So much more than a digital piano

If you're like me, the most important features in a portable piano are playing feel and sound quality. Yamaha's DGX-660 checks those boxes easily with its progressively weighted hammer action and its 9' concert grand piano sample. Full-size keys with matte finish on the black ones make this keyboard look and feel like a real grand piano. I love the solid feel of the matte finish that says “this is not a toy” to me. Another great piano emulation feature is Damper Resonance: a digital reconstruction of an acoustic instrument's sympathetic string vibration. Engage the sustain pedal and hear the colorful resonance of other pitches‘ strings until you let go of the pedal.

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So much more than a digital piano

But these are just points of departure for the DGX-660, an almost-unbelievably feature-rich “arranger” keyboard instrument.

Genuinely expressive and fun to play

The GHS action maps heavy-to-light key response from left-to right across the keyboard, while the Pure CF Sound Engine gives you a complex and detailed piano waveform. When these two elements interact under your fingers, your touch will determine brightness, warmth, tenderness, aggressiveness, etc. Just like a real piano. And 192 notes of polyphony ensure that you can play as densely as you like, with as much legato and sustain as possible – even with layered voices and backing rhythms – and never have to worry about the sound breaking up.

Customize your piano sound

The Piano Room feature gives you a selection of piano voices that work well with different styles of music and let you adjust the lid position and change the touch sensitivity of the keyboard. You can choose the location of the piano to simulate the ambience of different acoustic environments.

Lots of other sounds and grooves

In addition to its core acoustic piano sounds, this versatile keyboard offers more than 550 other beautifully sampled instruments. You can set these instruments against built-in ensemble accompaniment; choose one of over 200 styles, and a virtual band will follow what you're playing. Don't know which style to choose? Play a rhythmic phrase and the Style Recommender feature will begin playing a backing track in an appropriate manner. Even if you're a stone cold professional, you'll find a new guilty pleasure in playing along with these amazingly sensitive and lifelike backgrounds. And the high-end “one man band” features don't end there.

Onboard vocal PA

Plug a decent vocal mic into the 660's 1/4" jack on the back panel, and and hear your voice ring clear and true through the built-in amplification. You'll find a real gain knob right there next to the jack -- no hunting through software menus for this all-important control. And on the main control panel, there's a microphone setting button that gives you access to various mic input presets; you can choose a standard reverb setting, a bright setting, a boost preset, and a user programmable preset. You can also add compression, equalization, noise gates, and other digital signal processing effects for fine-tuned vocal effects.

Built-in recorder

By now, it should be easy to see that this is a great songwriting toolbox. You've got sweet keyboard patches, killer rhythm section grooves, and fully-equipped vocal input chain. What's needed is super-simple record function that'll give you “aural sketchpad” capability. Capturing your ideas in a fleshed-out way is a snap with the DGX-660. Just go into Piano Room, select a piano sound, press the record button under the display window, and start playing and singing. A stereo waveform is then sent to a USB thumb drive you've plugged in. This has got to be the most convenient technology for capturing an idea that I've ever seen.

The keyboard also features Yamaha's standard six-track recorder for conventional multi-track recording. The score display is a wonderful feature that allows you to see your recording transcribed into standard notation.

Score and lyric display

The onboard LCD display features good contrast and backlighting so you can easily read notation or lyrics from MIDI files -- either from built-in songs or from your own DGX-660 recordings. Or download songs to a USB device from Yamaha MusicSoft (free app available from Yamaha) and plug it in for readout.

Learning features

Beginning and intermediate pianists can jump start their understanding of modern harmony with Smart Chord by generating full chords, including jazz extensions from a single note. So, you can, say, press a bass note with your left hand, and the instrument will build the rest of the chord. Then use one of the accompaniment styles to fill out the rest of your virtual band. This is a great way to teach your ear how chords and rhythmic accompaniment work, so that you can eventually ditch the virtual help and get your own bad self on. Or not, Lazy Bones.

Want to play along with music stored on your portable music player? Just plug it in to the AUX IN jack on the back panel and hear the music, crystal-clear, through the onboard amplification.

Connectivity

Onboard USB-to-device port allows you to connect a thumb drive for recording and playback. Or connect to your computer's digital audio workstation software via the DGX-660's USB-to-host port.

