Thanks for the comprehensive review. I'm considering a CK, so this is really helpful.

My main workhorse is the YC88, and there's almost nothing I don't love about it. I've had it just over 2 years, have used it nearly every single day, and the shine still hasn't worn off. The piano action and sounds are great. Some players say they find it a bit heavy for EP, but I find it really good (maybe not so much for clav, but then, I'm just not that into clav anyway...)

For me, the YC only has two gaps: firstly, it's missing pipe organs (which I admit is only a small problem, really). The second is that the hammer action is not suited to all types of organ playing - it's fine for rhythm section organ, which is mostly long notes and a few gratuitous slides and smears, but not so much for solo organ.

For me, I'm thinking that adding the CK61 as a second keyboard will address these gaps nicely. Its organs sound great - the rotary perhaps isn't at the level of the YC, but then I always have the option to use the YC sounds via MIDI. As a bonus, I get a whole bunch of new sounds, plus a nice portable unit to take out on its own to rehearsals etc. (5kg, versus nearly 20kg for the YC).

Some other options I considered:

• reface YC (a cool unit, but a bit small for this, and limited to organs when using on its own)
• Roland V-Combo (I did buy one, but eventually moved it on, as I wasn't that happy with it)
• a good MIDI controller (a reasonable solution, but not much use on its own)
• a Nord or SKPro (that would be nice, but a bit expensive for a secondary keyboard)
• a YC61 (good, but a duplication of sounds I've already paid for once, and also a bit expensive for a secondary keyboard)

But I'm pretty convinced the CK61 will hit the spot. (I'm still waiting for them to become available in my country).

Depending on whether the budget allows it, and whether two keyboards is practical for you, perhaps holding onto your CP88, and adding the CK61 could be another option to consider?

reface YC (a cool unit, but a bit small for this, and limited to organs when using on its own)

With the Reface you're also limited to one "manual" if I remember correctly. What's nice about the CK is that you can very quickly set up two parts and basically get a two-manual setup going with different registrations. (Hell, you can get a quasi pedal config happening too, lickety split).

Roland V-Combo (I did buy one, but eventually moved it on, as I wasn't that happy with it)

Same (VR09). Roland is the king of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The V Combo should've been a layup, but Roland designers get really freaked out and anxious if they don't do something to sabotage their own gear. Waaaay overpriced for what it does, too.

a good MIDI controller (a reasonable solution, but not much use on its own)

Lord knows as key players we already have so much junk to lug around! A MIDI controller can be lightweight, sure, but is it really worth lugging around another body of plastic and metal just to get some better feeling keys?

a Nord or SKPro (that would be nice, but a bit expensive for a secondary keyboard)

For sure.

a YC61 (good, but a duplication of sounds I've already paid for once, and also a bit expensive for a secondary keyboard)
Yep.

Here's what I'll say: the CK is an insanely good all-rounder keyboard. It takes the competition, shoves their asses into a rusty tin can, and punts it way down the road. Yamaha made a helluva winner here, and I feel really confident in this after just one night of playing.

Have you ever tried or looked into the Studiologic Numa Organ 2? I briefly had it: I really liked it, but it just felt too expensive as a pure organ board for my needs. With the CK, you're getting a serviceable/decent/good organ plus so much more, and can serve as a mobile artillery unit.

I thought about your suggestion: unfortunately, my budget doesn't allow for that, and also, I'm trying to simplify my rig.

I haven't tried the Numa Organ 2 - actually haven't really seen many Studiologic instruments around here at all. But I think you're right in saying that the Numa, being a pure organ board, would mean foregoing a lot of extra functions (like synths, EPs, layering sounds, etc), and still paying more than for the CK.

I'm really not a good enough organ player to be demanding something off the top shelf, so I think the CK is looking like a winner for that, as well as a lightweight all-rounder, and the lower price is a bonus.

You've pushed me over the edge :p

Day 2 Update!

