No. The samples will not change except possibly with a firmware update. Right now the Bosendorfer is a differentiating feature between the YC and CP.

That's what I suspected. I just want the best of both worlds! It seems like Yamaha could put the Bosendorfer sample onto the YC88, but it would make the CP88 less relevant by comparison.

Thanks for chiming in on this, Jason.

It seems like Yamaha could put the Bosendorfer sample onto the YC88, but it would make the CP88 less relevant by comparison.

It's an interesting question as to whether it is actually possible for them to put the Bosendorfer into the YC The sample memory space inside the boards is finite. Let's assume that, whatever it is, the same amount is inside the two models. The YC has always had more sampled sounds in it than the CP. We don't know how big they are, but the point is, it's possible that the YC's existing sample set uses up more of the available memory. If the CP Bosendorfer is the same as the one that can be optionally downloaded into the Montage, it is 409 mb. It is possible that there might not be 409 mb of available space remaining in the YC for the Bosendorfer (or they might need to create a smaller version to fit).

And then the most obvious point of this discussion is that all future expansions are over since there's no more memory.

IF, and it's a BIG IF, Yamaha was smart they would have added a massive memory into the YC enough to keep the YC relevant for many years.

BUT I think the new management has a philosophy of "doing as little as possible to get a sale" and then replace the unit fast and make another sale.

And do that by regifting the same samples for the 20th time. New packaging with the same ole sounds. That might be fine if you only own 1 Yamaha board.

When you own all of their boards, all the boards sound the same so you sell them and don't buy anymore like me. Do we really need the Bos on 5 Yamaha boards?

Buying 2 Yamaha boards to get 2 different pianos is of course insane too. This is an old carrot dangling in front of us to buy, buy, buy, more, more, more.

I've moved on to Roland and Hammond. The Fantom just updated to 2.5 with a full tone wheel organ and all customizable.

Don't give me the price excuse as I bought my Fantom 6 for way less than I paid for either of the YC73 and the SKpro.

To me a sampled piano is a sampled piano is a sampled piano. Very little detectible differences in any of them except for the sustain perhaps which eats up memory.

Buy a CP1 if you want a piano with force and power else they are all about the same.

97% of music listeners will recognize you're playing a piano whereas 3% will be able to tell you which samples of which manufacturer's board you are playing. Probably less.

Don't give me the price excuse as I bought my Fantom 6 for way less than I paid for either of the YC73 and the SKpro.

Fantom 6 is way more expensive. The fact that you might have managed to score a deal on a used model, demo, whatever, is not relevant to this decision for most people. And if you were willing to wait long enough, you'd probably be able to score a used/demo YC73/SKPro for less than what you paid for the Fantom 6, too. Each board has its pros and cons, though.

Overall, I'd say Fantom 6 functionally competes more with Montage and Kronos than it does with YC or SKPro. Roland's competitor to the YC73 and SK Pro would be VR-730 and VR-09B.

Yes got a manuf. refurb. like new Fantom 6 for $2,100 and you can find them around. No the Fantom destroys the Montage and Kronos (not sure if they have a newer version of Kronos)

I got the others at dealer discounts typically only 10% off. Sweetwater has those 36 and 48 month free financing deals on some manufacturers so any board you want is affordable these days. They do not have it for Hammond so I had to pay it off within 6 months which sucks.

The YC61 was extremely handy being so light and still decently solid. That was its greatest strength in size and portability. The YC73 is nice but nothing as good, authentic and versatile as the SKpro. The YC88 makes almost zero sense to me. It's extremely large, most expensive and it can't be expanded and playing organ on it is not practical. It literally makes no sense to buy one or make them. If you want real piano realism get the CP1. I'm sure the YC88 is solid but it's a sort of deposable heavy weight. SW has it listed for $2,999 which is a tad crazy because it's so limited for such a massive board and it's still just mediocre re-gifted Yamaha samples. The limited FM is the only bell/whistle and that's really old technology.

Where exactly is all the Genos/Tyros technology and articulated sounds or the CP1 technology? Yamaha refuses to inject that into even the latest, modern most expensive gear. I know they still make the CP1 but it's almost 10 years old. They will re-gift samples forever until people stop buying their gear. I know other companies do the same however they are getting much wiser and moving past Yamaha at the moment. A hot dog inside a different bun, fancier with sesame seeds etc. is still a hot dog. Their old technology won't allow for feasible expansion and they won't double/triple the memory. They are going to ride this wave as far as it can take them which isn't much further.

I know the spill that simplicity in a stage board is the market focus but it's too simplistic for the price tag. It is fun and the YC61 is super portable but it's just so dang limited. They should all be about $500 less for what you're getting. That would then make YC make a lot more sense. I was happy to pay near full price for the SKpro after I compared it to YC. Someone who isn't comparing these side by side, it's best to stay in a happy place and don't.

