rca for glitch video output on a PSS-140? I've seen the solder points for that mod on a diagram for a PSS-80, and I have seen a video on YouTube that demonstrates the same mod on a PSS-140, so I know it is possible, just can't find the points for that model anywhere. Trying not to blindly poke around on this one since i am bending it for a friend, and I already half burned out my own PSS-140 (I lost all rhythms, boo). So if anybody has any pointers. I already have the FM mods done and the buzzer (NICE trick there, thanks for the heads up), and will be doing the pitch shift mods and a feedback/distortion. I've already successfully done FM mods to a PSS-270 and a PSR-11 (my favorite sounds of all three so far), and next in line for some trace cutting is my Sega Genesis. LOOOOOOVE the FM mod so hard.
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Anybody? I need to ship him this keyboard this month for a show next month, does anybody know where the video out mod is on this or have any pointers on how to safely poke around for video?
BAUM shows the video bend points on the PSS-80 in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGdpcje173M&list=PL113C66FA8D51DF2C&index=56 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGdpcje173M&list=PL113C66FA8D51DF2C&index=56)
And gaiking11 managed it with a PSS-140 in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr1qE95CFCA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr1qE95CFCA)
As did this dude:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeO6uH1rIBk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeO6uH1rIBk)
I guess if nobody knows where it is, I will poke around on my damaged personal 140 before I fuck with his, if/when I find it I will post back here unless one of you beats me to it. Thanks guys.
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Hi guys, I have a Yamaha PSS 380 that I could bend, with my parent's say so of course. Do people bend these FM keyboards only for doing the data line mods? Because nobody seems to have modded them in any other way
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I successfully did the datalinemod on a Yamaha PSS-101 today, also set up some switches to re-route the datalines - goes crazy pretty fast!
The keyboard has a YM7129 FM chip inside. The pinout can be found on D-Techs homepage:http://www.dtech.lv/techarticles_yamaha_chips.html
Props to D-Tech!
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Hello, I've recently got a PSS 380 but transpose ,tempo and record buttons are not working. According to service manuals, all these buttons are wired to the CPU (correct me if I'm wrong).
Can anybody give me any ideas or insight about the damage?
Is it worth repairing ?
Thanks !