Shop Keyboard Deals, Financing, and More

Yamaha YC61 61-key Stage Keyboard

61-key Digital Organ and Stage Piano with Virtual Circuit Modeling, 9 Effects Processors, Waterfall-style Keys and USB Audio/Midi Interface
16 Write review Item ID: YC61
Limited-time Offer!
Free Thumb Drive with Custom Sound Banks, a $49.00 Value!
Purchase this item at Sweetwater, and receive a free Thumb Drive with Custom Sound Banks, a $49.00 value! Your free gear will be included with your shipment. Effective now through 12/31/25.
Details
$1,999.99

Earn $100 back in Bonus Bucks† OR pay $84/month with 24 month financing*

Or we have a demo model for just $1,799.99 ! Learn more

Free
Shipping
Tech Support

Free Sweetwater
Support

Free 2-year
Warranty
In Stock!

Only 7 left in stock! More on the way.
Add to Cart
Notify me about deals

Buy a bundle and save!

Product Photo

YC61 61-key Stage Keyboard Essentials Bundle

$2,169.88 $2,139.99
Product Photo

YC61 61-key Stage Keyboard with Soft Case

$2,329.98

Ask An Expert

Our expertly trained Sales Engineers are ready to help!

(800) 222-4700
What is a Sales Engineer?
Sweetwater Gear Exchange

Have one to sell?
Check out Sweetwater's Gear Exchange!
Learn More

Most Popular Accessories & Related Items

Yamaha YC61 61-key Stage Keyboard
In Stock!
$1,999.99
Add to Cart
Add to list
Back to navigation

Written By

Our Product Research Team

Get to know them!

Dynamite Drawbar Organ Sounds and So Much More

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 Sweetwater agree—the YC61 is a dynamite drawbar organ with enough features to be the top tier keyboard in your live and studio rigs.

Related Videos: YC61 61-key Stage Keyboard

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.

Yamaha YC61 Stage Keyboard Features:

  • 61-key drawbar organ and stage piano
  • Proprietary Virtual Circuit Modeling delivers authentic vintage organ character
  • Sculpt your sound with intuitive drawbar controls
  • Waterfall-style keys provide authentic organ playability
  • Two ultra-realistic rotary speaker models
  • Great selection of additional instrument voices, including acoustic and electric pianos, DX-style FM synth sounds, strings, and brass
  • Layer sounds with the Dual Keys section
  • Nine onboard effects processors, such as vibrato/chorus, reverb, delay, and drive
  • 2-channel USB audio/MIDI interface for DAW and computer audio integration
  • Dual 1/4” lines for connecting secondary keyboards, mobile devices, and more

Warranty Info

Sweetwater's FREE 2-Year Total Confidence Coverage Warranty

Extra peace of mind at no extra cost.

  • Save money with FREE parts and labor
  • Get back to making music with the industry's fastest turnaround time
  • Fix it the first time with our award-winning, factory-certified Service Department
Learn More about Total Confidence Coverage
2 Year Total Confidence Coverage
$249.00
FREE!

Free 2-year Warranty

Sweetwater's 2-year Total Confidence Coverage™ Warranty gives you extra peace of mind at no extra cost.

Learn More about Total Confidence Coverage
Tools Icon

Save money with free parts & labor!

Fast Icon

Get back to making music with the industry's fastest turnaround time.

Award Icon

Fix it the first time with our award-winning, factory-certified Service Department.

Back to navigation

Tech Specs

  • Type: Stage Organ Keyboard
  • Sound Engine: Virtual Circuitry Modeling, 8 Operator FM Synthesis, AWM2
  • Number of Keys: 61
  • Type of Keys: Semi-weighted Waterfall
  • Touch Sensitivity: Normal, Soft, Hard, Wide, Fixed
  • Other Controllers: Pitchbend Lever, Modulation Lever, 9 x Drawbars
  • Polyphony: 128 Notes
  • Presets: 80 x User Presets, 80 x Factory Presets ; 6 x Organ Voices, 139 x Keyboard Voices ; VCM/FM Organ, Grand Pianos, Electric Pianos
  • Effects: 9 x FX Processors: Rotary Speaker, Vibrato/Chorus, Delay, Guitar Amp, Reverb, Drive
  • Audio Inputs: 2 x 1/4" (L/mono,R)
  • Audio Outputs: 2 x 1/4" (L/mono,R)
  • Headphones: 1 x 1/4"
  • USB: 1 x Type B, 1 x Type A
  • MIDI I/O: In/Out/USB
  • Pedal Inputs: 1 x 1/4" (sustain), 1 x 1/4" (assignable), 2 x 1/4" (foot controller)
  • Pedal Included: No
  • Display: LCD
  • Power Supply: Standard IEC AC cable
  • Height: 4.25"
  • Width: 35.25"
  • Depth: 12.18"
  • Weight: 15.6 lbs.
  • Manufacturer Part Number: YC61

What Makes Our Sales Engineers Great?

Sweetwater Sales Engineers are a world-class team of experts dedicated to you. Hand selected from across the globe, each brings a wealth of experience and expertise in the world of music gear to provide you with unparalleled service completely free of charge. Friendly relationships, real trust, and the right gear are only a call or a click away!

(800) 222-4700
Contact Your Sales Engineer
Back to navigation

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5

Customer Added Media

This product doesn't have any review media yet!

Write your review

Excellent Gigging Keyboard

I got this summer 2023. I play with a band, local bars, mainly pianos, organ, a bit of electric piano.

Super easy to use, tweaking sounds to get them to gel with the band is simple and fast. All the parameters that I have used so far to dial in specific sounds to cover specific songs haven't required any menu diving.

Easy to recreate classic Hammond sounds - they sound great to me. The drawbars have a well-constructed/solid feel (in general the keyboard and all various switches/knobs/buttons feels solid and well made) - fun to change on the fly, the Lesley emulation sounds awesome. I'm not a Hammond aficionado, though. Perhaps you'll be unlucky and there will be a Hammond enthusiast in the audience when you're playing at the local bar with your band, grumbling to themselves that the organ sound doesn't have the "characteristic warmth and depth" and is completely ruining "Refugee". But probably not, my guess is they'll absolutely love it...

Layering sounds is straightforward. There are a couple nice pads to thicken up the key sounds, if you're playing open-mic this is kinda cool. Dedicated knobs for volume, tone, filter - and so very fast to get the right sound. There are some good presets, including an old-fashioned upright piano sound that is a good starting template to modify. The electric pianos are great. There's a decent variety of classic sounds here so you can get the right base sound and then tweak it, add effects if necessary. Likewise with the FM pianos. There isn't an *infinite* amount of variation here - but this is a gigging keyboard, not my Korg Kronos.

Lots of comparisons with the Nord keyboards out there... as far as I'm aware there is no way to download new sounds to the YC-61. In one specific review, the reviewer was sad that there was no bagpipe sound. But the cool thing is that the YC-61 has an integrated soundcard - and so I downloaded Spitfire Audio's free bagpipes to my laptop and with a single USB cable can play these via the keyboard - makes for a great "Copperhead Road". Very simple to set up, no separate audio interface needed.

The action is good. Light keys, good for organ playing. I read a review that stated "YC61 keys have to travel 7mm before they'll trigger an organ tone. No thanks" I don't know if this would be make-or-break for hard-core organists, but the travel has not been an issue for me. The action is a galaxy away from a weighted piano-action keyboard. Possibly this is something to do with striking a balance with the other key instruments - along these lines there is great response for expressive piano playing (and I love the CFX piano, it's beautiful - I use a bit of master EQ-ing to bring up the treble a bit with the band). I haven't messed with the velocity curves yet, this is something you can do.

I read a review that the 1/4 inch outputs are noisy. I do not have this problem. Silent. Through my Rokit monitors at home, or through the Behringer XR-18 mixer with the band.

Overall super happy with this keyboard. I love playing it.
by Robert Kennedy from MIDLAND, MI on
Music background: casual gigging local bars

Had it two years as of June 2023 and no problems.

Really have loved gigging with this small board. I bought the Yamaha soft case with it. So light and easy to move around. Been doing a Wednesday evening open jam in Toledo Ohio for several weeks. Everyone that has set in has liked it. I'm using a Roland KC400 amp. In the video I'm using the Nashville and CFX piano tones layered. The rig really has a nice cutting through the mix tone.
by Scott P Haas from Monclova, OH on
Music background: beginner

Everything needed in one keyboard

This keyboard is replacing my Nord Electro 2-73 and Nord Lead A1. At only 15 lbs. I can get everything I need to gig with one keyboard. The patches sound excellent and are plentiful. The keybed feels great although the keys are slightly narrower than the Nords (61 keys of the YC61 is the width of 60 keys on the Nords).
by Oliver Seal from Tennessee on

Excellent keyboard

I love it because of the sounds and easy to manage.
by Jose on

The elusive all-in-one stage piano that is loved by a Hammond purist!

