Yamaha CK61 61-key Stage Piano Reviews

I was on the fence between the 61 and 88 key CK. I am so glad I got the 61. Lightweight, portable, configurable and just so playable. The sounds are so easy to set up, and I already have Van Halen and Journey sounds saved. The Hammond organs are great in my opinion, and you can even hear the mechanical noises and harmonics. Got the Gator slim gig bag which fits well. Keybed feels good to me as a synth/organ player. Baldwin organ was my first keyboard experience. This keyboard is well worth the money. Thanks to Mike my sales engineer!

Sounds are GREAT ! Very easy to program .

Good key feel for both piano and organ work. Good sounds and effects. Easy to navigate. Fun to play!

Built in speakers are nice to have so I can just sit down and play.

I had been away from keys for a while and am glad I found this board.

I do hope the folks at Yamaha update some things as there is some room for improvement (they can do the rotary better as in the yc models, and I'd like some more depth in the organ controls to have some leakage/cross talk, key click control). Still, there is a lot to make the sounds into what you want them to be. I'm having fun with it!

Maybe some day I'll move further up the clonewheel food chain (though even those don't touch the real thing and I think they are largely overpriced). I'm really happy with this board. Easier to move than my old rhodes and c3/122. I'd buy a dual manual version if it came out and I could afford it.

Highly recommended.

I was looking to get a light weight keyboard for live performances. Was considering the VR09B and the CK61. With the help of Brendan Murphy, I was guided to the CK61. Being in a trio and performing in small venues (about 100 or less), I needed to have good piano, B3 organ, PADS and epiano. Also needed to be able to make changes on the fly during performance because no matter how much time I spend on setup, I always need to make a few adjustments while performing. The CK61 is a perfect fit.

The control layout and is well done as well as the menus (really well thought out and easy to navigate).

I really like the Bluetooth feature that allows me to play backing tracks from my IPAD thru the CK61 - works great.

Having up to 160 LiveSets (actually a complete keyboard setup to my liking) ready to select without having to "reload" gives me plenty of choices on the fly. Have not decided how to use the 160 slots but that's part of the fun trying to figure it out. Not sure if I should use one slot for a specific song or setup generic keyboard setups that can used for many songs. May reach out to other CK61 owners and find out what worked for them.

Highly recommend the CK61 for a really good sounding keyboard, great for live performances, and light weight.

Thanks again to Brendan Murphy.

I have been using a Yamaha MM6 for years and it sounds fine when buried in a mix with drums/vocals/etc but I have looked and looked for better quality voices and the ability to instantly change the volume of my split and layered voices. I cover the bass and keyboard parts at church and it is helpful to change the volume of the bass or background pad/strings without losing the volume of the main piano voice in certain chill parts of worship songs. Couldn't find what I wanted in any brand or model of keyboard. I even tried a Nord 2 that a friend has and didn't like it or it's price. So I just kept using the MM6. Heard about the CK61 and bought it immediately. Absolutely no regrets. I love the 3 faders for the splits/layers and use them constantly. Everyone in our praise team noticed how much better my keyboard sounds now. Also play in a classic rock band and never felt good about the organ voices I used. The CK61 has a killer organ voice that sound like an overdriven B3. Only had it for 2 weeks but so far zero remorse and would highly recommend it. Does not have auto percussion or arpeggiators like the MM6 did but I never used those anyways. I was surprised to find that I like and frequently use the built in speakers; mainly for practice at church without having to turn on the whole PA system. Super light weight. Fits great on my stand, smaller than the MM6. Love the built in effects. Love the user interface with easy access buttons and knobs and no need to dive through multiple menus and submenus. Great job, Yamaha!

