YAMAHA YC61 vs VISCOUNT LEGEND Organ Showdown 

Thanks so much, great playing, great video, great selection of tunes!!

The Viscount just sounds so much warmer and more alive. I've just bought the YC and it is a bit thin but, as someone else has pointed out, it is way more portable for the occasional gig - plus, of course, it has the piano and other keyboard sounds.

The Yamaha sounds good, but the Viscount Legend sounds awesome, both very playable. The Viscount has that perfect organ "fatness" and clear details in the sounds!!

looks like I need to, as usual, buy both

Thank you for the comparison. I recently passed on the YC due to the thin, tinny bright organ sound and preordered a Hammond SK Pro instead. Similar features, but better organ and rotary sounds, on video at least. Plus the YC doesn't have a YC organ sound (from the 70s) which I thought was very strange. I had a YC30 back in the day.

Viscount Legend. No doubt. It sounds closer to the original. Fuller and deeper. But I think in the end it depends on individual needs. Yamaha is obviously more portable, and in the context of a band, possibly easier to adjust to cut through the mix. But in a studio or recording, I'd go with the Legend. No question.

Amazing video

As a proud owner of a Viscount Legend Live, I'm loving these videos even though I have the instrument already!

Hi Woody, does the Viscount have any means of storing Drawbar settings, if so how many, thanks for your help.

Nice to have the manuals so close.

HI Woody, Question I have mods which one would you should the viscount legend solo or the Yamaha YC61 as a second keyboard? Need the second keyboard als o for organ and brass?

Both sounds really nice, liked some of the YC sounds better but others better from the Viscount. I guess fiddling with controls you can get both to sound very similar by I'm sticking with the Hammond B-3X app on the iPad hooked up to my MODX7 for now. If I had the space would probably get a Viscount. Started my musical journey learning to play on a Yamaha Electone organ 40 years ago.

In theory they should sound the same, since they're both based upon the same technology. But I imagine Viscount has put more details in their instrument. The Yamaha sounds much thinner than the Viscount.

Wonderful stuff, Played with real passion, I wonder as I see your fingers with a tremolo wiggle ,trying to ring more expression out of each note, Have you tried a ROLI keyboard?

Now, would be interesting to make the same comparation with the nord

Sorry about missing the prem- you know were I was- but I am watching now!

I'm interested in the FM synth capabilities of the YC61, are you going to a video on that?

Had to return the Nord D6 due to faulty keys. Looking for an solid replacement. Which is the better choice in your experience Hammond sk-pro or Yamaha yc61?

I have played all the Hammond's for 50 years and own a viscount now too and believe me it is as close as you will ever get. The YC is thin and cold but you would be happy with it providing you never listen to the real thing of cores.

Does the Viscount have the option for a half moon switch? I know it can take a pedal, but that would be a bonus if it took the switch!

Love this video. I’ve pre-ordered my legend live today; Kraft is currently sold out. Can’t wait! What speakers do you recommend? What is the song around 21:00?

Thoughts on the yc 61 action? How does it compare to the modx 61 synth action as far as key travel? Thanks

Well done Woody (as usual). Valuable information and nice playing. It seems to me that YC has a strong boost on mid frequency, the Legend seems to be a more complete representation on bass and treble. Since I got a Legend, this is not pushing me to try the YC... Also on Leslie the big guy seems to be more convincing. And I know that with IK Amplitude 5 with official Leslie thing it is even better!

The “thinness” on the YC can easily be adjusted and eliminated by changing the organ model and adjusting the master eq. Run it through a neo vent 2 and your good to go. Plus the YC has great piano, elec piano, pads, leads, a bender and mod lever a built in usd audio and midi interface. Plus you can layer and split sounds. Plug and play with iOS apps via one usb cable. Sound comes right out of the YC outlet. Think about it.

