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Originally uploaded on 14/11/2016. Last updated 21/07/2023
Don’t let this keyboard’s looks fool you. On the outside it may look like a toy keyboard for kids with it’s miniature keys and coloured buttons, but under the hood is a powerful FM synthesis engine that can produce a wide variety of sounds suitable for any genre.
Introduction
Released in the late 1980’s by Yamaha, the PSS-580 is a 2 operator FM synthesiser with 9 PCM drums sounds. There is another version of this keyboard called the PSS-480, which is effectively the same keyboard but with a different colour scheme.
{Update 21/07/2023} One of my viewers reached out to me and pointed out that there are actually 4 versions of this keyboard; The Japanese versions of the PSS-580 and 480 use the "Portasound" branding. The versions released outside of Japan use the "Music Station" branding.
It also has MIDI capabilities, multi-timbrel mode and support for system exclusive (Sysex) which enables musicians to store their created voices and settings on an external media source such as a computer.
The PSS-580 is capable of producing up to 12 FM voices at a time. Like the Yamaha PSR-48, a separate PCM chip is used for producing the drum sounds. It is capable of producing up to 7 percussion sounds at once.
The price of this keyboard can vary from £10 to £40 on online auction sites. I paid a total of £30 for this keyboard second hand which included it’s original box.
{Update 21/07/2023} One of my viewers reached out to me and pointed out that there are actually 4 versions of this keyboard; The Japanese versions of the PSS-580 and 480 use the "Portasound" branding. The versions released outside of Japan use the "Music Station" branding.
It also has MIDI capabilities, multi-timbrel mode and support for system exclusive (Sysex) which enables musicians to store their created voices and settings on an external media source such as a computer.
The PSS-580 is capable of producing up to 12 FM voices at a time. Like the Yamaha PSR-48, a separate PCM chip is used for producing the drum sounds. It is capable of producing up to 7 percussion sounds at once.
The price of this keyboard can vary from £10 to £40 on online auction sites. I paid a total of £30 for this keyboard second hand which included it’s original box.
Features
The Yamaha PSS-580 comes with a wide variety of features like a built in sequencer, which can record 5 melody tracks and 5 auto accompaniment track changes. The sequencer is not capable of looping tracks however, but it can transmit the individual parts over MIDI.
The MIDI channels can be defined when the tracks are being recorded. They cannot be changed after the recording however.
A custom drummer feature allows the user to create a custom drum pattern, or alter one of the PSS-580’s preset patterns. The keyboard can only store one custom drum pattern, but they can be dumped to a computer via Sysex.
The keyboard features 100 preset voices plus 5 storage banks which is used for storing custom voices. The custom voices stored in these 5 storage banks will remain in memory even if the keyboard is switched off, as the keyboard has a battery backup.
Featured on the top of the keyboard are two LCD screens. The Screen on the left shows the parameter data, tempo and MIDI mode info while the screen on the right shows voice selection numbers as well as auto accompaniment numbers.
The MIDI channels can be defined when the tracks are being recorded. They cannot be changed after the recording however.
A custom drummer feature allows the user to create a custom drum pattern, or alter one of the PSS-580’s preset patterns. The keyboard can only store one custom drum pattern, but they can be dumped to a computer via Sysex.
The keyboard features 100 preset voices plus 5 storage banks which is used for storing custom voices. The custom voices stored in these 5 storage banks will remain in memory even if the keyboard is switched off, as the keyboard has a battery backup.
Featured on the top of the keyboard are two LCD screens. The Screen on the left shows the parameter data, tempo and MIDI mode info while the screen on the right shows voice selection numbers as well as auto accompaniment numbers.
The PSS-580 also features some effects which can be applied to the built in voices. These effects include: Sustain, Vibrato, Portamento, Reverb and Duet. The speed of the portamento can be adjusted by holding down the portamento button and then pressing the + or – buttons bellow the LCD Screen.
