Holy crap. This is an exact replica of the synth on my Yamaha PSS 680! My first synth. My grandmother bought it around 1989 to play, but the small keys were too hard for her to play so she gave it to me. I used to make entire cassettes of Lo-Fi EBM on that thing. When I learned how to edit the dogs sounds, I was blown away at how dope he could sound. It makes the most nastiest, most distorted FM sounds I've ever heard, and I have a DX7, TG77, TX81Z, and have used the FS1R extensively. It also had two RX-style drumkits and a two-bar sequencer
Hi cuckoomusic, thank you so much for your enthusiastic video about PORTA-FM. I stumbled by by coincidence and I got interested fast. Bought this Synth today...and man, I am happily astonished. I love the sound of it and the shaping possibilities seem to be "endless"...15 step sequencers which you can put into the modulation matrix...arghhhhh!!!!!!! How awesome is that? A little sound-design wonder with a totally great bottom end sound to it :) I got so many hardware analog and digital synth and I got so many VST-synth in my studio and I am not easily amazed any more...but PORTA FM keeps putting a constant smile on my face...and I only touched its surface. It´s an amazing synth for me made by an amazing niche-loving and passioned company. - fantastic sound - huge sound shaping possibilities - full synthesized amazing sounding drum-computer implemented - 15 step sequencer for modulation purpose - absolutely astonishing low-end-sound - nice GUI / re-sizable - THE PRICE!!!! (it´s 30 unbelievable euros!) - 9 and 12 bit choosable - installable everywhere - no online validation / no dongle - yes, YOU really own the software and not a server. - the grin in your face guarantee ;) Buy this synth and support the devs. They deserve it. Thank you again, I never heared of them till today and I think I will buy many of their stuff and for sure the next synth in their CS-series. Regards and all the joy to you sounds can bring.
Just watched the video again. It's so cool. Love this synth still. Nothing compares to it regarding FM soft Synth Chip Emulation. :) Looking forward for the next installment in the series. Have joy and be sound.
Wow! Santa brought me a pss 170 in 1988 approx, and I still have those fm sounds stuck in my head. Even the aliasing is amazing! I never realized how much those operators could be "augmented" with some reverb and delay. (I must admit, as a child there was a point when I began using sample based trackers, and hated it's sounds, AdLib, etc. But seems that FM it's coming back, stronger!). Great review, and great to see Plogue still rocking!
It's got that vintage Yamaha keyboard feel. The adjustable parameters are a handy feature too. An awesome sounding piece of software. What a great way to bring back the retro. 👌
Bought it after watching the review! It’s great. I love the mapping, arpeggiator and being able to load old video game soundtracks is quite unique. Well worth it!
Bought it today, after seeing this vid a couple of times. The presets are great, but FM is so hard to grasp! Also, it is hard to doodle with the same feel like you do. But once I will get there. Thanks for bringing this synth on the radar, kind sir.
Glad to hear it, mate! This is the first new FM product, for me, that has truly brought the vintage FM vibe back in style. I'm looking forward to their next addition to this series of chip synths!
Soooo good! Really filled the hole that was left when my old childhood keyboard stopped working to use in the studio! That, plus the computer game music files you can d/l and play though this is mos def FTW! Great review mate- love your style A+++++
Just having access to that Portasound sound is great. I absolutely adore those keyboards but can't ever find any to buy, despite looking at yard sales and online for the past 5 years and knowing dozens of musicians who have different models (and barely appreciate them). Running those sounds through a bass amp is insane. Can't wait to get my DAW up and working again and try these out.
The timing of this video is crazy. I've been rabidly going through information on old chips like these and searching for affordable projects that would involve one of these chips, and a controller like Arduino or Teensy. My programming prowess isn't good enough to do such a thing myself, unfortunately. If you know of anything like this, please let me know! Also, I recently been going crazy with Pocket Operator's. They're really the only hardware that I can afford right now. Wish I could afford a VolcaFM or something, but until then, I think it would be awesome if you released more Pocket Operator content!
Wow, this sounds awesome. I think I might have to buy this even though I have a Digitone.. it has a very different character due to the simulation of lower bit/sample rate FM.
I think the aliasing you hear as it fades is actually called "zipper noise". Its the sound of the staircase of a low bit release tail. Aliasing is caused by low sample rate, not bit depth.