Is it possible to delete a sample to create room for the bosendorfer sample?

Is it possible to delete a sample to create room for the bosendorfer sample?

No. (Well, I suppose Yamaha technically could do it in an update, but it wouldn't make sense, because all people's existing Live Sets that used the deleted sound would no longer work correctly.)

Yes this is the year 2021 when we're supposed to be flying around on hover boards and yet we are still only have fixed memory music machines.

I know that's really stupid but I guess so few boards are actually made and sold there's no market or demand for sound customization even on stage boards I call disposable boards.

You have to spend double the amount of money to get customization. Who actually knows how much extra memory Yamaha has available. They didn't disclose it to anyone.

I think they think we're all going to run out and buy 3 different Yamaha boards so we can have 3 different piano samples. I hope we're not that dumb.

They actually can't even fix the rotary so who knows what the DSP limitations are as well. The $1,999 YC61 is probably only worth $1,600 and was likely $800 to manufacture so there's not a lot to work with for an $800 design. I'm speculating but not too far off. Spend a little more and make it worth purchasing and keeping I think.

Judging the rotary speaker by what I have access to - the Montage - I agree that the rotary speaker could be better for me. I've played on rotary sims that better fit what I'd like to hear. Content creators for Yamaha agree - and plenty of other players do too. However "broken" vs. "fixed" may be a bit far. Even though I think it could be better - even "enhanced" may be a stretch. What's in the box represents the latest swing at a rotary sim - and it holds up better than some of the other gear I have although maybe is, as a subjective opinion, not as good as something else. I'd like to see a different rotary sim that tries to take the feedback of what's not favorable to some and gets a thumbs up from "us". I'm sure internally (at Yamaha) there are those who can provide just as good feedback as we have. I know they get the feedback and may have similar opinions themselves. Still, this wouldn't fix anything - just provide something closer to what some feel is a more favorable effect.

https://www.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/comments/jmcn9k/unboxed_my_yamaha_yc61_late_on_halloween_my_wife/

I ran across the above link a few days ago. Thought it was interesting to see someone who unboxed the YC and took it for an early testdrive with pretty good results. It sort of demonstrates that there's no studio trickery to the polished demos as this one is pretty rough from a technical (recording) perspective - but you can hear some good stuff under the family and keys clicking and such.

You have to spend double the amount of money to get customization

Nah. MODX6 is 30% cheaper than YC61 and gives you 1 GB of free sample space to use as you'd like. Kurzweil SP4-7 gives you 2 GB and costs the same as the YC61 (and is only that high because of the June 1 price increase).

(Unless you mean, by customization, being able to, not only add new sample data, but delete factory sample data as well, to make even more room. Only Nord does that, though it's a double-edged sword...if you rent/borrow/backline one, you can't count on the availability of a certain common soundset.)

Anyway, the point is, you CAN find the feature you want in the desired price range, you just may not be able to find EVERY feature you want in the SAME board in your price range, from the SAME company, which is also why it's good that you DO have the option to choose a Yamaha or a Nord or a Roland or a Kurzweil or a Hammond or whatever else. YC is about preset sounds and simplicity, MODX is about deep customizability and flexibility, and they've made the decision (at least so far) to put the flexible memory allocation only in the MODX. Sure, make your suggestions, and if they see enough demand for something, maybe they'll adjust, but I don't see the point of ragging on them. Yamaha has their idea of what the YC customer needs. If it doesn't match what you need, then buy a Nord or buy a Hammond, whatever. Just because a company's product is not designed to cater to you doesn't mean it was a design failure. I know you like the SK Pro, so be happy you have a choice that works for you! (BTW, you can't load new samples into that one, either.) And I get it... I prefer the rotary effect and some other features of the SK Pro, myself. OTOH, I prefer the action, lighter weight, and some of the relative operational simplicity of the YC61. Always trade-offs. And as long as these boards are not custom made for us, that's how it will probably always be. And at least the YC has pretty decent MIDI functionality, so you can also expand the sound set that way, e.g. splitting/layering internal sounds with sounds from an iPad or whatever.

The $1,999 YC61 is probably only worth $1,600 and was likely $800 to manufacture so there's not a lot to work with for an $800 design. I'm speculating but not too far off.

If it sells for $1999, it probably costs quite a bit less than $800 to manufacture. It's a relatively low volume business with multiple layers of distribution and high development, tooling, and fixed costs relative to units sold. I doubt something with raw cost of $800 could sustainably be sold for as little as $2k. But that's really a whole other subject.

