Meet the little-known "Soundblaster" Keyboards 

I found a PSS-470 for sale at a yard sale today for 20 bucks. I saw it and couldnt remember whether or not it was one of the keyboards you had talked about, but I bought it and its awesome. All of this old technology is so interesting.

3:13 "I also wanna show you that it definitely has nine voices. It's actually kind of hard to do, but ill hold down nine keys." *plays nine keys with 5 fingers when he has 10 fingers*

What an outstanding piece of research you have done here... This is what youtube should stand for! And you are quite capable musician too... It would be cool to see the capabilities of this platforms with a little composition These have been 10 minutes well spent... Greetings form Colombia!!

Fun facts for you: 64-bit Windows computers can't emulate DOS games, so sound chip emulators for those aren't bundled with those 64-bit editions. You'll need something else, like DOSBox. On a side note, many versions of Windows, both 64 and 32-bit, emulate a GS Wavetable Synthesizer, with samples from Roland's Sound Canvas GM/GS Sound Set from 1996, for when you ask your music player app to play a MIDI file. These samples were licensed to Microsoft and are bundled with Windows to this day.

2:18 "It's a Sound Blaster with keys!" Funny because the AdLib and Sound Blaster were basically Yamaha DX-series synths _without_ keys. (Well, stripped-down DX series synths.)

This inspired 9yo me to get a PSS-470 for ~$50, and years later I still love it :D

Love this channel. The nostalgia trip is heart warming. Amazing how technology has come a long way , still these devices are very useful.

Those keyboards sound deliciously retro. If I could play I would definitely buy one just so I could recreate old-school video game music.

I think it's more fair to say modern PCs still support the general MIDI standard rather than Yamaha FM synth chips specifically. Sound Blaster cards only included Yamaha's FM synth chips through the Sound Blaster 16 days. Starting with the AWE32, Creative Labs dumped Yamaha's chips in favor of the e-Mu line of MIDI synthesizers/DSPs. They kept support for Yamaha FM synth in their cards only until DOS gaming was dead & gone, and that level of hardware backwards-compatibility was no longer needed. These days, Windows provides MIDI playback via a rather crappy software-based wavetable synthesizer.

These keyboards sound great. So much better than the sample-based Casios I grew up with in the 90s. I would love something like this with a Commodore 64 SID chip in it. I converted an old Casio keyboard into a MIDI keyboard with a breadboard and a Teensy, and I have a SID chip lying around. I might just have to try and make that happen.

I just bought one of these (PSS-470) for $60 after watching your video. Super cool addition to my gear!

Great video, thanks! I really appreciate the time and effort you've put into documenting these YM3812 devices.

Keyboards that use square wave tone generators can also sound very similar to 1980s computer sound chips, such as the C64, Tandy 1000/IBM PCjr, ColecoVision, Atari ST, etc.: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_TkYTt6AYr4.html

I got a PSS 570 for my birthday in 1986. I loved it and made hours of cassette tapes of recording music with it. I thought I recognised the similarity between the FM sounds of the soundblaster cards in the early 90s and my old keyboard!!

Wowsers, I have a PSS-570 and PSS-270 sitting beside me as I watch this. They were my first two keyboards from back in the 80's when I was learning to play.

Oh my god, that Ultima 6 intro sounded so MAJESTIC on this keyboard .... so nostalgic. I am shedding a tear :)

So excited to hear the new music channel. This is just the material I would wish to produce. Looking forward to some create sounds from the past.

As a child born in the 70’s, that grew up in the 80’s and 90’s, I absolutely love your channel 👍

Awesome video man!!! Really brings me back!

Love this! Those were amazing times of discovery. Look forward to your music channel.

Cool. I love FM synthesis. Yamaha developed many FM sound chips throughout the 80s and 90s. Pretty much anything you heard was yamaha until the later half of the 90s when sample based sound was becoming common. Yamaha changed the world with its professional keyboard DX-7 in 1983.

I saw this video of a live performance from 1987, where the (extremely skilled) keyboardist was able to rock his fingers side to side in order to produce a fluttering sound - similar to one you'd hear if you were to do the same on strings. It must have been an extremely advanced keyboard for its time, and it definitely was a nice performance. It seemed to have plenty of synths as well. It would be cool to identify.

This channel is awesome! It really gets me fascinated about how that good old technology from the 80s and 90s worked. Amazing!

Hearing those sounds made me roll back my eyes with joy! I thought I'd never hear anything like that again!

It's always worth watching your videos. Thanks!

07:17 just a fun fact, the synth used by Van Halen on "Jump" was the Oberheim OB-X, which was analog. Still, sounds fine if a little tinny on this Soundblaster chip.

Very nice video! I also loved the one you made explaining the synth sound on each one of the consoles and old computers. It is really illustrative to learn how to compose that kind of music from the bases.

Oh man, hearing the SQ3 theme took me way back! Like how you make this informative even for people who are that not much into hardware.

Dude, you are great at playing the synthesizer !

