Yamaha YC-61 Review

Yamaha YC-61 Review! My review on a great organ centric stage keyboard from Yamaha; 61 semi-weighted waterfall keys, great organ sounds & functionality, awesome piano, electric piano and other sounds, great connectivity & my favorite user interface ever!

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Online Piano Training I Recommend:

Chapters:
Introduction: 0:00
What IS A Stage Keyboard?: 0:58
Yamaha Product Lines: 2:38
Check For Updates!: 4:57
REVIEW STARTS HERE!
Key Action: 5:35
User Interface: 8:00
Sounds: 17:55
Organ Sound Demo: 18:35
Piano, EP & Other Sound Demo: 25:16
Registrations (Live Sets): 30:31
Connectivity: 35:08
What's Missing?: 39:54
Features I Would Add: 42:11
Competition:
Nord Electro 6D: 42:57
Hammond SK Pro: 45:38
Yamaha CK-61: 47:28
Viscount Legend One: 50:46
The Verdict: 53:00

Thanks a bunch for stopping by the channel, please subscribe (really helps me out!) and happy piano playing (& shopping!)

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[hugomoreira]

Hello, Tony and everyone.
A statement and also a question.

Regarding the keys and any keyboard and their measurements, a serious consideration is how narrow and rounded the BLACK KEYS are.

I believe that this makes a big difference in the agility and comfort of playing/reaching the notes easily and regularly.

For example, thinking ONLY about the keys, the shape of the BLACK KEYS on the Go:keys 5 is, for me, perfect for playing, despite the lower octave.

However, the BLACK keys on the Ck61 or Yc61 disconcert me lol

Another example is the BLACK KEYS on the Np35. If they had the slightly square shape of piano keys or as seen on the Go:keys 3 or 5, they would be, imho, superb! lol


The shape of the BLACK keys on the Px s3000 and P121 are also fantastic and so on...

Sorry for Google's English...

Please, respond to everyone about this!

Congratulations on the excellent work and thank you!

[operationshutdown]

Great review. Thanks for talking in-depth about the action and octave width… not many other channels do that.

[michaels.]

I do like the format of your channel!

Kudos and thanks again for making the tutorial simple for beginners to understand.

[YotamPiano]

I really like your take on the YC61 Tony and I always enjoy your presentations and information related to the gear you review. I also bought the keyboard and reviewed it on my channel and so far I am satisfied overall. I do agree about your critique of the light weight of the action. Personally not a huge deal, but would I want a bit heavier? I think so

[artie]

one small yet to me unbelievable thing missing on the electro is the pitch and mod wheels or stick.. keyboards at 1/4 of the price have them and its inexcusable that the Nord doesnt have it and of course the YC like most keyboards does.

[mfurman]

Tony,
Thank you for your great review.

The action of YC61 is not really very light.
Below, there are some numbers to compare. I actually like the action of CK61 the most.

As far as the octave width is concerned, my experience shows that organ manual actions are always with shorter keys and narrower width (I mean pipe organ). I practice on Yamaha C7 and a church organ occasionally.

Here are the numbers:

YC61

To move (slightly) white C keys - 61g
To move them almost completely down - ~94.5g

To move (slightly) C4# key - ~72g

90.5g to get the sound on C4, C2, C3, C5, C6 and C7 (it was 93g in the very beginning)

Octave width: 16.1cm; white key length ~14cm

————

CK61

To move (slightly) white C keys - 50g

To move C4 almost completely down - ~70g
74.5g to move other C keys

To move (slightly) C4# key - ~58g

73.5g to get the sound on C4, C5, C6 and C7
~75.5g on C2, C3

Octave width: 16.1cm; white key length ~14.2cm

——-

Roland Fantom-06

To move (slightly) white keys:
C4 - 53g
C2 - 51g
C3 - 52g
C5, C7 - 49g
C6 - 51g

74.5g to move C keys almost completely down

To move (slightly) C4# (and other C#) key - ~64g

60g to get the sound on C2, C5, C6 and C7
62.5g on C3 and C4


Octave width: 16.5cm; white key length ~13.6cm

Tones are better than CK61!
—————————————-

NI Kontrol S61 MK3

To move (slightly) white C keys - ~53g

To move (slightly) C4# key - ~<53g

To move white C keys almost completely down - ~78.5g


(73.5g to get the sound on C4, C5, C6 and C7
~75.5g on C2, C3)

Octave width: 16.5cm; white key length ~13.8cm

————-

Hammond XK-1c

To move (slightly) white C3-C6 keys - 62g, C7 - 50g, C2 - <50g

To move (slightly) C4# key - ~62g

56g to get the sound on C2, ~68g to get the sound on C4, ~66g on C3, C5 and C6 and ~51g on C7

To move the white keys almost completely down - ~112g (C2 and C7 move completely down)

The other problem is that when pushing the key slightly to get a sound there are sound “oscillations” (the sound is “bouncing”). In other words the sound triggering is a bit “flaky”. I experienced problems when playing!