Hello Woody, will you be able to demo a genuine Hammond organ at some point? Love to get your thoughts on the latest models. (O: oh, and you have a mispelling of Hammon(g) lol..

Question: Is the Yamaha yc61 on the viscount on a special stand? If so where can I get one?

Woody, Can you do a Viscount Legend Live vs Crumar Classic Comparison?

Really groovy sounds - nice! are they part of your educational material on one of the channels? My XK 1c needs some dedusting ;-)

A bit more girth and fatness in the tonality of the Viscount. Love your straight forward and informative presentations, as always. Leslie simulation is convincing.

Nice comparison! I think the YC also sounds thinner because it seems to be at a lower volume. Still I think the Crumar Mojo is the best clonewheel, I have all B3 VSTs and the GSi VB3 is still by far my favorite.

He is using the H3 which isn't the v3 sound. For the more warmer sound you have to use the H1 organ on the YC

Original mechanical tonewheel organs had variations in sound over the years, especially in the tube preamps and amps, as they used different batches/suppliers of electronic parts. My digital Hammond A-3 let's you fine tune all aspects of the sound, down to each key sound, response, etc. The default factory setting is supposed to be the ideal pristine new tonewheel organ as it would have left the factory. It sounds good to me, if you want character, from digital, be prepared for some intense A/B comparisons and tweaking, use an old tube amplification.

It would be awsome if you could make such a comparison between the viscount and a Nord! 🤩

a great listen

price and portability aside, it's no contest IMHO. As much as I like Yamaha gear, the Legend totally blows it out of the water for tone and Leslie simulation.

Was going to get a Legend but can't find an outlet with one to try. The real question is does it do a better hammond than a Nord C2D?

Have you heard/played the crumar mojo woody?

The YC seems to be a good B3000 emulation.

Same here, the Viscount sounds better to me, although I think the YC61 would be fine for gigging, the punters wouldn't notice the difference.

Love 🇸🇪!

I like the YC61 the notes are more defined and a touch brighter, which would be a better for dialing in a tone vs trying to brighten up a bottom heavy sound. Next the price difference the Viscount is about twice as price. I could get a YC61 and add a 61key MIDI controller and have dual manuals on the YC for way less money. Last the YC is a stage piano so besides the organ you have acoustic and electic pianos and a selection of effects. So bang for the buck the Yamaha would be my choice.

Please give the YC61 the following fairer comparison demo - for two or 3 identically set, commonly used drawbar settings, (Jimmy Smith with perc, Charles Earland and gospel without perc.), try to match the tone of the YC to the Legend by using the YC's onboard equalizer - most likely, a boost of bass and low midrange, and a cut of treble, would bring the YC very much closer to that bass and low mid bodacious sound you are getting from the Legend. That would be a fair experiment, because the YC's eq is an included useful feature available to users wanting to get a nice rich mellow sound like a B3. By the way I used to own 2 B3's with Leslie 122s and they had nowhere near the bass richness, especially in left hand bass, that your Legend setup does. My real B3s sounded somewhere in between the YC and the Legend. Also, there are other demos on You Tube where the YC61 organ sounds much fatter on bass and mellower on treble - for a good example, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kchGxdJ58SI.html (NAMM 2021 - Believe in Music - YC Stage Keyboard Webinar) at the 9 minute mark, the B3 sounds are shown with a more rich/mellow eq than your comparison. It should also be noted that users needn't be limited by the obviously inferior YC Leslie sim (compared to Legend), which adds to that thin and shrill problem - much less a problem when you shut off the Leslie sims in the comparison, immediately bringing the YC much closer to the Legend's eq properties. Users aren't limited to using the YC's lousy onboard sim. They can do, as I do with a Roland XP synth's B3 sounds, shut off onboard sims and use either a Leslie 3300 or cheaper Motion Sound Pro 3X leslie rotor - available used. And run the other stereo channel to an amp with effective bass and treble controls (boost or cut). I can dial up window rattling bass with the old guitar amp I use for one channel, w/ Pro 3x rotor on other channel. Also can cut the treble to a nice mellow level. The keyboard is only half the sound quality equation. Without a Leslie cabinet, run through a bad amp, a B3 can actually sound like a cheesy Farfisa or Vox, Trust me, I've proven that with a B3.

