i want to see the videos made by the guy who lives across the street from 8bit guy, trying to figure out why his neighbor is always hosing off old electronics in his driveway and baking them in the sun.
Thank you for getting around to reviewing this thing. Shame you couldn't fully restore it. And I said "FM-ish sounds" A DX7 it was far far from. Sorry it was so dirty, but it came out of the back of a closet, and it hey it gives something to put on your channel! Why give a donation when I can give CONTENT!
The PSS-270 was standard issue for our music class in 90's UK. That demo song has caused many mental breakdowns and rage quits amongst music teachers. Thanks for the nostalgia-gasm. :-)
The PSR6 used Mendelssohn's "Spring Song" at a faster 3:4 timing...and it caused my family many headaches hearing it over and over again over when I heard lol. Funny enough I looked up the orchestral arrangement to Spring Song and played it in the background while watching this video as I was commenting....added a somewhat fun atmosphere to it.
BigBoy4884 Onkyo uses that connector in their receivers, too. (I have one. ) the only way I knew how to get them off was I clicked on this video to watch it and stumbled over this comment.
I love The 8 Bit Guy! The fact that someone puts so much time into restoring these old electronics is amazing! Thank you sir for your labor of love. I even bought one of your shirts that I wear proudly!
Honestly I really love the sounds of the YM2413 chip. It's FM synthesis in its most raw form, and just requires creativity on the composer's end. Kenseiden on the Master System really utilizes the chip well, as do Ys and Golvellius. I'd love to use this or the PSS-270 if I actually understood how to play keyboards in general.
Wow I had this keyboard when I was a kid. And I would never have remembered unless I saw this video. Even if it wasn't this exact keyboard, it must have been incredibly close because I remember ALL those sound synths. What a nostalgia trip. Thanks 8-bit Keys/Guy! Seriously, this was so much fun. Edit: Nope. It's 100% confirmed. When I heard you play the demo at the end, I knew for sure. I must have heard that demo a billion times when I was a kid. Oh man, what a trip!
I had a PSR-6 when I was a kid and loved the demo. I'd leave it running in the background for an hour at a time while I played with toys or whatever. It picks a random instrument every measure or two, so it's never really the same demo. It wasn't until I got a Yamaha P-70 twenty years later with a few dozen demo songs (including the same one from the PSR-6) that I learned the name of the piece from the listing in the manual. It's Felix Mendelssohn's Song of Spring, Op. 62, No. 2. Someone posted a video with five minutes of the PSR-6 demo: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-g-a2kLthRig.html (You can get a much better idea of the random instrument changes there.)
That keyboard may be kind of worthless, but it holds a VERY SPECIAL place in my heart. It was the FIRST keyboard I ever owned. Back in the late 80's, I was just beginning my very first actual musical recordings of tape experimentation (very musique concrete using multiple tape recorders and anything else I could find, crudely cutting tapes together to make rhythms and strange sounds) and that keyboard became an integral part of the setup. I still have those old tapes from back then and the sounds of "Accordion", "Comet", and "Glass Celesta" were all used heavily in those recordings. I kind of miss it and wish I still had it.
I always like watching these restoration videos as I like collecting older keyboards and I have started restoring them now that I know how after watching these. I recently found my Yamaha PSR-3 after cleaning my house and I haven't played in a few years, so I am going to clean and restore it soon and I am wondering how similar it will be to take apart as this keyboard is.
Hi! I think that the connector at 1:30 need to push on the sides then pull the black cable. I use to repair VCR and they have connector like it. (Sorry for my english greetings from Argentina)
you mean push down from the top narrow ledge and and the wires pull off leaving the white holder, also i figured out how to repair a dead key if you want to know email bluenosegrass@hotmail.ca
I have actually restored a PSR-6 this afternoon. To remove the keys you need to take out the long pcb where this "not disconnectable" black wire is as well as the rubber connectors beneath them. You get access to various groups of keys that can be unmounted together and washed. Still, great video. Have a good day.
This was my first learner keyboard, over 17 years ago. I was never too fond of it, and honestly can't say I am even after learning to enjoy FM. I have a ton of nostalgia for the demo song and the drums, but it's generally a boring keyboard without much character. And this coming from the guy who owns two Casio PT-1s. Edit: some of the sounds are surprisingly powerful.