I had the Yamaha PSS-470 back in the day. Had no idea it was an FM synth. Guess it was a poor kid's DX7 :)

I found a PSS 470 at a thrift store a few years ago. 20 bucks in the box, adapter included. I had no idea about the history of it's sounds! Such a cool little synthesizer.

Such a great video so glad I stumbled on this! I'm even more excited to know now about your music channel!

As a fellow Pianist,..you sir,...are a very good piano player :)

Wow the iBook Guy plays the piano!

Love your music videos now and always, cool that you have a Soundblaster in a Keyboard. Honestly though I could listen to you play music all day.

So stoked for that music channel!

Damn man...all this AND the Slurm tee? Instant sub!!!!

Thanks to this video, I got my own! Now I love my PSS-570 soundblaster keyboard :) It is difficult to exactly match the sounds I remember from my favorite DOS game Soundblaster soundtracks though.

Hi @The 8-Bit Guy, the top of the range Yamaha home keyboard at the time was the PSR 36. It is a PSR 32 with the 470 sliders added back in, AND ALSO MIDI!

i love old tech and keyboards is one of them love how you record keyboards at high quality really shows how great thay still sound after all them years now you are making me want Soundblaster now :)

That "piano" music is so very SNES. That is the sound of a town in a 16-bit JRPG.

Oh man, I’m so glad I didn’t grow up in the eras where soundcards were necessary. That would be awful! I’d be stuck with PC Speaker as I’m an idiot and wouldn’t know how to install a better card.

PSS-470 was my first keyboard as a kid, it was great for a beginner, had so much fun with that little keyboard

My first keyboard ever was the Yamaha PSR-16 that uses the YM3420AD and YM3420BF chipset. It also has the "digital synthesizer" FM operator controls, which I loved as a kid.

I totally remember the "Sound Blaster" sound card ! I still am using my late cousin's "Creative (Labs)" small speakers (for a laptop).

This and your other videos helped me to understand how the music from the games of my childhood worked. Thanks for all your hard work!

still one of my favorite videos from this channel

Very neat and informative! I stumbled upon this by accident, but am glad I did and it was definitely worth the watch. I like your clear and concise method of presentation. Keep up the great work!

BRING BACK THE FM SYNTH CHIPS

Ahh... that 8-bit keyboard sounds is hitting me right at my nostalgia hahaha. The only keyboard I ever played was an actual virtual keyboard that came with my old "Soundblaster Live! Value" soundcard software, it was a good piece of software, it allowed you to do a lot all sort of things. The good old days when MIDI music was the rage!!

Thanks to your video I bought a splendid PSS-560! Sounds, looks and feels terrific, thx 8-bit Guy! And kudos for the new channel, 8-bit Keys! ^^

I've decided yours is the best channel on youtube No matter the subject, you make it very interesting! Thank you for your efforts.

glad you can still get the YM3812 chips on ebay! for cheap too. I will definitely do some projects with them

just found this channel and its awesome . I´m working on my blog talking about atari sound and music and i wanted to do a chapter about soundblaster and pc music. I think i will mention this episode on my blog.

I had a PSS-560 back in the day. May have to get another one! And I use a SoundBlaster ZxR today. Thamks for taking me back 😊

Thanks 4 showing all the gr8 Stuff, which we missed as kids ! keep it up !

Okay, in the last four hours you've not only convinced me to get back into game dev as a hobby, but also get a PSS-470 because that Ultima 4 intro was sick. I guess thanks; I've subbed and so have my friends. Great videos man! Annnnnd all your Futurama shirts kick ass.

Who's here in 2019 and remarking at how EMPTY HIS WALLS ARE?!?

I love the sound of these!

Getting a PSS-570 tonight ! Excited. This is perfect for old school pc / console music.

Bit disappointed there's no actual Sound Blaster involved. And technically I think the chip would be more accurately called an Adlib chip, since the SB contained it for Adlib compatibility. As well as a way of having synth sounds. The Adlib was an earlier "standard" as much as there was one back then, still most PCs didn't have sound cards at all til the early 90s. I remember playing Doom with my SB16. Doom is 50% of the reason I bought a PC, and that's true for a lot of people. It had the same chip, I think, or a compatible one. Nowadays sound is all synthesised on your CPU, the PC's built-in sound chip is just a DAC, it can only play back samples, generated on the fly in software. Some more expensive cards have DSPs to generate those, cheap or built-in ones use the CPU. Still nice to see some of the cool old keyboards though. I managed to find the old demo tune from my old Casio keyboard and used it for a ringtone. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go! Used nearly every instrument the little keyboard could do, and there were like a hundred!