Hello, how do you find the action of Viscount's Keybed ? Some say it's a bit stiff : do you agree ? How is it compared to the Electro 6D for example ? Thank you ;)

the Viscount sounds better-I have a Mojo dual manual

Like most people say, the Viscount was a clear winner--fatter, deeper and more authentic. The Yamaha sounded bright, thin, and a little dirty, even when it's supposedly clean. Have you tried the IK Multimedia Hammond B-3X VST? It's actually licensed by Hammond, and it sounds fantastic to me.

20:00 my favorite part

The Yamaha could be an idea, when you want Barbara Dennerlein on Bohm or Jimmy Smith on Wersi.

To be fair to the YC… almost all of the playing was louder on the Viscount which is a big factor in what most people experience as “better”. I have no doubt the Viscount is a better organ, but the YC can do so much more than just organand is way more portable… The new Viscount Legend Soul looks really interesting

Yamaha seems a bit more "hey listen to me" as if trying to "cut" in a mix where the Viscount is happy to sit back... until the Viscount percussion is enabled... WAY back in the late 70s as a kid I was treated to a second hand Viscount M40 Intercontinental as my second organ as my interest in music didn't abate after I was bought a cheap Bontempi organ... The Viscount was a very badly out of tune transistor organ with a few faults and dodgy switches, in other words badly in need to a proper service, but with the two offset three and a half octave manuals and a single octave pedal keyboard I loved it anyway... We ended up getting rid of it in the early 90s after I'd moved on to digital keyboards and didn't really play the old Viscount which needed two people to even hope of moving it.

This would have been a great video IF: 1. The sound was not so distorted. 2. If you would have used the top knob on the right end of the YC to cut out the top end so it more closely matched the Viscount tone wise. This would have provided the opportunity to compare apples to apples instead of your apples to sour grapes.

7:06 Ladies and gentlemen, move over, the organ is here. 😄 Though the YC would be fine if the Legend were nowhere near.

YC is thin sounding. And the yc Leslie sim is not real at all. The yc would have been my dream keyboard if it had a better organ overall. It sounds like a toy. The Viscount is fat and beefy. Woody your reviews really are spot on. 👍

I have a Nord Electro 6D, which is really good, I love it. But I'd like to have a dual manual with a full set of drawbars, so I'm looking for an alternative. The Viscount Legend seems to be a really good instrument, if you consinder the ridiculous price of the Hammond XK5 with the lower manual. Thanks for the comparison, there are not a lot of good videos on the Viscount, especially in terms of comparison videos. :)

XK-5/SK-X in comparison if possible Woody...

Sounds like the yamaha is being pushed through a small amp effect with to much drive on. Could this be why it sounds so thin? Sounds like the Yamaha is in mono vs the Viscount having stereo verb on it. Not saying that the Viscount is not better cause it is, just saying that the Yamaha can sound better then that.

Too many organ simulators: Nord, Crumar, Dexibell, Hammond, Korg, Roland, Studiologic, Viscount, Vox, Yamaha, Ferrofish, E-Mu, etc. I wonder which is the absolute best.

It seems, when it comes to organs, size matters! Yamaha giving it a good try but the viscount wins with the full sound and great Leslie sim. Maybe it's got too much low end for use in a band but I tend to play right hand parts only in a blues band..bass player takes care of everything low.

Viscount sounds like an organ. The Yamaha sounds as try. So the Yamaha can do all, but not on a high level.

Hmmm. The Viscount sounds fatter, but the YC has more features. But then the Viscount is big an bulky and the YC is sma-ARGH screw it! I'm buying both!

