Yamaha Soprano Saxophone (YDS-120)

I have COPD and wrist and thumb arthritis. This was a perfect replacement for my heavier, tenor and soprano saxophone connecting to a portable battery and a small boom box allows me to play for hours with good sound output my amateur and and being in tune are no longer a problem.

I bought this for quiet practice and travel. I have however used the YDS 20 to play out professionally twice; supplementing the YDS 20 here and there with my saxophone. People seem to really like it. The simplicity is really nice. I look forward to playing it. You can find some favorite sounds. I was able to go onto the app and change the keys of some of my preferred Baritone and Alto sax settings from the key of Eb to Bb which is great for me as a tenor player as I like some of the bari sax sounds. The keys are very sax like; no learning curve. The price is great. This is over all a fun instrument to own and practice. The one change I made was I found a Yamaha mouthpiece and reed for the YDS 50 sold by another retailer. I don't really like the recorder style mouthpiece and like the feel of a real sax mouthpiece and reed. AA real game changer for quiet practice. Thank you Yamaha!

I have another one the same as this but it broke into pieces after I dropped it. If you are not too picky, it sounds good, light weight but : Wordless ! All I can say is "Don't buy it" because you would be very upset as soon as you ordered it. You won't hear the sound, you won't feel the keypad and you won't feel the weight because I couldn't find out where it was delivered. I didn't read others feedback until yesterday. Most of them are talking about the key pads didn't work or sometimes they all messed up. Try not to use rechargeable batteries. If the V and or A is lower then it happened. If you use the USB power bank us the 2A.

First, I will say that this is a great practice instrument and midi controller! It’s great that you can play through headphones and with certain wireless guitar adapters (3.5mm types with 1/4”) you can easily run into a mixer or practice speaker. Using the usb mini connector with the appropriate cable adapters, I can hear SWARM instruments from my iPad out through the headphones. The secret to getting the best sounds are through the free Yamaha App to control and change parameters and save them in your user menu to easily switch between later. Although it has a small speaker, it does not do justice to the sound capabilities of this instrument. The non-Japanese YouTubers are guilty of recording the little speaker and it does not sound very good. If that’s your point of reference, you are in for a very pleasant surprise with headphones or direct connection! Now, with that said, my biggest issue is in how the upper octave key works. It is a very sensitive on/off switch that can easily disengage at the wrong time. As the YDS-120 is a lighter than my proper soprano, it seems to be a struggle for me to keep it engaged while going for high C# unless I am using the neck strap as leverage. I really hope that the next generation of these instruments have an improved version of this button soon. I would love to use it in a live performance as it can create very realistic saxophones and other instruments and save me from carrying my tenor, alto, and soprano when you can just click between them. Midnight saxophone practice is a great use after work or after late night inspiration.

Earlier I posted that I've played the sax since childhood - I'm now 70. I was looking for a good practice horn. This is not it. I was WRONG. THIS HORN IS EXCELLENT. I HAD TO GET USE TO IT, BUT IT HAS HELPED ME TO BE MORE ACCURATE. I LOVE IT....

I'm in the process of returning it. It played well for a few days, without the key issues that others have reported. Very good sound when connected to an external amplifier. Then all of a sudden it felt as if something inside had disconnected and the air pressure sensor would not work correctly anymore. The sound volume dropped to almost non-audible, both with the internal speaker and with an external connection. I changed various settings, replaced batteries, used an external power bank, nothing helped. Also, when putting my ear close to the body, I could hear faint random sounds even without blowing. I think the main board is about to fail or something like that. The instrument was never treated roughly or dropped. Too bad because I was enjoying usingbit for practicing with headphones on.

Excellent E Sax. It's basically 2 of its kind. It's lightweight and feels durable enough to not worry about it breaking during travel. The sound quality is about what you'd expect from a E horn... It won't be like a real sax but this thing isn't designed for playing a concert. (Although it can with the correct software) Rather this product is designed for practice especially in indoor and mobile situation. This product is excellent if you live in an apartment or a shared home where playing a regular horn is simply not possible you can still practice and the key placement is very close to that of a real horn bravo Yamaha. However it would be great to see a functional octave key instead of a butt and to be able to growl but that's for that'll probably cost you a lot more money so I'll leave it with this. The playability is very good the keys feel very realistic of course it is not going to take into account the pressure and or the speed at which the key is pressed. This is a great value for the money especially seeing as it is only two of its kind in the horn world. It would be great if the model has a rechargeable battery and the ability to attach an angled neck to the horn. Yamaha is known for its great products great craftsmanship good value for the money and thoughtful design the function of this product holds up to the Yamaha brand reputation and leaves little more to be desired for the price point.

After 50 plus years of playing alto and tenor sax, I had to all but give it up in the past few years due to asthma, breathing issues and arthritis in my fingers as well as moving to a smaller apartment with lots of neighbors. I have previously tried an Akai EWI which was much more expensive than the Yamaha and I hated it. Akai tries to make their unit adaptable for all woodwind players (not just sax players like me), so the layout with sensors was difficult, the learning curve was high and the sounds were terrible. However, the Yamaha YDS-120 is a godsend for me. Is it the same as playing my beloved Selmer? No, especially from an embouchure perspective. However, it is set up just like an analog sax with the same keys instead of sensors. It takes very little breath and it's easy on my hands even when playing fast passages. The onboard sounds are OK coming through the tiny speaker on the bottom, but are much better with headphones. I use the headphone out jack with an adapter to run it into my Fosusrite audio interface and DAW in my home studio and with a little bit of tweaking the sound is superb! The breath sensitivity is very good though it takes a little practice to get used to the finer control features like subtle pitch bend and vibrato. The downloadable app helps with these settings, though you have to provide your own micro-USB cables to interface with your phone. The unit is all plastic but seems well made as all Yamaha products I have bought in the past have been. There are hard cases available but my gigging days are long over so not a problem for me. These are minor limitations compared to the fact that I can enjoy playing the sax again. For $450 It feels like getting a part of my life back. Thank you Yamaha!

For the price I expected more, and not having Bluetooth is a big problem when studying.