Topic: Need help identifying a keyboard used for old recordings

[greatzot]

Update on this: I had originally thought what I called "Synth bass" here was called "Syn Pad", and only named it "synth bass" because that was the closest thing I could find on newer keyboards, but I think it was probably named Seq Pad, as I heard a sample of a voice by that name on the PSS-51, and it sounds the same to me. So I'm thinking maybe the keyboard here was a PSR-310 as that also seems to have a voice by that name. Does anyone have a PSR-310 to compare with?
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Made some recordings as a kid back in the late 90s, probably early 1998, though maybe a little earlier. Used a Yamaha keyboard borrowed from a friend's sister. Did the recordings in the keyboard itself, then used whatever output it had to go into my sister's stereo and record to tape, later transferred to computer when I got the tech to do so.

I had thought the keyboard was a PSR-300; however, I got my hands on one and it does not seem to be a match--only the black keys have drum samples (as I recall, all keys or at least the white keys had samples in the one I used), the drum loops I used do not seem to be on it, and the voices don't seem to match up exactly. My next guess is maybe a PSR-310, but I haven't been able to find enough audio online to see if it's a match. I only have vague memories but I am pretty sure the display was just one of the basic red LED types.

Hoping someone might be able to help figure out what the actual model was based on some sound samples from those recordings. Unfortunately the only ones I have in isolation are some drum clips; the rest have a couple parts and in some cases a dual voice, so they may make it harder to identify by ear. I am not sure how the voices were actually named on the keyboard, so I'm just using general descriptions. What I'm calling "bells" sounds a lot like the "vibraphone" on the PSR-300, for example.

That said, if anyone doesn't know exactly what model it is but does know a model that contains all of the same voices and maybe even some of the same drum loops, that's probably good enough.

These clips are mostly less than 10 seconds long, so should only take a couple of minutes to hear them all once downloaded.

You can download all at once with this zip file, or see the other links below for individual samples:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2wfbizeyi11elw8/Yamaha_PSR_All_Samples.zip?dl=0

Drum loop samples:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/y4ow31ngr83uhpo/Yamaha_PSR_Recording_Sample_Drum_Loop_1.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z7gdhez0oqg1fxr/Yamaha_PSR_Recording_Sample_Drum_Loop_1_with_other_Fill.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5sffgvj29qnwj5q/Yamaha_PSR_Recording_Sample_Drum_Loop_2_and_Sax.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hio90tdxzni9pp9/Yamaha_PSR_Recording_Sample_Drum_Loop_3.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hio90tdxzni9pp9/Yamaha_PSR_Recording_Sample_Drum_Loop_3.wav?dl=0

Single voice sample (choir or chorus or whatever):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3wah0dciyfpqzp4/Yamaha_PSR_Recording_Sample_Choir_Sample_01.wav?dl=0

Multipart samples, including some dual voices:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gflic7fkl7w0jxh/Yamaha_PSR_Recording_Sample_Original_Song_1_Harp_etc.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pryrbm283r4l14x/Yamaha_PSR_Recording_Sample_Original_Song_1_Strings_Bells_Harp.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vi3uxxxyegz26fo/Yamaha_PSR_Recording_Sample_Original_Song_1_Strings.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8tybxxureh9imbe/Yamaha_PSR_Recording_Sample_Original_Song_1_Synth_Bass.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/03l5fq5nw8aisc6/Yamaha_PSR_Recording_Sample_Original_Song_1_Ochestra_Hit.wav?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d7pjwxk5copkg7z/Yamaha_PSR_Recording_Sample_Original_Song_2_Chorus.wav?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mff7jw56x9wqcgh/Yamaha_PSR_Recording_Sample_Original_Song_3_Electronic_Drum_Loop_and_Piano_plus_Strings.wav?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ort08caouadx8ud/Yamaha_PSR_Recording_Sample_Original_Song_4_Clip.wav?dl=0

[SciNote]

I'll admit that I did not yet listen to those recordings, but I'm not really good at identifying equipment just by the sounds, anyway.

Yamaha has had so many keyboards over the years that this might be quite a challenge.  Do you remember if the keyboard was a new or current model for the time, or was it the case that your friend's sister had the keyboard for a while?  Because the PSR-300 was about 7 years old by 1998.  By then, there was the PSR-320 and maybe even the PSR-330.  And of course, there were also the PSR-4xx and PSR-5xx versions of those boards that were significantly more advanced.  However, if it did just have a couple of red LED digital displays for numerically identifying sounds and styles, then it was likely an early 1990's (or earlier) keyboard, because starting with the PSR-320 (and 420 and 520) or so, Yamaha started supplying more advanced LCD data screens with these models.

You could also check out the PSR-400 and PSR-500, which are the more advanced versions of the PSR-300 -- I did some quick Google image searches, and it looks like those keyboards did have a drum sound for each key for the drum-kit voices, and not just on the white keys.  The PSR-310, 410, and 510 were kind of unique in that their numeric data keypads were laid out linearly, with all of the numbers in a horizontal line, instead of the more common telephone or calculator style layout found on most of the other models, so that would be something memorable about those keyboards.

[greatzot]

Yamaha has had so many keyboards over the years that this might be quite a challenge. Do you remember if the keyboard was a new or current model for the time, or was it the case that your friend's sister had the keyboard for a while?  Because the PSR-300 was about 7 years old by 1998.

It may have been either 1997 or 1998, but I don't really know how long she had it. At the time my friend's sister was maybe 16 years old, and played piano well, so 7 years is not out of the realm of possibility. It definitely wasn't something she had just gotten recently, as it wasn't important enough to her to care how long I borrowed it. Anyway if I can get my hands on something that includes all the same sounds even if it's not exactly the same model, that would suffice. But figured it would be easier to get everything to match up if it was the same model.

As for the number-pad layout, that is what I assumed it had, but I can't say for certain as it's just too long ago and wasn't one of the more important details of the experience to me. Besides the sounds, recording capability, and drumbeats, the most memorable thing was my first experience with latency--after layering a bunch of parts the later parts started getting out of sync, and not just because I was playing badly.