I have had this keyboard for a couple of weeks now. I was a former owner of Roland VR-730 and sold it because (1) the piano sounded terrible and (2) the effects didn't work correctly. This new Yamaha has the Roland VR beat on all categories. SOUNDS: the piano, EP, and organs sound fantastic. There are tons of other sounds strings, pads, leads, brass, percussion, etc... Everything is top notch. Some of the guitar sounds switch between muted and open based on velocity. Very useable. EFFECTS: The effects are great. Having them laid out on the control pad instead of menu diving makes it fun to just mess with the delay and reverb and go psychedelic with the organs and synths. COLOR CODING: the 3 patches you get with each live set are indicated with color-switching LEDs, you push the patch A B or C, and then you can use color coding to assign effects to each patch. Its super intuitive, you will get most of the concepts without even needing the manual. The only thing I see as a bit of a limitation is that you can't really tweak the synth patches like you would on a real synth. You can control attack/decay, and filter cutoff/resonance, which is enough to get by. Fortunately I have analog synths for tweaking, and I bought the CR61 for pianos and organs mainly. You can definitely do it all in a live gig with this board at a great price. I've never played a Nord outside of the Sweetwater Showroom, so I can't really compare the two, but it would be an interesting comparison. I think this must be a better value. To me this sounds as good as the more expensive Yamaha YC performance keyboards.

I really love the functionality and portability of this keyboard. I especially like of the built in speakers are not even noticeable to much. Great Design

I've had the CK61 for just under a month. The sounds are pretty much all top notch but what I find myself using the most are the electric pianos and acoustic pianos which are among the best I've played including Nord. The semi weighted action on the CK61 is the best non-hammer action I've ever played hands down. There is just the right amount of resistance when you press a key down and it comes back up when it should. I can play piano standards on this little board. Really surprised me. It's not a cheap, worn out synth action at all. The weak link in the CK chain for me is organs. The B3 and Leslie sim in the CK61 just don't cut it for me and sound wimpy. I have a Hammmond SKX PRO and I guess I've just become used to the near perfection of that organ engine and Leslie sim. Anyway, the CK 61 sits on the top tier of my keyboard stand and is the perfect second keyboard for me though others will find it perfect as a stand alone. For $ this board is a true bargain and extremely playable because of the action. It would be a head-to-head match for the Nord Electro were it not for the CK organs. But then, the CK61 costs less than half the Nord and the Nord semi-weighted action is inferior to the CK61.

I have been on a quest to acquire a premium keyboard which serves my needs as a composer and gigging performer. I tried the top-end Nords, Rolands, Korgs, and Casios.

After much searching, reading of manuals, watching of videos, ordering of keyboards, waiting for delivery of keyboards, returning of keyboards, brooding, weeping, lost sleep, band practices, live gigs, and so forth, I finally settled on two separate keyboards for distinct purposes - This one (The Yamaha CK61) for live performances and the Korg Pa5X for at-home practice and composition which will get its own separate review.

Let's begin by looking at the positive aspects of this instrument:

1) The sounds.
I have a very particular ear for tone as someone who has been producing and mixing for 20 years (and playing piano a little longer). My old Casio sounded fine through its built-in speakers but absolutely god-awful through a PA in a live setting. Totally imbalanced highs and lows, to the point where I had to dramatically alter my technique in order to avoid sounding unpleasant. Most of the instruments on this Yamaha sound better tonally to my ear than anything in the Nord, Roland, and Casio sound libraries. They have clear definition in the high end, sweetness in the mids, and fullness in the low end without being overly boomy. They lack the sourness which plagues the mids of many piano sounds offered by the aforementioned brands.

My bandmates *immediately* commented on how much better my keys were sitting in the mix without crowding other instruments or fluctuating horribly in undesirable frequencies. I think they actually like me more now.

2) The controls.
Holy cow. The layout of the controls on this bad boy allows for instantaneous and near mindless access to any aspect of the sound that you may wish to control on the fly. It's easy to reach over and dial in the reverb while improvising in a live set. It's effortless to create presets with different combinations of sounds with any combination of effects you can imagine. This is the only keyboard I've used where I did not need to read the manual to figure out how to do literally anything. Whoever designed the control layout deserves some serious recognition.