If I'm correct this was also used in FM-PAC on MSX and also in MSX2 computers. I don't know if this was the same that was also used in some Konami gamecartridges (Nemesis2, Salamander etc..) where it was called the Sound Custom Chip (SCC). Some great tunes where made with these.
The FM-PAC indeed has a YM2413 (OPLL). And again you are right about the SCC in other MSX cartridges but that is a (small) wavetable playback device and not FM. Cheers!
Andreas Leeraar cool, I always wish I had that MSX2 custom sound chip back in the days. I had a MSX SVI 728. But only the basic sound. Loved many of the game soundtracks though. Nemesis 2 was epic!
I did a remake of the introsong to Nemesis 2. I also did a remake of the intro of Salamander which can also be found on my channel. th-cam.com/video/__To9I1SEoU/w-d-xo.html
I'm pretty sure that ChipSynth FC will have an emulation of the N163, which is similar to the SCC. The N163 was also emulated for Korg Gadget's Kamata.
Very entertaining. Have you tried a Yamaha PSS-380/390, Cuckoo? Those were the 2 operator FM ones with the 8 step sliders. Others in the series only had 5 steps. They don't give you control over all the parameters though, like this VST does - you have to pick a patch from the built in ones, then modify it. They're lots of fun though. You can have 8 part polyphony, or it can be two part multi-timbral, with 4 part polyphony - maximum one preset patch affected by the sliders, plus one unmodified one. The PSS-480/580 gives more control, but only through buttons. They have MIDI though, which the 380/390 doesn't, and it's possible to use a PC based editor. I have both but I find the ones with built in sliders more fun to use, personally.
hey Cuckoo, do you have you hands on Plogue SNES chipsynth yet? 👀 Im really interested to hear what this offers in terms of sampling that occured. Will we be able to have that Aquatic Ambience sound from DKC?
Hi cuckoomusic! Thanks for so many great videos. Ive always loved FM music but you tought me how it works so i can do it myself. I have a question though. Alot of these emulation VSTs has a nasty hiss sometimes. Like if they where lo fi samples. I know they are not. Is it something that can be configured away if you are a true FM god or is it just that the emulation is so good it brings the original faults as well?
Hello. That lofi hiss that you’re hearing is indeed an attempt on recreating the real hardware that had its faults and charms. More specifically it’s the DAC. Digital analog converter. With most of Plogue’s FM plugins you can select your DAC of choice in the settings. The original DAC for the most true reproduction of the hardware, different 12-bit alternatives and more modern alternatives with no or little traces. Can’t remember now what alternatives are in this particular plugin.
@@truecuckoo OMG! Hey Plogue! This crazy guy just made you a new customer. That hissing was my last doubt. Thanks!!! Ps. You should do a video about this sometime. Im sure lots of people like the retro but dont remember the hissing from the old days and just find it confusing.
A question for you folks: I'm a programmer, but am very new to softsynths. Can someone please explain to me how Plogue (and others) manage to make standalone, VST and AU versions of their software? Wouldn't the technological requirements be entirely different? I can understand how a core audio engine written in C++ (for example) could be used across products/targets but how do they manage to get it working across different plugin/platform architectures? How can manage to ship a consistent UI across platforms/products, when cross-platform development is usually super-hard. Thanks for any help.
6:28 Excuse me, but I don't think that is aliasing. Aliasing is what happens when high frequencies go over half the sampling rate (Nyquist Theorem) and result in inharmonic partials bouncing back from the theorem. This creates a metallic sound that is more apparent when you apply vibrato. You are talking about is the result of low bit resolution in the emulated DAC.
Jack Cimino This chip does alias and has very obvious ADSR stepping and clicking. The limited resolution DAC itself generates quantification noise which I think is what Cuckoo meant here. So there is a bit of everything in there. All ‘good’ dirt :)
It's darn close but can't do 1:1 PSS-480. That chip is a little different. I beta tested and tried to get some exact patches and got things close but not exact!
B. Leo I'm not sure what chip runs the 480, but I imagine it's one of the two operator OPL family. Either way, it has a certain bite to it that I hear in spades. I love what Plogue has made so far, and am excited by some of the upcoming VSTs they have on their site, especially the SPC synth.
