So, as a keyboard player that once, long ago, started with an Alpha Juno 1 on top of a Fender Rhodes (those were the days) I've owned some gear throughout the years. Some good, some brilliant, some special and some....well, how should I put this....
The charm of an instrument is not only its sound. It is its accessibility, the way it makes you interact with it. As stated before, I've owned some gear and Yamaha had been in this lineup too. As I have gotten to know the brand, it always sounded very good - maybe a tad too polished - but its interfaces were always awful - to me at least. That is why I sold my Motif ES, MODX7: all had brilliant sounds, but interface-wise were a nightmare. Having to sit out countless hours through YouTube videos to perform the most basic functions was a big turn-off to me. Yes, they could do a lot and no: I didn't want to go through all the menu-diving, videos and tutorials. So these instruments, being able to produce any sound I could imagine, were collecting dust as I didn't relate to them.
Now on to the CK 88. Someone at Yamaha finally must have thought: let's create an instrument with a User Interface that is intuitive, easy to grasp and just nice to work with. Let's combine that with Yamaha's acclaimed sound library. And why, let's make it affordable and portable. And, as we are creating the thing, why not add a lot of effects of the acclaimed Yamaha-quality?
So there it is. I bought this instrument to create live sets, to have bread-and-butter sounds and splits at hand, as a bottom board for the Astrolab on top of it. Now the Astrolabe sounds brilliant, but its interface is, well...French. Having been fooling around with the CK, what strikes me the most is the User Interface that makes you want to interact with it. It invites you to play it. It is direct, comprehendible and fun. It does exactly what I want it to do. Setting up playlists for live gigs is just as easy as it should be. The way the on-board sounds interact with the keyed is great.
So Yamaha has done something very, very right here. Known to me as the brilliant sounding brand with extremely autistic interfaces, they have surprised me with a board that is portable, has decent keys, sounds very very good and is easy to understand and a joy to program. Very intuitive. Accessible effectes, logical lay-out, three parts, setting them up is as simple as possible. For me, it is a winner.
Are there better keybeds? Yes there are, and I've owned them. But they come at a price and a weight. As a compromise, this will absolutely do in live-settings. I've created three live sets of 13 songs in one session and it just baffles me how easy this process was. Are there better sounds? Undoubtably. But these too come at a price. Although it must be said, the Rhodes on this board is brilliant and sounds and feels a lot as the one I owned some 35 years ago.
The Astrolab will still be on top as its sound engine is much richer, but setting up and using the CK as a master keyboard for some songs - assigning key-zones to the Astrolab and others to he CK was just a breeze. And I wonder if anyone would notice the difference between the Arturia's sounds and Yamaha's in a live setting...
So, if you're a gigging musician looking for an do-it-all board, I strongly recommend the CK 88. Even if it were double the price I would have been very happy. But I am an old fart, and User Interfaces are important to me. Instruments are made to play them. Yamaha got it right this time.
Last thing: it has onboard speakers. Now they are just enough to practice, but they make the instrument vibrate as you play it - just like my old Rhodes that I miss so dearly used to. Another winner, as far as I am concerned. You feel what you play, even with in-ears.