3) The weight and size.
This keyboard literally weighs nothing. You can lift it up in the air with one finger, and when you take your hand away it just floats there. No more shoving my gigging keyboard onto the floor of my car and letting the edge scrape against the carpet as I clumsily weasel it in there. It fits neatly in the trunk, and could even occupy a single seat so that I can drive in the carpool lane. It's my emotional support keyboard. How dare you insinuate that it is sub-human and without a soul?

Okay, and the questionable aspects of this fine instrument:

1) The keys.
I'm pretty sure that the cheap plastic keys are lowering my sperm count. This may be a feature to some, but for me it's a bug. The keys feel a little bit small and press very easily. The actuation has a small amount of initial resistance for the first 10% or so of travel, and then no resistance the rest of the way down. This puts a bottleneck on the amount of expression I am able to imbue in the performance through my hands. That being said, the keys are still very easy to play and if you're concerned with the touch response then maybe weighted keys are the way to go.

I'm sure if you've read my review up to this point you are asking, "But Sean, what do you really think about the Yamaha CK61?"

If Yamaha made a version of this with a premium semi-weighted keybed, with wooden sides and some kind of metal finish on the chassis and controls, I would happily pay a premium price for it - like I am with my Korg Pa5X 88. In every other category however, it seriously outperforms brands such as Nord, Casio, and Roland in terms of its sound, controls and intuitive design.

61 key - lighter keybed, 12 lbs $ key heavey piano action 28 lbs. $ Imagine a 76 key version with a hybrid action weighing around 18-20lbs @ $ I'd buy in a minute.

So I have a MODX8, that is my main rig, but sometimes I am unable to sit in front of it for practice and since I need speakers it all becomes a bit of a hassle every time I want to practice something quick. I bought this keyboard for the portability, integrated speakers, and sounds. So, this keyboard currently lives under my standing desk, I can practice whenever for however long because of the speakers. I have set up various live sets for it and I am digging it. The speakers were what sold me, then I heard the sounds in the demo and I bought it. I love this thing, has made practicing a breeze. Going to mid week bible studies with my keyboard is now a breeze due to the speakers which sound great.

If you are expecting the quality of a workstation that is 3k or more then the problem isn't this keyboard its you. Give the product a fair review for what it was intended this isn't a replacement to your Nord or Montage or MODX but its own unit. I love it for what it is and I have recorded some tracks already with this and using this as my main practice rig and gig rig when I don't need my MODX

The product itself is good based on the manual control and easy access, however not the best sound when it comes to piano sound.
When it comes to service, didn't receive the best. experience, poor communication, lack of initiate and to resolve an issue. Unable to make an exchange even though I made several calls within the time frame. They promised me a follow up call in which I never received. I would never buy again at this store, this decision is not based on the product but about the service.

I anxiously awaited the chance to test drive the Yamaha CK series when it was announced. When I heard Sweetwater had one on display, I visited the store sat down with the CK88. I was looking for a road keyboard that would be easy to transport and have good organ sounds. I had recently purchased a SL Numa X73 which I really like and thought the Yamaha CK61 would make a nice addition in my home setup and be a little more transportable. The combo is great -- I have a very nice weighted action keyboard with great sounds in the Numa X73 and nice organs with the CX61.

The disappointment, however is when I want to take the CX61 away solo. The organ side is pretty good although there aren't many usable presets out of the box. Tons of flexibility but I don't want to have to build organ patches with all the effects from scratch to get a solid library. My thought on the keyboard sounds is they are also very limited, especially the EPs. There are some good DX sounds (which you would expect from Yamaha) but not much else. I'm sure the capability is there to build some but I don't want to spend all my time making patches. The strings aren't too bad and there are some nice brass and sax sections, but the solo horns leave a lot to be desired. I was also disappointed in the selection of basses, not very many useful in my opinion. Another observation is that the basses really die off at the low end and the on board global 3-band EQ doesn't seem to help this much.

