Yamaha CK Series Keyboards

New as of March 2023, Yamaha has the CK61 and the CK88.

Battery operated, built in ( decent) speakers, and light weight. Blue tooth audio input. and a nice control panel. Oh and a decent price too.

Sonic State Video at NAMM 2023 with Blake Angelos.

There is the Reface stuff plus a lot. A full size Reface CP and YC.

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It’s weird, irrational, and snobby how much I hate these kinds of keyboards, but they really do appall me. No offence to those who love them, and the stupid thing is I can see how useful they’d be.

I’m just marveling at my own visceral negative reaction really, it’s like the opposite of GAS.

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Thanks for the show of support !

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They should break this up into four smaller, more portable boards, each with its own sound.

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It’s cool ( my word of the day ) to hear Blake Angelos actually say they got the idea for this from people actually telling them that they loved the Refaces, but wish they could get all the sounds in one unit, hence my link to the “Is there a single Yamaha synth” thread.

Who would’ve thought to put it together in one synth ?
Who woulda thunk it.

ADDED : Thank you sleepside for the like !

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That looks great!

Love me some Reface.

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I feel all that but mixed with a sort of urge to overcome the repulsion and reap the benefits

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Well, I guess someone doesn’t want to take their sound where it’s never been before© 

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I adore the Reface series, I was silly to have sold the CP.

I wonder how much better the electric pianos are on it compared to the YC61 and how much organ crossover there is. I suppose the inbuilt speakers are a selling point here also but I feel like if I were pressed to get a nice Yamaha keyboard I would lean towards spending a bit more for the YC61.

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Jeez. $1200 and $1800. That’s real


I think you’ve tagged a very important question. Definitely worth a point by point comparison of the YCs and the CKs.

One difference i’d expect, but don’t know for sure, if the CK61 keybed has “waterfall” action. I’d guess not. The YC61 does.

I bet the action on the CK61 is more like the YC73. ( There is no CK73 and i am not expecting one. )

ADDED :
The CK61 has the Yamaha FSB ‘Future System Basic’ keybed.
The CK88 has the Yamaha GHS ‘Graded Hammer Standard’ keybed.

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Blake in the video says $1000 and $1500 USD.
That’s the price i find online.

Yamaha’s website.

10/10 would get this
. Anyone wanna buy my FA06?

Played the ck-61 at guitar center today. It’s awesome! I fell in love and bought one on the spot. I think they’re gonna be a big hit. I’m not even a piano/keys player.

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Hmmm I misread, I thought it had the reface DX system but maybe it doesn’t
 I’ll go try it out anyway

I am maybe looking for the CK88 to replace the FP10 in order to keep the shared digital piano but have more to play with on my side. However, I am not sure about having the YC and CP reface in the CK serie. AFAIK it is sample only while the YC and CP are at least partially physical model ? Not sure where I read this so grain of salt is needed.

Watch the video in the first post, starting at 8:20, and watch for a full minute.

So you can say the CK has more than the Reface CP and YC together.

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Yes, the CK is way more than the CP or/and the YC :slight_smile: What I was saying is that it is sample-based while the YC at least is VCM based (VCM Technology - Yamaha Research and Development). See this review at Anderton’s one month ago. For someone as me lurking on the reface but not having a real usecase and a lot of free space, the CK can be the long-term answer. :smiley: