In 1991, Yamaha released the EL series of Electones. The HX series also featured 16-operator FM voices. The HX/HS series was the first to use AWM "sampling" technology for both voices and rhythm.
This series, released in 1987, used more integrated circuit technology to make components smaller, and allow for a sleeker design. With the HS/HX series, Electones became more digital. The F series Electones were the first to allow users to digitally save registrations via pistons and then save them to RAM packs or an external disk drive unit: MDR-1. The FC/FE/FS/FX series from 1983-1986 featured FM tone generators and the FX series featured the company's first digitally sampled sounds for the onboard percussion/rhythm units. The E-70, from 1977, was one of the first home based organs to feature Yamaha's PASS analog synthesis in a console cabinet. Some notable users of the GX-1 include: Stevie Wonder, Keith Emerson, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, and Benny Andersson of ABBA. The GX-1 utilized velocity-sensitive keyboards and the solo keyboard was even pressure, or aftertouch, sensitive. The GX-1, released in 1975, was the first polyphonic synthesizer in Electone form, bridging the gap between synthesizer and organ. By 1974, Yamaha began designing Electones around synthesizers, instead of organs, starting with the CSY-1 that was based on the SY-1 synthesizer. The EX-42 was also the first to use integrated circuits, although it was still based on analog technology. Two years later, the EX-42 became Yamaha's first commercially available stage model Electone. This Electone was different from prior Electones, as it was expressly designed for stage performances. In 1968, Yamaha released the EX-21 prototype. Yamaha began importing Electones to the United States, starting with the D-2B in 1967. While the traditional home electronic organ is a relative rarity today, the Electone's late 20th-century transformation into a true synthesizer, capability and portability led to its becoming, along with its competitors, the successor in many ways to the famous Hammond electronic organ models of mid-century. Electones were to be found not only in homes, especially in Japan and elsewhere in the East Asia, but also in bands and other solo and group public performances. This would be the key to the Electone’s survival as the traditional home electronic organ market dried up.īy the 1980s, many of the most famous names had ceased home production, but the Electone successfully translated into the modern world of digital synthesizers, now competing with such new electronic products as Moog Music, Wersi, and later Kurzweil.
But by 1970, with the market waning sharply, and some manufacturers ceasing production, the Electone line, as did its competitors, embraced digital technology. This was a bad moment to enter the market as early “home entertainment centers,” electronic organs were facing heavy (and strengthening) competition from both television and high fidelity audio systems, neither of which required any musical skill, unlike the electronic organ. The Yamaha Electone series debuted in 1959 with the D-1, a home instrument. By the end of the 1950s, familiar brand names of home organs in addition to Hammond included Conn, Kimball, Lowrey, and others, while companies such as Allen and Rodgers manufactured large electronic organs designed for church and other public settings. After Hammond pioneered the electronic organ in the 1930s, other manufacturers began to market their own versions of the instrument.
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