The sounds of the PSS-140 are generated using 2-operator FM from the Yamaha YM2413 OPLL chip and it sounds similar to the OPL2 and OPL3 computer sound cards of the late 1980's and early 1990's (AdLib and Sound Blaster). If you want a selection of instruments with the "FM sound", but don't want to learn how to program an FM synthesizer (it's hard!), the PSS-140 has a great collection of sounds that can be considered representative of what FM is good at, including organ, bass, synth brass, electric piano, synth strings, and melodic percussion sounds.
The 11-step volume control can be thought of as a bitcrusher plugin -- reducing the volume steals bits of resolution from the audio output, so sounds are more grainy and lo-fi at lower volume. At any volume the output is pretty noisy.
Although it's made of plastic, the build quality is such that you'll be shopping for a new knee rather than a new keyboard if you try to snap it over your knee.
Year Released: 1988
Keyboard: 37 mini keys
Polyphony: 6 notes
ROM: 100 instruments, 10 rhythms, 5 drum sounds
Dimensions: 565.5 mm x 195.8 mm x 62.4 mm
Weight: 1.5 kg
This keyboard has built-in 2-watt mono speaker(s).
Batteries: AA x 6
WAV samples available on freewavesamples.com.
Yamaha PSS-140 Synthesizer ($75)
Yamaha PSS-140 Synthesizer 1988 - Black ($29.30)
Yamaha PSS-140 Two operator FM Synth (YM2420) 1988, Cleaned ($88)
Yamaha PSS-140 Synthesizer 1988 - Black ($49.99)
Yamaha PSS-140 Synthesizer 1988 ($65)
Yamaha PSS-140 Synthesizer 1988 - Black ($33.14)
Yamaha PSS-140 synthesizer ($38.45)
Yamaha PSS-140 Synthesizer 1988 - Black ($25.27)
Yamaha PSS-140 PortaSound Service Manual 1989 ($15)
Yamaha PirtaSound PSS-140 Service Manual [Three Wave Music] ($12)
Power Supply Replacement for YAMAHA PSS-140 KEYBOARD ADAPTER UK 12V ($14.36)
Yamaha Pss140 80s ($79)
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