Yamaha Portasound PSS-460 FM keyboard demo - "Night Vision"

Published on Nov 30, 2019 Alfonse

"Yamaha Portasound PSS-460 keyboard (1986)
All sounds you hear in the track were made using the PSS-460; some were run through delay pedals (the Vestax DDX vintage digital delay and the more recent Boss DD7). All parts were recorded to a DAW, where compression, EQ, and reverb were added as required. I also double-tracked the lead synth part (each part tuned fractionally differently) to give it a fatter sound. Individual drum hits were sampled from slowed-down rhythms and processed to allow fresh beats to be built, rather than using the rhythms found on the PSS-460 itself.

The aim of these videos is to see what you can create using sounds from ageing home keyboards together with current production tools. The 460 was one of a few of Yamaha's PSS range to use the same YM3812 sound-generating chip used in the Soundblaster soundcards of the late 80s/90s.

Synth settings are editable via the sliders on the top right of the control panel. If you have one of these keyboards and want to recreate the sounds, here are the parameters:

Bluesynth (edited): 2 5 1 1 3 3
Synth 1: 2 3 5 4 5 3
Vibes (edited): 5 5 5 5 3 3
Synth 2 (bell): 3 5 3 1 3 3

Music: "Night Vision" (C) Copyright 2019 Alfonse
Download here: https://alfonse.bandcamp.com/album/l

ALFONSE
Store: http://alfonse.bandcamp.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/alfonsemusic
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/alfonsemusic
Soundcloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/alfonsemusic"