The reverb basically applies a sustain to the carrier signal. Personally I found that this doesn’t sound that realistic, so I don’t use it on any of my custom voices I create on the keyboard.
A built in Demonstration Tune showcases what this keyboard is capable of producing. The demo can also be transmitted over midi so you can hear the tune on any other keyboard that support the Yamaha Standard voice format e.g. the PSR-48.
The reverb basically applies a sustain to the carrier signal. Personally I found that this doesn’t sound that realistic, so I don’t use it on any of my custom voices I create on the keyboard.
A built in Demonstration Tune showcases what this keyboard is capable of producing. The demo can also be transmitted over midi so you can hear the tune on any other keyboard that support the Yamaha Standard voice format e.g. the PSR-48.
Synth Parameters
The keyboard allows the user to change the parameters of all of the built in voices, however, not all parameters can be edited directly on the keyboard.
The parameters which can be altered directly on the keyboard are: Envelope Attack, Decay, Frequency, Modulation level, Feedback and Total Modulation level.
Additional parameters include waveform, Amplitude modulation (AM), Vibrato depth, AM depth, envelope scaling, 2nd Decay envelope stage and a sustain decay. These parameters cannot be edited directly on the keyboard, however, it is possible to access and edit the additional parameters using a computer program to edit the System Exclusive files dumped from the keyboard.
The parameters cannot be edited in real time via sysex, so they will need to be dumped back to the keyboard using a sysex program after they have been edited.
Having access to these additional parameters can increase the variety of voices that can be created.
The DX7, Yamaha’s more professional FM Synthesiser was heavily criticised for it’s difficult programming interface, so I suspect that Yamaha wanted to make the PSS-580 easier to program by reducing the number of editable parameters on the keyboard.
The built in voices remind me of the voices used by the Sound Blaster soundcards. The FM sound chip included on these soundcards were made by Yamaha, so it is possible that the PSS-580 uses a similar chip.
The parameters which can be altered directly on the keyboard are: Envelope Attack, Decay, Frequency, Modulation level, Feedback and Total Modulation level.
Additional parameters include waveform, Amplitude modulation (AM), Vibrato depth, AM depth, envelope scaling, 2nd Decay envelope stage and a sustain decay. These parameters cannot be edited directly on the keyboard, however, it is possible to access and edit the additional parameters using a computer program to edit the System Exclusive files dumped from the keyboard.
The parameters cannot be edited in real time via sysex, so they will need to be dumped back to the keyboard using a sysex program after they have been edited.
Having access to these additional parameters can increase the variety of voices that can be created.
The DX7, Yamaha’s more professional FM Synthesiser was heavily criticised for it’s difficult programming interface, so I suspect that Yamaha wanted to make the PSS-580 easier to program by reducing the number of editable parameters on the keyboard.
The built in voices remind me of the voices used by the Sound Blaster soundcards. The FM sound chip included on these soundcards were made by Yamaha, so it is possible that the PSS-580 uses a similar chip.
MIDI Capabilities
The PSS-580 has two MIDI modes in which it can operate in: Keyboard Assign Mode and Sound Source Mode.
Keyboard Assign Mode is intended for controlling other keyboards via MIDI. The PSS-580’s built in sequencer, auto accompaniment styles and custom drummer patches can be transmitted to other keyboards via midi.
The PSS-580 can be controlled via midi in this mode as well. An additional octave above what is playable on the keyboard can be accessed via midi in this mode. The drums can also be sequenced via MIDI on channel 16.
Both the drums and main voices will not respond to velocity data (how hard a key is pressed) and only one main voice can be selected at a time. In this mode, the MIDI out port also forwards incoming MIDI data a bit like a MIDI THRU jack, however I've recently discovered that the keyboard alters the outgoing data by applying it's settings to it i.e. If the keyboard's MIDI transmit channel is set to 3, then all MIDI data (with the exception of MIDI channel 16) that it forwards out will be sent on MIDI channel 3, regardless of of the channel that it was originally transmitted on. I've also found that it works with the transpose settings as well so if you set the keyboard's transpose to + 12, then all MIDI data that gets forwarded out will be played an octave higher etc. This feature can be used for layering voices on other MIDI compatible synths, however, it can cause MIDI Buffer overflows if the sequencer forwards the data back into the PSS-580.
