Cliffdiver - Songs From A $7 Synthesizer CS
In Cliffdiver's words (aka one of the Jernigan brothers from City of Ships doing his solo thing)... I found this synthesizer at a thrift store in Loveland, Colorado. The price was $7. When I powered it on I was immediately moved by the way it came to life. I took my time exploring its few buttons, faders and keys. Everything was fragile but functioning.
I remember having a synth or two like this lying around my home growing up. Often these bedroom synthesizers gathered dust and were eventually thrown away. I became inspired to honor the life that this Yamaha Portasound PSS-450 was still offering to live. I let this synthesizer speak to me in its simple language and I found that it had many beautiful things to say.
Every source sound on this recording is the Portasound PSS-450. I ran it into some FX. I used Soundtoys Delay, Valhalla Reverb, Digitech Whammy, and a volume pedal and that's about it. I just wanted to let this synthesizer sing for itself. Working with this Yamaha was a cool reminder that some undesired keyboards are capable of making beautiful sound.