Optional wireless connectivity

Insert the optional UD-WL01 wireless LAN adapter into the top-panel USB port and receive audio signal wirelessly from your iOS device of choice. It'll do so through your Wi-Fi network or via the i-device itself if you don't have a router. So, fire up your favorite jam from your iTunes library and have the music play through the built-in speaker system while you play along.

An optional wireless MIDI adapter (UD-BT01) is also available for Bluetooth connection with your iOS device or Macintosh computer.

Killer app compatibility

Perhaps the coolest capabilities of this crazy keyboard beast are the ones accessible via free apps from Yamaha that talk to the DGX-660 via the WL01 wireless adapter.

As I mentioned above, you can access tons of songs for playback and notational readout on the DGX-660 via Yamaha MusicSoft. You can generate animations and psychedelic effects from Visual Performer, employ a Digital Audio Workstation for your i-device for sophisticated multi-track recording and mixing (My Music Recorder), or download several other helpful pieces of software at the Yamaha website.

But here's the real mindblower app: Chord Tracker. Chord Tracker will take a song from your iTunes library, harmonically analyze it, and display it in a very readable chord chart. You can read it directly off your, say, iPad and/or read it off the piano's LCD screen. It's essentially taking audio and converting it to data that you can push to the 660. You can then take that data and play it in any key or any style. So, yeah, in a few seconds, you can create a transposed, slowed-down, Latin version of Enter Sandman in the key of B-flat and croon it at the hotel bar.

Stand included

An ultra-solid, elegant stand and music rest -- suitable for stage or living room -- are included. You can add the optional LP-7A pedal assembly as a cross-piece connecting the legs across the floor. This gives you the three pedals found on grand pianos: sustain, sostenuto, and soft control. And as with a real piano, you can achieve a “half damper” effect when using the sustain pedal. If you add this pedal assembly, you'll free up the sustain pedal jack on the back of the unit, allowing you to use other typed of pedals or switches with the DGC-660.

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Product highlights:

88-key digital piano with a suite of powerful features and matching stand
superb playability from the graded hammer action (heavy-to-light response across the keyboard's range)
rich and complex grand piano sounds driven by a meticulously sampled 9" concert grand
192-voice polyphony handles full-on pianistic playing with sustain, including use with layers, splits, accompaniments, and drum patterns
554 preset sounds, 205 accompaniment styles
built-in stereo amplification
choose piano sounds and ambiences with Piano Room feature
includes foot switch, AC adapter, and music rest

Performance and recording features:

sing along with the mic input, shape your vocal sound, and record your performance
plug in a thumb drive to the USB port for super-convenient recording and playback
use the USB-to-host connection to interface with your computer's DAW
Smart Chord feature generates chords and accompaniments from one note
capture your song ideas with the onboard 6-track recorder
read score notation from MIDI song files on the LCD screen

Expandability:

wireless audio and MIDI streaming between DGX-660 and iOS device, when running Yamaha's compatible apps (requires optional adapter, not included)
works with free, downloadable apps from Yamaha that offer sheet music and midi files, music-generated visual effects, expanded recording capability, chord transcriptions, and more

Specs:

storage: approximately 1.7 MB internal memory; external USB flash memory
connections: DC in, headphone output, sustain pedal, pedal unit, microphone in, AUX IN, USB to device, USB to host
dimensions: 55"W x 17-1/2"D x 5-3/4"H
dimensions with stand: 55-1/16"W x 17-1/4"D x 29-15/16"H
weight: 46 lbs. 5 oz
weight with stand: 61 lbs. 12 oz.
warranty: 3 years
MFR # DGX660B

What's in the box:

Yamaha DGX-660B owner's manual

Digital piano
AC power adapter
Keyboard stand
Footswitch
Music rest
4 Metal brackets
4 Joint-connectors
Twelve M3 x 8mm screws
4 M6 x 70mm screws
Four M6 x30mm screws
Four M5 x 16mm screws
Data List
Owner's Manual
Warranty Information
Product Registration

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Product Research

Piano Features
Compatible Apps
Included Accessories
Specifications

Piano Features

Contemporary Digital Piano: The Yamaha DGX-660 contemporary 88-key digital piano gives aspiring pianists a fun way to enhance their learning experience. Players of all abilities can feel what it's like to play with a band and sound like a pro. The DGX-660 features an authentically expressive piano Voice meticulously sampled from a concert grand piano-perfect for playing not only classical compositions but also piano pieces in any style. The built-in USB Audio Recorder captures your musical inspirations when you're ready to share your accomplishments.

