YC88 vs CP88 - Quick Question

[Mitch Towne]

Hey all. I know there are threads dedicated to these two boards, and I’ve read through them in the past, but I’m in a bit of a time crunch, so o thought I’d start hopefully a quick one. 
 

From what I can tell, the YC has most of the same features of the CP (maybe a couple less pianos but the YC includes the main good ones (CFX, C7 and S700)) but includes some much better EP options and amp sims, as well as the organ and better synths. 
 

Both have the same ivory touch, graded keyboards so there is no difference there. 
 

I can get a YC used for a little less than a new CP, so it seems like a no brainer. I love the Yamaha 88 boards for shedding purposes. They are nice and heavy for practicing. 
 

Anything I’m missing?

[AnotherScott]

You're correct about the CP having more acoustic pianos. The CP and YC have the same EPs, but the YC has more in the way of effects/amp simulations. The YC also has more sounds overall (even apart from its organ functionality). And yes that includes synth sounds, more notable perhaps in that the YC has mono synth mode and portamento, which the CP does not.

 

OTOH the CP has greater immediacy of control. For non-organ sounds (of which the YC lets you split/layer two), you have one set of controls, and you toggle them between controlling sound A or sound B. The CP gives you direct, simultaneous control of up to 3 sounds, so you don't have to toggle between controllable sounds. That makes it quicker, and you don't have to worry about turning a knob, finding it doesn't do what you expected, and then realizing it was set to alter sound A when you meant to alter sound B. Also, the CP's fewer effects options give it an additional simplicity... you turn the knob directly to the effect you want. On the YC, you scroll through a list of dozens of possible effects with 2-letter abbreviations (though the main display briefly gives more info), it's not as immediate in operation or as immediately communicative of its current setting.

 

If the CP does what you want, it's an easier and I think therefore possibly more "fun" board to operate... but the YC does a lot more, and it's still got a pretty nice interface. Getting the balance of ease vs. flexibility is always tricky, and people won't always agree on where that balance should be set! 

[skipeb3]

How much organ do you need or want? If organ is important to you, then it's the YC. If piano/EP is your focus, go with the CP.

JMHO...

[Mitch Towne]

1 hour ago, skipeb3 said:

How much organ do you need or want? If organ is important to you, then it's the YC. If piano/EP is your focus, go with the CP.

JMHO...

Well, that’s what I initially thought, but after messing around with a YC61, I was able to get a better Rhodes sound out of it because of the different amp simulations available. That’s what got me going down this path. 
 

 

[Docbop]

Glad you asked this question because I've been thinking about get a CP or YC 88 and find it a tough decision.   For me I can live with the organ I have another keyboard with organ if I really need it.  Same to having synth just like some preset pads.   I like the Advanced setting on the CP where you can set any sound to any of the three sections and mix them together or switch them in and out.   So for me I'm leaning CP at this point. 

 

Good luck with your decision making. 

[rickzjamm]

Had the CP, sold it & got the YC88 because I wanted an "all in one" gigging board. I have a Kronos 73 and love the sounds but the weight & boot are not cutting it whereas the YC is a lighter board, better action (for me), way better APs/EPs & the "other sounds" will get you through a gig no problem. It's become my practice board as well I love the hammer action.

[CyberGene]

I purchased a B-Stock YC73 that I thought had a slight problem, so I returned it but there was no replacement YC73 and so I had to decide between a YC88 and a CP88 that were the only available stock. For me it was a rather easy decision: I am not a Hammond player and I found it a bit awkward to play organ sounds through a hammer action and I consider myself a very hardcore classical pianist. Then, there's the great summary @AnotherScott posted. While I had the YC I found it a bit confusing to have to switch between Keys A and B on the same panel. Also, the effect abbreviations were too cryptic to me and I couldn't remember what was what. I really like how on the CP I have three separate sections for piano/epiano/others, each with a set of effects that are readable and relevant to the particular section. I miss the FM-synth with portamento though but OTOH I have a separate synth as a second board and I prefer playing synths on synth keys. I'm pretty happy with the CP88 and I saved some money too.

[Aynsley Green]

The Yamaha YC is what the CP should have been, they really should discontinue the CP. 

 

I have a Nord Stage 2 88 (with the newest samples loaded in) at work, and a Yamaha YC88 at home.

It's a close race, the sounds are about equal, but I like the YC better because of the action and immediacy, it just feels easy to dial up something and focus on your playing. The Nord interface I always have to think about what I'm doing - it looks intuitive, but actually isn't.

[Docbop]

1 hour ago, Aynsley Green said:

The Yamaha YC is what the CP should have been, they really should discontinue the CP. 

 

I have a Nord Stage 2 88 (with the newest samples loaded in) at work, and a Yamaha YC88 at home.

It's a close race, the sounds are about equal, but I like the YC better because of the action and immediacy, it just feels easy to dial up something and focus on your playing. The Nord interface I always have to think about what I'm doing - it looks intuitive, but actually isn't.

Even  Nord makes two the Piano 5  (CP) and Stage 3 (YC)  so guess they like Yamaha understand different strokes for different folks. 

[Docbop]

 

[time4jazz]

I have the CP73 (sacrificed action somewhat for weight). I wanted this mainly for AP/EP, and am very happy with the sounds and the ability to easily (especially compared to the YC) tweak sounds and effects on the fly. I do wish Yamaha included the modifiable amp sim on the CP, even if it was mostly menu driven. I’m not sure why they left it off a board that does such a great job on EPs. Although I still like the EPs a lot, I think the amp sim would have been a nice addition. 

