Yamaha Portasound
A synth from the 90s that is little rough around the edges
ByOrcheStone
The story
This little synth was bought by my grandma sometime in the late 90s. It has one speaker on the left side of the synth, which is slowly becoming less reliable. Similar to my family piano, it’s seen its fair share of abuse from me and my sisters as we “learn” the piano. She’s more than a little rough around the edges, sometime a earsore. Because of the… Less appealing sound of it, it’s spent a large part of the last 6 years in closets and on shelf’s. I decided to give sampling it a go with my first set of actual mics. I sampled two of my favorite patches and made a distortion pad with the brass patch and a digital Fuckbox type thing. Because there is one speaker, I added a stereo modeler on the non-distorted patches
Reviews
Minimal retro
I love the retro sound, because I had a PSS390 back in the 90s. Only the Organ and String patches work for me. The string patch is particularly nice.
The, ahem, fbox didn't work. Also the sound is panned very strongly to the left, which isn't a big deal but left me confused and checking whether it was coming out my headphones or speakers. I mean, it's incredibly minimal, but I love the organ and the strings.Nice retro tunes
This half a gigabyte bundle will give you access to three different patches, each with a different kind of sound. The two main ones are retro-synth based and you will definitely love them if you are into things like old retro games. The third with the... name, is a trippy distorted one that can definitely make things sound interesting, to say the least. Couldn't help but play the infamous Lavender theme with the strings patch!
All Praise the Portasound
I personally love this collection of 3 patches created from a Portasound. The 'Fuckbox' patch is brilliantly dirty and works well doubling up slow basslines. The organ and strings have that characterful tinny sound and I have found great use for them in some hip-hop beats I've been making recently.