A data point on memory capacity...the latest CP update was about 1.4 GB where the latest YC update was only 1 GB...not my area of expertise but I would guess they put the same hardware capacity in both. I would bet a few bucks that the Bosendorfer sample accounts for the vast majority of the difference. Whether they add it to the YC is a marketing issue.

OT but since this thread did morph a bit into the rotary sim issue, I am setting up for a music event and have decided to use the B3X for the organ with the YC as the controller. Not that Yamaha shouldn't work hard to improve the rotary sim on the YC, but I can't imagine a circumstance where they could improve it to the level of the B3X. Not to despair though...the YC makes a great controller for the B3X and it such a streamlined set-up with the internal USB Audio. It's so seemless...I have it set up so I hit a Live Set and one would never know that it's the B3X and not the internal organ playing.

Yamaha should embrace this and not lose themselves in the pride of having their organ sound have to be "the best". There are a couple of ideas I have posted on Ideascale that I think would improve further the software controlling capabilities of the YC like Perc and Vib buttons sending CC info and being able to decouple the blending of internal and USB Audio feeds so you can apply external computer-based effects to internal YC sounds. With an ever increasing number of choices for software, everyone is going to have different preferences and I think the company that best allows hardware/software integration will have the best success going forward. All that said, the current rotary sim still needs to be fixed (the fast speed part) as there still many users out there who don't appear yet to want to make the leap to a combined hardware/software set-up.

You guys are reinforcing my point that it's way over priced for the limitations it has.

I don't want to use up 2/3 of the YC memory on a single piano sample that sounds exactly the same as the other 4 pianos. I'd rather have 20 other good voices of usable content. The EPs they added were about the same as the ones they already had. No one can tell any difference. One piano was decent but a fake piano is still a fake piano, I mean sampled piano and no one can tell any difference other than it's a piano.

Being that you can still only layer 2 non-organ voices it doesn't matter much anyway. "Stage Board" means stagnate board. This is the year 2021 isn't it?

They are still designing like it's 1975 and memory and DSP are like it was on the EX5 with "Warning, you have exceeded all processing power and capabilities of this crappy unit". Tony Stark is still laughing about this one. Where's the holographic music design mode?

Actually the EX5 probably had triple the internal goodness of the YC and a larger screen too. I know it's a stage board so you don't need to see the screen. What does a large led cost these days $29.95? Oh I forgot they would have had to redesign the cover hole. Just port it out to a smart phone display which is 10 times larger and add a phone stand groove.

I do like the YC but it could have been way, way better for not much more money. It all boils down to until you see "Yamaha YC" on the backs of boards all over the world, internet, music videos, stages, churches etc. then it hasn't exceeded anyone's expectations. It could have been really amazing but yes it's only as good as it's intended purpose.

To be able to open up the SKpro and dive inside and/or play 10 parts at once is more appealing. It has the depth that YC should have had or could have had. I know different conceptual ideas and targets but it is 2021. It's time for revolutionary.

You guys are reinforcing my point that it's way over priced for the limitations it has.

I don't want to use up 2/3 of the YC memory on a single piano sample that sounds exactly the same as the other 4 pianos. I'd rather have 20 other good voices

And you're reinforcing my point that we'll always have these issues as long as these boards are not custom made for us. Some people wish the YC had the "best" piano of the CP. You see no need for lots of piano variety and wish for more other sound variety instead. Both positions are valid, and I can't tell you which is the perpsective shared by more actual or potential YC purchasers.

To be able to open up the SKpro and dive inside and/or play 10 parts at once is more appealing. It has the depth that YC should have had or could have had.

They made different design decisions, and targeted a higher price point... and luckily, now, we have that choice. People who think Yamaha made the better decisions here can enjoy their YC, people like you who think Hammond made the better decisions here for their needs can enjoy their SK Pro.

And Yamaha does offer all that depth that the SK Pro does, and a lot more, for a lot less money, in the MODX6. But it does not have the dedicated organ engine and VA mono synth of the Hammond. Again, you can get everything you want, but you can't get it all in the same board, C'est la vie. Again, the boards are not custom made for us. But sure, it could have been cool to see a $1400 MODX6 repackaged into a board that added the YC61's organ functionality, and have that sell for the same price as the SK Pro... maybe that's a board you would have preferred to the SK Pro. But alas, Yamaha, so far, has decided not to go that way.

Though to get back to your first line, I don't see the YC as over-priced. Look at what it gives you for $1999 compared to what Hammond gives you in a $1899 SK1, what Nord gives you in a $2299 Electro 6D, what Dexibell gives you in a $2499 J7 Combo, and I think the YC is competitive in the field of organ-centric boards.