The Yamaha PSS-680 is great little FM synth/home keyboard with loads of low-end features! You won't be able to get "fat" sounds out of this two FM operator machine, but it does excel in bright, sparkling sound effects. The wood bass patch is nice and punchy and it can produce decent bright, pad sounds. The machine excels in the MIDI department. It is multitimbral and you can dump your sounds and sequences for easy retrieval later on.
The sequencer is pretty advanced for it's price. You can't quantize or fix misplayed notes, but it is fun nonetheless. The accompaniment section is cool as you can leave in or leave out parts and with 100 rhythms/styles you can't go wrong.
The drum pads are great fun!
The mini-keys are a hindrance and you don't have a velocity keyboard, although you can receive velocity and aftertouch. Pretty advanced for it's time!
A special note: This was my first keyboard ever and I used this little gem for my high school talent show. I programmed/played entirely Depeche Mode's "Behind The Wheel" and "Just Can't Get Enough" on the PSS-680. Someone commented that those two songs sounded just like the originals. This synth still has a special place in my heart today.
Another special note: My brother programmed/played entirely The Lightning Seed's "Pure" on the PSS-680 along with a Roland TR-626 as the drum track. They almost won the competition.
My other synths are a Casio CZ-1, Korg DW-8000, 2 Yamaha TX16Ws, Emu-Proteus FX, Roland TR-626. I use Cakewalk Pro Audio 5.0 with two effects processors from Yamaha and DOD.
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