YAMAHA REFACE DX Professional Keyboard

Firstly, was surprised to get this - I assumed it was totally unavailable other than secondhand but no, this took a little while to arrive but it did. Well packaged in the company's box though no outer protection beyond that but it was in perfect condition. Doesn't come with much beyond the actual synth and the manual (and that doesn't come to much as it just tells a little about the functionality of each but as you can combine them in billions of ways to create all kinds of different sounds, probably would be hard to say in a manual - a youtube etc tutorial or two will help more than the manual, certainly did for me. The sound from the tiny speakers is fine, not too loud but not too quiet so I was happy with that, certainly don't want the neighbours banging on the wall as I make my latest composition. The keys are small but frankly, got used to that in a fraction of a second, didn't bother me at all. The different sounds, different knobs etc all add to a wonderful sound and the music can also be fed off elsewhere (which is something I perhaps explore later). I was thinking about getting one of those super beasts where all kinds of sounds and effects can be added but personally, the limitations (and experimentation) of this synth are fine and I love the themed '1970s / 80s' sound, so much so I may go for the other reface for the 60s sounds. Really pleased I bought this and it will be great to play at home as well as elsewhere

This is really nice & has the DX sounds I decided a large controller was better for my purposes as I have lots of soft synths If you want a great Portable version of A DX7 that’s easy to use though with the Yamaha name this represents great value

Brilliant sounds. The Reface is professional quality. The controls allow a vast amount of variations on the 5 organ voices. The H organ is beautiful, Church organ sounds all the way. The other voices are great too. Big sounds from a small keyboard and small cost. This is the sixth Yamaha instrument I have bought and like the others it doesn't disappoint.

Nice. Looks and sounds great

Prompt delivery and genuine product though the packing was not good and part torn.

Sturdy, well built. I didn't love the minikeys at first touch but they grew on me. Definitely a league above other minikeys. Something about the key action makes it easier to avoid mashing multiple keys than other minikeys I've played. The sounds are just incredible, my favourite is the wurli, though I found myself gravitating to the CP80 a lot which I was not expecting. Of the two Rhodes sounds I prefer the 1st one, which emulates an early 70's Rhodes though it's a bit gentle compared to the other instruments. You may need headphones or a speaker setup to appreciate soft notes on this setting. The other (late 70s style) Rhodes is much brighter and pluckier on the built in speakers which are surprisingly loud. The toy piano is an interesting quirk that I've yet to fully explore uses for. If you are creating ambient soundscapes (easy thanks to some amazing delay + reverb effects) it is useful but I'm not sure where to put it in a tune just yet. Pretty much every review and thread on this device has mentioned the hidden piano you get by turning it on while the instrument dial is between rd1 and rd2, or if they don't mention it the comments sure will. I must say this hidden piano's sound is not amazing and kinda cheesy despite what I've read about it. It feels like it really is just for internal testing at Yamaha and not an easter egg for us. I'm no piano expert by any stretch but I use the Pianissimo vst with my DAW and it sounds way better than this hidden piano. On the contrary I also use the Lounge Lizard vst for a Rhodes sounds and it's not a patch on the expressiveness of the Reface imo. People have been reporting that is lasts about 7 hours on the 6 AA batteries. I've had it plugged in most of the time but have also used battery power for couch sessions of about an hour multiple times and it's still going on the first batteries I put in there. I think that's pretty impressive considering how loud it is.

Attached this via a midi cable to my full-sized Yamaha Clavinola PFP-100 so that I could add the Rhodes/Fender electric piano and Wurlitzer electric piano sounds to my Clavinola. It has worked brilliantly. The Yamaha Reface CP contains very authentic reproductions of those 1960s/1970s electric piano sounds and with a simple midi connection you can add those sounds to your full-sized keyboard. I would highly recommend it.

An updated version of this would be nice, maybe needing fewer batteries and having longer runtimes, improved patch management/software etc. Money well spent nonetheless!