Last night I spent a lot of time picking apart what about the GHS wasn't gelling with me. I realized a couple of things: the resistance is constant and springy, like I feel my finger pushing against a spring all the way down. Especially on softer playing, I'm not triggering a sound when I feel like I should be, and I don't feel like I can ease into notes or have any "grip". (I had the same problem with the ES520 I demo'd last week). This is compared to the smoother action of the CP88.

I was able to compensate for this by slightly bumping up the Touch Offset (68 from 64). Though this is an improvement, the issue is that this is per sound...so sure maybe I could save it to a Live Set but that means I'm gonna be constantly tethered to that just to feel really good about fundamental playing.

Today I'm gonna hook up my CK to my computer and Pianoteq along with NI Grandeur, and see if this feeling is more intrinsic to the key action, or its relation to the sound engine.

Speaking of, CK CFX definitely sounds better to me than CP CFX, even after adjusting the tone knob to try and get a different sound profile. I also feel like the difference between the different grands are more pronounced on the CK, outside of the more obviously different models on the CP, such as the Nashville and Hamburg.

[quotePost id=121148]I was able to compensate for this by slightly bumping up the Touch Offset (68 from 64). Though this is an improvement, the issue is that this is per sound...so sure maybe I could save it to a Live Set but that means I'm gonna be constantly tethered to that just to feel really good about fundamental playing.[/quotePost]
I had mentioned to John Melas that it would be a nice enhancement to his CP/YC tools if you could apply the touch sensitivity settings to multiple sounds (through copy-and-paste or some other mechanism), so you souldn't have to enter all the numbers separately for all the Live Sets where you want your preferred piano settings, and he liked the idea. Though whether or not he'll actually update the editors with new capabilities is still an unknown.

[quotePost id=121125]
I was initially really bummed that the effects changed every time you changed a sound (not Live Set), but turns out there's an option in the Settings where you can have the effects stay, so all good in the hood.
[/quotePost]

Can I clarify something (I'm assuming you're talking about the Effect On/Off Reset function on p39 of the manual)... So if you have this set to OFF, it means you can switch instruments within the Live Set, and the effects will remain, but if you change to a new Live Set, any sustained notes will still go through the new effects chain?

Something I do very often, particularly with solo playing, is to finish up a song with one sound, and let the notes sustain with the pedal, meanwhile switching Live Sets to get a new sound and 'crossfade' into the next song. The YC88 does this beautifully.

It seems the CK won't do this smoothly between Live Sets, but could there be a workaround to achieve this within a Live Set? Say, if you were using Part A (piano), and had Part B (rhodes) ready to go but switched off, could you change them over smoothly, letting the piano ring out naturally and not contribute to the second song? If you switch off a Part while it's still sounding, does it release the sound as per that sound's EG, or does it chop off?

I've been testing it out for you, and the answer is, kinda?

I've been using really dramatic effects to test this, though I don't have a sustain pedal hooked up right now (which it doesn't come with apparently!!!!!!). If you pilot your EG, Part volume, and Part selection, you can kinda fake a smooth transition in the way I THINK you're talking about, but it's definitely a workaround. And the second that Part is shut off, it's night-night for anything comin out of it.

SST is a feature that seems really silly to price gate in 2023.

Thank you for your review! It's so important to get independent reviews, these days when brick and mortar stores don't have demo units.

-- pj

[quotePost id=121151]SST is a feature that seems really silly to price gate in 2023.[/quotePost]

Yes- it would be interesting to understand whether it's a deliberate price gate, to entice buyers towards higher models, or a hardware/software limit... the former seems more likely, given the CK appears to have common DNA with the YC and CP, which do seamless switching so nicely. I guess cheaper models need to have some concessions. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks for testing this out.