Graded Hammer Standard: The Yamaha Graded Hammer Standard (GHS) keyboard features a weighted action with heavier touch in the low end and lighter touch in the high end, just like the hammers inside an acoustic piano. Great for the aspiring pianist, practicing on the GHS action builds the proper finger technique and strength for when the time comes to perform on an acoustic piano.

Pure CF Sound Engine: The Pure CF Sound Engine is the result of years of piano-making history combined with state-of-the-art sampling technology and piano expertise. Yamaha is the industry leader in digital piano technology, and you can hear this in the Voices that utilize the Pure CF piano sample. The sound of the renowned Yamaha CFIIIS 9' concert grand piano is faithfully reproduced, allowing for incredible dynamics and expressiveness, making the DGX-660 worthy of the Yamaha name.

"Piano Room" Sound: The Piano Room function is for those who want to simply, conveniently, and fully enjoy playing the instrument as a piano. No matter what settings you've made from the panel, you can instantly call up the optimum settings for piano performance with a single button press. Piano Room lets you select the desired piano type as well as different room ambiences, giving you a complete, realistic piano experience - as if you were playing a real piano.

Environment: Choose from Concert Hall, Recital, Stage, Room, or Off.
Piano Type: Grand, Pop, Warm, or Honky Tonk
Lid Position: Determines how much the Lid is opened (cannot be changed in Honky Tonk mode).

Live!, Cool! and Sweet! Voices: In addition to the wonderfully realistic piano sounds, you can select and play other musical instrument Voices, such as organ, guitar, bass, strings, sax, trumpet, drums and percussion, and even sound effects. These Voices on the DGX-660 feature a unique blend of long, stereo and multi-layered samples that capture the essence of each instrument, right down to genuine resonance, expression and vibrato. By dividing the keyboard into two separate areas, you can even play one Voice with your right hand and a different Voice with your left.

Playing Styles: The digital piano features a variety of accompaniment and rhythmic backing patterns (called "Styles") in a variety of different musical genres including pop, jazz, and many others (205 total Styles). Each Style features Auto Accompaniment, letting you produce automatic accompaniment playback simply by playing "chords" with your left hand. This lets you automatically recreate the sound of a full band or orchestra, even if you're playing by yourself.

Style Recommender: Style Recommender helps you find Styles quickly and easily when you know how the music should feel, but don't know which Style is right for the part. Simply play a few notes in the rhythm of the song you want to perform, and Style Recommender will offer a list of matching Styles to choose from.
Smart Chord: Smart Chord makes you sound like a professional pianist, even if you're just learning how to play. With a single finger on your left hand, Smart Chord will create entire chords, from simple pop triads to complex jazz 7th and 9th chords. Accompaniment Styles create the rest of your virtual band so you can get straight to playing music.

USB Audio Playback With Song Lessons: You can playback uncompressed WAV music files stored on a USB flash drive. During music playback of a USB flash drive, you can use a selected song for a left-hand, right-hand, or both-hands lesson. Try practicing with these three song lesson types. If you want to practice a specific section in which you made a mistake or you have difficulty with use the Repeat & Learn function.

Lesson 1 - Waiting: In this lesson, try playing the correct notes shown on the display. The song pauses until you play the right note.
Lesson 2 - Your Tempo: In this Lesson, try playing the correct notes shown on the display with the correct timing. The Song playback tempo will change to match the speed at which you are playing at.
Lesson 3 - Minus One: The song will play at the normal tempo, minus the part you have chosen to play. Play along while listening to the song.

MIDI & USB Recording: The Yamaha digital piano allows you to record your performance via MIDI or USB.

MIDI Song Recording: With this method, recorded performances are saved to the digital piano as a User Song, in SMF (format 0) MIDI file. If you want to re-record a specific section or edit parameters such as Voice, use this method. Also if you want to record your performance to each track one by one, execute "Recording to a Specified Track" of the Song recording method. Since a User Song can be converted to an Audio file after recording, you may want to use Song recording (with individual track recording) to first create a complex arrangement you would not otherwise be able to play live, then convert it to an Audio file. Up to approximately 30,000 notes can be recorded for one User Song.
USB Audio Recording: With this method, recorded performances are saved to a USB flash drive as an Audio file. Recording is done without designating the recorded part. Since it is saved in stereo WAV format of normal CD quality resolution (44.1kHz/16-bit) by default, it can be transmitted to and played on portable music players by using a computer. This instrument allows you to record up to 80 minutes per single recording.