Having tried my hand at recording music through Ableton Live, I discovered and have enjoyed DAWless jamming. My current setup is this synth, along with it's brother Yamaha Reface DX, both controlled by a Novation Circuit Tracks. I enjoy the Circuit Tracks not only because of it's tones and workflow, but also because of it's portability. It has it's own battery which makes it nice for carrying to the various synths I own. As time passed, I began to use the Reface DX more and more since it can take batteries as well. I wished for one like it, then remembered seeing this Reface CS. I got lucky and found this here on Amazon. I am no expert at electronic synthesis, but I've been at it for over 10 years so I have some experience. I find this synth to be the most approachable one I've used to date. While this means this synth isn't the powerhouse that others are in this price range, this synth is still capable of a wide variety of tones and sounds great! One nuance that plays strongly to this is it is easy to dial in some historic tones. For example, choose a sawtooth for this synth's oscillator, max out the Texture and Mod slides, open up the filter and dial in some Resonance, and presto! You've got the classic "Supersaw" tone from rock songs in the 80's! Now, since this is a Reface synth, it has the same features as the others: Tiny onboard speakers that are better than nothing, but fail abysmally to showcase these devices' awesome tones, mini 37 keys that I'm sure some would gripe about the feel (I'm fine with them...When I use them), and the odd mini SV port that splits into DIN MIDI in and out via an included dongle. While I run both Reface synths on battery power, I very much appreciate the fact that Yamaha also includes a DC power supply as well. Between this and my other pieces of gear, I have oodles of tonal flexibility. Since this synth can be hard set to be monophonic or polyphonic, even playing it unsequenced is easy. I also gratefully note that just like the Reface DX, this CS behaves perfectly fine being sequenced by the Circuit Tracks. I've been having a blast playing this with the Reface DX and Circuit Tracks and I can't help but wonder how my synthesis journey would have turned out had I started with this CS instead of a MicroKorg and Novation MiniNova. Those are excellent synths but have a steep learning curve if you're new to electronic synthesis. I take pride in the fact that I stuck with them until I figured out how to use them, but I wonder how different it would have been had I started with this CS, given how much more approachable it is. I have one major gripe with this synth though: Programming it is a pain!! I needed it to send and receive MIDI commands on channel 4. Since the Reface DX has a screen, programming that to channel 3 was easy. A quick internet search found detailed instructions for programming this CS via SysEdit commands by connecting it to a PC. I didn't want to bother with that, and kept looking. Thankfully, a gentleman on YouTube has a short, concise video on how to program the CS with regard to MIDI channels. It took me a couple of tries but I finally got this synth dialed in to send/receive MIDI on channel 4, and it's worked fine ever since. But, this is the most un-user friendly side of this synth. Finally, I haven't had this synth for very long, but I've had my Reface DX for a few years and even despite some rough handling and drops, it works perfectly fine, so I expect the same from this one!

Top Produkt in Yamaha Qualität. Toller Sound und tolles Interface. Dank hochwertigem Display und Touchscreen sehr intuitiv zu bedienen. Ja es ist ein DX-7 und er hat Style. Habe auch einen Volca FM-2, ebenfalls super aber der Yamaha ist edler auch wenn manche Presets albern sind.

Ce petit clavier est immédiatement plaisant. Look vintage, pas d'écran / menu / etc.... un truc qui ne demande qu'à être branché ou mis sur piles et hop. Les sonorités d'orgues sont top, on se fait plaisir immédiatement. Idéal pour faire une jam avec un gratteux sans ramener un clavier, son stand, son ampli et j'en passe. Super intuitif. Le clavier est très jouable. Seuls inconvénients, les haut parleurs intégrés souffrent un peu sur certain sons d'orgues dans les notes basses. Par ailleurs, l'option mini-din pour le midi avec son adaptateur fourni ne me semble pas génial à la longue, je ne l'utiliserai pas parce qu'à mon avis c'est supra fragile. Bon, j'ai commandé son frère le Reface CS et je pense me prendre aussi le CP, je trouve le concept de ces claviers tout à fait génial, se concentrer sur la portabilité et la jouabilité pour des claviers spécialisés sur quelques sons, c'est précisément ce qu'un ordi ne fera pas. Merci Yamaha.

è arrivato velocemente, in ottime condizioni e fa tutto ciò che promette. Un ottimo strumento

Believe it or not, there are not many good synth around in this price range. And if you consider FM there are even less. Well, we all know that Yamaha knows a couple of things about FM synthesis, being the one that changed music forever with the DX7, back in the 80's. This little masterpiece here is the natural heir of the king and, in some ways, it's even better! Yes, you have "only" 4 operators instead of 6, but the range of sound you can make is basically endless, and the sound quality is AMAZING. Unlike the DX7, make a patch here is waaaaay easier and a lot of fun, is actually the best synth there is to learn FM, no doubts. On top of this you have a very nice selection of effects and you can use two of them at the same time. And there's also a super fun midi looper and an aux in, so it's very easy to connect something like a drummachine to the Reface DX and start jamming with the looper. You can also sync everything by midi and you don't need a mixer! The build quality of the Reface line is well known, one of the best around, especially the mini keys, I never used a minikeyboard so nice and precise like this one. Can you get anything better for this price? Absolutely not, if you want a great synth and you like FM, buy it immediately!