Thanks Taike,
certainly brought back some memories for me.
Gilbert.

Well, very interesting..I had a HS7 and then a HS8....

It's too bad they don't TODAY...put the T3 technology into a NEW Electone...WOW.

After watching several HS8 videos on You tube this AM...makes me wander if I made a mitake selling the HS8 and gettin into the arrangers.

Lee S.

they sound so dated now though don't they. I did see one last year. Surely they are not still using FM technology?

As a matter of fact any Yamaha arranger is an Electone in a different console with latest technology. Add the lower manual and the pedalboard via midi and you have your Electone. I don't think I would spend three times the price of a Tyros 3 for an Electone. That's why arrangers are not sold in Asia according to what I've been told.

Nice video, good memories for me.

Victor

So why is Electones still sold and popular in asia (JP) and not here? Do they have (spend) more $$$ than us on keyboards?

I really liked my HS8, it was a completely integrated unit...all set to go.

I do think I could create something here based on an arranger (I am talking cabinet & all)

I have MIDI connected a second (lower) keybed and pedals...but, the intgration has some drawbacks.

Lee S.

I disagree, Victor. You wouldn't even be close to what a Stagea sounds like.

Arranger keyboards aren't as popular here as most that learn to play the organ start out on piano first. Parents want only the best for their kids so buying a TOTL organ (electone) means nothing to them. Arranger keyboards are mostly for those that gig in bands (guitar/sax/drummer).

Regards

Taike

Tiake,

Thanks for showing the clip, I have had about 6 Electones, but why show us something we can't buy, it'a bit naughty.

interestingly Tyros means "a Beginner or Novice Piano player" so i am guessing the Japanese designed the Stagea (which on their advertising material appears in a concert hall) to be ultimately for performance musicians and they Tyros....well it looks like James was right!

Right on, Taike...arranger keyboards, although meant for home use, are quite often used by pros, either as solo instruments, or as part of a duo or trio.

Quite a few of my Tyros3 and S910 clients are using the instruments to gig with....I myself use a PSR-S910.

Seeing those clips of the Electone, takes me back to the days when I taught the instrument, and prepared the students for upcoming Electone festivals.

My last Electone was a D-85 triple manual...I used a portabilized (by the factory) C-605 for gigs, and also had the pleasure of using an HX-1 as a teacher's instrument.

Thanks for the clips...great memories.

Ian

[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 03-22-2010).]

Taike and Lee
I love Electones. I used to play a C-55 Electone when I was 11 and learned the Electone method. By the 90�s I bought my first Workstation because the music store where organs were sold closed. But synths were a different thing and after getting married in 1995 I stopped playing keyboards� until 2006 when I bought my first arranger a Psr 1500. I couldn�t believe what heard, I was astonished and sometimes I even cried while I played. In Spanish (at least in my country) there�s not a single word to describe an �arranger� and it�s still called an �organ�; even Yamaha call them in Spanish �arreglistas de canciones� something like �song composer�.
In 2007 I fulfilled a dream I had when I was a teen buying the old Electone D 85 that I couldn�t buy by that time and I realized that I really loved organs rather than single keyboard instruments so I started the search for a modern organ in my country. The search was useless, I only found a used HS 8 from 1987 at Us$ 2000 and I discovered double manual organs had virtually disappeared over these lands. Importing one here would mean more than doubling its price ranging about Us$ 20.000 so I finally decided to make my own Electone. I started adding a pedalboard, later a lower keyboard and when I decided to change the lower manual for a better touch sensitive controller I found out that it would fit better adding it as a third manual. The final set up consisted of a three manual organ with 2 arrangers a WS a NanoKontrol and the controversial Mediastation. After getting all this for much less than the cost of a Stagea in my country I think I will never go back to an Electone.
As far as I know a YouTube friend from Japan told me that arrangers are not sold there as well as Stageas are not sold in North and South America. He also told me he bought a Stagea (not the TOTL one) for only Us$ 5000. So I think Yamaha has different products for different countries because one of them could affect the sales of the other in the same country. I wish I could play and compare a Stagea and a Tyros side by side but from the demos I watched I can�t tell the sound quality difference between them. I have also read some sections of the Stagea Owners Manual and almost everything is the same: the 8 part style, the custom ABC (playing independent bass lines from the lower hand chord played) and the registrations (actually the arrangers registrations have more features). In the organ you can layer more sounds for each manual and you can program automatic registration changes.
Of course it�s better an integrated system than the homemade organ unless you are skilled manipulating iron and plastic and take the risk of disassembling your arranger but apart from the aesthetic considerations in my homemade organ the biggest challenge is to coordinate the registration changes or note transposition in the keyboards altogether. That problem would not exist if you only had one arranger. In relation to sound quality taking the demos on the Internet made by the manufacturer I could say the arranger sounds better to my ears. Just think the Stagea is from 2004 and the Tyros 3 from 2008. The organ has no SA voices and I don�t know about the Mega, however it has other VA voices (at least the Va Breath Sax in the demo in min 3:42 is awful).
To make it short why don�t you listen to the official demos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpxtlCLwWvA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq9_HWOpE4s&feature=channel

