Yamaha YC61 Stage Keyboard

This organ/keyboard is perfect for my gigging needs. Its feature set is surprisingly deep and east to get your head around. Great sound.

Completely satisfied with the Yamaha YC61

I am an intermediate keyboard player. I have owned a few different Korg and Arturia keyboards over the last decade. They have had various levels of playability and quite a variety of sounds -- many usable, many simply cheezy. Most recently I was using an Arturia midi keyboard with Mainstage to support a new cover band and for performances at church. The system was adequate, but the required link to a laptop (or other device) was becoming cumbersome. So, I started looking for a real stage keyboard with excellent playability and a variety of quality sounds for live performances of rock and pop songs. I considered the Nord Stage 3 and the Yamaha YC61, and ultimately chose the Yamaha YC61. I love it! It is very playable -- noticeably better than the Korg Kross and ... MoreI am an intermediate keyboard player. I have owned a few different Korg and Arturia keyboards over the last decade. They have had various levels of playability and quite a variety of sounds -- many usable, many simply cheezy. Most recently I was using an Arturia midi keyboard with Mainstage to support a new cover band and for performances at church. The system was adequate, but the required link to a laptop (or other device) was becoming cumbersome. So, I started looking for a real stage keyboard with excellent playability and a variety of quality sounds for live performances of rock and pop songs. I considered the Nord Stage 3 and the Yamaha YC61, and ultimately chose the Yamaha YC61. I love it! It is very playable -- noticeably better than the Korg Kross and Arturia Keylab Essential that I have owned. The quality of the build is fantastic. The organ sounds are fabulous! Are they better/worse than the Nord -- I can't say, but they are more than sufficient for my purposes. The ability to switch quickly between organ, piano, and synthesizer sounds is really useful. The Yamaha YC61 has a very efficient layout and a convenient set of sections that you can turn on/off with the flip of a switch. It is a pleasure to play, and I expect that this will be my main keyboard for the decade to come.

Love it!

Just used it once in a concert and it was great. It's easy to load sounds from Soundmondo and it's great when you use it with a computer.

Review of Yamaha YC61 61 Key Drawbar Organ & Stage Keyboard

A great piece of kit.Really suits my needs.

Review of Yamaha YC61 61-Key Drawbar Organ & Stage Keyboard with Semi-Weighted Waterfall Keyboard

Everything I want in a stage keyboard. The sounds are fantastic and the interface has some killer features.

SO much more here than it first appears

This is an incredibly powerful board and if you're checking this video out, there's a pretty good bet, you're also checking out the Nord Electro Series as well. If that's the case and you think you've seen all this keyboard has to offer.....think again!This keyboard has some amazing tricks up its sleeve and some special features that will blow you away compared to the Nord Electro Series.Right off the bat is the comparison to the Nord Electro D Series. I bought both and returned the Nord.The Nord has some strong features including sampling and brand notoriety. But when I started to actually compare them side by side and found out more about the Yamaha, things started to become apparent that the Nord was not the clear choice, as I has been lead to believe by the ... MoreThis is an incredibly powerful board and if you're checking this video out, there's a pretty good bet, you're also checking out the Nord Electro Series as well. If that's the case and you think you've seen all this keyboard has to offer.....think again!This keyboard has some amazing tricks up its sleeve and some special features that will blow you away compared to the Nord Electro Series.Right off the bat is the comparison to the Nord Electro D Series. I bought both and returned the Nord.The Nord has some strong features including sampling and brand notoriety. But when I started to actually compare them side by side and found out more about the Yamaha, things started to become apparent that the Nord was not the clear choice, as I has been lead to believe by the hype.The Nord, even with the expanded memory, can only hold so many sounds for both the Piano and Synth/Sample sections, especially if you load the samples with damper resonance. The Yamaha has a huge variety of sounds, many taken from the CP/Montage library and they are already part of the keyboard OS. So you dont have to choose which sounds your going to sacrifice just because of memory space.The Nord has many of the same features but implements them in strange ways. For example, on the Nord you can transpose the keyboard to any key, like on most boards, but reverts back to standard when you change patches. Meaning you cant change patches in a song thats transposed without going through the several step procedure again. On the Yamaha, its global and has a quick access button right on the panel.The Yamaha has HUGELY underrated feature in the main FX section called Master EQ. This is a game changer! This allows you to change from Yamaha's 'Radio Ready' sound to a more appropriate 'Mids Punch' sound for live performance instantly! Plus a Full Featured 24bit USB Audio Interface that takes your IOS based sounds and seamlessly PREMIXES them all with the internal sounds to the main outs and headphones!

There is a LOT more under the hood than you first realize!

