Sonicware XFM & Yamaha PSS580 FM Jam - Generic Water Level Music

video upload by ChrisLody

"Apologies for the lack of videos recently. I've started back up as a self employed carpenter and joinery and I've been flat out with work since. I completely underestimated the desire for tradespeople to be honest so it's caught me by surprise!

But today I managed to find time for this jam at least. It was inspired by a question left on one of my much older videos, does the Yamaha Pss-580 (and related models) sync to an incoming clock signal? The answer is actually no, but it does send a clock and will also respond to stop/start signals so there's plenty to work with. It also has a useful midi filter so we can turn off incoming channels, useful here as the XFM is sending 4 channels out.

The XFM is sequencing the Pss-580, but the 580 is sending clock to the XFM meaning we have midi in and out connected on both devices. This has to be set up carefully or midi feedback can occur. I also had to disconnect the input to the XFM when I wanted to record new notes to the sequencer because the midi filter on the 580 seemed to be stopping notes for some reason. Still well worth a jam.

I built this track by programming a single part and then altering it using the transpose function. While it plays it possible to alter the sound in realtime on the Pss580 which is a fun way to experiment with FM sounds. The whole things sounds like generic video game water level music to me :)"