Uploaded January 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Synth Stuff Yamaha PSS480 Music Station
Its been a while since I did one of these synth stuff items but since I got a Yamaha PSS 480 under the xmas tree and made a few tracks with it last night its time to dork out again! The Yamaha PSS480 is a 2 operator digital FM keyboard synth ‘music station’ sort of similar to the PSS380 (which I used to have and was given away as the 1st prize in the 2016 drawing competition). It seems a littlebit more advanced then the 380, the 480 having memory for own programmed patches, quite advanced MIDI implementation, polyphonic (!!!) portamento and some more sequencing capabilities. The sound is a littebit less rough and more delicate…thats probably because it uses a different FM chip (the YM7129 OPK2). It doesn’t have sliders like the 380 but programming is still very easy with just a few function buttons and using up and down keys under the LED display to alter the parameter values. A cool thing is that there are lots of ‘secret’ sound programming functions that you can access via MIDI (with the CTRL PSS480 programmer for example). Overal its quite a useful warm sounding snazzy little keyboard synth that can bring a smile to any lover of FM synthesis…excellent for vaporous digital artefact ambient.
Here are some demos/improvs with some Chinese cheap MOoeR shimverb pedal and chorus pedal connected to the PSS480 through a Signature edition Soundcraft mixer…the PSS480 really sparkles with some chorus effect over it:
Synth Stuff Yamaha PSS480 Music Station
Its been a while since I did one of these synth stuff items but since I got a Yamaha PSS 480 under the xmas tree and made a few tracks with it last night its time to dork out again! The Yamaha PSS480 is a 2 operator digital FM keyboard synth ‘music station’ sort of similar to the PSS380 (which I used to have and was given away as the 1st prize in the 2016 drawing competition). It seems a littlebit more advanced then the 380, the 480 having memory for own programmed patches, quite advanced MIDI implementation, polyphonic (!!!) portamento and some more sequencing capabilities. The sound is a littebit less rough and more delicate…thats probably because it uses a different FM chip (the YM7129 OPK2). It doesn’t have sliders like the 380 but programming is still very easy with just a few function buttons and using up and down keys under the LED display to alter the parameter values. A cool thing is that there are lots of ‘secret’ sound programming functions that you can access via MIDI (with the CTRL PSS480 programmer for example). Overal its quite a useful warm sounding snazzy little keyboard synth that can bring a smile to any lover of FM synthesis…excellent for vaporous digital artefact ambient.
Here are some demos/improvs with some Chinese cheap MOoeR shimverb pedal and chorus pedal connected to the PSS480 through a Signature edition Soundcraft mixer…the PSS480 really sparkles with some chorus effect over it:
