[Yamaha YC61 Announced]

They just started being distributed here in the US through on line sales. Received mine on Saturday.

 

Have to say I agree with pretty much everything that Niacin said in his short form review from a couple weeks ago. Keyboard feels great to me....much better than my Nord Electro 4. Still tweaking the Leslie Sim...slowing down the fast horn is a must...but it can be done to whatever number you want. Leslie also sounded a little "weak" compared to my NE4 and there is no "Close mic" option...but they do have separate volume controls for the rotor and horn and turning those up seems to roughly be the equivalent. I like the Rhodes and Wurli emulations...and the other instrument samples, although somewhat limited in number, are all of very good quality.

 

The synth section is no Nord Stage but it is very functional for cover band stuff IMO....I actually like the shared EG/Filter knob...I have already found myself using it quite a bit to quickly dial in sounds. You do need to menu dive a bit for a couple things. It seems pretty clear there will probably be some FM voice expansions in future OS updates as the FM voice selection is rather limited right now for an eight operator engine....although there are seven different FM EP's...that was enough already...was expecting to see David Foster walk into the room.

 

Two other things it doesn't have that the Nord does in addition to the things AnotherScott pointed out in a previous post is sympathetic resonance for the acoustic pianos (YC does have a damper pedal resonance "effect") but I'm still very happy with the acoustic sounds...and strangely the vibrato doesn't function with the transistor organ emulations, but you can use effects to imitate.

 

Other than that, functionally, it's all upside compared to the Electro IMO. It has the pitch and mod levers, the combo Drawbars/LED's. I really appreciate having lit markers on every knob so you know exactly where you are....that drives me crazy with Nord...they seems so hung up on making the Electro a strictly by-the-ear instrument. The internal Steinberg USB Audio interface works great...so my computer VST's can be controlled by and pumped through the YC into its outputs. There is a much broader set of effects and ways to chain them. I definitely like the layout better than the Nord...it's more intuitive to me at least...I'm not really a knob grabber while I play but it quickly had me doing a lot more of that.

 

All-in-all I'm very happy with it so far...definitely the right choice for my needs...with this I can be a one very light weight board/no mixer guy.

[Yamaha YC61 Announced]

+1 with Adan on the great report Niacin. Happy to hear about action too...I'm really not that picky about action but the best way I can describe playing the pianos on my NE4 is like having little sponges on my fingers...so I use a PX5S to control it for those sounds. Have been working on adding VST's/Cantabile to my set-up too and excited about the built-in audio interface in the YC61....that should cover for any on-board sound deficiencies. Hoping this can be my sole keyboard...plug the computer right into it and one set of outs to my amp or the house mixer...have reached an age where that kind of light weight simplicity would be a real good thing...

[Yamaha YC61 Announced]

Anyone in the US gotten their hands on one of these or, for pre-orders, received any recent indication of when it might ship?

[What keyboard music influenced you?]

Started out on a Magnus organ as a little tyke...switched to the accordion. Competed playing Classical music adapted for it...and also some contemporary works written specifically for the accordion which were definitely an influence.

 

Became a Burt Bacharach fan after seeing Promises Promises...I know...strange for a kid.

 

By mid 70's, figured out Rock & Roll was much cooler and playing it on the accordion...not so cool...bought a Fender Rhodes. From then and to this day more into pop/textural stuff

 

Obviously big fan of many of the names already mentioned. In particular, back then became huge Chicago/Robert Lamm fan. Gary Wright was a favorite...David Paich's work on Silk Degrees (and later with Toto of course), Supertramp (Davies/Hodgson), Styx/Dennis DeYoung. Appreciated Greg Hawkes ability to create great hook synth lines and background textures.

 

Later in the 80's, enjoyed Steve George's work with Mr. Mister (and later as music director for Kenny Loggins).

 

From there, worked backwards to begin studying and appreciating Todd Rundgren, Stevie Wonder and Steely Dan/Donald Fagen to a much greater degree...which I continue to do to this day.

 

Also fan of Dave Grusin and Bob James....should add Vince Giraldi.

 

Thought David Sancious did amazing work on Springsteen's early albums. Have to mention Little Feat/Bill Payne & Michael McDonald as well.

 

Could go on and on...so many talented, thoughtful keyboard players over the years whose main contribution was not to be the flashy frontperson, but to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.