What Makes the Yamaha MM6 A Great Keyboard?
Choosing a keyboard can be a very daunting task especially for those who are not up on the latest technologies. There are a plethora of choices available on the market these days. Many times I have gone into a music store to explore the keyboard offerings and have found it to be a frustrating experience because many of the keyboards are hard to figure out. I have found that even the reps in the store are not very familiar with the various keyboards models.
I was recently in the market for a new keyboard to play in church. I had various criteria in mind that I was looking for in a keyboard, which included:
• Low cost
• Quality and useful sounds
• Ease of use
• Layering Capability
• Built-in drum accompaniment patterns
• Split keyboard capability
• Light weight
• Customizable patches
• User created performance presets
• Sequencing capability
• USB computer interface
• Real-time controller knobs
• Easy key transpose
I wanted a keyboard that would be easy for me to use and that would be easy for any other keyboardist that may come in and need to use my keyboard. In the past, I have owned and used keyboards that had steep learning curves and required too much programming to accomplish certain live tasks. For example, with other keyboards I could not easily layer two different sounds together and split the keyboard to have a bass sound in the lower half of the keyboard. Many keyboards have this capability but many of them do not have a simple way of executing this on the fly.
When I went to the music store and presented my keyboard criteria to the sales rep, he showed me a couple of keyboards that were in the ballpark of what I was looking for but did not fully measure up. But when he showed me the Yamaha MM6, it had everything I was looking for and then some.
The MM6 is a great inexpensive keyboard with great sounds and extraordinary ease of use. The construction material and the key action may not be pleasing to some keyboardist especially those who love weighted action, but outside of that, in it’s price range, the MM6 offers outstanding value and exceptional features that outshines most competitive keyboards in it’s class.