Latest and newest from the portable grand range is the Yamaha DGX 660 which is designed with all the great features that you may be expecting from a Yamaha brand, whereas at the same time it offers something new that its preceding models may have lacked at. It is the updated version to the DGX650, known to be popular among beginner level players. Whether you want a piano for learning or practice, whether you love to play classical music or jazz piano, you will find this digital piano packed with everything that you may need to give your best performance. Modern functionality, improved and variety of sound and there is lot more that you can expect and we will explore it in coming sections of this review.
What’s New?
Portable Environment of your Own:
This beautiful piece of instrument can be a great choice as it gives you option to build an environment of your own with all the sound and feel features included making learning and playing more fun for all the pianists whether experts or learners. It gives you a whole range of sound settings that enables pianists to express his capabilities.
Microphone Input:
A highlighted feature of this piano is that it enables you to connect a microphone with which you can play and sing along. Your voice with the piano sound could be heard aloud with built-in speakers or you can listen it to yourself with the use of headphones. This is an amazing feature that not many keyboards have.
Style Effects:
As you sing and play over this piano, you will not only be hearing clean voice sound but it will add more of digital style effects to your singing. It would reflect as if you are singing with compressor, echo, reverb and other effects that makes your voice sound like a professional. Everything will be mixed to perfection so that your voice sounds just perfect.
192 Polyphony:
As opposed to 128 polyphony with DGX 650, Yamaha DGX 660 includes 192 polyphony sound samples that offers you opportunity to give a performance as versatile and dynamic as possible.
USB Stick:
The Yamaha DGX 660 also has a recording feature that records your singing performance that you can later retrieve or share with others. It includes a USB stick that makes it an interesting feature for songwriters. You can easily store your songs which you can later use and share through varied platforms such as emailing, uploading online and much more. It also enables you to listen to your performance back and thus you can analyze the performance to make improvements to it.
Wireless Connectivity:
This is the first time ever that a digital piano is offering wireless connectivity and you can use this instrument with your iOS device. The main interesting aspect is that Yamaha has made a number of apps for iOS devices. There are many impressive apps and among them one of the best ones is the Chord Tracker that gives you display of chords over your iOS device making it easier for playing along. There is many other apps that you can explore with the wireless connectivity.
Piano Room Function:
This new Yamaha piano includes a Piano Room Function that is based on some push buttons. By pressing some buttons next to this function, you get exposure to a wide range of realistic instruments and thus can increase your creativity. You can select different pianos and other types of music. You can even select the type of room for the piano so that you can create similar environment that you are looking for with your music. You can thus recreate varied pieces. You even get to adjust the lid of your virtual piano so that you can adjust sound that you find appropriate for your practice or performance with that piano.
Damper Resonance:
Another feature that is unlike its preceding model the Yamaha DGX 650 is that the damper resonance with this piano enables you to recreate the effect of sound with vibrating strings similar to an acoustic piano.
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Additional Features:
These are all the features that makes Yamaha DGX 660 different from its preceding model. However when you ought to buy this model, the great thing is that you will not have to make any compromises as there is nothing that Yamaha DGX 650 has and this DGX 660 doesn’t have. So let’s have a look at all the other great features that both of these instruments share:
- Impressive Sound Sampling: Similar to Yamaha DGX 650, this instrument also features impressive pure CF sound sampling. Yamaha is truly a leader in the industry and thus experiences, expertise and technology combines for their instruments, thus offering you the best of sound sampled in the form of various voices. It features sound showcased from well-known CFIIIS Concert Grand Piano.
- Authentic 88-note weighted GHS keyboard: It includes Yamaha’s Graded Hammer Standard 88 note keyboard that gives you feel and weighted touch that simulates acoustic piano offering a lighter feel at the higher end and vice versa. This piano thus forms a good basis for beginners who are learning fingering technique and later if you switch to a grand piano, transition would be much easier and simpler.
- “You Are the Artist” Collection: The most attractive feature of this piano for learners is that it offers a collection of popularHal Leonard piano songbooks and includes a series of recordings that you can play along with your instrument.
- Compact Design: Overall design of this instrument is compact but keys are spacious enough to make you play piano comfortably. This instrument can easily fit in your room or small studio where you practice on regular basis.
- Easy to Read and Display Score and Lyrics: This piano displays a clear crystal LCD that can display score or lyrics and user have the option to switch. Any song played over this piano and the display will show notations for the song. You may also download songs or can play your own creations and score will be displayed.
- Smart Chords: This piano features Smart Chord with the aid of which you can learn and play like a professional. You can switch the entire chord from classical to pop to jazz or any other style and can play music as per your preference or choice.
- Style Recommender: This feature even recommends a style that would be right for your song. What you need to do is just play some notes from your selected song rhythm and this feature would recommend some matching styles for pianist to choose from. This device comes with more than 150 styles and list is generated based on the tempo and rhythm you play.
- Split Feature: With the use of this feature, you can play two voices or songs together and they would be divided by a particular note. This split feature makes it a superb choice for beginners and learners.
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Pros
- Portability with compact design.
- Robust and high quality structure.
- Microphone input that enables you to sing and play.
- Piano room function that gives you variety of pianos and room effects to select from.
- 192 polyphony and style recommender gives improved playing experience.
- Realistic touch and feel keyboard keys.
- USB stick along with built-in 6 track recorder.
- Easy to read clear display.
Cons
- Many other pianos have triple pedal but this one also comes with single pedal.
- Similar to DGX650, notes holder is at a place that is not much comfortable for pianists to read from.
Conclusion:
Yamaha DGX 660 is definitely a good buy in terms of price, quality and all the additional features that you get in comparison to its preceding model. On the top of everything is the new addition of a microphone along with wireless connectivity that is not found with any other digital piano model. Not only that but sound, touch and feel quality surpasses other brands and thus makes this an impressive choice especially for beginners who are learning to play piano.
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