Yamaha YC61 Announced

[AnotherScott]

There are sounds at Yamaha's Soundmondo site

Good point. I probably overly downplayed the value of people doing creative things even within the relatively limited editing abilities available.

[nursers]

Spent last evening getting my YC61 fully set up for tonight's gig. Once I got my head around the way it work (thanks to some help posted above), I really enjoy setting up sounds and like the configurability options including on the fly. That said, even from my position as a hack weekend warrior, I can see why the organ sounds / approach needs an improvement...

 

My only desire is for some great third party sound libraries to hit the market.

 

There are sounds at Yamaha's Soundmondo site: https://soundmondo.yamahasynth.com/

 

Thanks mate there indeed are but unless I'm being thick (which is on the cards), I need a reface to download sounds? I was connecting from a Mac laptop on Chrome (because Soundmondo won't accept Safari). I got the page to show my (your) YC was connected but still wouldn't let me download anything.

[niacin]

no there are different sounds for the Reface boards and for the YC61. Having said that I didn't every download anything. Blake Angelos has quite a few videos up though that walk you through how things work.

[niacin]

here: https://www.yamahasynth.com/yc-series

[nursers]

here: https://www.yamahasynth.com/yc-series

 

Thanks mate yep found these last time but couldn't see how to actually download them even after getting YC connected but will have another try.

 

On another note I played my first gig with it last night and it's obvious I need to do a lot of tweaking of my organ sounds because the defaults that I'd set up just plain sucked. I stuck to my MODX 7 for the rest of the gig they were that bad. I thought it might have just been me but end of the show a guy approached me who I'd not met before. He was in my area visiting but is a keys player from Brisbane (1000+ km away for non aussies) and wanted to know what my top board was. I told him it was the YC and I hadn't been happy with the sounds I'd set up and he agreed, saying they just didn't cut it. To be fair this guy gigs with either a B3 or A100 but he said he only kept his YC for a few months then offloaded it. Here's hoping for the miracle firmware update....

[Adan]

To be fair this guy gigs with either a B3 or A100 but he said he only kept his YC for a few months then offloaded it.

 

First of all, congrats on playing a live gig. Things must be looking up in Aussie-land.

 

I'd suggest that to give the YC its fair shot, as well as for your own piece of mind, the more important question is whether the Leslie sim interfered with the enjoyment of the average audience member. To play all our gigs worrying about the opinion of the guy who gigs with a B3 . . . that way lies madness.

[nursers]

Yep absolutely valid point Adan. No-one would have noticed but the slow/fast rotary (that I've mapped to a pedal) is infuriating to use but again to be fair I've not dug into the settings.

[AnotherScott]

Until such time as Yamaha improves the rotary effect, for me, the answer would be to look at VB3m. There's a lot of good info about integrating an external organ into the YC61 earlier in this thread (look for the posts from December 5). This approach is even more tempting now, with VB3m having lowered cost of entry ($14 vs. up to $150 for B-3X, and more likely working on a smartphone you already have instead of requiring an iPad).

[nursers]

Until such time as Yamaha improves the rotary effect, for me, the answer would be to look at VB3m. There's a lot of good info about integrating an external organ into the YC61 earlier in this thread (look for the posts from December 5). This approach is even more tempting now, with VB3m having lowered cost of entry ($14 vs. up to $150 for B-3X, and more likely working on a smartphone you already have instead of requiring an iPad).

 

Yep also a great point Scott. For me though the appeal of the YC61 as second board was simplicity. I was using an Arturia Keylab prior with Mainstage and so I'm better off going back to that as I can access good organ sounds plus a whole lot more. Yes the YC has drawbars etc but I don't tend to tweak them on the fly in a song so that's not a showstopper.

 

As Adan said, it's all pretty academic anyways but I enjoy the process

[dazzjazz]

I don"t think there"s a single board solution that I would buy right now. I was hopeful for the YC it the organ doesn"t do it for me. Let me know how you get on.

[octa]

Enjoying YC88 overall. Adding chorus (C1) to organ patches makes leslie sound not as annoyingly Vulcan. Hoping Yamaha is working on improving it! If Nord had a Stage model with this action/iOS integration/& black or green instead of red, I'd be in heaven. Spent many years playing stage 2, 3 & electros before this & do miss the solid sounds but couldn't hang with Fatar actions anymore. CP88 + stage 3 compact would be my ideal rig but prefer single board setup. Getting iOS dialed in may make this YC88 the one.

[AnotherScott]

I don"t think there"s a single board solution that I would buy right now. I was hopeful for the YC it the organ doesn"t do it for me.

Maybe the Hammond SK Pro?

[nursers]

I don"t think there"s a single board solution that I would buy right now. I was hopeful for the YC it the organ doesn"t do it for me. Let me know how you get on.

 

Will do Darren - I love the board overall, this is just the niggle that I'm hoping will be sorted.

[rogs]

.. Adding chorus (C1) to organ patches makes leslie sound not as annoyingly Vulcan. Hoping Yamaha is working on improving it! .....

