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Hi,

Not often discussed in this forum, the Yamaha Electone Stagea has stunning capabilities when in the hands of a capable instrumentist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKorq7dE4gM

A few thoughts:

A) I don't know if other people here are seduced, but I would ***love*** to have one of these. However, Yamaha does not sell this marvelous instrument in North America and Europe. I believe that situation may change if enough people express interest, which is the main reason why I am posting this: if you'd like one, make your voice heard.

B) Some people around the world have personally imported such instruments to their home countries:

http://www.mikesmusicroom.co.uk/mikes-music-articles/3

The process is very expensive and good luck for the guarantee!

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I personally contacted Yamaha Canada and they said that there's no market for that keyboard (which is doubtful), and that it has not been CSA-approved (it constitutes a fire hazard when plugged in North American sockets - apparently because the Japanese 15 A/100 V grounded is incompatible with North American 20 A/125 V grounded) - but since Yamaha sells other keyboards, they must know how to adapt an instrument to a foreign electrical standard, so the excuse sounds phony.

So... who would like to have one in their living room?

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Butchering great piano music since 41 years
Lesage upright with thumb tacks
Dreaming electronic dreams

That guy in the UK paid the equivalent of about $10,000 for the unit. At that price the market will be very limited.

Apparently he has deep pockets! In addition the price of the unit he paid $2000 for shipping, plus the usual government thievery fee tax.

Well, some people here have bought N2s, which are even more expensive than that.

I'd rather be worried about getting it repaired if it ever broke down.

Why would you bother ? you could buy a C2D and a full workstation plus a real B3 for the same money.

I know Roland has their Atelier organs. I believe they could accomplish the same thing, no?

I believe they must be sold in North America at leas as the Roland US website has them advertised.

Hi,

No, judging from the performances I've tracked on Youtube and elsewhere, Atelier/Wersi keyboards do not even come close to the Stagea. They sound very much like Hammonds from the 1970's. I would never buy a thing like this.

I think they're right that this would have very limited appeal. Obviously this is something that few people would have the talent to play and the description mentioned a lot of programing. As fast as piano players are disappearing organ player are going faster. Personally learning piano is a means to an end for me as I eventually want to play organ, but I have no delusions I would ever need (or want) this as I want something that sounds like an organ and not a symphony. A person who would have the talent to play a symphony piece on a keyboard would be rare indeed.

Hi,

Hmm... You want me Close 2 Death (C2D) from too much vitamin B3? Unless you explain what you mean better, I'm not going to benefit from your wisdom. Unless of course you mean to acquire a f63FG to plug into my K37 with a yd6 transducer, right?

Or is there? 300+ million people in North America, 700+ in Europe - mostly rich/industrialized countries and they think they don't have a market for an instrument that is so popular in Japan that you need to wait a few months to get one?

Among the great music I butchered in my amateur butcher career are many transcriptions of orchestral pieces. For instance Beethoven's symphonies, various operas, ballets, reductions of piano concerti, etc. If you go to your local sheet music store, you'll see a big section of piano transcriptions.

Pianists play and enjoy transcriptions of orchestral works since centuries, and as a matter of fact, before the era of widely available recordings, piano reductions were the main means of popularization of orchestral music and opera.

That said, I understand your comment, since you are a beginner. But I predict that in a few short years, you will also enjoy transcriptions of orchestral works to play at your piano. And you'll probably resent the fact that such a brilliant instrument is not available here because... they think we don't want it...

Are you sure? I remember at a NAMM show a couple years back they were demoing them and they sounded pretty good to me.

And this is the demo video Roland have on their website now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE42t8-TYdc

It means nobody gives a ....

Tyruke,

Thanks. I appreciate that video. However, if you watch closely, the player used his left hand to push a button to change a register. Moreover, despite the player's obvious transcendant skills, the sound coming out of the instrument is (subjectively) not up to par with that of the Stagea. It sounds dated, and unmistakingly organ-like in a bad sense.

Whereas when Qi Zhang was playing, registers were changed by the action of her feet and the flashing buttons you see between the keyboards are pre-programmed settings. Nothing complicated, she simply selected the combination of sounds she wanted at that point in the piece, and put it into memory. Which means that registers were switched sequentially just by pushing the pedal. It makes a big difference in the playing, as your hands are free to do whatever they do. And the sound on that beast! Amazing.

I've been playing Prokofiev piano reductions of his ballets for years, but frankly I am so jealous of them Electone players!

I, too have only just discovered this instrument through finding it on Youtube.

It would appear that the last time they were produced (anywhere) was in 2006 - maybe there really isn't the demand, which is sad.

This is from the ELS-01C user manual I downloaded from here:

http://download.yamaha.com/search/p...category_id=16423&product_id=1007721

"The Electone has two Footswitches on the main expression pedal. The Right
Footswitch is used for the Registration Shift function. The Left Footswitch can be set
to control one of the following functions: Rhythm, Glide, and Rotary speaker."

In the video you linked to (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKorq7dE4gM), you can clearly see her changing registration programs with her right foot between 6:40 and 7:05.

I appreciate that this instrument is very cleverly designed, but could the same not be achieved with a dual-manual keyboard, midi pedals and a USB link to a laptop to store all the programs? You'd also need a modified volume pedal with the two switches at the sides. (And another expression pedal).

She is an amazing performer - just playing the notes would stretch most keyboardists, let alone doing all the program changes (there must be several hundred in this performance).

I think a lot of the skill of playing the Stagea is to do with the programming, which you'd have to do before you could start practising it.

He's talking about the Hammond B3 tonewheel organ and probably its best emulation on the market today the Nord C2D.

Okay, that's pretty cool...

Indeed...it's very cool.

By the way, happy birthday ClsscLib!

James
x

I'd rather be worried about getting it repaired if it ever broke down.

Thanks, James. I hope all goes well for you.

Reminds me of Jack Nicholson (as the Joker in the 1989 Batman movie) saying, "Where does he get all those wonderful toys?":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5DuIiBNl4g

Without CSA approval, fire insurance is invalidated. Even in the fire is not caused by the non-CSA approved device, my understanding is that the insurance claim will be voided.

No company operating in Canada will sell or import any electronic device without CSA approval. Neither will any company seek CSA approval if projected sales will be low. In order to get CSA approval the unit provided for testing is totally dismantled, and I suspect ruined.