Generalmusic "genesys" Video

I have been asked by some people reading these message boards for information on the genesys keyboard. You know what they say, a picture is worth a thousand words....How much is a video worth??? To view the genesys Video go to: http://generalmusic.us/Homekeyboards/genesys.htm

There is a video for both people on dial-up and for those lucky enough to have High-Speed internet. There are also some other goodies you can check out as well. Enjoy!

It seems that Genesys is a great machine!

Luis Santos

This is a very cool board and I'd love to have one.....BUT at $5200.00 a copy on a factory direct deal, that's too rich even for my gear lust budget.

A couple of my concerns about it are:
1. 64 note polyphony
2. 2 gig h/d that's not alot for wav files.
3. They did not mention a vocal harmonizer either, or did I miss it.

I would hope the board works better than their internet connection does on DSL.
------------------
jam on,
Terry http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html



[This message has been edited by trtjazz (edited 03-05-2003).]

Vocal harmonizer is there. I hope it is an improved one over WK/SK series

Hello Paul.

Tks for sharing.

Terry;I downloaded the video without problems in just 27 minutes.

Chico

First off, that is 64 real notes of polyphony... You can really play 64 notes at one time. Secondly, when recording which is the only way to really out play the polyphony of this instrument, you can record to the hard drive freeing up all the polyphony. I personally haven't had a problem with a single note dropping out.


The instrument was designed to have enough for burning an entire Audio CD and still have plenty left over for other functions and storage. Remember there is a built in CD burner that will allow you to archive the stuff you aren't using.


There is onboard effects, as well as a vocoder and 4 part vocal harmonizer (editable).

Generalmusic.US is in testing currently, and you actually got to see it before the roll out. I merely wanted to show those that were interested in the genesys the video. That being said, that server is on an OC-3 connection to the backbone. Furthermore the site is hosted on a pretty beefy server, to allow sustained high levels of traffic. If you were having troubles with connection speed, I would like to know what your ping rate was, as well as a site like google. Also the route the ping took. This would be most helpful. Sincerely Paul Davis

Paul
Well, let's see here. I'm not cappin' on the Genesys, in fact I like the board quite a bit and was the only other board in contention when I bought my Tyros instead.

H/D
2 gig hard drive is still not alot with wav files easily being 50/60mgs each. And if the o/s is taking up some of that 2 gigs as well. Add some wav samples and pretty soon there's nothing left. My hard disk recorder has a 12 gig drive on it. Archiving things to cd would not be very convienient I don't think, but a 10 gig drive would.

64 note polyphony
With lush strings and and other large polyphony eating voices, not to mention sustain pedal, effects etc., one can run out and get note drop out. 128 note is fairly common now and at over $5k for the board I think it should have 128.

as far as my ping rate and all that to the connection.....
I guess I should feel lucky compared to Chico with a 27 minute d/l. My connection just had to keep stopping to refill the buffer.

"I would like to know what your ping rate was, as well as a site like google. Also the route the ping took."
You're joking right?
I didn't pay a bit of attention to any of the above. All I was saying is that normally I can click on anything and it just plays. This connection just kept stopping and rebuffering.

Sorry if you got bunched up over my comments, as I said, I really like the board except for I think it's too expensive especially considering what I think are valid concerns.

------------------
jam on,
Terry http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html

Unfortunately there isn't a standard to counting polyphony... Do you ever wonder why some manufactures state 64,128, 256(max) polyphony? This is because how some samples play back handle polyphony different. You could play one not and play as much as 8 notes of polyphony (traditionally polyphony was counted) with some manufactured instruments. I remember when an instrument stated it could play 32 notes of polyphony, you could actually play 32 notes at one time, on any sound. Now with some manufactures when they state numbers like 256 notes, you can't just choose any sound and play simultaneously 256 notes. So, point being, the genesys can play 64 notes all at one time. If you are recording, as I said save to hard drive and free up all the polyphony and continue on.


As far as Wav files, save them as MP3's and save the room. I look at the 2 gig limit as a way to force you to backup your work... Sure bigger is always better, but more cost $$$

Force of habit for me, if the connection seems slow, I check the ping rate. I wasn't suggesting that you needed to do anything.. Was more wanting that information for testing and improving the site.... Bare in mind, that the site isn't truly ready.