I don't like the distorted FM sounds, but maybe it may modern hard rock. PowerDX knows how to make an FM synth almost sound like a rompler. So no distorted FM-mungle.
César Just some of the FM ones. There were quite a few different synthesis methods used throughout the PortaSound series lifespan. Filtered pulse waves, Wavetable and FM and “AWM”. (rompler). This product concentrates on the FM ones
A homeless guy uploading TH-cam videos ?? Maybe we TH-camrs can open a GoFund Me page for him so he could buy a shaver and a comb. Hey homeless guy leave the last century with this crappy synth and come join us in this century with the evolution of true perfect piano sounds from something called Keyscape from Spectrasonic. Good luck homeless guy.
I rarely jump on “attacks” like these. But this was just too many attacks in one post. What’s going on, mate? Did you have a bad day or something? Or are you just generally grumpy towards people that are different to your self proclaimed norms? Keyscape is one of my favourite piano and keys, and I’m friends with Eric Persing. He certainly didn’t treat me like you just did, when I interviewed him earlier this year about his past and about the new version of Omnisphere.
Holy crap. This is an exact replica of the synth on my Yamaha PSS 680! My first synth. My grandmother bought it around 1989 to play, but the small keys were too hard for her to play so she gave it to me. I used to make entire cassettes of Lo-Fi EBM on that thing. When I learned how to edit the dogs sounds, I was blown away at how dope he could sound. It makes the most nastiest, most distorted FM sounds I've ever heard, and I have a DX7, TG77, TX81Z, and have used the FS1R extensively. It also had two RX-style drumkits and a two-bar sequencer
Absolutely it was a lot of fun while I had one.
Hi cuckoomusic,
thank you so much for your enthusiastic video about PORTA-FM. I stumbled by by coincidence and I got interested fast.
Bought this Synth today...and man, I am happily astonished. I love the sound of it and the shaping possibilities seem to be "endless"...15 step sequencers which you can put into the modulation matrix...arghhhhh!!!!!!! How awesome is that? A little sound-design wonder with a totally great bottom end sound to it :)
I got so many hardware analog and digital synth and I got so many VST-synth in my studio and I am not easily amazed any more...but PORTA FM keeps putting a constant smile on my face...and I only touched its surface. It´s an amazing synth for me made by an amazing niche-loving and passioned company.
- fantastic sound
- huge sound shaping possibilities
- full synthesized amazing sounding drum-computer implemented
- 15 step sequencer for modulation purpose
- absolutely astonishing low-end-sound
- nice GUI / re-sizable
- THE PRICE!!!! (it´s 30 unbelievable euros!)
- 9 and 12 bit choosable
- installable everywhere
- no online validation / no dongle - yes, YOU really own the software and not a server.
- the grin in your face guarantee ;)
Buy this synth and support the devs. They deserve it.
Thank you again, I never heared of them till today and I think I will buy many of their stuff and for sure the next synth in their CS-series.
Regards and all the joy to you sounds can bring.
Thanks mate!! I share the same feeling about this, and Plogue's other products. They really go to great extents to create something truly unique.
You both made me incredibly happy thanks!
You're so welcome. That's fine. The joy is on my side too :)
Thank you for putting so much devotion into your products.
Just watched the video again. It's so cool. Love this synth still. Nothing compares to it regarding FM soft Synth Chip Emulation. :)
Looking forward for the next installment in the series. Have joy and be sound.
Wow! Santa brought me a pss 170 in 1988 approx, and I still have those fm sounds stuck in my head. Even the aliasing is amazing! I never realized how much those operators could be "augmented" with some reverb and delay. (I must admit, as a child there was a point when I began using sample based trackers, and hated it's sounds, AdLib, etc. But seems that FM it's coming back, stronger!). Great review, and great to see Plogue still rocking!
Man some of these sounds really takes me back, looks like a wonderful synth
Ben Burnes yes I love that aliasing of the waveform. I've been trying to remake sounds like these in ElectraX. No such luck😭
Wow that is like a dead accurate emulation. I love those old Yamaha keyboards. I've got the PSR 36 which is just soooo fun with midi :D
It's got that vintage Yamaha keyboard feel. The adjustable parameters are a handy feature too.
