The instrument
The Yamaha Portasound PS and PSS electronic keyboards were produced in the 1980s and 1990s as a low-cost alternative. The name Portasound refers to the portability of the instruments, which all run on batteries. The PortaSound synthesisers were mainly designed for children and beginners and often had small buttons and simple preset functions suitable for teaching. In 1982, a card-reading system was introduced that allowed players to learn and play along with sequenced songs. The PS-6100 from 1984, on the other hand, is an expensive and high-quality keyboard with greatly expanded functions. It is based on the FM sound generation that Yamaha had been using since the early 1980s, including with the DX synthesiser series.
Details
The PS-6100 is a digital synthesiser with a keyboard of 61 velocity-sensitive keys and three split points. It features the 18 solo voices (Melody) Jazz Organ, Pipe Organ, Flute, Brass, String, French Accordion, Piano, Electric Piano, Harp, Music Box, Jazz Guitar, Hawaiian Guitar, Vibes, Marimba, Chimes, Cosmic, Steel Drum and the 18 Monophonic voices: 18 (Pan Flute, Piccolo, Clarinet, Jazz Flute, Saxophone, Oboe, Horn, Harmonica, Trumpet, Trombon, Violin, Cello, Rock Guitar, Fuzz Guitar, Synthesiser, Banjo, Funny and Fantasy as well as a touch response effect and the six accompaniment voices Brass, Strings, Piano, Horn, Guitar and Electric Piano. The automatic accompaniment has 32 rhythms with two variations each, three fill-ins, fingered chord, single-finger chord, memory variation, 21 digital rhythm instruments and two memory locations for your own rhythms. The sequencer is a music programmer with four tracks and 500 notes each for recording and playback. The effects are sustain, ensemble, chorus and transposer. The device is also equipped with a cassette memory and two 12 cm speakers with 5 watts of amplification.