Well I have reviewed a number of the new Yamaha Genos YouTube clips. Martin Harris is a beast, let me say that from the get go! And some have already said he can make any instrument sound awesome. He’s just that good.
In terms of the sounds of the Genos, I don’t think you could put a piece of paper between how it sounds compare to the Tyros 5. To me they sound identical in terms of sound quality. And that’s a compliment, because Yamaha sounds have always been Stella and I think they will struggle to provide any other instrument going forward that will greatly surpass what they have already achieved In terms of real world sounds.
What is a huge step forward is the touchscreen and this feature alone will make the Genoe more desirable than any of its predecessors. I like what I have seen and heard especially the real-time control improvements that Yamaha have now added including the joystick and knobs to tweak the sounds in real time. All in all Genos is a Tyros with a touchscreen , some arps and a better user interface.
Some would argue, that will be sufficient for them to drop another pile of money (equivalent to the cost of a small family car) for this upgrade . And God bless them as this keeps the economy going and keeps bringing innovation to keyboards which everyone will benefit from eventually. Where I think Yamaha dropped the ball is that they have castrated the workstation element in the digital workstation/arrange keyboards by limiting the editability of the instrument unless it is hooked up to a computer for recording, sequencing and production. I guess that is because they will assume that anyone using the genos for song writing and composing will have it hooked up to a computer. But for me, I like to create and compose and arrange on the instrument that I am playing.
From reading the specs, it does not look like the genos sequencer is any more detailed than its predecessors. And that unfortunately for me is a definite deal breaker. Other than that, I love what Yamaha have done and it has brought the arranger keyboard (in terms of their offering ) into the 21st-century. I think in terms of sounds, both the tyros range and Genos sounded marginally better than the Korg PA 4x, but in terms of editability and an “all in one box solution“ true workstation , Yamaha are still trailing . However I think that probably was a deliberate decision.
Interesting how people perceive sound differently, as apart from some of the new features included on the T5 (Ensemble etc.) I found the T5 to be way inferior to the T4 on which it was based, (Note this was live trial comparisons, not professional video demos which sound nothing like the instrument in the real world) whereas so far (But I will reserve final judgment until I have tried it) the sounds in the videos of the Genos have taken a giant leap forward, (The round robin feature is a very welcome addition) which now puts Yamaha on a level with the Korg PA4x.
It’s also interesting about the joystick, as I find this a retrograde step, (I have never been able to get on with the joystick approach) with an assignable pitch & modulation wheel being much better.
I do think Yamaha will sell shed loads of the Genos though (The T5 sales were poor compared to previous models, with the 76 note model being its saving grace) as it really is a step up for Yamaha. (The way the PA4x kicked the T5s backside (Butt) in both sales and quality (I have never known so many users jump from the Yamaha ship) they had to do something)
Bill
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