An awesome sounding piece of software. What a great way to bring back the retro. 👌
I love the focus on your Mac's screen for this video! It adds an engagement for the viewer that I've not seen before
Thanks!
Bought it after watching the review! It’s great. I love the mapping, arpeggiator and being able to load old video game soundtracks is quite unique. Well worth it!
This made my soul tingle as well. Tingle and sparkle. :-D
I could listen to you make little jams with this lovely plug-in for hours. Please do. :-)
I am a bit sick at the moment but your vids make me feel better,thanks!
Glad to hear that mate!
Bought it today, after seeing this vid a couple of times. The presets are great, but FM is so hard to grasp! Also, it is hard to doodle with the same feel like you do. But once I will get there. Thanks for bringing this synth on the radar, kind sir.
Glad to hear it, mate! This is the first new FM product, for me, that has truly brought the vintage FM vibe back in style. I'm looking forward to their next addition to this series of chip synths!
Thanks. Love Plogue. Now I have this too. Told Plogue you told me.
Soooo good! Really filled the hole that was left when my old childhood keyboard stopped working to use in the studio! That, plus the computer game music files you can d/l and play though this is mos def FTW! Great review mate- love your style A+++++
That piano sound around 6:10 is so nostalgic for me for some reason
Can't wait to get this! I absolutely love listening to and experimenting with oldschool FM music/sounds
Just having access to that Portasound sound is great. I absolutely adore those keyboards but can't ever find any to buy, despite looking at yard sales and online for the past 5 years and knowing dozens of musicians who have different models (and barely appreciate them).
Running those sounds through a bass amp is insane. Can't wait to get my DAW up and working again and try these out.
Man! Video game nostalgia! Blast from the past. Sounds great. I suddenly want to play some old Nintendo....
Very nice sound! I love all of Plogue's work. Lots of fun to watch you explore it. Cheers!
Hey thanks maestro! Yeah they’re a truly special bunch of developers. Glad you stopped by, mate!
12:05 - Wow that one was so cool!
Awesome ! Love FM synths . still have a a yamaha from the late 80s .
Excellent review and a great little song at the end of the video. Tingle my soul is a perfect description. Still loving FM synthesis.
I can't wait for future Chipsynth products including FC, which has N163 wavetable emulation!
Nice review, plenty of actual playing unlike some reviewers.
just bought it.. thanks cuckoo
wow, there goes my old Yamaha YS200, which is missing a key and cant save presets, but I have been keeping for its awesome FM Basses, well, no more!!!
“There’s a little song for you.” Lol right on dude. Sounded like a secret magic level of a Mario Bros video game. Loved it. Greetings from Texas!
I was just talking to them😂😂😂you know I'm getting it!
This is incredible for only 2 operators! Great video :)
I still have my Yamaha Portasound PSS-795 and there's no way I would ever part with it. I love its plinky-plonkiness. :D
Nice little plugin.. sounds great! Love those fm sounds.
Some of what you're playing sounds like a Final Fantasy soundtrack. It never occurred to me those Portasounds could be made to sound pretty. Nice!
Just an FYI: The quality increase from a higher bit depth is due to less quantization noise. Aliasing is a product of a low sample rate.
I really enjoy your videos. Appreciate your time and effort.
oh damn, throwback to old cuckoo content! cool stuff.
Lovely! Getting DX27 flashbacks!
I love the little Boards of Canada vignette @13:03
The timing of this video is crazy. I've been rabidly going through information on old chips like these and searching for affordable projects that would involve one of these chips, and a controller like Arduino or Teensy. My programming prowess isn't good enough to do such a thing myself, unfortunately. If you know of anything like this, please let me know! Also, I recently been going crazy with Pocket Operator's. They're really the only hardware that I can afford right now. Wish I could afford a VolcaFM or something, but until then, I think it would be awesome if you released more Pocket Operator content!
Wow, this sounds awesome. I think I might have to buy this even though I have a Digitone.. it has a very different character due to the simulation of lower bit/sample rate FM.
What kind of genius are you :o !?
such a great sound at 13:03
Love plogue stuff
Nice one! :D Plogue make some seriously awesome stuff :D
Oh niceee very nostalgiccc
I think the aliasing you hear as it fades is actually called "zipper noise". Its the sound of the staircase of a low bit release tail. Aliasing is caused by low sample rate, not bit depth.