Sound Source Mode is intended for when the PSS-580 is used as a sound source. When in this mode, local control is turned off. This means that if a key is pressed on the keyboard no sound is produced, however, MIDI data is transmitted and the keyboard will respond to MIDI data sent from other keyboards.
Sound Source Mode also makes the keyboard multi-timbral, which means that multiple voices can be played at once. The keyboard will respond to all of the 16 MIDI channels, however, only 12 parts can be played simultaneously due to the keyboard’s 12 note polyphony.
Additional features can be accessed in this mode. The keyboard will respond to velocity data (volume only) as well as pitch bend data (fixed to 1 octave).
Keyboard Assign Mode is intended for controlling other keyboards via MIDI. The PSS-580’s built in sequencer, auto accompaniment styles and custom drummer patches can be transmitted to other keyboards via midi.
The PSS-580 can be controlled via midi in this mode as well. An additional octave above what is playable on the keyboard can be accessed via midi in this mode. The drums can also be sequenced via MIDI on channel 16.
Both the drums and main voices will not respond to velocity data (how hard a key is pressed) and only one main voice can be selected at a time. In this mode, the MIDI out port also forwards incoming MIDI data a bit like a MIDI THRU jack, however I've recently discovered that the keyboard alters the outgoing data by applying it's settings to it i.e. If the keyboard's MIDI transmit channel is set to 3, then all MIDI data (with the exception of MIDI channel 16) that it forwards out will be sent on MIDI channel 3, regardless of of the channel that it was originally transmitted on. I've also found that it works with the transpose settings as well so if you set the keyboard's transpose to + 12, then all MIDI data that gets forwarded out will be played an octave higher etc. This feature can be used for layering voices on other MIDI compatible synths, however, it can cause MIDI Buffer overflows if the sequencer forwards the data back into the PSS-580.
Sound Source Mode is intended for when the PSS-580 is used as a sound source. When in this mode, local control is turned off. This means that if a key is pressed on the keyboard no sound is produced, however, MIDI data is transmitted and the keyboard will respond to MIDI data sent from other keyboards.
Sound Source Mode also makes the keyboard multi-timbral, which means that multiple voices can be played at once. The keyboard will respond to all of the 16 MIDI channels, however, only 12 parts can be played simultaneously due to the keyboard’s 12 note polyphony.
Additional features can be accessed in this mode. The keyboard will respond to velocity data (volume only) as well as pitch bend data (fixed to 1 octave).
MIDI Standard
The PSS-580 was released before the General MIDI standard came out, however Yamaha had it’s own voice standard called Yamaha Standard Voice. Unlike the PSR-48, the PSS-580 features all of the voices in the Yamaha Standard Voice mapping, so there are no duplicate voices.
The percussion sounds are also mapped to the Yamaha Standard voice standard.
The percussion sounds are also mapped to the Yamaha Standard voice standard.
Hidden Test Mode
The Yamaha PSS-580 features a hidden test mode that can be used to check if the panel buttons are working. I did an article on this a while back, which goes into more detail about the test mode and it’s features. Click here to view it.
Pros
The keyboard is lightweight and has a very nice FM synthesis engine that is capable of creating a wide variety of sounds. The MIDI features are really good for a keyboard of this age and the fact that it supports additional features such as pitch bends and velocity allows the composer to add more depth to their compositions.
The fact that the custom voices can be dumped to a computer via Sysex is a really useful feature, as I can store any custom voices I’ve made for a track within the project itself. It will also allow the custom voices to be shared with other PSS-580 owners.
Individual MIDI channels can be turned on or off on the keyboard, which makes it very flexible when used with other synths daisy chained via MIDI.