I always thought Casio just sounded so much better than Yamaha when it came to the sound quality on their 80's-era keyboards. Have fun with that Cat keyboard, and if you cant get good sounds out of it, please run over it with the streamroller!
I miss my PSR-6. Gave it to my cousin when I got my first MIDI keyboard. She never turned it on once she got it home. Not sure what happened to it. It's either in my aunt and uncle's garage, she gave it away, or her dog chewed it up for all I know.
PSR-6: Elevator music or main-screen music for some kind of adventure game PSS-270: Village music for an RPG game of some kind. Those are what they remind me of.
Out of all my corny Goodwill finds, this one is by far my favorite (out of the full sized keyboard category). It may not be quite up to DX7 territory, but there's a distinct FM stank on it, and that makes the approximations of instruments far more charming and sonically pleasing than more 'accurate' sounds in later low-end synths. This one isn't just sitting on a shelf as a collector's item, it's what I sit down at when I try to work out a melody or chord progression, or even when get it in my dumb head I'll learn to play keys and not just noodle around... I love it.
I recently purchased a Guitar Hero controller that came with the first two games. When I tried to play on it, the green fret button would get stuck. That made the game unplayable. Long story short, I took it apart to fix it. Upon fixing the green fret, the red fret proceeded to get stuck. I'll make a video about it eventually, but that was one of the most aggravating things I've ever experienced.
The production quality goes up with every new video - I can't imagine the work that goes into resetting camera angles constantly and writing down markers in the recording when all you want to do is just disassemble and fix. Great job!
There's no doubt, it is time consuming. I've determined over the years that when I do a project on video it takes 3X to 4X as long as just doing it without videoing it.
Interesting to see the difference between the PSR-6 and my PSR-12. The YM3812 has some iconic sounds that I love recording in some of my music, but I will say I wouldn't mind having Comet in my arsenal. Yamaha always makes me buy their various models just so I can have one or two sounds I enjoy!
Dude, use a toothbrush for tight/small places. That's what they were designed for anyways. YM2413 has one fully unlocked instrument register that is programmable just like OPL2. Shame they didn't put any programming capabilties in this thing. It's a very capable little chip for its time that it offered at a relatively cheap price.
8-Bit Keys do you know maybe something about different versions of PSR6? My one has a Headphones/Aux Out maybe they release different versions in the Europe? BTW i love your channel You inspired many people....
At around 11:00 you play a great song! I thought the sound was very familiar to the Panasonic FM-PAC, which was a very popular sound cardridge for the MSX system. So I looked it up, and it turns out that the FM-PAC has the exact same sound-chip as this keyboard. Never knew that it was also used in other products. Nice.
Always cool to see these restorations! Looking forward to that follow up video! I've seen that keyboard at Target and played around on it at the store, but the only real keyboard riff i can remember off the top of my head is Mongoloid by Devo so whenever I see a toy keyboard at the store I always play that and then my wife gives me half dirty look and half look of ironic appreciation.
Speaking as an independent musician, I don't think any of us would prefer to use something like this over a program like AdLib Tracker which is way more versatile. And also free.
I remember some local alternative bands in Kansas and Texas in the 80's and 90's used cheap Casio and Yamaha keyboards on stage. One even added a strap on his to make it kind of a keytar. And they ran the keyboards output through effects over the PA system or the guitar amps to beef up their sound.
i used to own a yamaha psr-6 too!!! decent instrument but 30 years later I still regret getting THAT keyboard instead of asking my granny to buy a more sophisticated casio (which also had midi iirc??) at service merchandise. 😒
I don't have any sort of attraction to keyboards, nor do I have any musical talent, but I just LOVE watching him disassemble stuff, clean, fix, and restore, and put it all back together again.
I just discovered this today. I had this when I was a very young child. I still have no idea how. I got it at a yard sale in 1985 for like 15-20 dollars. Which makes no sense. But back in those days that type of thing would happen.