Very nice FM Synth and nice tutorial :-)
If I'm correct this was also used in FM-PAC on MSX and also in MSX2 computers. I don't know if this was the same that was also used in some Konami gamecartridges (Nemesis2, Salamander etc..) where it was called the Sound Custom Chip (SCC). Some great tunes where made with these.
The FM-PAC indeed has a YM2413 (OPLL). And again you are right about the SCC in other MSX cartridges but that is a (small) wavetable playback device and not FM. Cheers!
Andreas Leeraar cool, I always wish I had that MSX2 custom sound chip back in the days. I had a MSX SVI 728. But only the basic sound. Loved many of the game soundtracks though. Nemesis 2 was epic!
I did a remake of the introsong to Nemesis 2. I also did a remake of the intro of Salamander which can also be found on my channel. th-cam.com/video/__To9I1SEoU/w-d-xo.html
I'm pretty sure that ChipSynth FC will have an emulation of the N163, which is similar to the SCC. The N163 was also emulated for Korg Gadget's Kamata.
hey santa i want this for xmas ! more videos plogue team
great synth. Thanks for sharing..
Very entertaining. Have you tried a Yamaha PSS-380/390, Cuckoo? Those were the 2 operator FM ones with the 8 step sliders. Others in the series only had 5 steps.
They don't give you control over all the parameters though, like this VST does - you have to pick a patch from the built in ones, then modify it.
They're lots of fun though. You can have 8 part polyphony, or it can be two part multi-timbral, with 4 part polyphony - maximum one preset patch affected by the sliders, plus one unmodified one.
The PSS-480/580 gives more control, but only through buttons. They have MIDI though, which the 380/390 doesn't, and it's possible to use a PC based editor. I have both but I find the ones with built in sliders more fun to use, personally.
MOn.. Happy Video, Happy SOng... COOOL
Very nice mr Cuckoo! ^-^ iouch pchh tchiouu ^-^
You are a genius!
MD Batman at 11:38 ❤️
hey Cuckoo, do you have you hands on Plogue SNES chipsynth yet? 👀 Im really interested to hear what this offers in terms of sampling that occured. Will we be able to have that Aquatic Ambience sound from DKC?
Hi cuckoomusic!
Thanks for so many great videos. Ive always loved FM music but you tought me how it works so i can do it myself. I have a question though. Alot of these emulation VSTs has a nasty hiss sometimes. Like if they where lo fi samples. I know they are not. Is it something that can be configured away if you are a true FM god or is it just that the emulation is so good it brings the original faults as well?
Hello. That lofi hiss that you’re hearing is indeed an attempt on recreating the real hardware that had its faults and charms. More specifically it’s the DAC. Digital analog converter. With most of Plogue’s FM plugins you can select your DAC of choice in the settings. The original DAC for the most true reproduction of the hardware, different 12-bit alternatives and more modern alternatives with no or little traces. Can’t remember now what alternatives are in this particular plugin.
@@truecuckoo OMG! Hey Plogue! This crazy guy just made you a new customer. That hissing was my last doubt. Thanks!!! Ps. You should do a video about this sometime. Im sure lots of people like the retro but dont remember the hissing from the old days and just find it confusing.
Also, time to come clean. Are you or are you not swedish!!!?!!
"That music is so Genesis" - AVGN
13:03 Oh wow! nice!
Well this is exciting
My Yamaha PSS-560 😊
Man you look like Captain Caveman, but nice video dude, and good synth
Sounds good! Wonderfull ))
A question for you folks: I'm a programmer, but am very new to softsynths. Can someone please explain to me how Plogue (and others) manage to make standalone, VST and AU versions of their software? Wouldn't the technological requirements be entirely different? I can understand how a core audio engine written in C++ (for example) could be used across products/targets but how do they manage to get it working across different plugin/platform architectures? How can manage to ship a consistent UI across platforms/products, when cross-platform development is usually super-hard. Thanks for any help.
You should check out WDL-OL for an open-source example of how it can be done
Thank you, I'll check it out.
6:28 Excuse me, but I don't think that is aliasing. Aliasing is what happens when high frequencies go over half the sampling rate (Nyquist Theorem) and result in inharmonic partials bouncing back from the theorem. This creates a metallic sound that is more apparent when you apply vibrato. You are talking about is the result of low bit resolution in the emulated DAC.