For many gigging keyboardists, the struggle is real to find a keyboard that can satisfy the need to play piano and organ. I am a classically-trained pianist, used to sell grand pianos, and have played the B3 for 30+ years for blues and gospel, so am well aware of the nuances in keyboard actions. Wanting the best of everything led me on a journey for several months in researching every conceivable model. I searched for one keyboard that could do everything well, or a two keyboard setup (piano and organ-focused), that would work well for piano, organ, classic EPs, strings, and pads in blues, pop, rock, gospel, and CCM. Thankfully, my Sales Engineer, Matthew Langston, had the patience to fulfill my detailed requests to test the action for the models that I wasn't able to try in person. Having played in a band with Matthew for a couple years, I knew that I could trust his feedback, as he is a very skilled player. He also shared feedback from the manager of the keyboard department, which was was very insightful!

Not having roadies at my disposal, my preference was to find an all-in-one keyboard to cut down on weight and set-up time. IMHO, most of the stage keyboards on the market do pretty well at either the piano or organ end of the spectrum, but not in a way that's satisfying for natural and expressive playing on both ends. In other words, I found myself both pleased and highly-frustrated with most options. Since I knew that I wouldn't be happy with anything that wasn't a great Hammond clone, I decided to get the YC61 as an all-in-one, knowing that I could always add a 88-note weighted board for certain gigs. To my surprise, I found that I could play the piano sounds with far more dynamic range than I anticipated, so it has worked very well over the last few months meeting my diverse needs.

For my friends who are on the Hammond end of the spectrum, this may delight 100% of your desires. It's simple to do palm smears, chops, squabbles, and machine-gun effects, and it sounds terrific! Without having to menu dive, it's simple to tailor the sound with the desired tone and distortion, but you can also change the type of Hammond and Leslie with a knob. The Leslie sounds great, but if it's not quite perfect for you, you can adjust the ramp up and slow down of either speaker. I've often found myself saying, "This sounds better than my C3!" It can sound pristine or nasty- your choice! The LED drawbars are a huge advantage over other keyboards that utilize one set of drawbars. Via the settings, you can change how the drawbars function when changing patches, since this is when the sound doesn't match the physical position of the drawbars. The lights help eliminate any sound surprises and make transitions very smooth.

Who are the 2% of Hammond players that this might not satisfy? If you're in the league of Joey D, or consider most authentic Hammonds to be unplayable, then this may not be for you. Also, if y'all are caught up in the multi-contact debate and play a style where the absence of a multi-contact keybed would negatively affect your playing, then move along. For me, it does everything I want.

For you piano players, this is where you can pay attention. Obviously, there are limitations on a 5-octave board that doesn't have a great weighted action. For me, I realized that most of my time playing popular music with a band that I normally stayed very central in my range, typically using the upper end for solos, while intentionally staying away from the bass end. If you are primarily gigging as a solo artist in classical or jazz, I would look elsewhere for something that gives more feedback and control, plus allows you to reach the bass and treble extremes. For playing piano (or EPs) in a pop or rock band, this works extremely well. Most of the popular music doesn't require an exquisite action, nor can the audience hear the dynamic or tonal nuance in the band setting. With this kind of action in the YC61, you may find yourself needing to be a bit more aware while playing octaves so that you don't nudge the notes to the sides, but as an advantage you'll likely find that it's easier to play blazing fast solos.

The YC61 is a great practice instrument due to the USB audio interface. For those who don't have another mix or interface to play backing tracks or sound files, this is a great addition! I can now play YouTube videos or music tracks from apps on my iPhone and hear it on the same headphones that are plugged into the keyboard. Plus, I can even change the volume of the track independently from the keyboard volume! It's a great feature and I've found that it helps me be more prepared for band rehearsals.

PROs: fantastic sounds for all the keyboard staples, physical and LED drawbars, USB audio interface, downloadable OS updates, hands-on controls to shape the sounds while performing (without using menus), and Live Sets (beyond simply setting up patches in order for a gig, you can assign different settings like EQ, split points, amps, and octave).

CONs: Nord fans may not like not being able to download individual patch files, but this has only affected me once when a song required a bagpipe (the YC61 has a bagpipe sound, but it's not very convincing). As an alternative to downloading patches, Yamaha users can download Live Sets that are customized by Yamaha and other users. Due to the flexibility in shaping sounds, it can be argued that this is similar to downloading new sounds, but these are really just customized sounds and not entirely new waveforms. Other than that, some users are reporting a noisy action, but I can't discern it when playing at a normal volume.

MISC: Unless you need a hard case, get the Yamaha bag. It's perfect. It fits great and there is plenty of room for a music folder, cords, cables, and pedals.
by Steven Muralt from Apex, NC on
See also: Organs, Yamaha, Yamaha Electric Organs, Yamaha Digital Pianos
Close Close $2,000 Pick Your PRS Giveaway -- input your email address below to enter or click here to learn more.

See giveaway details & rules or check out our past winners!

Enter Now

Success!

Your email, has been entered to win this giveaway. Good Luck!