Nord User Forum

Yamaha YC73 review

I was disappointed with the stage 4 and probably wont buy one, But I was interested in trying a YC73. So I bought one. Here’s are my thoughts and the reason that I returned it.

I play gigs, lots of them. Uk and Europe. I have used Nords since 2007.
I’ve had most of them. I currently have a Stage 2 76 and an Electro 6D 73. And lots of other keyboards. I’ve had 3 x Stage 3’s and don’t like them.
I’ve been playing since the early seventies. Including some name bands.

So im gigging lately with my E6 and fancy spending some money. So I see a few decent youtube videos of the YC61 73 88 etc
Its being sold as a great live keyboard, with Ac piano’s, EP’s, Organs and some synths etc. It has pitch bend and mod lever.
Lots of Live Sets. And as it looks like Nord have abandonded the live set modes. I was interested in try one. I like a 73 so that’s what I got.

The keybed is really nice. They describe it as an similar to an EP keybed. I think its great and it was even nice for organ palm slides. I did upgrade to the latest OS with the better rotary. Its very good.
The Piano feels and sounds lovely.
I programmed up all of the sounds I would need to gig. I tweaked some nice sounds.

I wasn’t sure if it was actually cutting it, The live set mode was a bit rubbish. Its difficult to see, The screen is small, its not an Oled display. I think that in the heat of battle the display would be pretty useless. Theres so much in it that you can hardly read it
In live set edit mode there isn’t even a move command. It has a swap, but that’s not really as useful to me.
If I need to re arrange the set during sound check, just before a gig, My E6 has an organize mode which is great.

So I sat with both of my Nords plus the YC
A-B ing them with both of my Nords I found that the keybed of the YC73 felt similar to my stage 2 76, which has the nice fully weighted keys. And the lovely CFX piano in the YC sounded great, it actually sounded very close to the White grand of the Nords. The Rhodes didn’t sound even close, The Wurlitzer was rubbish. The organs were v good but I just don’t think they were right for me. It didn’t really have a Vox conti which is important for me. The other sounds, Strings Synth etc were all very nice, But I felt there was something missing, Something that I have in my Nords. It was things like not being able to use the sustain pedal to also control the rotary. I find it handy to just use one pedal. And the master reverb didn’t have anything you could adjust accept level, and anything above 1 was way to much. You cant even select which type of reverb, stage room etc.

The YC73 does have a couple of things that I would like on a Nord. The XLR out’s plus a pair of jack outs. And the Jack in’s would be very handy.
So I put it back in the box and sent it back. Nice, but for me, not a gig board.
Norm

Thanks for the review.
I have an YC61, along my NS3. The organs are far superior I might say. Nothing else. But the beauty is that I can expand the sound palette with just one cable to an old ipad mini... and it's extremely portable. Keybed is a shame... sh_t keybed for the price.

It's now my portable unit that can be a decent 4 zones controller too, yet allowing a dual keyboard operation. I bought it cheap, I keep it, but is not my main keyboard.

I own a Yamaha YC88, and a Nord Stage 4. I am not sure if you ever used the Sound Mondo app on a mobile device, but it allows you to move and edit any of your live sets very very easily. Also, for your reverb comment, you can easily adjust the insert effects to be any of the reverbs you want, as well as adjust their rate and amount. I find the Stage 3, and now Stage 4 compact editions a perfect partner to the YC88, which has a built in audio/midi interface, and allows me to play the awesome Nord pianos, with a far superior action on the Yamaha. If I had to get by with just an iPad and the YC88, I can set up B3X on the iPad along with PianoTeq and Tal-a-Uno LX and have all the sounds I could need, in a great easy to use and interface included package with the YC. The organ engine itself is superior in the Stage 3/4 but the Leslie sim is much better in the YC. I can get by with either, but the YC is definitely the more flexible of the two due to its built in interface and awesome action.

Interesting that my experience with pianos and electric pianos on my Nord Stage 2 and my YC73 is totally different: For me, the CFX sample on the YC73 is not on par with the gorgeous White Grand on the Nord, as well as the Nord uprights for my ears sound much better than the Yamaha upright sample. But i like two of the Rhodes samples from the YC73 much more than all the different Nord Rhodes samples.

Thanks guys for your comments. Its good that there are other views, than just mine, and that you enjoy your YC’s.
Regards Norm