The most common comparison for this is the Nord Electro 6D.If you spend any time with this at all, your going to quickly discover the YC61 is a LOT more keyboard on almost every level. Far more master controller features, more in-depth FX routing and control, Vastly larger sample ROM library ON BOARD.The biggest advantage of the Nord is that you can swap out samples from their sample library but you have to constantly choose which ones to load and which to leave out because of the very limited sample space inside the Nord. The YC61 has a much bigger library and they are already in memory all the time.This is invaluable if you are trying to cover a lot of bases with just one keyboard.The other biggest comparison ( especially online and Youtube ) is the difference ... MoreThe most common comparison for this is the Nord Electro 6D.If you spend any time with this at all, your going to quickly discover the YC61 is a LOT more keyboard on almost every level. Far more master controller features, more in-depth FX routing and control, Vastly larger sample ROM library ON BOARD.The biggest advantage of the Nord is that you can swap out samples from their sample library but you have to constantly choose which ones to load and which to leave out because of the very limited sample space inside the Nord. The YC61 has a much bigger library and they are already in memory all the time.This is invaluable if you are trying to cover a lot of bases with just one keyboard.The other biggest comparison ( especially online and Youtube ) is the difference in sound character. The Nord has a more upfront ( punchy mid eq ) sound for live performance while the YC61 has a more 'Radio Ready' ( scooped mid eq ) sound out of the box. But the Yamaha, unlike the Nord, can easily change this character with its 'on board Master EQ Section" We were easily able to match our Nords overall 'Mid Forward' sound character with the Master EQ on the YC61.The drawbars, unlike the Nord, show the current position of the loaded patch via the drawbar lighted LED settings that can easily be seen even in the dark. AND those can be different colors for EACH patch.Both the Nord and the YC61 are well made, solid instruments with great feeling keypads but the YC61 is simply far more powerful under the hood where it matters most.

YC 61....

Ok, imagine you're a player who spends most of his or her time at a job playing the organ and loving it. But, there are a few times you'd like some rocking electric piano and a couple times a beautiful acoustic piano is what you need. And, you need pitch and modulation levers for a couple of searing synth solos or smooth sax parts. Of course, you'd want a good '60's combo organ sound in case anyone requests '96 Tears'. You want something small (61 keys) and light (around 15 pounds) with an absolutely world class drawbar organ, really great other sounds, and an incredible feeling keyboard. You want to bring this keyboard (and nothing else) to a job, plug it in, and use it for everything. The YC61 seems like the perfect instrument for you. And, if you don't mind ... MoreOk, imagine you're a player who spends most of his or her time at a job playing the organ and loving it. But, there are a few times you'd like some rocking electric piano and a couple times a beautiful acoustic piano is what you need. And, you need pitch and modulation levers for a couple of searing synth solos or smooth sax parts. Of course, you'd want a good '60's combo organ sound in case anyone requests '96 Tears'. You want something small (61 keys) and light (around 15 pounds) with an absolutely world class drawbar organ, really great other sounds, and an incredible feeling keyboard. You want to bring this keyboard (and nothing else) to a job, plug it in, and use it for everything. The YC61 seems like the perfect instrument for you. And, if you don't mind bringing your favorite Leslie Sim pedal with you, it is. The YC's Hammond model is sweet and rich and creamy – not quite like any Hammond model I've heard (and I've just about played them all). Add some of the built in eq, and you can come up with some gorgeous organ tones. It is complemented by a smooth, ultra-comfortable keyboard that it's hard to keep from playing. The electric pianos through the amp sim are great and respond perfectly when you dig into the keys. The acoustic pianos are excellent. The other sounds I've listened to are great, and there are synth, sax, and fretless bass patches so you can use those pitch and mod levers (which are oddly missing on some other instruments like this). Even the FM generated 'combo organs' are pretty fun – they don't exactly sound like a Vox or Farfisa, but they sure do have a '60's vibe to them. But, why, on an instrument of this caliber, they would include such an inferior Leslie sim is beyond me. Hopefully it will be addressed in a future OS update. Turning the bass rotor all the way down, you can hear the treble horn at high speed is a mess. On top of the sound of the spinning horn sound there is this cluster of high-pitched noise bouncing around much faster than the speed of the horn – it's just irritating. But, in all fairness, most of the 'clonewheel' instruments out there need an outboard sim to sound their best. This would be the perfect instrument to play an entire job on (as I plan on doing) as long as you can deal with the very minor inconvenience or bringing a good outboard Leslie sim and a few extra cords. I was hoping Yamaha would nail the Leslie sim, but very few companies have been able to do so – I'm hoping they may do so for the YC in an update. Weighing the overall excellence of the YC against that one shortcoming, I'll give it the highest rating, but be aware that if you are a true organ lover and get the YC, you'll want to invest in a good Leslie sim (and Sweetwater has the best right here!)