Jack Cimino This chip does alias and has very obvious ADSR stepping and clicking. The limited resolution DAC itself generates quantification noise which I think is what Cuckoo meant here. So there is a bit of everything in there. All ‘good’ dirt :)
Erm quantiZation noise. French != English
3:02 wow is cuckoo a synth!?
5:57 lol
so fantastic! is there an OP1 sample pack in the works? :)
Nice!
Cool!
Would consider creating an op-1 pack with plogue chip sounds? I don’t use computers but I have an op-1 and I love chip sounds.
There looks to be more soon!! plogue.com/products/chipsynth-portafm.html
I love the part from 10:16 to 10:35. Can you tell where it is from? Great Synth!
I only liked because his name
Needs auto accompaniment styles :) !
AT around 16:22 ..Endorphins overload alert
Sounds just like my PSS-480, maybe even better
It's darn close but can't do 1:1 PSS-480. That chip is a little different. I beta tested and tried to get some exact patches and got things close but not exact!
B. Leo I'm not sure what chip runs the 480, but I imagine it's one of the two operator OPL family. Either way, it has a certain bite to it that I hear in spades. I love what Plogue has made so far, and am excited by some of the upcoming VSTs they have on their site, especially the SPC synth.
I don't like the distorted FM sounds, but maybe it may modern hard rock. PowerDX knows how to make an FM synth almost sound like a rompler. So no distorted FM-mungle.
HOMESTAR RUNNER FLASH GAMES (:
Good day, I liked the track, where can I listen to it or download it somewhere?
I'd love to see an ipad version of these apps.
Oops, forgot to mention that I love the multitrack song you make towards the end! It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling on my meninges. Excellent work.
Wow that's a cool program. And only $29?! Could someone suggest a decent keyboard to go along with it for a rookie like me not wanting to go broke?
12:25 Abba reference?
Kind looking Trevor from gta)
try out future bass.
Only 64bit 😢
Use jbridge
jerville1 man, time to get new pc. There's a great deal at best buy $650 gaming laptop. I'd get it too if I needed one.
Jbridge 😎
瀬戸さんの動画からきました。
よろしく！瀬戸さんは🔥
I wonder if you could do Skillshare classes. Might be a way for you to make money. I can say Id definitely take all your courses.
12:25 - 12:33 seems so familiar, anyone know what it’s from?
That sound inspired me to play something similar to the intro of an old song by ABBA.. "Mamma Mia" I think.. Don't ask me how my mind went there :D
4:19 is that a minor scale?
Damn. It’s only $30.
Only £26, wow
this emulate the yamaha portasound series, right ?
César Just some of the FM ones. There were quite a few different synthesis methods used throughout the PortaSound series lifespan. Filtered pulse waves, Wavetable and FM and “AWM”. (rompler). This product concentrates on the FM ones
vs Dexed ?
annabelle lol
Casio didn't make FM keyboards. They only made square wave keyboards and keyboards with strange samples.
@@jackcimino8822 The Casio CZ series synthesizers used Phase Distortion which is similar to FM synthesis.
@@LittleRichard1988 I know that, but I was talking about the "kiddie" keyboards.
But plug @ 2:10
Et Dieu sait que je n'en kiff pas des masses des gens...
Jim Carrey ?
こんにちは！瀬戸さんの動画から来ました！（英語力皆無）
こんにちわ！よろしく。私の日本語は本当に悪いですけど。。。😅
cuckoomusic Your channel was registered! I like the music you make!
A homeless guy uploading TH-cam videos ?? Maybe we TH-camrs can open a GoFund Me page for him so he could buy a shaver and a comb. Hey homeless guy leave the last century with this crappy synth and come join us in this century with the evolution of true perfect piano sounds from something called Keyscape from Spectrasonic. Good luck homeless guy.
I rarely jump on “attacks” like these. But this was just too many attacks in one post. What’s going on, mate? Did you have a bad day or something? Or are you just generally grumpy towards people that are different to your self proclaimed norms? Keyscape is one of my favourite piano and keys, and I’m friends with Eric Persing. He certainly didn’t treat me like you just did, when I interviewed him earlier this year about his past and about the new version of Omnisphere.