The other day I found a keyboard at a neighbor's curb that was going to be sent to the dump. I grabbed it because it looked like it was in working condition and it worked fine when plugging it in with a generic AC adapter. The keys were a little dirty, but other than that it was in great condition. The model in particular was the Yamaha PSR-290, which isn't even old enough to be considered a retro keyboard, and it's overall it's a decent pro-sumer keyboard.
The sounds are awful... but it's still my keyboard that my grandpa bought me when I was 13 (1988)!!! I gave it to my son, and I still use it for my compositions!!! I Love PSR-6!!! unique sounds!!!
I favor this channel over 8-bit guys because I'm a musician and not so much a computer guy. PLEASE UPLOAD MORE CONTENT MAN!!! YOU'RE THE BEST AND NONE OF THE OTHER RU-vidRS CAN MATCH YOU!!!
@@FrozenIceMan ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0KQ7UTdadlY.html&lc=Ugw708zQU-fvgh8QdaN4AaABAg.8Xx40uOa1cH8YBCWMAuSWD "Felix Mendelssohn's Song of Spring, Op. 62, No. 2" (from Songs Without Words; more often translated as Spring Song instead of Song of Spring but whatever) Now looking for the other one.
@@FrozenIceMan ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0KQ7UTdadlY.html&lc=Ugw708zQU-fvgh8QdaN4AaABAg.8Xx40uOa1cH8YBCWMAuSWD "Felix Mendelssohn's Song of Spring, Op. 62, No. 2" (from Songs Without Words; more often translated as Spring Song instead of Song of Spring but whatever) Now looking for the other one.
My high school's music department had a whole load of PSS-270s at the disposal of students in the early 1990s. I didn't make much music on them, but it amused me greatly that the model's demo mode song was Just The Way You Are by Billy Joel :) I might have to find one on eBay for the sake of nostalgia ^^
My uncle had something like this one, either this one or a keyboard below it. I remember spending lots of time playing with the comet effect way too much. That and his bright red SHS-10 Yamaha keytar. Edit: lol, never mind, it was definitely the PSS-270 :D Double edit: The PSS-270 demo mode is a nostalgia tidal wave, that's definitely it.
Great stuff as always, and having worked retail at one point for over 5 years and stocking toy isles, I'll admit I've sometimes played around with the "TOY" keyboards that have batteries in them for demo modes, and have been surprised a few times by some of them with how decent they can actually sound, so looking forward the next video. :-)
I remember my mom used to have a keyboard... I swore it was a Casio... but it might've been a Yamaha. It had a bunch of colorful buttons like this, but actually had more of them. It didn't have a screen either, and the speaker was up with all the buttons, not to the left/right of the main keys. I remember it had some really funky sounds and demos, it also had a metal bar to hold sheet music up, and she had a dust cover for it too. I have no idea what exact model it was... but I wish I could figure it out. It was all black / dark plastic on the outside. I also remember it having a MIDI (DIN) port(s?) on it too, but we never used that. I swear it must've come anywhere from the late 80s to mid 90s.
look in the old picture albums your mom probably made, if not there should be some box littered with old pictures where they just got too lazy to ever put them in an album :P thats the way I found out the old model we used to have 25+ years ago :)
I still have an old casio. We had a box, manual, power supply and dust cover for it, but we put it up for auction years ago. It didn't sell, but along the way the Auction house lost the power supply, and apparently threw out the box. Euugh. Figures.
Black Casio keyboard with color buttons, speakers AND midi? Well, you're having a lucky day, because there aren't many Casio keyboards from back in the day which fits that description. I think it's probably one of the keyboards from their 1989 Midi line: MT-240, MT-260, MT-540, CT-460, CT-640, ... They were all very popular back then. There is also the HT series, but those aren't very colorful keyboards. Nevertheless, they are the HT-700, HT-3000 and HT-6000. Good luck finding the correct instrument! Was it a smaller keyboard or a bigger one, by the way? That would narrow down the results quite a lot.
On some of these keyboards would it be possible to swap diffrent chips out (like a later iteration or a non cost reduced version processor) or a diffrent rom chip to improve how they function?
