The Yamaha DGX-660 Digital Piano builds up on a standard piano and provides you additional features like a 6-track recorder, on-screen score display, wireless audio streaming, and more.
Yamaha DGX-660: PROS & CONS
- Pros: Piano Like Keys (Graded Hammer Standard), full featured, Good Sounds & Styles, Lots of features, Pricing
- Cons: Slightly heavy. Overall volume is a bit softer. If you just want only the piano sounds then the extra features will not be useful to you
Who Is It For?
- You can use this keyboard to provide Accompaniment
- For learn piano and for practicing
- Use it as a MIDI keyboard to create your own Music
If you want a digital piano with a great feel and also want it to have all the fancy styles and voices, then the Yamaha DGX660 is a suitable product for you.
Yamaha DGX660 Digital Piano Review
The DGX-660 (replaces the DGX650B) is Yamaha’s newest ensemble digital piano (with accompaniments) that include several learning, playing and sharing music features. It features Graded Hammer Standard action, piano samples from Yamaha’s top of the line concert pianos, and lot more. Its definitely one of the better mid-range electric pianos. It may not suit those who are not very keen on having bells and whistles on a piano. But for those who want everything on their digital piano, the Yamaha DGX-660 is a great 88-key keyboard with a wide selection of piano voices & features.
This is a study piano and feels tough, the keys are really good and piano-like. There are several features, so if you’re already familiar with keyboards, you should be able to enjoy those features. The DGX 660 is a suitable instrument, especially for learning to play the piano, or if you want to enjoy the several voices and styles, or just for playability.
Yamaha DGX660 Digital Piano Demo
Buy Yamaha DGX660 Digital Piano here…
Watch: Yamaha Chord Tracker App Features
Watch: Yamaha DGX-660 Digital Piano – Play. Sing. Share. Repeat.
Yamaha DGX660 88-Key Digital Piano: Features
Weighted Keys
The keyboard here is a graded one where, just as on a real one, the keys are heavier on the lower octaves and much lighter on the higher keys; perfect for playing the piano. Yamaha calls it their Graded Hammer Standard or GHS action, which is among the best they have. It looks sturdy but not as beautiful as a piano though; the “wood” portions are made up of synthetic material.
Damper Resonance DSP
This feature mimics the interaction between strings on acoustic pianos. When the damper pedal is used in a performance, the harmonics of other strings wash over the notes you play, until the pedal is released.
Connect a 3-Foot Pedal Unit
You also have the option of connecting a three-foot-pedal unit to your keyboard, in case you want to have the same range of expressive effects as on a real acoustic piano.
Several Voices, Styles & Effects
In terms of voices, it’s not just the pianos and electric pianos that you get, you also get some cool organ sounds, strings, brass and lot more, including several Live! Cool! and Sweet! Voices. The best part is that you can make these even more appealing using the several effects; you have a collection of DSP effects, ambiance effects, distortion that you can apply to the various voices.
Sing Along Songs
Aspiring pianists can play along to the professionally-arranged recordings of songs by famous artists like Coldplay, Elton John, Adele and more. You can download your favorite collections from ‘You Are the Artist Series’ library at YamahaMusicSoft.com/xg.
Record Your Performance
This is another cool feature of this keyboard. You can easily record your performances using the USB Audio Recorder to create CD-quality audio files on any USB device.
Built-in Learning Features
If you’re learning to play the piano, you can make use of the Yamaha Education Suite (Y.E.S.) that can further supplement your learning. Even the screen can display the music notations when you play back a song. If the song contains both lyrics and chords, both will be shown. Experienced players however, are less likely to use these features.
Features
Here are the main features of the Yamaha DGX660 Digital Piano:
- Wireless audio & MIDI uses Wi-Fi to stream audio and MIDI to/from your iOS device to the Yamaha DGX-660
- Uses top quality piano samples from Yamaha’s famous CFIIIS concert grand piano, at this price point its really a great thing.
- The Piano Room lets you choose from a variety of pianos and acoustic settings to create your own personal piano environment. You can even adjust the position of the grand piano lid!
- The assignable pedal allows you to connect a foot switch/pedal and configure it to control various functions of the piano (such as mic on/off, Style start/stop or tap tempo.)
- GHS weighted action is heavier in the low end and lighter in the high end, just like an acoustic piano.
- Score Display feature shows music notation of MIDI songs onto the screen of the piano, helping you play your favorite songs by sight-reading.
- 1/4″ microphone input allows you to connect a microphone…you can sing along while you play, hear your voice through the instrument’s speakers.
- USB audio recording and playback captures performances on a USB drive
- AUX line input: You can hear the sound from other devices like computers, mixers or even another keyboard through the internal speakers on this keyboard.
- 128-note polyphony: Perform without worrying about notes dropping off.
