Square Wave PSS!

If you like toy synths, be sure to read this post!


Last year I bought a Yamaha PSS-100 in one of my street market trips.

If you don't know this little synth, you can find more info about it here!

Personally, I think it doesn't sound bad, despite it is essentially a preset machine.

It also features some built-in rhythms and a digital recorder, but unfortunately, it doesn't have a single output for you to record it...

From what I could find online, it isn't too hard to modify these machines in order to install a proper output, but I never ended up doing it...

Since I'm not counting on actually doing that anytime soon, I was considering selling it, which made me research a bit better on the sound generation method it uses...

From what I could find, the sounds are produced using multiple square wave oscillators, similar to what old computers used.

In fact, there even seem to be some following of these machines, and I even saw claims that Ryo Okumoto from Spock's Beard listed it as an equipment in his setup!

And on top of this, I also found this really nice demo of the Yamaha PSS-130, which seems to be similar to my Yamaha PSS-100, when it comes to sound generation, but not as complete:




I still think I will try to get mine sold, but it was interesting to notice these are actually pretty unique machines!

So, if it doesn't sell, I don't think I'll be that sad and will definitely give it a try at modifying it to have a proper output!


Anyway, if you like this kind of machines, you should definitely keep an eye on these old machines from Yamaha ;)