I just bought the YC 61 to use either as a second top board on top of an 88 key weighted action board underneath or as a stand alone board for practice and limited gigging. As someone who has never been great at navigating Yamaha's OS, starting with my heavy but trusty S-90 which I gigged with for years, based on my first two weeks with the board, I agree with your comments that the OS is not as simple as Yamaha represents it to be. I have been Midi-ing my YC 61 to my Casio PX-560 and having fun with that. The electric pianos seem to come alive when played on the Casio much more than when I play them on the YC 61. Same with the pianos. This may sound like a minor gripe but the violin and banjo are not very good on the YC 61. Why do I care? Because I play in a band where I occasionally have to play country and having a convincing synth fiddle or banjo is helpful. My Roland VR-09 has a better fiddle and probably has a better Leslie but the VR-09 has terrible pianos and weak electric pianos.. At the end of the day, I bought the board because it does organ, piano and electric piano pretty good. Its brass and strings are also pretty good. Since I rarely play in bands where I need an ARP 2600 or Mini Moog to get through a gig, the synth section is also fine. I am hoping over time I learn to work the board and learn the operating system so I don't have to think about it. We'll see. I debated getting the 88 key version of the board and decided that the synth action would be better for organ although the key bed does not play like a Hammond at all. You have to get used to it.
