Bill,
Thanks for posting this...
Well as always I will give a different perspective.
Listen to the music....(tune out the singers) no automation (styles) to speak of. Of course you don't have to use heavy styles for playing an arranger either...BUT, where do you get the bass? It sounds so real, like a real band or orchestra performance. Lower keyboard and pedals make it happen (easier than trying to do the left hand on the same plane as the right for sure).
No this is not for the OMB entertainer looking for portability.
(most members here?) But it is very cool for a home or studio playing environment.
I recently looked at buying a Yamaha ELS-01 from Japan and found it was NOT as much as I originally thought (less than 10K) I paid $8k for a 1987 Yamaha HS8T with is not even in the same ball park as this baby.
So if you but one of these upgrades what a deal...it is a first as previous organs I am aware of did not let you do this level of upgrade (Yep, buy a new one. just like Arrangers). So this is excellent. Since they haven't had a new instrument for 10 years it is good to see they are continuing.

I do think I can do a very similar sound/playability using s T5, second keyboard and pedal unit (along with exp pedal, and a FC10) for a lot less total $$. No it won't be quite the same. And it sure won't look as cool as this.

IF I could go to a large city near me, and buy one of the new ELS-2, I would seriously consider it.

After all an arranger is basically an organ with the second manual moved up alongside the primary and the pedal board deleted.

I hope a lot of songs/demos come to Youtube on this new baby....

Lee

Hi Lee, I don't know your age however I will admit to being 57 years vintage. Having been involved with the Organ trade for most and I mean almost all of my life I have seen many ideas come and go,Hammond had the mad idea of making a model T series that was called portable/transportable the TTR 101 and this still took2 fit men at min to move and set for a gig( don't forget the Leslie speaker that never did come in a reducable package and they were BL--dy heavy!!)
In about 1981/82 I was working for my local music shop selling American organs (Hammond,Lowery etc) Euro models ie:- GEM,Eminent,Wersi Plus the Japanise Yamaha, Technics(then called National) and Casio Keyboards
It was at this time Casio came up with (if I remember correctly) System 2000 or something close. This package offered two lengths of keyboards,No of keyboards 1 or 2,2 types of modules for styles,3 or 4 sound units,this left you to set up your own sound system. Although very basic and not even MIDI !!! it was a very tiny light coming down the great tunnel of Life we all travel along. May I say many of us did not even think the product would even make the shops but here in England we SOLD 2!!!!!,so the idea is not so new but now the computer age is well and truly here it now makes it more likely to happen and even take off.
Regards John.

P.S. It's taken Yamaha long enough though!!! I wonder if that was the reason Casio never challenged the big names in the organ world ???

I nearly bought one of these...would be worth a fair dollar today as they are extremely rare. The guy I would later buy my Casio CZ synths from was a dealer and he actually got to play one...he said it didn't sound as impressive as it looked, but the concept behind it was very forward-thinking.

Love it, Bill. I'm guessing Paul Todd has ordered one (Electone)! Here he is playing one at our church a year ago (starts at 3:11).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTDjU2GGaI0

One of these days, one of the majors will make an arranger with a dedicated add-on lower manual and pedals, and it will be game over for the home organ.

They already sound better, they just need to dial the form factor in. It MUST be able to get the lower manual in as close as an organ (stacking two keyboards rarely works, as the top one has to rest on the bottom one's controls), it MUST be light and it must be quick to set up.

I'd have one in a flash if anyone made one affordably. I can still kick a reasonable bassline, LOL

Hi Technics almost had it before pulling out of the music industry as all the last generation of instruments, keyboard ,organ and digital piano shared the same mother boards so to make a multi keyboard in a module form would have been easy.
If you have a good midi spec. master keyboard you can use a lower keyboard(midi type)set up to match play the lower part on your master keyboard,with the lower part set to external note inf you could also triger the auto accomp,if the midi keyboard can be split, using two channels you could have the set up like those of the Wersi organs,I think you would need a master unit with 128 note poly for this to work for pro use,all voicing could be set on the master keyboard using panel memories provided they are able to store midi set ups like on the Technics KN7000, as I have not had any time on the Tyros I can't comment ther but knowing Yamaha I would be surprised if you it was not able to operate in a like set up. Don't forget the new top of the range Arrangers are very much the same as the workstations we had in the 1980/90s
Food for thought!!!! Regards John.

Beat that Diki on your G70

Did you notice that his fingers never left his hands...

And his feet never left his legs, although I wondered a couple of times....

... the best KB was the first - STEINWAY !!! ...

... and he could share his hair with a few of us here - ME, UD, Donny, Gary , etc. ...