Keys are loud (clicking).

Octave width: 16.5cm; white key length ~14.5cm

—————-

Hammond XK-4

To move (slightly) white C keys - 50g
To move them almost completely down - ~100g

To move (slightly) C4# key - ~62g

~52g to get the sound on C4, 58g to get the sound (S) on C2, C3 and C5, C6 and C7

I did not like the action.

————

Nord Electro 6D 73

Action:
Middle C (C4) - ~72g (other keys as well)
C# edge - ~78g, middle ~97g
Not weighted

To get the sound - 87g (very shallow movement needed)

Action is very springy and noisy on the upstroke but (after getting used to) will allow to play classical piano pieces (sometimes it may be good)

Octave width:16.5cm; white key length 13.3cm

—————

Nord Electro 6D 61

Middle C (C4) - ~70g
Not weighted
To get the sound - ~>90g

Action is springy but (after getting used to) will allow to play classical piano pieces (sometimes it may be good)

Octave width:16.5cm; white key length 13.5cm

—————-

Can you guess which keyboards I currently have? 😅

Michael

[SynthLife-sdgb]

Thank you for your thorough review! One thing ad. BT. There is no such thing as stage police 🙂 but you kept repeating "stage keyboard on a stage". Given it price, I think it is pretty understandable to expect to have all the features and use some on stage, some at home, some at... etc. And not buying another keyboard just to practice at home, after all such practice would be harmful, because once on stage you will be in position "oh great, but I am not used to THIS keyboard, I was practicing on another one".

[steveraschella]

Nice review and pretty thorough. I have had the YC61 for a couple years now…like you said superb sounds and connectivity. But (always a but!) I hate the action/keybed…I don’t have tiny Japanese hands! I had the 73 for 3 days until I could sell it…terrible action but I hear the 88 is awesome(for pianists…I’m an old B3 player!). I think the big thing Yamaha missed here is the keys not firing at the top of the keystroke for organ. Hammond SK(X) Pro series also has a bit of busbar harmonic just before each note which makes it so much more like the real (heavy) deal

[mfurman]

Tony, did you see reviews of Roland V-Stage and Nord Organ 3? 😊

Michael

Ps. I would like to repeat what I said in another comment- YC61 action is not light. It just triggers the sound almost immediately after a key is moved.

[Cazarace]

Does the Yamaha YC also have all of the pads, toy piano etc. sounds as the CK series? I get that if you only play organ and piano, EP it's much better built, but the CK also has so many voices and sounds for composition and neat purposes. Twice the price for a keyboard action and a nicer organ engine ... and with less sounds ... is ...

[chrisc]

can I have 2 splitpoints. For example organ-rhodes-brass, from left to right?

[TheMg]

How many keyboards do you have now Tony?

[massissousa]

As teclas não tem molas fazendo o movimento de retorno através do próprio plástico. As teclas não possuem aftertouch, as chaves a, b, cortam o som e nas transições de uma voz para outra. O modo inverter não funciona para controle de módulos midi apenas via USB daí só se consegue acessar o volume em um módulo externo entrando no menu e isso leva muito tempo ao vivo. Os pianos FM não se consegue acessar os algoritmos para uma programação descente daí você fica condenado a receber a esmola da yamaha que são as atualizações de inclusão de novos voice. Em fim pare de encher a bola de um teclado que se propõe a ser um teclado de palco mas é cheio de falhas que não vale o preço e o CP73 é pior ainda pois pra que a yamaha fabricou esse teclado se o yc73 possui TODOS os sons que ele tem e de brinde ainda vem os excelentes órgãos e uma síntese FM blindada que vc só consegue mexer no básico. Em fim vc quer falar de FM de verdade compre um Motif ES com duas placas plg150dx e seja super feliz como eu sou. Posso garantir pois tenho o yc88 e tenho o Motif ES com as placas plg150dx e a nível de som FM o Motif possui software exclusivo para edição total da síntese FM e ainda recebe todos os syex do Dx7 original com total compatibilidade. Pare de encher a bola de um teclado datado como yc61 é horrível tocar piano nessa tecla de psr.