[Jeroen van Zutphen]

I have both a YC61 and a CP73. The delay on de CP has 1 additional knob, so you can adjust all the delay paramaters (which I do a lot live), something thats not possible on the YC.

[CyberGene]

47 minutes ago, Jeroen van Zutphen said:

The delay on de CP has 1 additional knob, so you can adjust all the delay paramaters (which I do a lot live), something thats not possible on the YC.

Same with the reverb, on the CP I have both “time” and “depth” whereas on the YC there’s only depth. 

[AnotherScott]

1 hour ago, CyberGene said:

Same with the reverb, on the CP I have both “time” and “depth” whereas on the YC there’s only depth. 

 

The YC has additional reverbs in the Effects sections, and those have dual controls.

[CyberGene]

4 minutes ago, AnotherScott said:

The YC has additional reverbs in the Effects sections, and those have dual controls.

Yes, I remember that. But it would nevertheless been better if the global reverb was more configurable, so that you can use all the individual effects slots for other effects where needed. Anyway, both the CP and YC have their cons and pros. I can only dream but if there was a new instrument type in the Yamaha stage line that had the YC61 form-factor and keyboard action and kept the YC-organ engine but replaced the pianos/electric pianos sections with a dedicated synth engine (even if a simplified one, like on the reface CS), that would be the perfect complement to a CP.

[AnotherScott]

41 minutes ago, CyberGene said:

Yes, I remember that. But it would nevertheless been better if the global reverb was more configurable, so that you can use all the individual effects slots for other effects where needed.

 

There are always ways things can be better. ;-) But there are so many more effects options on the YC that I think you can "waste" a YC insert effect to use it for dual-control reverb, and still usually have as many or more simultaneous effects compared to what you can on the CP (varying based on which section you are talking about and what you're trying to do, since the different CP sections have different effects configurations). The diagram here shows that the YC's non-organ sounds have up to 4 assignable effects before the master reverb, 3 of which themselves have reverb as one of the options (the 4th being speaker/amp emulations).

 

 

 

41 minutes ago, CyberGene said:

I can only dream but if there was a new instrument type in the Yamaha stage line that had the YC61 form-factor and keyboard action and kept the YC-organ engine but replaced the pianos/electric pianos sections with a dedicated synth engine (even if a simplified one, like on the reface CS), that would be the perfect complement to a CP.

Yes, we could use some more boards that combine 9-drawbar control organ with real-time synth controls, especially considering how obviously nicely such a board would pair with a hammer action piano-focussed board, and there's nothing like that from Yamaha.

 

Nord Stage 3 Compact and Roland Fantom are probably the best boards we have for that. Nord is pricey; Roland is a bit less but lags other models in its organ sound and ergonomics (and is also on the heavy side). Hammond SK Pro can qualify too, if you allow that its real-time synth controls are for monophonic sounds only. (I do wish the sliders had an option to control the same-named parameters for the sample-based poly synth that's also in the board but can only be edited on screen.)

 

Roland VR09/VR730 try to approach that, but having only 5 real-time synth controls and having them controlled by the organ sliders so the sliders are then in the wrong place for the organ sound is far from ideal. I suppose you could leave an iPad connected and use the app for your real-time synth control, though. I've never tried that, but I think it would work. Numa Compact 2X is another that repurposes the same sliders for synth and organ controls... better in that it has 9 controllable parameters instead of 5, but there's no deeper access to anything else, and no mono mode, and no portamento (and really, both its organ and synth sound lag behind Roland's). 

 

Vox Continental repurposes its 9 organ sliders for 9 synth parameters (7 fixed and 2 that vary by patch), and since they are LED-based, at least they don't have the "out of position" problem when you switch sounds. But it has no access to further synth parameters, and you can't really program something from scratch, you can only apply changes to the provided preset sounds. Organ likewise doesn't give you direct access to all the parameters you'd expect... e.g. you have to find a preset that has the percussion and c/v characteristics you want, and not every combination is available. Another issue for synth editing is that the sliders are each limited to 9 values, so you don't have very fine control.

 

Kurzweil PC4/K2700 could probably be configured to work this way to a good extent, but they don't work that way out of the box, nor consistently... you'd have to specifically set up patches where the controls do what you want. But you could presumably set up the 9 sliders for drawbars, and 9 knobs for synth parameters (with further deep synth editing available from the menus).

[CyberGene]

In fairness to CP, you can have up to 5 effects simultaneously. This is valid only for the electric piano section (but there’s the advanced mode to use any of the sounds in that section): two insert FX, amp, global delay send, global reverb send. Well, the two insert effect slots can select from just six types each for a total of 12 which is a bit limited to the big variety of effects on the YC. And in the acoustic piano and sub sections there’s only one FX slot with a very limited choice of effect types. 

 

Edit: actually there’s a global send FX on the YC where you can choose not just a delay but also other FX types which is even better. 

[AnotherScott]

50 minutes ago, CyberGene said:

In fairness to CP, you can have up to 5 effects simultaneously. This is valid only for the electric piano section {etc.)

 

This is why I said you could "usually" have as many or more effects on the YC, instead of saying "always." ;-)

[Outkaster]

I love my YC88 if you were closer I'd let you try it out.