I do like the setup and the organization of the controls. The effects are very versatile and easy to navigate and building "Live Set" combos of 3 voices + effects is nicely set up. There's lots of capability to change settings on the fly during a performance of the Live Sets, but I would gladly give that away for more useful factory presets that can be tweaked. Another big limitation to me is that the CK is basically "mono"-timbral. I like to have additional channels available to be driven by external midi. The only way I can see to make this happen is to set up a part to only respond to external midi.

I'm coming from a Yamaha MX-49 which I honestly found very useful. If I only took one keyboard out, the MX filled the bill. If I needed extra tracks from external midi I could add up to 15 more. And the individual factory patches were many and very good. I used the MX a lot for a bass sound module and it puts the CK to shame. Likewise, the solo horns - trumpets, trombones, saxes, etc. were very convincing on the MX and not so much on the CK. The organs on the MX won't match the CK in terms of versatility but I could always find a factory patch on the MX that worked well.

If I had it to do over again, I might consider an MX-61 to get the MX sounds, 61 keys and save $200. I think the CK has a lot of upside, however, and I hope Yamaha jumps in here and offers a bunch of new Live Set patches, a decent editor librarian and a good user group to share our thoughts. If that happens, the CK61 could be a winner.

I bought the CK61 to use as both a portable keyboard for practice off-site and as a midi keyboard. Of particular interest to me is the hammond organ and piano sounds. This keyboard was in the running with the Roland VR09. I picked the CK61 because Yamaha piano sound is second to none. Unfortunately, the hammond organ emulation is not as good as the VR09 as I have found out playing it for a few weeks. For starters, the "tweaking" parameters for the organ are not editable. You get somebodys opinion of how much leakage there should be and thats it. Also, the leslie sound is not as good as the Roland (or hammond) product. It seems to be pitch-bending too much (the Rotary B) setting. I dont know why there are 2 types, if they wanted to be true to leslie emulation, the 2 choices should be 122 or 145. I dont know what Rotary A is supposed to be doing, it is supposed to be the "standard rotary speaker for organ". It is quite flat sounding actually, like an entry-level DAW. I am not crazy about the keybed either. The pressure needed to depress the key changes after the first 1/4" of key-down (white key). It starts out initially a higher pressure, then changes to a lower pressure for the rest of the key travel. Not sure what this is for. The keybed is a synth-action, kind of mid-quality. If you are going to have a whole section of the keyboard function dedicated to organ, at least have organ shaped keys and something close to organ action. It seems like all the sub-$ keyboards have cheap keybeds these days. Another gripe I have with the keyboards I have been buying lately is that they are making the black keys much more narrow than they should and the side edges are rounder too. Makes playing harder, not sure what is going on here...

On the plus side, this keyboard has an amazing number of sounds built in and it has velocity sensitivity that actually works. You can tweak the acceleration and offset of the velocity which makes adapting to the synth action for piano playing very versatile. It is also very light. You can pick it up with one hand. The screen is small but there is good contrast so it is easy to see, even in bright light. I found it easier to use that my CP piano, even tho it is similar in function. I have not used the EG and filter other than experimenting. Its got lots of I/O which is great. I have not used the built-in speakers or battery operation - yet, another really nice feature.

I wished I would have listened to the CKs hammond organ and leslie emulation using headphones when I was trying it out. I would not have bought it, of all the hammond "emulators" Roland is the closest I have heard. And then there is Rolands incredible authentic leslie control lever...

I was drawn to the CK-61, hoping it could be a budget-friendly alternative to a Nord keyboard. While it's lightweight, portable, and offers user-friendly controls, the sound quality ultimately fell short of my expectations.

The leads and pads lacked depth and presence, but the biggest disappointment were the organ sounds. They felt thin, missing the characteristic warmth and bite I crave. The keys also didn't translate subtle playing nuances as well as I'd hoped.

While the CK-61 has its strengths, it wouldn't be my first choice if you prioritize rich, expressive sounds and a dynamic playing experience, especially for organ-heavy styles. For the price, exploring other options might offer better sound quality in a similar range.