"Do not buy one of these, with the impression that you are going to make beautiful piano music." And then he proceeds the next 3 minutes making beautiful piano music.
It has great sounds (I have mine with me now), just nothing that sounds like the instrument it is supposed to be. There are 3 "human voice" sounds that are absolutely hilarious. I love this keyboard. It is great for adding in quirky effects that are hard to find anywhere else.
Brilliant.... I'm 65, recovering from a stroke and have decided to teach myself how to play a little music. I picked up one of these for £5 and I'm very happy to have just found some of the features you've demonstrated here. I only wanted a 'toy' to teach myself some fingering techniques and have a bit of fun trying to play tutorials I find on RU-vid. As far as I am concerned this is great value and loads of fun. I used to have the old Miracle Piano Teach System for the early Apple Mac, but I kept losing access to the Mac, so I didn't make nearly as much progress as I had hoped - but I loved that thing. I wish I could find an equivalent, because it was a great learning aid. Thank you very much for your demonstration.
Hey !! I know that the post is 3 years old but I hope that you are doing well. I'm 57 and had a stroke 2 years ago. I lost being able to play guitar. I can still play a kick ass bass though. 😁I'm looking for a midi sound module. What self respecting bass player who worships Rush doesn't want to dabble with synths ? LOL. If this synth has midi and 1/4 outputs I'd give this a shot.
I've owned this particular keyboard for 14 years (my mom gave it to me when I was a baby to toy around with), and I can say that it is not superb, but it still suits my needs for creating music on the fly. I just love the sound of the horns on this keyboard, especially with some sustain.
That is exactly what I do as well. I have a Casio CTK-611 that is my primary for recording, but I usually start a melody on this one just because it is so much more portable. Then I come back to this one along with the Casio, to add in some of these great vintage sounds that the Casio (as cool as it is) just doesn't have.
This was my third (ish) keyboard when I was a kid, and hearing the sounds brought back a lot of memories. I remember improv'ing a lot of fantasy sounding music with it. I also remembering liking the synth tom sound (95), which was reminiscent of cheezy techno Jan Hammer-esque music of the time.
I love your 8-BK shows, my friend!! Please keep doing these. He , you're a pretty decent player too. I have a big old upright piano and a 7 year old Kurzweil Keyboard I love to play with most every day.
Yes, mine is in excellent condition, I get it tuned now and then. Unless you have serious damage, old pianoes can be tuned up or restored... though some may not be worth it. I have a 1920s era upright that sounds really excellent when in tune.
I love how the instrument emulation brought new timbre, color, and brand new sounds to explore and exploit. Thats why im in love with sound design and synthesis
Man, every 3 years i feel i need another heap of retro synth. And when i go to my local ebay-like site, i watch your videos. They are both entertaining and informative.
I am sitting with this keyboard now, still a sentimental favorite. It was a present for my 8th or 9th birthday, I felt like the luckiest kid in the world. I didn't play piano (still don't), but I rehearsed the demo song "Just the Way You Are" by ear until I could play it all. (without the switching instruments each verse). That was my contribution to my 3rd grade talent show in 1987....good times. You are right about it being durable...I bet I spent hundreds of hours on it as a kid. It was fun to find it at home, then find the video here! Graduated from this to Casio CTK 611, that's still my best one. Before the PSS-270, I had an old 70s Magnus Organ...those are incredibly cool. Essentially an accordion on a table top. Played it till the fans broke. REALLY wish I still had that one. Anyway, cool video...awesome to see all it can do. After seeing these vids I want to expand my collection of old keyboards, too! 😊👍
This techno-track from 2015 is what people now call 'Synthwave'. And I for one would love to hear more like this. :-) Thank you very much for sharing, and have a wonderful week!
Right after snare gun is "machine gun" (you probably wouldn't find THAT today) and it is rapid fire snare drum on every key. And then "Ocean", some keys aren't bad, but the top register is so glitchy, it actually makes the sound even cooler. It's similar to the bottom register on tuba he plays in the video. This is still my absolute favorite to just sit and start writing a tune.
thanks for covering my old keyboard. this was my 8th grade graduation present. I will never let it go, I learned my first piano on it. need help getting power supply fixed. could use a suggestion on that.