Not at all, I know the genesys isn't for everyone, Those that own them, love them, and wouldn't trade them for the world. I am happy that you are enjoying your Instrument, and even considered the genesys. There isn't one instrument out there that is right for everyone. Knowing me, if there were, I would buy something else just so I'd be different.

Price: Lets compare, Tyro's at Musician's Friend. $3000
Hard Disk Recorder and Burner $900
MP3 Player $200
Sample Player to Play Professional Sample Sounds like Akai, Kurzweil, AIFF, Wav $1000.00
Tune 1000 Library $100.00
Vocal Remover $100.00
Now I don't want to get into the plus and minus of every keyboard and values of each, I merely wanted to show, with all the extras on the instrument the price isn't that far off. I bet if you go to a local dealer that has bought a genesys on special, the dealer could make you a deal. I personally wouldn't trade my genesys for anything (until the 88 note version )

Just for the record, cause from the start it seemed that since Gem is not very well known in the US there was a lot of silly quots about it so I decided not to participate in any discussion about Genesys, sorry no hard feeling but that is how I felt perhaps I am wrong, but for the record so you'll know, you can upgrade the hard disk up to 10 GIGS. I suggest that you'll see that VIDEO cause it wil give you just a small idea of the keyboard.

Ziggy,
You're right the Genesys nor Gem is well known here in the US. Rather than silly q's though, I believe at least I am, trying to learn about it....such as the h/d is upgradeable to 10g.

As I said earlier I think this is an excellent board and was my 2nd choice, mainly due to 2 things price and availability. The features are outstanding, however that needs to be tempered with assuming someone needs them. Most everything that comes on the Genesys I already have in one form or another, so the value is hard for me to justify as I would just be duplicating my existing set up and so I have to look at the value from just the keyboard point of view.

------------------
jam on,
Terry http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html

Terry,

For serious recording, one needs to have 120 Gigs. I recently replaced my 30GIGs audio harddrive with 120 Gigs. I do not believe the intention of Genesys to replace our own dedicated software sequencers and hard drive recorders. The intention is to allow us to create quick songs on the fly.

For example, so many times, my church asks me for a quick selection of songs Sunday morning. So I may have only on hour to do multiple songs. The genesys will allow me to do these songs very quickly, put them on a cd and erase them from the harddrive. Many of the friends of my mother come to me asking that their kids sing while I play for them. They want their kids recorded. Usually, I say NO because it is too much work and time consuming. With this, I can generate the CD, give it to the mother, erase the files from harddrive. Finally, So many times I get very nice ideas that I wish I can record. However, because it is time consuming to record on my dedicated studio, I simply do not do it and I lose the idea very quickly.

Concerning th 64 polyphony, I agree with you. However, I have sk880user with 64 polyphony and I have never ran out of polyphony and my sequences are very thick with many instruments. Also, I have a bad habit of overusing the sustain padel and my music teachers always told me about it. I believe there is something true about real-polyphony... because with other keyboards I easily run with 64 polyphony but not SK880. Remember how some sounds take more than one polyphony? Well, if in genesys, one sound is one polyphony, that can be very good.

Finally, the street price of Genesys is $3000, this is what I paid for SK880PS oriental fully loaded with all options (except scsi). I agree that 5K is not a reasonable price but I do not believe any dealer is selling it for that outrageous price.

Hello all,

Maybe Paul can give us a ruling on this, it comes with a 2 gig, looks like ya might be able to use a 10 gig, is that the limit? If not, what is?

Now if somebody asked me what I thought of the Genesys coming with a 2 gig HD, I'd say it doesn't make sense to me. Their last keyboard came with a 2 gig (WK8) and that was released what?...4 years ago. What's up? A super-surplus of 2 gigs?

My next point would be related to its function, saving data. I think the ability to save your performances as a .wav file is very, very cool. But in the real world, how long is it gonna take to fill that drive? I betcha jam-on-Terry could do it in one night. Some practices, some live takes, drive gets full, ya gotta stop what you're doing, weed out the keepers from the throw-aways (Terry has keepers...I would have a lot of throw-aways), transfer to CD, you get my point.

If it would have been a 10 gig to begin with, well OK. A 20 gig, I would have had absolutely no problem with. But a 2 gig....