- 88-note, weighted Graded Hammer Standard (GHS) action for authentic piano like touch
- Dual/Layers: Yes, Split: Yes
- Built-in Yamaha Education Suite (YES)
- Comes with Recording Function
- Excellent voices that can be further enhanced using the DSP effects (Has Pitch Bend as well)
- You also get the USB TO DEVICE jack: connect optional USB storage devices, Optional USB Flash Memory (via USB To Device)
- Professionally-arranged, play-along songs (by artists like Elton John, Taylor Swift, Adele and more), matched with song books from Hal Leonard. The Artist series software pairs best-selling books from Hal Leonard with XG song files to play along with.
- Get the most out of your Backlit LCD: It displays lyrics, chords & notation
- 6-track song recorder allows you to record performances and song ideas, then add additional layers to spice-up your pieces.
- Dimensions: 58.9 x 21.5 x 12.8 inches ; 83.6 pounds
- The Yamaha DGX-660 Digital Piano bundle (subject to availability) includes the sturdy Yamaha BB1 Padded Bench and the Yamaha LP7A Keyboard Foot Pedal Unit for better control over your playing.
Competition Check
If you are only keen on the piano sounds and do not want to have the other features such as styles and effects, then you should have a look at the models in the P series as well (comes minus all the bells & whistles). Just for learning the piano, you probably don’t need these many features.
If you want only piano sounds, you can consider something compact like the Yamaha P-255, which also has great piano keys.
If you’re fine owning a Casio, you can even checkout the Casio px-360 Privia piano, which also offers good value for your money.
Overall Rating
Overall a lightweight piano that sounds great, and retains the feel of real piano keys. The Yamaha DGX-640 is suitable for beginner students and for piano teachers to be used as a practice piano, or for performing musicians at churches and even studios, who prefer using preset sounds. Its a high performing digital piano with rich sounds and realistic touch, several features that can compete with many of the more advanced and expensive models.
The more you use it, the more you’ll start liking it. You could even gift this piano keyboard with weighted keys to someone dear, who has been taking lessons for some time now. This is a high-end piano with lots of features and the lucky person who gets this piano as a gift is definitely going to love this for quite some time.
Yamaha DGX-660: Buying Links & Prices
- Buy Yamaha DGX-660 Piano on zZounds
- [easyazon_link identifier=”B01CFOAIJG” locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″]Buy Yamaha DGX-660 on Amazon[/easyazon_link]
The DGX-660 is a superb piano with several modern features. Have any views on the Yamaha DGX-660? Please share it below.
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
If you like having a large collection of voices and styles, HATE the soft touch found on organs, most synthesizers, and the other models in Yamaha’s current series of Portable Grand keyboards, and if don’t mind shelling out a few hundred more dollars to get the acoustic piano feel of Graded Hammer Action, then try out the DGX-660.
These instruments have essentially the same voice, sytle and control setup found on most Yamaha arranger keyboards in the YPG or DGX Portable Grand keyboards. The DGX-660 weighs at least 20 or more pounds lesser than most weighted-key instruments.
This one has a heaver key action, a premium 3-pedal unit, another layer of distortion guitar settings and a type of ROTARY ORGAN setting. Voice and Style settings are very simple using the CATEGORY SEARCH buttons or by typing the Voice and Style numbers directly into the number pad. Much easier and more reliable than using the data wheel.
On all the Portable Grand series, using the LESSON MODES and SONG DATABASE will help beginners and will give refresher help for more seasoned players. If you learn to play on the DGX-660, you can play ANY piano of any size, make and model, including concert grands!
My biggest complaints with these keyboards and most other newer Yamaha models is that their style-playing setups no longer recognize 2nd and 3rd inversions of chords the way the other PSR 61-key instruments used to. Also, Yamaha now uses a FUNCTION button that creates a time-consuming way of setting volume and effects on the MAIN, DUAL, SPLIT VOICE and SYTLES instead of the dedicated buttons for these settings found in the pie arrangement on the earlier PSR models.
If you need to make such adjustments, take time at home to do this; you’ll embarrass yourself if you try to do it during a gig!
Even with these shortcomings, this instrument is well worth the money if you want a feature-packed insturment with true piano feel that won’t totally break the bank.
Nice digital piano…
We purchased this piano for my son to serve as a home practice piano. The keys are nicely weighted, there are lots of sound effects, with which he loves to experiment. Easy set up and good sound. The added bonus is that its not terribly bulky.
I was really excited about the 6 track recorder, but I am not happy that I’m not able to record my voice over itself on the different tracks. You can record audio with the piano, but your can’t add the recording to one of the tracks and then sing over it again. This was a disappointment, as I need my computer to that part,if this piano had this function then I wouldn’t need to use my laptop.