The Yamaha YC61 packs all the character of vintage combo organs and more into a gig-friendly, compact 61-key stage piano. Using Yamaha’s proprietary Virtual Circuit Modeling, the YC61 is one of the most lifelike sounding analog organ emulations on the market, and it comes stocked with a great selection of additional instrument voices and killer onboard effects. The YC61 is designed around performance, and its waterfall-style keys and physical drawbars are super responsive and a ton of fun to play and manipulate. While the YC61 is vintage in character, it boasts all the functionality and reliability of a digital instrument, with vast customization options and computer audio integration for audio recording, playback, and MIDI control. Keyboardists at Music Experience agree—the YC61 is a dynamite drawbar organ with enough features to be the top tier keyboard in your live and studio rigs.

Endless sonic possibilities

The YC61 is brimming with the signature tones of Yamaha’s classic line of combo organs—super-fat low end, thick organ swells, mellow emanations, and biting leads, along with the inimitable sound of a rotary speaker. With its drawbar controls, the YC61 presents a sizeable sonic palette with tons of tweakability. Layer up a fat organ pad. Pull back the bars for a focused sound. Dial up the percussiveness. Beyond the incredible organ sound, Yamaha’s updated Stage OS and the YC61’s Dual Keys section, give you have control over a slew of instrument voices, including acoustic and electric pianos, FM synth, strings, and brass. And, the YC61’s nine onboard effects, such as vibrato/chorus, reverb, delay, and drive, make for endless musical possibilities.

Stellar feel and playability

The experience of playing a drawbar organ is visceral and interactive, and the YC61 provides a great feel to inspire lively performances. The physical drawbars and intuitive control surface make it easy to shape sounds on the fly without getting bogged down in programming patches. The YC61 features a waterfall-style keyboard with a rounded front edge for digging into techniques like squabbling and palm glissandos without wrecking your hands. And, the YC61 is incredibly responsive—perfect for smashing out big chords or for dancing around the keys with a light touch.

Proprietary Virtual Circuit Modeling

The foundation of the YC61’s rich and detailed sound is Yamaha’s proprietary Virtual Circuit Modeling. Developed by Yamaha originally for the “Add-on Effects” series for their digital mixing console, VCM digitally emulates analog gear down to the individual component level. The YC61’s VCM organ engine mimics the analog topology of Yamaha’s classic organs for astonishingly accurate tone, vibe, behavior, and realistic rotary speaker sounds that will transport you to a blissful vintage dreamland with all the benefits of digital sound processing.

What Yamaha Says...

Designed for gigging keyboardists, the YC Series features a newly designed Virtual Circuitry Modeling (VCM) Organ engine with physical drawbars, extensive real-time control and authentic Acoustic/Electric Piano and FM synth sound. With three models to choose from, there’s a YC stage keyboard for every stage and every player.

Sound

When it comes to versatility, YC is a virtuoso. Featuring premium keyboard sound with more possibilities than ever. Choose from authentic Yamaha grand/upright pianos, electric pianos and keyboards to a tonewheel organ with rotary speaker, synths, acoustic sounds and more. Our proprietary VCM recreates the circuits of vintage analog EQs, compressors and phasers right down to the transistors and resistors to capture the subtleties other digital simulations can’t. It’s like having an incredible sounding keyboard with everything, to go.

VCM Organ

How do you reproduce the warm, authentic sound of an organ in a stage keyboard? You build an organ engine the Yamaha way, from the ground up. Yamaha puts your favorite classic organ sounds in one powerful, stage keyboard. YC models three organ vintages - just out of the box, well-traveled and character-rich vintage. Need more? Go under the hood to adjust key click, leakage, rotary speaker speed and more to get the one-of-a-kind organ tone you've been searching for.

VCM Rotary Speaker

YC brings you the authentic sounds of classic rotary speakers with no maintenance required. Choose from two faithfully modeled rotary speaker profiles - warm and full or dirty and aggressive - and adjust top or bottom rotor speed for total control.

VCM Effects

VCM re-creates the sound and behavior of vintage effects and high-end studio signal processors by modeling the circuits down to the original analog component level.

FM Organ 

In 1983, Yamaha introduced the iconic sounds of FM (Frequency Modulation) synthesis to the world with the launch of the synthesizer DX7. Now YC brings FM synthesis to the organ for a new generation of players. Simply switch to FM Organ and your drawbars control 8 FM Operators that send a pure sound with massive low end. Add rotary speaker or amp sim effects for character and vibe. Intuitive controls make it easy to discover new sounds. Or recreate classic transistor organ tones from warm to reedy to buzzy by choosing one of three popular FM Organ modes.

Touch

At Yamaha, we put everything we’ve learned over the last 100 years into everything you touch. Whether you prefer the natural feel of a graded acoustic piano, the balanced touch of an electric piano or a waterfall keyboard with authentic organ action, there’s a YC that’s right for you. It’s no wonder more players reach for Yamaha keyboards than any other.

YC61 Waterfall Keyboard

The authentic Waterfall keyboard action of the YC61 was created by painstaking research into traditional organ keyboards and constant feedback from top keyboard artists. The result is a keyboard that not only provides the distinctive touch of an organ, it gives artists new ways to express themselves on acoustic and electric pianos, synth leads, brass sections and more.

Design

YC Keyboards aren’t just designed to be played. They’re made to be bumped, jostled, scratched, crammed in a van, stuffed in an overhead bin and adored by players and fans, gig after gig. In short, they’re built to last, like the company that stands behind them.

Drawbars

The nine drawbars on the YC have the footages and ratcheting you expect in an organ. But there’s more to our drawbars than meets the eye. See-through drawbar stops with customizable LED light color make it easy to see differences between simulated upper and lower configurations and play in split mode. It’s like having a virtual set of drawbars to give you more sounds, more flexibility and more choices than you ever thought possible in a stage keyboard.

Direct, immediate and total sound control

YC is made for long jams, not long menus. The intuitive interface gives you fast and easy splits, layers and sound-shaping directly from the front panel. Proving that versatility doesn’t have to be complex.

Weight

YC61 comes in at an incredible 15 pounds, 10 oz. (7.1 kg). Which makes it compact and light enough for you to be your own roadie. But with a sound that players who can afford roadies will appreciate.

Softcase

Before you rock, roll. Every YC is available with a premium soft case (sold separately) featuring zippered compartments for storing pedals and other accessories.

Computer/iOS