I am a little skeptical, perhaps worried, about Yamaha fully supporting this stage board. By that I mean in the way of massive voice expansion. Sure they will refine and correct and improve it but how much they will expand it might be an issue. I owned many of the Tyros series & then the Genos and had purchased almost every expansion pack available over those years. I sold my Genos because they completely stopped adding expansions and differed to other 3rd party folks. I have a friend who has the same boards as I do and he never once expanded it as he has zero interest in it. Expansion is one way or the other, you must have it or either you don't care about it and if Yamaha doesn't make money then they become disinterested. I guess the YC61 expansion will depend on sales and how the demand goes & market competition. This board costs a lot more than the MODX-61 so perhaps good expansion is coming. 3rd parties can't load new voices into these type units can they? Obviously voice programs will be available. Being classified as a stage board I know absolutely nothing was done for the CP1 and it costs $6K. Different technology I understand. One indicator I need to research is how many new voices were added to the CP73/88 since release? See below: It appears only (1) thus far providing (3) pianos. Yamaha will hopefully keep in mind on the YC61 that we're cross-over organist, synth enthusiasts, etc. and not just a stage performer wanting 10 more pianos. Gives us everything please including an authentic slide guitar.

David...the good news is that the CP 73/88 had 4 voices added with the 1.1 update and 30 voices with the 1.2 update....and as you note 3 voices with the 1.3 update.

https://usa.yamaha.com/files/download/other_assets/7/1243337/cp88_cp73_en_nf_c0.pdf

The bad news is almost all of the 30 new voices added for the 1.2 update are already on the YC. One of the interesting features of the YC is the FM engine. With that I assume voices can be added with some programming not sampling....and there's always the possibility that we will get access to that engine via an outboard editor...hard to imagine they put that in just to create 20 or so fixed voices. In the meantime I'm learning how to program on the Arturia DX7V to be ready...

I think the only sampled sound category that's not currently sufficiently represented in the YC IMHO is real vocal choruses...a couple ooo's and ahhh's...maybe "Tape" (Mellotron) versions like the Tape Strings voice. Other than that...sure I'd love more voices but it's pretty amazing what you can create with what's already on there. Every few days I try to take an hour or two and just get lost in the board to see what can be squeezed out of it...and there's a lot. Notwithstanding I am anxiously anticipating the first major OS update to see what new voices, features and adjustments they conjure up.

Yes I didn't mention the FM here but I have in other posts. The YC FM capabilities remain to be seen what was implemented under the hood & how it can be accessed. Montage just released an update with Smart Morph for FM-X. Perhaps we can get something like that using a device connected but who knows.

For me, for stage purposes, the sounds on YC61 are just about perfect. Maybe add a couple more Rhodes/Wurli sounds; a little more tweakability in the effects.
The only thing I believe this board actually NEEDS is a better rotary speaker sim. There are good controls for it, and I love the overdrive and Speaker Noise, but the rotary itself is just awful, in my opinion.

I think the most important thing is the frequency separation for horn and bass rotor. Originally at approx. 800 Hz

I bought the yc61 some months ago for basically organ and electric pianos.
I like it very very much but there are a few downers:

1. The warm wurlitzer sound really needs a bit more "punch" or "bite". The bright wurlitzer sadly has no "key-release-noises".
2. Organ-specific chorus and vibrato must be avaiable for the "F" Organs. Now you have to create these extra as insert effects.
3. The general reverb is (like usual) way to long/big. It sounds actually great but i can use it only for fun.
4. I personally dislike the fuzzy overdrive/distortion effects D1-D3. I would prefer a "simpler" one like the drive on reface cp.

If yamaha would take reface cp+yc+cs (no dx!) and put it all in one regular size keyboard with 61 keys... i would sell my yc61 and buy this thing.
No displays! No menus! No banks! No thinking! But only intuitive "analogue-feel" knobs and switches. This is music, please do it. Thanks.

Hello everyone,

This is a great discussion with some nice ideas! If you have any requests for new features or sounds I would encourage you to join the YamahaSynth IdeaScale community. That way we can catalog requests and inform our development team.

https://yamahasynth.ideascale.com/

Thanks!

Blake...belated Happy New Year and thank you for all you do to allow us to better use our YC's! It is a fantastic instrument. That said, have to admit I'm getting little antsy for an OS update...it will have been a year since the last one in just a couple of days. I just checked on IdeaScale (I am Counterpoint over there) and I see 63 ideas in the "Assessment" category (a few are mine) some of which have been there for over 18 months. Saw a video from September, I believe, where you sort of hinted that OS updates happen every eight months or so I guess that got my hopes up something was coming out in the Fall. I know there's not a Winter NAMM this year which I think influences your drop schedule. Anyway, waiting (not so) patiently for the things that will make this great instrument even greater! Thanks again...Jim

Needs percussion like the SKpro has so that rhythmic nuances can be added to a sound. The problem with this on YC is that the Skpro can layer 4 x 3 and build voices and add percussion. The YC can only play 2 non-organ voices so unless one is percussion and one is a jazz bass etc. plus the organ I suppose that's better than nothing. It might come in handy for a specific set requirement. Else Yamaha would have to sample layer a percussive voice with other voices as a single new sample. I think the CP series had drums and percussion. Not sure why it was abandoned on YC. Any $500 Casio has several rhythmic voices if needed. The format is too limited for much else. It should have at least been able to play 3 non-organ voices even if not every voice surface tweakable or the ability to layer voices internally. I know it's for simplicity but it's almost to simplistic which is why I call it disposable.