The problem with built-in styles in arranger keyboards is you can never fully please everyone with what ends up in the finished version of the instrument. Some people want more Arabic styles, some want more polkas and I recently saw a post asking about more hip hop. The fact that there are 64 User Style locations on the Genesys and the ability to store hundreds of styles on the included internal hard drive or burn them to a CD right on the instrument makes for a very versatile instrument. If you are comfortable with sequencing it is not very hard to create your own custom styles or even edit the existing styles. There are websites that offer additional styles for the Genesys, some for free and some for a small fee. The RASS styles are particularly interesting because they feature sampled loops of real live instrumentation played by real musicians but still retain the ability to respond to tempo and key changes.

As for sounds, I feel there are many more sounds than just the sax that are more musically useful in the Genesys than what is available on some of the other instruments out there. As already mentioned in this thread, a believable reproduction of an acoustic instrument from an electronic keyboard is largely dependant on how the sound is played. But it sure helps if the sounds/samples are of higher quality and good programming as that makes the job quite a bit easier. Behind the scenes of the Genesys sound engine is a real full-fledged programmable synthesizer which allows for an incredible amount of sound modeling that is just not present on most of the other instruments. If you don’t care for a particular sound, it can be modified to your liking.

The Genesys is the most customizable arranger keyboard available and it doesn’t require the user to be an expert at brain surgery to figure out. Like any instrument, there is a learning curve, but the panel layout is very logical, and if you do get stuck General Music’s product support is very good (I happen to know the guy who provides support. Nice guy!). The Genesys has enjoyed a very high reliability since it was first introduced.

A final thought- All of the instruments/brands available today are pretty good. Each has their own pluses and minuses. I really do feel that the Genesys has more pluses than most. Am I biased? No, not really. I have owned all of the popular and not so popular brands of keyboard instruments over the years and have come to the conclusion that the General Music instruments offer more bang for the buck so to speak. I am not sure if it is unfortunate or not that the company is still relatively small in comparison to the Japanese companies and therefore doesn’t have huge resources when it comes to advertising, promotions, etc. I do think that they deserve a much larger share of the market than what they currently have. Thankfully, things are moving forward within the company very nicely and it may not be long before the name General Music becomes more of a household word. Although I am pretty sure that the company will stick to making musical instruments and not delve into golf carts, motorcycles, pocket knives, etc.

Dave