Effects: The Yamaha DGX-660 digital piano offers a variety of Effects (from Reverb, Chorus, Pitch, to EQ) that can add uniqueness to your performance and recordings.

Reverb & Chorus Types: The Reverb effect lets you play with a rich concert hall type ambience. Although selecting a Style or Song will call up the optimum Reverb type for the entire sound, you can select a different Reverb type manually (41 types available). The Chorus effect creates a thick sound that is similar to many of the same Voices being played in unison. Although selecting a Style or Song will call up the optimum Chorus type for the entire sound, you can select a different Chorus type manually (44 types available).
DSP: DSP effects (total of 237) range from reverb-like ambience effects to distortion and other dynamic processing tools that let you enhance the sound, or completely transform it.
Harmony: You can add harmony notes to the Main Voice. Choose from 26 types.
Pitch Controls: The overall tuning of the instrument can be shifted up or down between 415.3 Hz and 466.2 Hz in approximately 0.2Hz or 0.3Hz increments. The default value is 440.0 Hz. The Pitch Bend wheel can be used to add smooth pitch variations to notes you play on the keyboard. Roll the wheel upward to raise the pitch, or downward to lower the pitch.
EQ Settings: Five different master equalizer (EQ) settings are provided to give you the best possible sound. Master Equalizer is EQ processing that is applied to the overall sound which is finally output from the Effect block to the speakers or headphones.
Intelligent Acoustic Control (IAC): IAC is a function which automatically adjusts and controls the sound quality according to the overall volume of the digital piano. Even when the volume is low, it permits both low sounds and high sounds to be clearly heard. IAC is effective only from the sound output of the built-in speakers. Although the default settings of IAC is set to ON, you can turn the function on or off.

Built-In Metronome: The digital piano features a built-in metronome (a device that keeps an accurate tempo), that is extremely convenient for practicing.

Inputs: The Yamaha DGX-660 digital piano is equipped with a 1/4" microphone input for connecting a mic so you can sing along to your playing, plus a 3.5mm auxiliary input for connecting an external audio source device.

Mic Input: By connecting a microphone to the Mic Input jack (standard 1/4" phone jack), you can enjoy singing along with your keyboard performance or with Song playback. The digital piano outputs your vocals through the built-in speakers. You can enjoy the three preset settings (Standard/Brighter/Louder) by just selecting one of them according to the particular circumstances and your personal preferences, or you can create your own desired settings and save them.
Aux In: Use the Aux In (3.5mm) to connect your portable music player or even another instrument to the DGX-660, and hear the playback through the built-in speakers. The DGX-660's speaker system is powerful, clear and fine-tuned for playing back music of all types.

Outputs: The Yamaha DGX-660 digital piano is equipped with a 1/4" combo jack that can be used to connect a set of headphones or a pair of powered speakers for monitoring, plus a USB-B output for data transfer to a computer.

1/4" Headphone Jack: Any pair of stereo headphones with a standard stereo phone plug can be plugged in here for convenient monitoring. The speakers are automatically shut off when a plug is inserted into this jack. This setting can be changed so that speaker sound is always on regardless whether a plug is inserted or not.
Line Out: The 1/4" headphone jack can also be used as a Line Output to connect a pair of powered speakers for monitoring and playback.
USB-B Out: By connecting a computer to the DGX-660's USB-B port, you can transfer data between the digital piano and the computer via MIDI.

Easy-To-Ready LCD: The crystal-clear monochrome LCD (320 x 240) can be switched to score or lyric display (English only), showing you notation for any MIDI song that the DGX-660 is playing. Read the music for your favorite built-in songs, or follow along with songs downloaded to a USB device from Yamaha MusicSoft. Even see the score for songs you've created yourself on the DGX-660

Registration Memory: The Yamaha DGX-660 has a Registration Memory feature that lets you memorize your favorite settings for easy recall whenever they're needed. Up to 32 complete setups can be saved (eight banks of four setups each).