 

I've had my YC61 for a year now, and have spent endless hours trying to get a decent fast sound out of the internal rotary sim....

 

In addition to the awful 'squirrly' fast sound, Yamaha's idea of a Leslie cabinet EQ is decidedly odd. -- lots of Hi-mid 'screech'....

In the end, I bit the bullet and added a Neo Vent 2. That made a massive improvement..

 

It's been almost a year since we know that Yamaha have been aware of people's concerns with the YC rotary sim. It is beginning to look like they maybe don't have the in house capability to solve the problem effectively.?

I hope I'm wrong on that.

 

Meanwhile we can hope they can add a split output, to allow the organ sound to be routed directly to an external sim .

 

People have been asking about that for a about a year as well ... and again, we know that Yamaha are well aware of that request via their Ideascale forum.

 

Let's hope that the prospect of extra sales - that might result from the gig world opening up again - helps Yamaha concentrate their attention on some much needed updates...

[AnotherScott]

Meanwhile we can hope they can add a split output, to allow the organ sound to be routed directly to an external sim .

 

People have been asking about that for a about a year as well ... and again, we know that Yamaha are well aware of that request via their Ideascale forum.

Of the 61 ideas posed on Ideascale, seven have been marked as moving into the "assessment" stage, which I think means that they have at least made the decision to look into the feasibility of doing it... and those seven include, not just the rotary issue, but also this split output issue. The other ones they appear to be looking at are related to MIDI functionality, clavinet sounds, and vibrato for the transistor organs.

[Al Quinn]

Is high trigger for organ on the Ideascale "assessment" stage list?

[rogs]

Is high trigger for organ on the Ideascale "assessment" stage list?

 

Nope -- still on the default 'Ideate' page.

 

Slightly strange, as it already has more votes (currently 8) than some of the options already moved to 'Assessment' ?

 

Maybe it's not a viable option on the YC61 ?....

[nursers]

Just signed up for Ideascale to add another vote for the rotary sim improvement

[AnotherScott]

Is high trigger for organ on the Ideascale "assessment" stage list?

 

Nope -- still on the default 'Ideate' page.

 

Slightly strange, as it already has more votes (currently 8) than some of the options already moved to 'Assessment' ?

 

Maybe it's not a viable option on the YC61 ?....

Yeah, I'm suspecting that the fact that that wasn't elevated when the rest were means it's not in the cards. While votes may have some impact, ultimately, the decision to do something will be a result of a number of factors, and yes, some things may simply not be viable. They already handle the organ release point differently from other sounds (it releases lower), so we kind of know they were looking specifically at the organ key response even for the initial release, and they surely knew what competitors had been doing, and now we see they are not escalating it on ideascale... To me, it's adding up to a good amount of evidence that they can't do it. Maybe they tried it and it just doesn't respond in a satisfactory way, based on where the sensors are and/or the physical characteristics of the key's travel. We've already disucssed how there is a kind of "bump" similar to escapement in the way the key works, maybe that (or just the sheer height of the first trigger point) interferes with how playable the organ would feel if the trigger point were relocated, leads to too much "bounce" (double triggering), whatever... Who knows.

 

It may also be worth keeping in mind some info from earlier in the thread, that the trigger point seems to be at about 4 mm, whereas Nord Electro was 3 mm for shallow trigger and 5 mm for deep. So even though the YC doesn't have a shallow option, its one trigger point might not be as deep as it would be on some other boards even as it is.

[counterpoint]

If the recent pattern with CP OS updates is followed, there should be an update for the YC in September....maybe we'll be surprised with an earlier one. We'll see what they've decided to tackle. I looks to me that the moderators only focus on the Ideascale site every few months so I wouldn't be sure whatever is there now reflects their current thinking.

 

BTW, in checking on the pattern of CP updates, I noticed the MSRP for just the CP 73 was reduced $500 to $1,999. Doesn't look like the reduction has worked its way into a reduced street price yet though. Wonder if that's related to sales volume cannibalization of the YC vs the CP?

 

I've considered getting a CP 73 to replace my PX5S as the bottom board to my YC61....which leads me to a topic that should probably be in a new thread: do people prefer a two keyboard rig to have both be from the same or different manufacturers. Maybe in this thread, the extended topic could be what would be the best bottom board to match with a YC61 for general purpose gigging.

[nadroj]

I'd say different, definitely. My view is that the two board should complement each other's weaknesses. If you're going for the same manufacturer, you're getting the same pianos on bottom and top, which leaves you with no options if you don't like the pianos or EPs for any given purpose, you've no other options.

 

Plus, a lot of what you pay for is the sounds. It seems to me to be a waste of money to pay money for sounds you've already got (CP and YC share most of their sounds).

[drawback]

I've considered getting a CP 73 to replace my PX5S as the bottom board to my YC61....which leads me to a topic that should probably be in a new thread: do people prefer a two keyboard rig to have both be from the same or different manufacturers. Maybe in this thread, the extended topic could be what would be the best bottom board to match with a YC61 for general purpose gigging.

 

I think this might be a good thread on its own.

[counterpoint]

OK...will start one.

