Hey George,

You beat me to it. I needed to get your address and was going to post you as the dealer but you are just too fast!

Thanks for jumping in.
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Hi John,

The quality of sounds and styles is quite subjective. Not to mention that since I work for GEM, it might appear that my opinion is slanted a bit, although I really don't do that type of thing.

Anyway, I have always thought Roland had good sounds and styles for the most part.

Several things to consider;
The Genesys has 256 Styles and an additional 64 User Style Locations as opposed to the RA800's 128 Styles and 8 User Styles.

Each of the 256 internal and user styles has the ability to store up to 8 Style Presets customized for each style. These Style Presets can store up to 6 layered sounds for live play, a left hand sound, sound assignments in the style, tempo, effects routings and parameters for live and style sounds, pedal and wheel assignments, keyboard harmony mode, volume levels of live and style sounds and more.

The large LCD on the Genesys very easy to read and the button layout is very easy to use. The buttons are spaced farther apart than on the RA800 and the frequently used buttons are larger making them easier to use in a live performance situation.

The Genesys has 256 Sound Presets and an additional 256 User Sound Presets. These presets are derived from over 1300 sounds from the Single Sound Mode. A Preset can consist of up to 6 layered sounds and a sound on the left hand side of the keyboard.

The sound engine in the Genesys is NOT based around the General MIDI Sound Set. The RA800 uses the GS sound set which is an upgraded version of the GM sound set. The Genesys does have several banks of GM sounds for playing SMF's, but not being locked into those sounds is a real advantage. A great feature in the Genesys’ operating system allows for the re-mapping of program changes in SMF’s to access the higher quality sounds in the Genesys sounds banks avoiding having to be stuck with the GM sound set.

The Genesys can not only playback SMF's but also has the ability to record up to 32 tracks using the internal 250,000 event sequencer with full editing capabilities.

The Genesys can store 1024 Memories compared to 192 in the RA800. Memories remember everything that Sound and Style Presets do with the addition of mic and line input settings, Vocal Genius settings (4 part vocal harmonizer), Programmable Pad assignments, etc.

The internal CD drive can playback standard audio CD's and MP3 encoded files from CD (great for break music or jamming along with music minus one CD's)

The internal hard drive can be used as a direct-to-disk digital audio recorder. Then a Red Book standard audio CD can be burned using the on-board CD burner.

Multiple pedal inputs can be assigned to many of the front panel functions.

S-Video and composite video output to display lyrics and/or lead sheets on an external television or monitor in addition to viewing on the internal LCD.

Please visit George Kaye to see and play the Genesys. And if you have any other specific questions about the Genesys, please feel free to contact me.

Best Regards,

Dave


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Wm. David McMahan
Nat'l Product and Support Manager
Generalmusic USA