5:43 was that starting to be the doctor who theme tune? Id love to hear you play a bit style version of it or full instrumental on a keyboard. also could you look at the Casio CTK-631? the midis sound great except the square and sawtooth.
I got this one after my 70's Magnus Organ blew an air fan (cried for days). I really want to find another Magnus. The PSS-270 is still going strong, though. I remember opening it as a birthday present and feeling like I'd just won a million bucks. Fun times....feeling nostalgic and a touch ancient seeing it again. 😊
The YM2413 was a pretty nice move when it comes to keyboards actually. It makes much more sense to pair it with a keyboard, rather than something like a midi module or a sound card, since you're only going to be using a single patch at any given time on a keyboard.
Very Good review! I just bought one of these units and I already have the PSS-470. I like the 270 because it has tones that are easy to get to without having to fiddle around on it, like you would the 470.
Loved this keyboard as a kid. My second keyboard. The first was a 170 in the same range. I actually went on telly with the 270 in 1988 on a program called Song For Christmas. To be fair, I was sat on a fake snowy roof, playing along to a properly produced backing track, and my 270 wasn't plugged in, but it was there and I used it when I recorded the demo. Lol. It's in the loft now and probably doesn't work. It's also probably still got fake snow in it. Anyway, great video sir. :) Memories. :)
I had this keyboard as a kid. My favorite thing to do with it was let it play "Just the Way You Are" and swap the instruments manually while it was playing.
thats what my brothers and I did as kids! when i first heard Just the Way You Are on the radio I exclaimed "ITS THE DEMO SONG" and i still think of it as the demo song.
Thank you for sharing this. There were numerous keyboards that were similar to this one that were on sale at a store in Dublin, Ohio called "Gadget Ease." I loved tinkering with these and playing older tunes (from the Ancients to the 1800s, no surprise if you view my channel) on these 1980s models. When I played, my collection of elizabethan dance tunes and madrigals sounded the best on these in my opinion. Later works from composers such as Mozart and Bach sounded too stilted to my ears when I played on these earlier Yamahas.
I've just bought one of these without checking it out first. Haven't got it yet but after seeing this, I'll be happy. It's just for messing around with. I've had a Roland W-30 for years & just bought a Yamaha PS A50 for more professional messing around :)
I have one of these and a PSS-570 and they sound amazing, especially if you run it through an amp or the right effects. I’ve gotten some incredible electric piano sounds from it.
This video reminds me of the PSS-390 my mother had given me for Christmas in the very early 90's, after a mate of mine wanted his Korg Poly800 back I'd borrowed from him; Cool thing about the 390 was the ability of combining two different sounds (or doubling one sound, for a 'chorus' effect), plus it had a 'synthesizer' section which allowed to manipulate each sound via a bunch of sliders. Not sure where it's gone. Was a cool lil' machine :-)
Actually now I'm worried about hammering around on my PSS-460 too much. I really like the e-piano sound and I like to play some jazz-ish stuff with it so hammering on it is neccessary. ----- "Pro" and "Semi-Pro". So hyped about that. ---- Great, now I need to hear Luna Waves again. :D ---- As always, this was an exellant review
+derLPMaxe The one I got from ebay (PSS-470, same as your 460)was disgusting and cracked in several places. So I had to completely tear it down and even remove all of the keys for proper cleaning and repair. I was impressed at how it was put together.
8-Bit Keys I would describe mine as almost new/refurbished. So I'm not really in need to open it. I was extremly lucky picking it up in such a good state, in basically no time, on such modalities. Ebay *can* be a true treasure chest.
+8-Bit Keys I have this keyboard too. but my can play more than 9 voices. i wondered about that. (sorry ab out my Bad english. im from germany and only 13.)
I remember playing with the exact same keyboard as a child. Or at least it had the exact same button layout, small red display and I remember it having 100 instruments on it, so I guess that must be it. I never had any musical talent to use it though :P.
I have the PSS 170, and it's my favorite 'low-pro' keyboard. The 270 seems very close as a keyboard, although I have never used one. Thanks for reviewing this!
I picked one of these up at Good Will recently for $20 or so. I keep it in my office by my computer and pull it out every now and then. It's actually turned out to be useful. First it's relatively small, battery powered and has it's own speaker so I can just start playing without worrying about any wires. Whenever inspiration strikes I have a keyboard ready within a few seconds to play around with whatever tune has popped in my head. And when I'm trying to figure out a song it's great play along to a song or video while I figure it out. The piano sound is awful, but some of the sounds (especially the brass) have actually aged quite well and sounds pretty classy.
