Ok, lets talk buttons, first. When Yamaha switched from the Tyros1 and PSR style buttons it was because many, many people complained about button failures. I, personally, knew players that pushed the buttons so hard they destroyed the contacts in less than a month when performing with their Tyros 2 and PSR-3000 keyboards.
Yamaha then changed their design to bubble switched with rubber covers. By and large, they held up well and continue to hold up in the PSR series. My S-950 switches are bubble switches with semi-hard buttons over the top of the bubble, however, the big complaint then became the switches were too small, so Yamaha responded with larger, positive snap switches that could take a beating from the heavy handed players, and had a light built into the switch pad so you knew when it was selected, instead of a small LED light just above the selected switch.
Now the complaints were that the switch was too loud, so they softened the click of the micro-switch, made the indicator lights a bit brighter, but kept the same size format. Apparently, Yamaha listens, and for the most part, responds to reasonable requests.
Now, I listened to and watched several of Deane's videos. Deane is an excellent player and because of this, he tends to keep very busy in the Dallas area performing the senior circuit. However, what Deane played were Tyros4 styles loaded into the Genos, using many of his Tyros4 registrations. While the keyboard sounded pretty darned good, to me, it sounded more like a Tyros4 than a Genos. I base this on the difference I heard between his performances and some of the Genos demos I listened to on the PSR-Tutorial site.
Now, lets look at Holiday styles - all holiday styles. When it comes to Christmas, which was always a very, very busy season for most of us, this is where Yamaha excels over all other brands. Sure, most Christmas songs are either waltzes, marches or swings, with an occasional ballad thrown in. So, if you play your own intro and ending, then any style in the aforementioned category will suffice if it fits.
Yamaha, and some others, have created many dedicated styles just for Christmas. Additionally, there are dozens of song specific Yamaha styles that were created over the years just for that holiday period, which around here, lasts the entire month of December. I personally have about 50 of them on file, and most were outstanding, though some were a bit unorthodox, such as the Regae Silent Night and a similar one for Rudolph, though the audiences loved them. Even had a great rock style for Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, which always went over big.
There are other holidays to consider as well, some of which were very popular such as Saint Patrick's Day, which was often booked two years in advance. And, that holiday lasted much of the entire week, at least from a party standpoint. Again, waltzes, marches and some ballads were acceptable, but when you fired up with a song specific style, again, Yamaha was miles ahead of the competition.
When I was working and actively seeking out those private, holiday parties, I used to send out a card that was titled "A Dozen Good Reasons To Celebrate." I then listed a dozen holidays from my calendar, and within a few days, booked every one of them solid. As DNJ always says "If you have the goods..." Well, I had em!
Don Mason once said, "The biggest mistake people make with their new arranger keyboards is they try to make it sound like the keyboard they replaced it with" He was right on the money with his statement, and for the most part, I too was guilty of this until I got the PSR-3000. At that point, I started from scratch, went through each and every song that I performed, sat down at the keyboard and went through the various style categories and selected an appropriate style from the new keyboard. Sure, this takes a lot of time, and for the most part, it appears that the I gotta have it now crowd is not going to invest that much time into their new keyboards. However, if I were 10 years younger (67), and still in relatively good health, Frank would have my order for a new Genos. And, it would be two to three months before it would go on stage - not the next day after it was received. Sure, I would transfer the MFD, then go through it and edit all the styles that were not picked up and replace them as needed. The only registrations I would transfer were those that used third party style files that were song specific styles that I would have used regardless of the updates. Those that used onboard styles would likely be left behind on the old keyboard - don't need them anymore because I can quickly and very easily create new ones with the new onboard styles that will sound so much better.
Back to your regularly scheduled channel,
Gary
Previous Topic
Index