Yamaha Soprano Saxophone, YDS-120

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

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.

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!

Great sound quality! Perfect for practicing indoors without disturbing anyone!! Great key response. As a seasoned saxophonist I recommend this product!!!

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.

Feels and sounds like a finely made instrument. My issue is that it does not support a wireless connection. It unfortunately gets many reviews that get mixed between models and the features are a bit confusing. For someone who doesn’t need a wireless amp connection , it would be great.