On your sustain comment: Sustain is going to destroy that 9-note polyphony, hence it's so short! I had the baby brother PSS-170. If anyone tries to *sell* you a 170 bear in mind the sounds are the *same*. And you're getting one less loudspeaker. But fun all the same! If you can get your hands on a PSS-480, that was my next keyboard "up" and recommended as it supported FM fiddling of some of the parameters of each voice.
The PSS-480 and 680 were amazing. That 2 operator synth could make some great sounds. These keyboards also had MIDI bulk dump. You could save synth sounds to a sequencer, then save them to cassette tape. Or you could use a MIDI data filer, such as the Yamaha MDF2.
Just so you know, you should use the best possible power adapter if you are not going to just use battery power. Cheap power adaptors produce noise which can affect the sound. Of course, they can also damage the longevity of the electronics - especially bad since these synths are in the vintage category now!
I had one of these, and even recorded some songs with it. I was pretty fond of it. Definitely agree on the sounds being pretty good, y'know, for a toy.
While FM synthesis doesn't do very well with making an Acoustic Piano sound, when done well you can still get some pretty good Electric Piano sounds, I know because I have done it, I tried it with the Dexed VST and it was pretty convincing.
What do you think of this piano? It was produced with exactly the same chip, on an MSX computer: :) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZIsA8itN940.html
I circuit bent one of these with switches to cutoff the data lines, which sort of glitches out or randomizes the sounds. It takes a lot of experimentation and patience, but you can end up with some pretty wild FM sounds! It alters the drum beats nicely too.
I have one since the year it came out! :D With an arduino and an old LPT switch, I've added MIDI to it. So you can switch the power and the key matrix off to get just MIDI, or both on so MIDI out and the internal sounds work simultaneously. On the left side I've added a button strip for octave select and velocity, because the keyboard has no extra velocity switches. Leftover buttons are mapped to a few CC's. It still is going strong, one squeeky key needed some grease.. That was about it, in all these years. But, don't press the demo button when I'm around, that song is burned in my soul, haha.
I quite like the PSS270. We had them at school back in the early '90s. When I got chance to get my own, I did. They're not up with modern keyboards, but they have their place and the single key chord can make a good chord backing track, though I notice that the 7th/minor 7th chords drop the 5th to give a 1, 3, 7 triad. But that's a minor thing limited by the number of voices. I generally have a strange fondness for this keyboard.
Something I found by chance on my PSR-500, is that if you hold the last three piano keys before powering it up, it foes trough some internal test routine. And if you hold the last *four* piano keys before powering it up, it eventually enters a "key test mode" where it shows the velocity of each key on the display. Maybe the works on other PRSs?
Still have mine. Man, that was the best birthday ever! All these years later, some sounds make my kids laugh. But it is a sentimental fave for me. And these vids make me want to go find more old keyboards!
Which FM Synthesizer would you consider to be the most user-friendly in terms of programming new sounds? The DX-7, as you've said, is the most iconic FM-Synth out there. However, without the separately available programmer for it, making new sounds on it is hard as hell if you're starting out, without relying on toy or amateur synths. Any suggestions?
I was considering the PSR-36 after watching your video on it before, however, the official site claims: "Start with one of 32 FM preset voices then use the Spectrum and Brilliance controls to create the sound you are looking for." It sounds to me that you can't change the parameters as individually as the DX-7, or did they just leave out all the details?
No, that's basically how it works. You can create hundreds, if not thousands of different sounds with it, though. The DX-7 works with customized patches.
You should look into the Volca FM, it's a relatively new, and pretty cheap FM synthesizer that works almost exactly like a dx7 but with a better interface
The audio output of the "pseudo 4op" is identical to what an actual 4op voice would be. The real difference is that you would only have 3 algorithms instead of the regular 8 that you get with real 4op synths.
I'm the original owner of a PSS-270. My girlfriend at the time bought it for me and paid around $110.00. It still works like a charm and I hope to pass it on to one of my two grandkids. Thanks for the work you do on "the you tubes"!