I dissasembly mine, the workaround of those keys is to remove first the pcb underneath and then the rubber pads that holds them, that way the keys will go out easily
1:23 don't know what that connector is called but DO NOT TRY TO DISCONNECT IT!!! I found the same thing in my Pioneer RX-560 hifi and they are meant to be permanent. Found that out the hard (and expensive) way At least I finally learned how to solder after all of that
That pop, I've heard that exact pop before when I was doing a discrete YM3438 on a Genesis model 1 mod, replacing the YM2612 (I was the first one who actually succeeded in doing this mod). It happened when there was an impedance mismatch because the FM synthesizer and the op amps.. It's fixable, but it's funny Yamaha didn't get this correct when they manufactured it, or they simply didn't care too much since it would be sold cheap anyway.
This is the keyboard I learned to play on as a child, I was about 7 years old. I used it for a few years up until my teens. I saved money for a year to buy the Roland D-20 keyboard. And my mind was blown away by the sound quality in that synth.
This was my first keyboard. I had just started taking piano lessons about 20 years ago, and my dad bought me this from some now defunct department store (I wish I remembered the name). I didn't stick with piano long, and this keyboard was horrible to play, but I moved on to guitar, and still play that today. However, I dug it out of the attic maybe 10 years ago and tried to see about circuit bending it or getting cool sounds out of it and... well... it was just as bad as I had remembered. I'm not surprised the internals are so poorly put together. But, either way, thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Third wire on a speaker is probably just shielding or it is possible (although unlikely) the amp has a split output, typically seen in transformer coupled amps. I would have to see it more in detail as to what it actually connects to. I think it's a bit too 'young' to be a field coil speaker.
I had this keyboard as a kid. I just got another one recently from a goodwill in MN for $10. They said it didn't work and it was missing a button. But I powered it up fine and it works great. With the help of this video I took it apart, cleaned it up, and even found the missing button inside it. Looks almost new now. Thanks for showing the way! I plan to use this for some ambience; even the cheap sounds are awesome when run through a bunch of Earthquaker devices. 😁🎵
Loving the keyboard vids. I have never been able to play one or enjoyed playing one. But watching you repair them and then play them is amazing. The sounds just take me back to so many games I've played.
Great video! This keyboard is similar to the first one I had with full sized keys; the Yamaha PSR-11. It only had 16 sounds. That keyboard has since died, but I still have access to the sounds. Before moving away from my home town, to go to College, I sampled all the sounds from my various childhood instruments, using my Roland W-30. The best two were the Casio CT-670 & the Yamaha EL7.
You were preparing us for the worst when describing the song you came up with, but actually it's a great song. I think it's by far one of the best original songs I've heard on your end-of-video keyboard demos.
Well, here it is, the review of my favourite keyboard out there (since I owned that as a kid, and I still have it BTW). Shame you didn't like it that much, but I understand PSR-6 wasn't made for high-end use anyway. But, what I found interesting, was the dissasembly process. Because I managed to do a full dissasembly last year, and I didn't manage to hit any snags just like you. The bare wires of the ribbon cable were clamped onto the mechanism so I could remove it by pushing the sides a bit, whereas for the keys themselves, I didn't have any problems removing them, so I guess there has to be a different version, either there were differences between US and European versions of the keyboard, or they simply redisgned it, because my PSR-6 was made in '89. But if you want David, I can dissasembly the keyboard again, and I can send the results plus some photos to you...
Sorry to hear you're down on the psr6. Gigged with this for years and used it in many recordings. Of course most of it was silly stuff but I really enjoyed those sounds. Here's this band I had in 07 called Meager Bop. This keyboard was used on every song. We never officially recorded. Only have this jambox recording of a practice. But it sounds decent for that. Anything on my soundcloud that says "Meager Bop" has lots of PSR 6 on it. soundcloud.com/nathanbrowningham/oh-shit-oil-slick-meager-bop
Also, this is a children's keyboard band I had back in 03 called AC Identity. We used PSR6 on several songs. You're right though that it doesn't seem apparently cool and usable right off the bat. In fact I could see how using it as the only sound source would seem dumb. But the sounds work well mixed with other keyboards and instruments. nathanbrownstuff.bandcamp.com/album/kennetectomy
..keep thinking of examples. This is from my solo project. Used the synth bass sound from the PSR6 on it. Awesome sound. soundcloud.com/nathanbrowningham/05-gotta-get-it-outta-here
