danskeys

I was just rereading this set of posts. I feel like there’s a little bit of under-selling happening with the tweakability of the CK. No, you cannot add completely new samples. But there’s a lot of changes that can be made to the sounds via the three-sound live sets. They can be mixed and matched in nearly limitless combinations. All sorts of different effects, frequency cutoff, attack, release, and simply volume and split points, etc. My guess is there’s a whole world of live sets out there that some people have made that I would love to have. Just because you can’t change the actual sounds themselves doesn’t mean that there aren’t all sorts of live sets that could be dreamed up that are not presently on our boards. That said, the Yamaha sharing site doesn’t seem all that useful, from what I have experienced. Am I missing something? You just download one sound at a time, and it’s completely hit or miss. Would be nice to download multiples at one time.

Sorry if this has been answered previously, but I can’t find a solution anywhere. Is there some button I can press while turning the knobs on the CK to identify the current setting? On my Nord keyboard, if press the “Mon/Copy” button, while adjusting any parameter, it shows me the parameters value as saved on the display, instead of modifying the value. That would be really useful on the CK, as well. Does this feature exist?

Interesting idea! I'm going to try that with my CK88 and see what it does....

I bought an RD-88 assuming that the speakers would be acceptable. I found them to be a complete joke and totally unusable for anything other than literally being to hear yourself in a quiet room where quality is irrelevant and you just need to practice a riff, or do something last minute before performing. The speakers were shockingly bad. So bad, that to this day I wonder if I got a lemon. I retuned the RD88 for that reason as I bought it to be a portable slab I could take anywhere (for practice and fun, primarily) and play without external speakers or headphones. I ended up with the CK88 and the speakers are much, much, much better. Not perfect, but totally usable. Also, I found the UI on the CK to be far superior to the RD88. I love the CK88. But to each their own!

I think the best way to describe the speakers on the CK (I have the 88) are that they are just good enough to be "good". I wish they were a bit better. You'd want them to be louder to play with a drummer, I think (I have only used the speakers playing solo.) I wish the speakers had more clarity--a more distinct high end like my old P121 had. I do wish they were better. But they are good enough for me to pull the CK88 out of the gig bag, set it up in seconds, start playing, and within a few minutes, any thoughts of wishing the speakers were better fades away as I enjoy the great sounds, solid keybed, bluetooth input, etc. As I mentioned in a previous post, no individual feature or spec about the CK is awesome. But altogether, for the weight and price, it's a truly unique and awesome keyboard!

This doesn't really affect me (yet) thanks to how and what I play. But that said, I completely, 100% agree that these fixed split points are unacceptable. The idea that the most expensive, capable, best sounding board of its kind, restricts players to preset split points is simply impossible for me to understand. Is there any other board that does this? I mean, I guess it'd be sort of OK if there were only one key that people play in. But obviously that's not the case!

Anyone else hear Morning Has Broken (Cat Stevens) in there during the chorus?

The CK is really unique and needs to be looked at from the totality of its features. Virtually all of the features of the CK are merely "good". It isn't really amazing at anything. But it is good at so many things, that it's really pretty great! The speakers aren't the best out there, but they're good. The keyboard feel isn't the best, but it's totally fine. The rotary sim is passable and usable, but obviously there is much better out there. The pianos are very good, but not the best. The UI is unique, pretty efficient, and overall really nice, but there's boards out there with more buttons/knobs, bigger screen, etc. But I know of NO OTHER keyboard that has all of that wrapped up in one, and for significantly less money than most other keyboards. And the CK adds bluetooth, audio inputs, USB audio, and some other tricks. All of this, in total, is what makes the CK pretty awesome. It won't replace my Nord Stage 4. BUT...the Nord can't replace the CK either!! Love the CK for what it is.

I'm a sucker for this stuff having grown up wanting nothing more than to be Billy Joel or Elton John or both. (Sadly, none of those options happened!) So I enjoyed listening to that. But yes, the compression is really off the charts, and so unnecessarily so! Could have been much better if he recorded it more in the style of the Cold Spring Harbor album.

Not that our opinions here will decide it, but I would prefer a GHS 73-note, like the P121. That thing is an amazing form factor. Shaving another few pounds, and that extra octave of length off the CK88, while retaining the GHS, would be awesome. I sold my P121 and highly regret it. That said, is piano playing really OK with the Kurzweil action we're talking about?

Understood. We have very different needs. Good thing there are so many options! I was specifically looking for a really lightweight, pro digital piano with solid sounds, good enough keyboard, and with speakers, to be able to throw in the car at a moment's notice without breaking my back and bank account. I really never dreamed I would get all that and everything else at the current price of the CK88.

Yes, and also there's nothing out there with the interesting array of bells and whistles including the speakers, Bluetooth, audio interface, etc. If the YC had that, I might have been tempted. But the low price of the CK, with all those features, is unparalleled.

Sometimes you just have to go through the process, in order to be truly happy with where you end up. If you don't do that, you end up questioning if you made the right decision forever!

Totally! But it feels so odd to have TWO of the same keyboard. Then again, why not? I'm seriously considering it. If the 61 ever goes on sale, like the 88 has been for a while, I may do it.

I asked my wife to marry me playing a song I wrote her, on my P90, in 2004! (In the basement of Noa, a bar in the East Village, NYC, in case anyone remembers it.) That said, my P80 before it was the OG, in my mind. First lightweight 88-note, good feeling, true piano-sounding digital piano I ever owned. Mentioned above, I also owned a K1000 which was remarkable in the day. Solid piano sounds (especially as I was coming from a Juno 106 and a Phrophet 2000), good organs, great strings and others. Pretty groundbreaking it was. Ahhhh, the old days…. But if we’re talking “special sauce”, nothing beats the feeling I got playing my Nord Stage 3, and now Stage 4. The white grand gives me goosebumps! Those keyboards truly inspire me.