Yamaha PSR-36 Sound Demo

Rather than creating or using 80s, retro FM style synth sounds and rhythms from my Tyros 3 and my other keyboards, I thought I may as well just get an old 80s, FM, Yamaha PSR keyboard for the 'real' nostalgic sound, rhythms and feel that I am after.

After researching online and watching online videos etc., I was starting to discover that there was one particular PSR which was regarded as the 'secret' holy grail of the vintage (and seemingly infinite) PSR range and this was the Yamaha PSR36.

When I found out that this particular PSR keyboard had a 4 op FM chip (the other FM PSR's/PSS's seemed to all be 2 op), had a 5 octave full size key-bed, (I'm aware of the 80's FM PSS keyboards with the 'synth section' such as the PSS780 etc but I only want full size keys) and that the PSR36 was from the 80s (1988), I thought this this keyboard sounded perfect for what I wanted.

What made this keyboard really stand out for me though, was that apart from it being 4 op FM, it also had its 'synthesizer section' in which I could modify the presets in real time with the sliders and most importantly the PSR36 had MIDI and had auxiliary outputs so I'd be able to connect it to my other synths and my audio interface etc.

My mind was made up, so I waited for one to come up for sale online and bought it. When it arrived, I honestly didn't expect much of it and I expected to get bored of my nostalgia trip after about 5 minutes of messing about with it.

What was meant to be a quick test of my new PSR36, to make sure everything was working OK, turned out to be hours of me playing/messing on it and I couldn't believe how good and playable this old, humble, home keyboard was. The synthesizer section is fantastic and you could actually use it to demonstrate to/teach someone, basic synthesizer principles, in the sense that you can make yourself a bell, pad, bass, noise, lead, organ, brassy etc etc sound by applying the appropriate position to each of the 5 sliders/parameters.

The surprises kept on coming when I hooked it up to my other synths, my audio interface and Cubase 9.5, expecting a 30 year old home keyboard to just freeze up or just be a nightmare with unreliable/quirky MIDI communication. I couldn't believe it when it worked perfectly with no MIDI latency, no hanging or stuck notes or no quirks at all. I then started MIDI sequencing using Cubase and recording audio from its outputs just as if it was a modern day pro synth.

The only thing which didn't work was the top C key, so I took the keyboard apart to see why and found out that there was a crumb or something? sitting on the contact strip which had also rubbed away at the circuit trail too. So I removed the crumb, used the conductive lead of a pencil to fill in the worn away gap in the circuit trail, hoover'ed away 30 years of dust and dirt from inside the keyboard and then put it all back together again and the previously dead key now worked fine. :-)

I liked this keyboard so much with its nostalgic sound that takes me right back to my childhood, that I've put it above my Tyros 3 on my main stand and when I noticed another PSR36 come up for sale online, I bought that one too.
My second PSR-36 is absolutely pristine and looks like its hardly ever been used and came with a Yamaha bag, music stand and the instruction manual which is handy for seeing the MIDI implementation chart and seeing how you turn the 'local' off etc.

Apart from when you see my right hand playing the synth lead sound on my Tyros 3, EVERY other sound you hear in this video is pure Yamaha PSR36 with no effects processing or anything added.

Snowy's PSR-36 tip:

On some of the PSR36 Video's I've watched, people are using the headphone output of their PSR36's to connect to their audio interface being that connecting the RCA outputs to your audio interface/amp etc DOES NOT turn off the PSR36's on-board speakers. I did this myself initially because I also don't want the on-board speakers making any sound, but I found out that the headphone output sound quality wasn't as good compared to the RCA Aux outs.

I was just about to open up the keyboard and solder in an 'on/off' switch for the on-board speakers, so that I could use the RCA outputs with the on-board speaker 'switched off', when I realised that I probably didn't need to go to all the trouble. I connected my headphones to the headphone output in the hope that they didn't cancel out the RCA outputs and they didn't :-).
It was then just a matter of inserting a 3.5mm to 6.3mm headphone adapter into the headphone output to 'turn off' the on board speakers while the PSR36 STILL transmitted the better quality audio out of the RCA outputs.