Compatible Apps

Apple iOS Apps: By connecting Yamaha DGX-660 to an Apple iOS device, such as an iPhone or iPad, you can use apps on that device together with the digital piano for a variety of musical purposes, take advantage of various convenient functions, and get more enjoyment out of digital piano. Your compatible iOS device can be connected to the Yamaha DGX-660 via a wired connection (requires Apple's Camera Connection Kit; sold separately) or wireless connection (requires Yamaha's UD-WL-1 USB/WiFi adapter; sold separately). An optional wireless MIDI adapter (UD-BT01) is also available for Bluetooth connection with your iOS device.

Chord Tracker (iOS 8.1 or later): The Chord Tracker app allows you to play back songs from your iOS device's song library wirelessly through the DGX-660's speaker system. Chord Tracker analyzes the audio songs stored in your iOS device and then displays the chord symbols for you. It can even create an XF song file that plays back the entire song using the DGX-660's accompaniment Styles.
Scale Tuner (iOS 8.1 or later): Scale Tuner is a Core MIDI application which allows you to change the tuning of the Yamaha digital piano to Arabic or pure temperament tuning. Includes 11 preset scaled (Equal, Pure [Major/Minor], and 8 typical Arabic scales). Offers scale editing with individual key tuning and 5 memory banks. Internal Piano Voice allows for scale settings and confirmation without the need of a connected MIDI keyboard
MusicSoft Manager (iOS 8.1 or later): You can use this app to connect the Yamaha digital piano with an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. You can then can transfer the content to the piano using a WiFi connection. You can also backup your instrument data or restore data to your instrument. Use the Dropbox or iTunes file sharing feature to transfer data from your computer to the digital piano.
My Music Recorder (iOS 8.1 or later): My Music Recorder is a recording application which allows parent to record their children's music performances and post their children's music performance to YouTube or send it with e-mail. You can give your child a stamp in reward for the music performance; the more you use My Music Recorder application, the more stamps you get.
Note Star (iOS 5.1.1 or later): Experience playing and singing your favorite songs with a real band. NoteStar is Yamaha's digital sheet music application for the iPad that features hands-free, smooth-flowing, easy-to-read digital sheet music accompanied by realistic audio backing tracks with vocals.
Visual Performer (iOS 8.1 or later): Visual Performer is an app for iPad/iPhone/iPod touch that creates graphic animation by playing the digital piano. There are 10 types of graphic animations plus projected images from your iOS device's camera. You can even create your original animation by combining with two patterns or even by using the camera.
Piano Diary (iOS 4.2 or later): Piano Diary is a free iPhone/iPad application based on Core MIDI, designed to manage, archive and share your piano performances. From the app, you can record your performances, monitor your practice time, upload your performances to YouTube, and carry your performances everywhere with you on your iOS device.
Metronome (iOS 6.1 or later): No matter what your level of musical ability you will find Yamaha's Metronome is easy to use, whilst offering advanced features like MIDI compatibility. Metronome offers incredible timing thanks to a sample accurate engine.

Note: Currently the DGX-660 does not support Android applications.

Yamaha MusicSoft: Professionally-arranged, play-along XG song files from Yamaha MusicSoft are matched with best-selling sheet music from Hal Leonard. Learn to play songs made famous by artists like Elton John, Coldplay, Adele and more with the DGX-660 as your backing band. Download your favorite song collections and view the complete library (sold separately) at Yamaha MusicSoft.

Included Accessories

Keyboard Stand: A sturdy keyboard stand is included. The keyboard stand requires assembly.

Music Rest: A handy music rest is also included.

Footswitch w/ Damper Resonance: Damper Resonance digitally reproduces the sympathetic vibration between strings on acoustic pianos. Just like an acoustic piano, when the damper pedal is used in a performance, other strings add sonic color to the notes you play until the pedal is released. The Damper Resonance feature can be activated from the included footswitch.

AC Power Adapter w/ Auto Power Off: The DGX-660 includes an AC power adapter (it is not battery powered). Auto power off shuts down the instrument after a period of inactivity. You can customize how long it will wait before shutting down, or disable it if you prefer. Auto Power Off settings include 5, 10, 15, 30, 60, or 120 minutes.

Specifications

Dimensions:

Without Stand: 55" (w) x 5.75" (h) x 17.5" (d)
With Stand: 55.0625" (w) x 29.9.375" (h) x 17.5" (d)

Weight:

Without Stand: 46 lbs. 5 oz
With Stand: 61 lbs. 12 oz.

Internal Memory: approximately 1.7 MB

Power Consumption: 13W

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