Great video! Space Quest 3 and Ultima 6 were some of my favorite games to play as a kid, so I highly approve of the example songs. =] I have a few comments: At 8:10, you mention all voices on the YM2413 / OPLL have to use the same instrument, but that's not actually true. It's just that you can only define one instrument. Each channel can play that instrument or one of 15 other instruments that are not definable. The other instruments are generic stuff like "Trumpet" or "Vibraphone", and on keyboards that contain a YM2413 (I believe the PSR-6 has one?), the instrument chooser doesn't have to do any real "logic" to choose an instrument. A button can just send "switch to instrument 7" or whatever. For reference, here's a track that uses a YM2413: inversephase.bandcamp.com/track/token-ringfinger Anyone mentioning they have a different keyboard with potentially a different chip that "sounds the same" might be interested in knowing that they're probably still Yamaha keyboards with Yamaha OP-series chips, which means they're still built around FM. The underlying process with building music with FM is mostly the same regardless of the chip, which is why. Lastly, as for "having a keyboard with a Soundblaster in it"....you know that the gameport (that 15-pin thing) can double as a MIDI port, right? So you can connect any dumb MIDI controller with no output of its own to that and "play the soundblaster" if you like. Extra bonus, if you have some outboard gear like a Roland MT-32, you can use that soundcard selection to send music data from the same port.

Really great episode! Really appreciate this one. I'll be looking for one of those models. Thanks!

Music from the Sound Blaster board will always hold a special place in my heart. I remember playing those old DOS games with my brothers when I was a kid...

oh my god the soundboard looks like the soundcard I tore up last week for an art project

damn i remember back in the day i had to buy a sound card for warcraft 2 to have sound.

I have a Yamaha PSS-170. It's one of my favorite keyboards! The Sustain and Portemento buttons are my favorite features. Thanks for this information.

Supercool! Thanks for this video!

Add some guitar effects pedals and the possibilities are nearly endless

Hey man, i love your videos. You should do a review of Windows 1.0 Hope you reply

Thanks to your video I finally found one of these about a year ago!

I love this channel. I've seen almost all the videos! I managed to pick up a Yamaha PSR-11 today at a garage sale for $2. It needs a little work, but big win!

the extreme closeup of your face makes me a bit uncomfortable since it is literally life sized on my 34" UltraWide screen:) Move back a bit guy! P.S. Still glad i found your channel since i also appreciate and interested in old computer tech. Wish you had more videos though - keep up a good work!

How funny that Yamaha used Yamaha chips for its own keyboards...

I love that you feature the Ultima games....First game i ever purchased was ultima 3 and they were a highlight of my computer life growing up. Thanks for the memories.

Great video. Very informative!

YO if you like controlling OPL2 you should check out adlib tracker and control OPL3!

LOL @ 7:20, yeah I'm pretty sure it was an OB-8 or OB-Xa or something... :D

So this was the beginning of 8 Bit Keys... cool. Gonna binge watch them all.

I'm not musically talented, I don't even find keyboards interesting - but for some reason i find your videos really interesting and entertaining. I think it's your presentation style that keeps me engaged. Love your other channel too - keep up the good work!

@ The iBookGuy The Yamaha PSS-360, PSS-370, VSS-30, VSS-100, and VSS-200 seem to be based on the Yamaha YM-3812, because they are based on similar FM synthesis.

I wonder if my Samsung Galaxy S4 emulates that Yamaha chip.

Just found this video, very informative and well presented! I have 2 PSS-470 and I have looked unsuccessfully on the web for info about them, great video.

This is great information 8-Bit Guy. One day I'll track down the right keyboard with the mentioned sound blaster chip so that I have the tools to create the original sounds.

1:21 COMIC SANSSS

What video cards (even in 2015) are still emulating CGA / EGA modes for compatibility? I don't think the pixel clock goes low enough to drive those signals...

In retrospect this video was so important in the lore of David's RU-vid content. It announced the launch of the much-loved "8-Bit Keys" channel #anewera #yuge

Lovely video. Back in the 80's, I owned a Yamaha keyboard with a custom made flightcase. It was from the Yamaha PSS series. Also had a Casio with built-in sampler which was great fun to mess and play around with friends!

Cool video, but wouldn't it be more accurate to call them Adlib keyboards? The SoundBlaster was more than a music card.

The captions are very screwed up. It says English, but it's either Spanish or French!

You have magic powers Sir! Really good work here. Very informative.

I love your vids!!!

Van Halen most likely used an Oberheim synth for Jump.

Sees the empty walls. "Holy $#!+, this is an old video!" Checks description. "Yep... 2015"

I have a Yamaha PSS-470, wish I had one as a kid since I loved Sega Genesis sounds. Love your channel!

I'm happy to see someone still sees it

The “English” captions for this video are in Spanish or Portuguese?

that's synth is a kids toy? I paid 200 for a tiny korg

Holy crap I had a PSS460, got it for Christmas that year! I loved it, used it in a teenage band with some spliced 1/4 inch cables to run through a Crate G60 amp with a Celestion speaker. A year later I ended up buying an Ensoniq ESQ1 and retired it. I had a lot of fun with that 460. For what it was, it sounded pretty decent, especially being able to mildly tweak the sounds with the sliders. Thanks for the video and trip down memory lane!

This is the first of your videos I've seen. Well done, sir! It's just a very good video, and you're an impressive keyboardist.