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Average rating:
4.7 out of 5
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I paid £2 for a boxed,mint condition VSS-30 at a carboot sale 2 years ago. I love the sampling/mangling aspect,even don't mind a few of the presets.Some of the effects can be quite freaky.Well worth trying it out-can sound great when put through a decent amp/effects rack,but equally great fun to play around on for ideas.
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This little sampler fuelled something of an obsession of mine with small cute keyboards. I have 2 mint examples and 2 vss200s...1 each for sale now on sound on sound. They are just sooo much fun. The vss30 is great for carrying about and creating ideas. The 200 is more substantial and better for a studio, as Brian said below. The sound editting possibilities are comprehensive. I doubt Yamaha made much money out of these. sampling was an expensive business in the late 80s-early 90s. I agree with David below. Nice examples are hard to find. People hang on to these as prized posessions.
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I've got 2 of these which I bought off the sound on sound web site a few years back. A mint instrument. Its probably the best portable fun in the music world..better than a guitar and a mouth organ. When I'm travelling I always take one along for fun and to work through a few ideas. Plug in air line earphones and people are none the wiser! Makes your flight go quickly. Very easy to use, easier than Casios and the like. This is a very well designed piece of kit. My 3 year old daughter loves sampling with it. I always supervise her to avoid breakages, but its that easy to work with. I agree with Dave. Bootsale bargains are long dead. If you want one this side of hell freezing over, go on an internet hunt. always buy a fully working one. I've got a broken vss200..very expensive to fix. In fact, it can't be unless you've a doner instrument. Bust casios are the same.
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Garage sales, boot sales, flea markets, thrift shops? You could look for 30 years and not find one. If you did, they will want £100. People just tap the name into google and , well you know. The last 'bargain' I saw was an sk10 for £25 at a bootsale. Don't build up false hope. I know someone who is looking out for a wasp around bootsales. He'll be an old waspless man. Even ebay is running out of these. They are soooo popular. And, with good reason. It's a fantastic piece of kit and easy to live with. It's small, packed with features and great fun. Just hang in there and pay what people want. If you don't someone else will. Everything has been collected and everyone knows what things are worth. Ebay has educated so many.
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The Yamaha VSS-30 PortaSound was the first keyboard I ever had the pleasure of owning. I remember playing around with the sampling on this keyboard when I was 3 years old. As of now, mine is pretty beaten up (one of the black keys is literally sticky taped on and the high C key is missing) but it works just fine otherwise. It even still has the box and Styrofoam in all their tattered and water damaged glory.
Moving along, this tiny little sampler comes with 11 barely distinguishable instruments (excluding the voice), 12 arpeggio melodies, and about 2 seconds worth of sampling. The real beauty of the system is the great amount of effects you are can inflict upon any of the instruments or sample. You can loop, flip, u-turn, add echo, add fuzz, modulate the frequency, modulate amplitude, and add vibrato. It even has ADSR envelope options and an overwrite option for samples! You also get the standard music record/playback option. This may not sound like too much now, but it was very advanced for 1987. On the right hand side of the system, you've got your standard AC adapter, headphone, and external mic sockets. Takes 5 AA batteries, but they will last you a good long time. Major flaws include lack of drums or bass, and no saving feature once power is lost.
If I were to try and compare this to a more well known keyboard of it's time I would have to go with old standby Casio SK-1, but in truth there is really no equivalent to the VSS-30.
From what I understand, this is a pretty rare keyboard. I've seen these things go for well over $100 on auction sites like e-bay, but you can probably find one for much less if you like garage sale and flea market scouting. May be a bit of work to find, but definitely worth it if you are into ancient 80's keyboards.
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