[AnotherScott]

I guess my first question would be, in what way is the PX-5S falling short for you? It does have some nice benefits as a YC61 complement... lightweight at 24 lbs, shallow control surface lets you keep your two sets of keys close to each other and also minimize footprint, decent hammer action, good MIDI functionality also making it easy to use to selectively trigger the piano/EP sounds in your YC... not a bad choice at all. If it's different sounds you're after, as you alluded to in your comment about duplication, the sounds in the CP73 are not so different from what you have available in the YC, outside of piano... though the CP's pianos could still be a perfectly good reason to want to go that way. Nord is always a strong choice for piano, but something with a non-TP100 hammer action is going to be a bit heavy and a bit pricey. Kawai might be another good option, from the piano perspective. But maybe your second-board focus involves other priorities...?

 

ETA: moving to other thread

[EscapeRocks]

've considered getting a CP 73 to replace my PX5S as the bottom board to my YC61...what would be the best bottom board to match with a YC61 for general purpose gigging.

I guess my first question would be, in what way is the PX-5S falling short for you? It does have some nice benefits as a YC61 complement... lightweight at 24 lbs, shallow control surface lets you keep your two sets of keys close to each other and also minimize footprint, decent hammer action, good MIDI functionality also making it easy to use to selectively trigger the piano/EP sounds in your YC... not a bad choice at all. If it's different sounds you're after, as you alluded to in your comment about duplication, the sounds in the CP73 are not so different from what you have available in the YC, outside of piano... though the CP's pianos could still be a perfectly good reason to want to go that way. Nord is always a strong choice for piano, but something with a non-TP100 hammer action is going to be a bit heavy and a bit pricey. Kawai might be another good option, from the piano perspective. But maybe your second-board focus involves other priorities...?

 

 

LOL I just read Counterpoint's new thread about this before I read this thread, and began my answer exactly as you did

[stoken6]

CP73 has the unicorn benefit of lightweight+73 keys+not TP100. But unless that's the set of specific requirements you have for a lower board, there are plenty of other good choices - including PX5S.

 

Regards, Mike.

[Analogaddict]

I bought a used YC61 a few months back and have been getting a few gigs lately where I need an ultra portable rig, so I figured I should dig deeper into it. I'm using it with my MODX7, and they are quite a good combo. Things I've stumbled upon recently;

 

- The MODX master mode is perfect for calling up YC sounds, program changes sent on the global channel don't affect the actual program played on ch 9 if PC is off. That's the way it should be, but some boards won't always know what to do if a program change for a multi is on the same channel as one of the sounds.

 

- The YC has 4 external midi master zones. I've made a preset using all of them full range of the board, set to ch 9-12. This gives me access to ch 9-12 on the MODX. Yay! I can set the zone ranges in the MODX and filter out program changes and the integration is really good.

 

- I wish the internal zones had the same functionality with key ranges and so on, sometimes I need for instance synth bass from the MODX dubbing a sound in the YC, then I want organ in the middle and last but not least I'd like to trigger samples in the MODX from the YC, but the key zones are splits only so I can't leave empty keys above the high split zone on the YC.

 

- The FX in the YC can be controlled with the YC pedals even though the sound is played from another board. Great if you are using a 'dumb' controller and want wah-wah's on a clam or whatever.

 

- The audio ins on the YC are perfect for submixing sounds.

 

The Leslie fx on the YC61 is probably its' weakest spot, it's a rather organ centered board after all, I hope it will be fixed in an update. The Ventilator kills it and it would have been amazing if Yamaha had supplied a mono out for organ, just like the Numa organ does. It's just one more jack and it makes an organ centered board MUCH more useful.

[rickzjamm]

Yamaha has a great simple stage board concept with the YC88 (that's what I have) but apparently are content turning a deaf ear to it's clientel's suggestions & feel there's no need to offer updates like the other guys , hell even Roland updated the organ on their Fantom & offer tons of sounds.

Great board & action for APs & EPs!!

[AnotherScott]

Yamaha has a great simple stage board concept with the YC88 (that's what I have) but apparently are content turning a deaf ear to it's clientel's suggestions & feel there's no need to offer updates like the other guys

It hasn't been around that long. The YC88/73 only came out earlier this year. Even the YC61 first shipped I think May of last year. I'm pretty confident that we'll be seeing an update sometime between "soon" and "NAMM." Also, pretty recently, the ideascale page for the YC was updated, with a lot of suggestions marked in such a way as to indicate they're not being considered, while others marked that they are... I don't think they'd have bothered if they weren't actively pursuing putting out an update.

[nadroj]

Yamaha has a great simple stage board concept with the YC88 (that's what I have) but apparently are content turning a deaf ear to it's clientel's suggestions & feel there's no need to offer updates like the other guys , hell even Roland updated the organ on their Fantom & offer tons of sounds.

Great board & action for APs & EPs!!

 

Yamaha are very good at updating their keyboards. The CP and MODX/Montage lines have seen some significant updates over the years. They've already released a small update to the YC (1.2) and judging by their update history, are due to release another one in September/October.