The keyboard has a battery backup feature which stores the custom voices and drum patterns created, even when the keyboard is switched off.
The fact that the custom voices can be dumped to a computer via Sysex is a really useful feature, as I can store any custom voices I’ve made for a track within the project itself. It will also allow the custom voices to be shared with other PSS-580 owners.
Individual MIDI channels can be turned on or off on the keyboard, which makes it very flexible when used with other synths daisy chained via MIDI.
The keyboard has a battery backup feature which stores the custom voices and drum patterns created, even when the keyboard is switched off.
Cons
The mini keys may cause some problems for people with large fingers, and not all of the synth’s parameters can be accessed from the keyboard.
The MIDI out port acting as a MIDI thru port in “Keyboard Assign” mode can easily cause MIDI buffer overflows, if connected to a computer or sequencer that forwards the MIDI In data to the MIDI Out port.
Despite stating that the keyboard is in stereo, the keyboard can only output in Mono. The only thing can output in stereo on the keyboard is the drums, and digital quantisation noise can be heard on lower frequencies.
The fact that the keyboard does not have all of the synth parameters available does limit the variety of sounds that can be created. As far as I know, no official voice editors were ever released by Yamaha, so only third party software is available for editing the voices.
Yamaha did provide information regarding the data that the PSS-580 transmits via Sysex in the manual, which can be useful for programmers who wish to create their own programs for editing the voices.
While the keyboard does support pitch bend in “Sound Source” mode, the pitch bend range is fixed to 12 semi-tones and cannot be changed.
The MIDI out port acting as a MIDI thru port in “Keyboard Assign” mode can easily cause MIDI buffer overflows, if connected to a computer or sequencer that forwards the MIDI In data to the MIDI Out port.
Despite stating that the keyboard is in stereo, the keyboard can only output in Mono. The only thing can output in stereo on the keyboard is the drums, and digital quantisation noise can be heard on lower frequencies.
The fact that the keyboard does not have all of the synth parameters available does limit the variety of sounds that can be created. As far as I know, no official voice editors were ever released by Yamaha, so only third party software is available for editing the voices.
Yamaha did provide information regarding the data that the PSS-580 transmits via Sysex in the manual, which can be useful for programmers who wish to create their own programs for editing the voices.
While the keyboard does support pitch bend in “Sound Source” mode, the pitch bend range is fixed to 12 semi-tones and cannot be changed.
Conclusion
All in all I think the PSS-580 is an underrated synth due to the fact that it looks like a toy. The FM synth engine is more than capable of creating high quality digital or analogue sounds for any genre.
The synth works well alongside other synths and it can be obtained second hand for a fairly cheap price, which is perfect for musicians on a tight budget.
If you are looking to add FM synthesis to your music setup, the PSS-580 is definitely a good synth to own.
I have used this synth in a wide variety of songs and I highly recommend it.
If you have a question about this keyboard, feel free to check out my Keyboard FAQ page or use the contact form on the Contact page.
© 2016 Stereo Ninja Music. All rights reserved.
Disclaimer: If you see my keyboard images and blog posts on online auction sites, it’s most likely that the seller has taken my content without my permission. I am not affiliated with any of these sellers and I cannot be held responsible for the items they are selling.
The synth works well alongside other synths and it can be obtained second hand for a fairly cheap price, which is perfect for musicians on a tight budget.
If you are looking to add FM synthesis to your music setup, the PSS-580 is definitely a good synth to own.
I have used this synth in a wide variety of songs and I highly recommend it.
If you have a question about this keyboard, feel free to check out my Keyboard FAQ page or use the contact form on the Contact page.
© 2016 Stereo Ninja Music. All rights reserved.
Disclaimer: If you see my keyboard images and blog posts on online auction sites, it’s most likely that the seller has taken my content without my permission. I am not affiliated with any of these sellers and I cannot be held responsible for the items they are selling.