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

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 this piano! I bought it as a backup board for my YC-88 or three years. Basically, this is a cheaper, lighter version of a YC-88. You can mix up to 3 voices per register, on the fly! And of course you can save them into memory. The piano sound C7 is the best of the pianos and I personally added another CFX to the mix for a really rich piano sound. You can actually edit the sound quicker and more advanced than on a YC-88. The organs are just fine, come with draw bars, and leslie (roto-speaker) fully adjustable. For only 1500 this thing was a steal! Mind you, this is still not a YC-88 (those things are $3000) but it comes so close that it's scary! And having onboard speakers are really nice when you're playing small venues or practicing.

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!

There's a lot to like. Everything seems to work well out of the box. Piano sounds are terrific, Organ and Electric Piano only pretty good. There are /lots/ of synth sounds. The power switch is in a hard-to-reach location. The whole thing lights up really bright when it's on, which makes it hard to read in a less-than-bright room. Internal speakers aren't very loud, but it works fine with a conventional amp or headphones. the CK-88 is too big to be really portable although probably OK for a gigging musician. The ad showing a 61 being played in the park is ridiculous. The batteries and internal speakers are pretty much a waste of weight for the 88...maybe the 61 is enough smaller to make it more portable. I wanted a music rest for it and yamaha and others make several incompatible models, and nowhere in the documentation that comes with it, yamaha's web site, or amazon's ads do they say which to get. The correct model is the YMR-03, it turns out.

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.

I absolutely love this keyboard. It has been so much fun to play on the tactile feedback of the keys are very rewarding and the sound out of the device itself is incredible. Built-in speakers is an absolute gem of an idea and it works well on this device, leaving very little to be desired. You can also plug in headphones and practice quietly. compared to very expensive synthesized this is a great value for its money as you feel like you have one of the best keyboards available, but it doesn’t totally break the bank.

Keyboard perfect for me

Well built stage piano and easy to learn. I gigged with this piano a day after delivery and really enjoyed it. The piano was delivered on time and everything was in tact when delivered. I strong recommend this product.