Yamaha 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 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.

So many functions and so much to offer from a relatively light (22lb) unit!. The learning curve is a little steep but only because there's so many useful functions! There are plenty of video tutorials out there and the manual is pretty good! Everything is laid out perfectly, making it a great choice for gigs. There are 160 memory locations where you can save your layered sounds for each song on your set list. I love the fact that you can load songs/audio files in WAV form onto USB stick and play then on command, I'm using an 8Gig drive w over 40 wav files loaded on it. Very useful, and fun! The speakers are a nice addition, although they sound thin, but my back appreciates the light weight. Only one complaint. The lack of a descent music rest. The YMR-03 music rest......not only is it a problem (people complaining that it falls off if you touch it), but even if you wanted to try it, they are NOT AVAILABLE. I've contacted Yamaha and got a non-answer. I was hoping they were redesigning it which would explain the shortages. If you happen to have one, I read a review where the player used velcro to help secure the music rest. I had to buy a separate music stand, NOT IDEAL! With that said, I would still recommend you buy the CK-88. You won't find a better stage keyboard in this price range!

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!

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.

This keyboard feels great for a synthesizer type keyboard. It is not a full fleged synth, but has enough of the effects to get you there. What it does better than most synthesizer is the classic instruments. So combing the two it makes this keyboard a great choice no matter what you do. Home, band, or solo live play. It also hooked up to a DAW easially for home studio. My only negative is the missing ability to buy an optional sheet music holder for when I compose.

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