I had another idea - what about if you create a Live Set that only uses Part A (say, with Piano), and then switch to a Live Set that only uses Part B (say, Rhodes with drive and a heavy phaser). It would be interesting to know whether the effect chain 'inheritance' only occurs between voices assigned to the same Part, and hence whether the sustained piano notes in this case would get drive and phaser applied as they die away.

I have the CP1 and YC73 and SKpro73 with CK coming tomorrow. It's the best of all worlds but not sure I'll keep the CK just wanted to check it out. It probably won't help me much since I have the other three monsters.

About SST: If you have 3 sounds going, each with 2 insert effects, for 6 insert effects total, and you want to switch to another set of 3 sounds that have different effects settings, and you don't want the older set of 6 sounds to either take on the effect characteristics of the new sounds or lose their effects entirely, you now need enough processing capabilities to do 12 simultaneous insert effects rather than 6. Assuming the CK does not have all the processing power of the CP/YC, this would indicate a logically valid reason for this ability to disappear on the lower end model.

Losing SSS is a huge deal as a performance board. It's super annoying to not seamlessly switch. My friend used to joke that even his 1980 casio had SSS, it was just unknown to not offer it. The 1/2 price reduction down from YC was dumping the FM engine, fancy long throw LED sliders, build quality, SSS, rotary LED lights to name a few. The YC73 is just impressive to interact with.

[quotePost id=121156]My friend used to joke that even his 1980 casio had SSS, it was just unknown to not offer it. [/quotePost]
Lots of old boards had it, including my own old Casios. But the demand were so much lower. You only switched one sound at a time instead of switching numerous sounds simultaneously, and the sounds may have had no insert effects whatsoever!

Seamless switching of any combination of multiple sounds to any other combination of multiple sounds in the board, each with their own effects, without so much as an effects glitch, has never been common, and still is not all that common today. And even on the boards that have it, there are still certain situations where it won't work... but usually it does. But Yamaha has it only in Montage/MODX/CP/YC... and AFAIK, these are the first Yamaha boards to ever have it. Nord never had it until the Nord Stage 3, Electro 6, and Nord Stage 4. Kurzweil doesn't have it universally, but on many boards, you can configure sets of sounds where you know it will work, by setting up your combinations to assure that a given sound-combination doesn't exceed some number of effects. I think Roland has it on all their "Zen-Core" boards. Korg has had it on Kronos/Nautilus and I think the Grandstage and Vox Continental which used (a smaller number of) Kronos-derived engines, and I think the SV2, I think that covers it for them. (ETA: Note also, I think the CK may be cheaper than any board on that list.)

[quotePost id=121157][quotePost id=121156]My friend used to joke that even his 1980 casio had SSS, it was just unknown to not offer it. [/quotePost]
Lots of old boards had it, including my own old Casios. But the demand were so much lower. You only switched one sound at a time instead of switching numerous sounds simultaneously, and the sounds may have had no insert effects whatsoever!

Seamless switching of any combination of multiple sounds to any other combination of multiple sounds in the board, each with their own effects, without so much as an effects glitch, has never been common, and still is not all that common today. And even on the boards that have it, there are still certain situations where it won't work... but usually it does. But Yamaha has it only in Montage/MODX/CP/YC... and AFAIK, these are the first Yamaha boards to ever have it. Nord never had it until the Nord Stage 3, Electro 6, and Nord Stage 4. Kurzweil doesn't have it universally, but on many boards, you can configure sets of sounds where you know it will work, by setting up your combinations to assure that a given sound-combination doesn't exceed some number of effects. I think Roland has it on all their "Zen-Core" boards. Korg has had it on Kronos/Nautilus and I think the Grandstage and Vox Continental which used Kronos engines, and I think the SV2, I think that covers it for them. (ETA: Note also, I think the CK may be cheaper than any board on that list.)[/quotePost]

Your point about processing power is valid--which would also explain the lower polyphony count in the CK vs CP/YC if I remember--but you just about listed every major flagship and flagship-adjacent board out there from the last 8 years ? .