The YC sounds horribly artificial. Yes, it is more portable, but there‘s also a 1-manual Legend Solo with otherwise 100% identical features as the bigger ones.

I think the Vicount wins even the Yc has interresting rocky tones.

Oof, but the leslie sims with these (in all clones actually). I recall others telling me "they finally nailed the leslie". No, they did not.

Yamaha sounds old, compressed, with little stereo panning (only 2 mic Leslie-recording?) like the little “L-100” that Keith Emerson used to bully and to stab at the end of every ELP concert. Very useful for a “Gimmie some lovin’ “ vintage sound, for the weak and distant L-100 sound of the former Genesis albums or for the highly Farfisa overdriven sound by Van der Graaf Generator but not for much more IMHO.

Comparisons between Viscount Soul Organs and anything other than a Hammond are just ridiculous. I’ve got a Soul 261 puts my Nord Electro 6 to shame. The Viscount is the real deal folks.

Hello

The Yamaha has a thin, plastic sound: they are unable to clone properly the Hammond sound..the Legend is on another planet P.S. On the JOS tone the percussion of the Legend is a bit too loud, and he often used "C2" Chorus, and always the 3rd perc. !

Ik zou graag viscount legend vs crumar mojo zien.

non c'è confronto che tenga: Legend non lo batte nessuno.

How about also these vs the Nautilus and Nord?

Viscount sounds better, but I think that's clearly due to a bass boost. That's unfair! Leslie simulation also sounds a lot better on Viscount, but the Yamaha Leslie simulation is known to be only mediocre. I don't know what the original really sounds like, so I don't know which one sounds more like the original, but to me it doesn't matter because I just want a good sounding Hammond style organ.

But Yamaha ..has the cfx beautiful piano sound! I use a Master piano costing 300 euros which is fine and via midi pilote de Yamaha.. so good for piano l'ESS than 2000 euros alltogerher! If not a Yamaha cp88. Is 2800 euros for thé same sound!

The viscount sounds very close to the real thing the yc is tinny and cheap sounding just my opinion

Save money and buy a controller keyboard and vst Hammond organ software. Nord kills both.

If ya like a thin, brittle/harsh, 90's rompler organ sound with laughable "leslie" effect, the YC is right up your alley.

25:00 it's a mental thing only?

I understand the latest OS Yamaha update provided a much perfected b3 experience...but, as played, the Yamaha sounds very thin and unrealistic.

Hello. Good vidéo. IMHO. Yamaha Sounds toy ich . I’m pretty sure There s not One old HAMMOND at Yamaha ‘s workshop . The YC is an illustration of what Yamaha imagines how à Hammond sounds like. LEGEND is ok. . The Legend is more a copy , as close as possible. Bye

The YC61 sounds great for a portable organ. YC61’s internal Leslie simulation is not great, but certainly not terrible. The Legend’s organ engine sounds fantastic by itself, and it sounds especially better when you run it through a real Leslie. Speaking of, the Legend’s emulation of the Leslie is incredible on slow/brake but the fast mode doesn’t sound good at all. It sounds like a vibrato and not like a Leslie.

Ormai penso che il popolo degli organisti non abbia più dubbi: il riferimento assoluto, oggi come oggi, è il Viscount Legend. È un' imitazione dell'Hammond ma, visto che gli organi elettromagnetici non si costruiscono più, il top assoluto è il Viscount. Se poi vogliamo essere sinceri, con il prezzo e il peso ridotto, nei concerti dal vivo, il Viscount non fa nemmeno rimpiangere lo stesso Hammond.

Sorry but there has never been, and never will be, an acceptable electronic emulation of the interesting percussive clicks and harmonics of a REAL tonewheel organ.

The Yamaha comes nowhere near a decent Hammond sound; the Legend on the other hand produces a convincing clone wheel sound.

Skinny keys on the YC61..

The YC sounds horrible