CK Series 61-Key Stage Keyboard with Built-In Speakers, Black (CK61)

Me: Aspiring keyboard player looking for a good organ platform (with Leslie speaker simulation) with other cool stuff.

This is the best Yamaha gigging keyboard I’ve ever had for the price. I have to do a lot of splits and layers on the fly, and this makes it easy. The organ/leslie sounds are better than any Yamaha I’ve had before. And the keyboard action feels top notch. The speakers are great for working over my patches before the sound crew has me plugged in.

I love the programmability of the CK88’s voices! Learning it’s secrets is not that steep a learning curve. I upgraded from a Casio Privia with a little more realistic key action, but voice layering and tone control is way, way easier and convenient with this Yamaha! Got it online with a decent discount from what I would have paid at one of the big instrument stores in town. I hooked it up to Adam Audio speakers through a 6 channel mixer and love the quality of sound!

The Good: The UI is a vast improvement over my old Yamaha MOXF6 (which is absolutely abysmal). You can figure out how most of the important functions work without even looking at the manual. The manual is very helpful for some of the more complex and hidden operations. It's written a lot more clearly than previous Yamaha user guide(s) like the MOXF. The sounds are eminently usable, and the UI really shines for live usage. Access to effects is dead simple and makes for a fast and comfortable workflow. It would be nice if more of the buttons were lit with LED's (see below). The Lesley simulator sounds good and the drawbars have sufficient throw. Glissandos are very smooth and do not easily hurt your hands. You also have good control over vibrato/chorus and percussion. The effects section offers the usual options and they all sound usable. I like the way Yamaha put the A/B/C section(s) ON/OFF buttons (organ / piano / other) all in one location along with a set of mixer faders, which makes adjusting layers fast and easy. This compares favorably against the Nord ON/OFF buttons, which are not as quick to access because they're widely spaced out in the different sections. Connectivity is good. I haven't used the midi zones yet to control outboard gear, but the setup looks pretty easy. This board is lightweight and very portable. The built in speakers are more than adequate for practice. === Bad: A lot of the buttons are hard to see in the dark because they're not lit. Conversely, the LED's that are included, are really bright and the glare makes it a little bit harder to see the unlit buttons. FWIW, I'm 64yo and need readers for just about everything. You get used to where the buttons are pretty quickly, and overall this is a huge improvement over the user interface on my old MOXF6. The keybed feels ok'ish. The keys are almost full sized, but just a tiny bit narrower than standard. I have normal sized hands and my fingers easily graze a black key(s) when digging in between them. You have to do a little warmup when going back and forth between the CK61 and another full size keybed in order to adjust yourself to the narrower keys. I got accustomed to it fairly quick and it feels pretty fast. Glissandos are buttery smooth (as you'd expect on synth action). === Overall: It's a keeper (I'm selling my old MOXF6 and replacing it with the CK61). I'd easily bump this up to 5 stars if Yamaha used the standard size semi weighted keybed from the MOXF6. Add more LED's to some of the unlit buttons and I'd leave two 5 star reviews!

I love that it’s a full-size keyboard, but is much lighter, much narrower and all-around fabulous sound! And using unprofessional gigs, and getting complements galore. Extremely versatile, easy to use on the fly. Great Yamaha key action. Outstanding sounds! Amazing, for the price you pay for it, you’re getting what you’d be paying $3-4k for any other brand name. Definitely recommend for musicians who like to perform!

If this is your price range it’s a great piano. I love it and it’s so clean sounding. Feels great as well. I made the right decision.

Main problem I have is the lighting/leds/buttons. They are sooooo bright, that in room/stage that isn't as bright, you cannot see any of the text on the UI. They are so bright that you can't even read the text on the buttons that are lit up. So if you enjoy either turning down the lights a little to get a mood for playing keys, or are on stages that aren't very bright, you better not be expecting to improvise sound-design on the fly.....You better have your sounds designed ahead of time into live sets (which BTW defeats the purpose of the main selling point of this UI which supposedly was the ease of creating sounds and the WYSIWYG). BTW, I had to spend $120 to purchase a gooseneck desklamp so I can see the CK UI properly. In almost 40 yrs of playing, I've only had to buy a light for a keyboard ONE other time. Now when you CAN see the interface/text in a very bright room, the CK is great in a lot of ways. As far as sounds go, it has a lot of beautiful sounds, and (like many other keyboards) there is a bit of magic in the layering. The difference is that the CK makes layering very quick and easy to do and to control. I wished YAMAHA wouldn't have been so skimpy on CK sounds though. They could have easily dumped all of the MX sounds on here (they take up very little memory) , or at the very least filled in the areas that are so bare. The organ sound is a complete joke. I had some hopes since Yamaha's Refaces, YP, and such, but this organ is horrible in every possible way. A keyclick that is way too loud, upfront and not realistic at all. Sounds very screetchy and brittle. The poor Leslie doesn't help. Good enough for live? ....Sure if it is mixed WAY, way low in a very loud band. Many others are having issues with midi/drawbars, vibrato/percussion, etc... but I haven't got there yet. The keybed is decent enough. Feels okay. Not that great on fast stuff, not something that you want to be your only keyboard, but get for live and jamming at home, PC studio and such. Would have preferred the nice P125 keybed. The speakers are decent enough if you are in a dead quiet room and enjoy a muffled tone with almost no bass. Think of them as quick access utility speakers. I have no idea why they didn't put the P125 speakers in there. Would have made maybe a couple of pounds difference, but with huge benefits.

It's really good

Outstanding musical instrument- though very complex. Recommendation to Yamaha - Should supply a video tutorial to assist in learning all the functions

Excelente teclado. Con sonidos de HAMMOND increíbles.

You won’t regret buying this !! I’m in love with it everyday .

Keyboard perfect for me