Yamaha MM6 Keyboard review and help page

The Yamaha MM6 keyboard has a wide variety of dynamic, realistic and just plain powerful Voices to help you create amazing music. The MM6 also gives you total control over your sound, with real-time tweakable knobs. and features special Patterns that provide full backing—drums, bass and chords—for your live performance and song creation.

Why I chose the Yamaha MM6 keyboard: Basically my main performance keyboard broke down and I needed a quick replacement on a limited budget. I needed decent basic keyboard sounds ( piano, organ, strings, and various solo sounds) for upcoming gigs. Based on some limited research I did on line I decided to take a chance knowing that the MM6 would fit my basic needs at an affordable price.

I Ordered from Musicians Friend online and took advantage of a package deal that consisted of the Keyboard, a decent double X stand, a piece of crap set of headphones which fell apart coming out of the package and a copy of cubase, a computer based sequencing program I have yet to use. (I will review it later)

I also ordered the Yamaha FC5 sustain pedal that for some reason has a reversed polarity and sustains in the up position. A real pain in the you know what! Can't understand why Yamaha would build a sustain pedal that is not right for their keyboards.

Having said all that the bottom line on the purchase was only 525.00 and change which I feel was a good value even with the bad pedal and crappy headphones.

I liked the weight of the keyboard, only 11 pounds. The keyboard I was using was over 40 lbs. Still better than when I carried a Hammond B3, Fender Rhodes Piano and several early mono synthesizers. Yes I am that old!!

The Sounds.

Over all the Yamaha MM6 keyboard had all the basic sounds I was looking for for performance. The power grand piano is excellent and there are of a bunch of other funky electric piano sounds that are quite good. Found some usable strings, brass and organ sounds that are great as well.

On the down side, for every gem sound on the keyboard you have to wade through dozens of sub par General Midi sounds which for my money could have been left out. Just give the 100 or so good sounds and leave the rest off the menu.

For instance there is a great "Sweet Tenor Sax" sound that made the band smile the first time I used it for a solo on a gig. Problem was I had to wade find it among about a dozen lame GM saxes and looking for it during a live performance took a little too long.

The Sequencer: What makes a keyboard a workstation is its ability to record fully orchestrated songs and play them back.

In my opinion the keyboards sequencer just barely lifts the instrument into the workstation category.

All the sequencer controls are seen in the photo above and are easily accessed.

There are 8 recordable tracks and one extra track for recording chords and patterns. For doing basic real time recording it is fairly easy to use but the sequencer is extremely limited n its editing capabilities. No step recording, cut and paste, fixing small errors, etc.

Perhaps that is why they included the copy of Cubase AE5 along with the keyboard. (screen shot above). I have not fully explored the program but it looks like it more than makes up for the keyboards sequencer limitations.

from Yamaha MM6 Keyboard to Keyboard Workstations.

from Yamaha MM6 to Piano Lessons For Life Home page