A final note: if the Stagea had been available at an affordable price in my country I would have bought one and I would have never got involved in this forum

Victor


[This message has been edited by vagro (edited 03-22-2010).]

Well...based on what little I have seen so far...I WANT ONE!

Looks like this is more what I have been looking for for a long time. I do not sing and I do not GIG out...I play lots of old standards, instrumental, oldies, etc. I got away from the organ to buy a Kurzweil K2600X for the sound, then arrangers because I missed the features of my Electone.
Looks like Stagea has both.

I wander how good the MIDI implemtations is? I would like one and then also connect to other sound sources.

I feel Yamaha has treeted me like the US government is doing mre each day...they tell us what we can do, what we can have etc.

Where has freedom gone?

To not offer this in the US is terrible. Just beacause it will compete with Arrangers and of course the Clavinova. Politics 101. Just plain crap.

And I know for sure the reason we don't have a 76 or 88 note Yamaha T3 is for the same reason...POLITICS.

Maybe I'll move to Japan.

Ian, I thought Yamaha did not use touch screens?

Lee S.

The current Stagea is over 6 years old, makes me wonder when there will be a new Electone released...

I also had several Electones, a D2B, E10AR, FX1, HX1, HS6 with all the modules and the EL90.

Yamaha has the D Deck is about 2 years old, I am pretty sure that it has been the replacement of the Stageas.....USB drives at front, touch screen, also with the optional pedals, bass pedals etc.

Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OakuD0GcQA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u4nHH1cloc&feature=related this is not the best demo, but at least you see the similarities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzxrLYaWt5c
This last one, is a GOOD one....Marco Cerbella plays "Jurassic Park Theme" (D-Deck)

Enjoy.

------------------
mdorantes

The D-Deck's not the replacement of the Stagea. It's just a smaller and lighter version and it doesn't have all the capabilities of the Stagea.

I don't think that the Stagea is dated.

Check out one of Japan's top Electone players, Junichi Matsumoto:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukzgnb3QfeI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4BTv5gWnVA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oztSguMJ-xU&feature=channel

What I love about Japan is that you can buy Electone software about anywhere. In fact, there are vending machines just for that.

Regards

Taike

------------------
Bo pen nyang.

The first video is called "appassionata". Its normally a Piano piece (3rd movement). He is an excellent player and I listened to it right through.

The problem for me is that Electones have their own unique sound (which is not a bad thing in the right context), and to my ears that sound has changed little since the 90s. Its the mid range of the strings and brass that are most noticable.

Don't get me wrong, i would happily sit through a 30 minute concert with this guy. But I do not believe the electone sound is compatible with the rest of the world. It wouuld not be suitable to contemporary popular music. And I believe that is why we don't have them outside japan.

Anyway when I listened to the videos above (and I avoided watching them to try and imagine an orchestra) It took me back to the 1990s and I can still picture the MC/HS/EL series. And thats what I mean by dated - its a brilliant arrangement played by a very tallented keyboardist, but it still sounds like an Electone. And in this day and age (outside of Asia at least) if you are going to play a piece like this, I believe it should sound like an orchestra.

TWD

[This message has been edited by Tonewheeldude (edited 03-23-2010).]

TWD,
Ah Ha... That's why I love the Electones...I don't play contemporary polular music!

And, I don't play in a rock band, or do weddings, bars, senior centers etc..

I play music I like. Old standards, 40's, 50's 60's, big band, musical theatre, instrumentals, and the list goes on. Same stuff I always played when I had Electones, and newer stuff, but not very much popular music like you would hear on the average POP radio station, but oldies stations etc..

Lee S.

[This message has been edited by leeboy (edited 03-26-2010).]