Okay, I'll look on the bright side. At least it came with a HD.

mike

Just for the record, Generalmusic doesn't have name recognition like Yamaha, Roland, Korg, Technics, but among the professional Piano and Keyboard people we are very well known. Generalmusic is a family owned company out of Italy, not a mega international company such as Yamaha. Generalmusic builds musical instruments and electronics to support the making of music such as speakers etc. Generalmusic until recently wasn't distributing everything they built, Baldwin Piano Company sold Generalmusic's Digital pianos under the name Pianoville, Peavey electriconics distributed the other instruments such as the Sk880, Equinox, The Pro 1 and Pro 2...

Here is just a sampling of the artists playing Generalmusic instrument, mind you, they aren't paid to do so, and they actually buy them. Guys like, Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Larry William, Gino Vanneli, J.T.Thomas, George Duke,John Tesh, Jason Miles, Otmaro Ruiz. Those that don't know who these people are, you are looking at some of the very top musicians/keyboardist in the world.

Currently 2 gigs is the limit.

The genesys keyboard runs on a flash O.S. like a lot of progressive keyboard manufactures. Generalmusic has the ability to completely change how the instrument works, and furthermore unlike some flash upgradeable instruments they have the ability to change the sounds too. Mike, hope I gave you enough lines to read between.

Guys,

On the demo, Genesys sure sounds terrific. But then on a demo any instrument sounds terrific - I am yet to see a manufacturer who would put anything other than their best sounds and features forward when making a promotional video. We can argue about the specs, as to whether a 2 gig HD is big enough (where the heck did they get a 2 gig disk? no one makes them anymore), or whether 64 voice polyphony is enough (in the WK/SK voices were using multiple notes of polyphony, so it was possible to use individual sounds which used up multiple notes of polyphony, not to mention layering - I hope this is not the case with the G, because with my playing style I can see myself running out of 64 notes quickly with using layered sounds and accompaniment going).

The real test for me is how I can make this instrument sound when I get my hands on it. And herein lies my problem - NONE of the 4 stores who are authorized GEM dealers in metro Phoenix area are having it displayed, because of the high price. None of them offer a return policy, so if I were to guy one, I'd be plunking my 000s of $ for a basically unknown quantity.

One think I do know from the specs - the thing is BIG and HEEEAVYYY - there is no way I would be carrying it to gigs. But even if there are people who are stronger than me and actually enjoy carrying heavy objects (because it is good for their physique or perhaps reminds them of the good old days carrying real grand pianos on their backs), I am sure they would want to ask GEM the same question I would: if you are making the instrument so big, WHY NOT put in 76 keys?

Indeed, I have seen pictures of the Genesys Pro - without speakers, but even it, I am sure, is longer than a Ketron SD1. To me this is an indication of the poor design.

I do not dispute the quality of the instrument, nor the fact that GEM is a make well liked by the professionals. The ability to intclude audio on the HD is also a plus. But lack of avaliability, high price, and lack of portability take this instrument out of contention for me.

Regards,
Alex

Paul,
I really do not think anyone is questioning whether or not the Genesys is a great board, with some great features or not, which is the way you seem to be interpreting it.

The only thing I thought we were discussing here is whether or not some of those features are less than we would expect of a board of this level. By the different posts of users, some things seem not to be a problem as anticipated ie, the polyphony.

Please try not to take offense or be defensive.....we're learning and trying to decide should we too consider a Genesys.....at least I am.

------------------
jam on,
Terry http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html

Ya did, and thanks!

mike

Terry,

One of the problems with written text sometimes is that you can't see where you are coming from. I honesty am not taking offence or being defensive, so if I am coming off that way, it isn't my intention. The name dropping was, for those that haven't really heard of Generalmusic products.. To give some credibility....

Before I got to play the instrument and grasp what the genesys was all about, I had the same concerns you do, polyphony, hard drive, weight, price. When I got my mind around what the genesys is all about, it was like a light turning on. Like Sk880 said, I haven't been able to out play the polyphony on the instrument, if you are recording big orchestration I could see that 64 notes maybe a little tight, so when recording, I save to disk and free up all the polyphony. The genesys is so wonderful, because it is incredibly easy to use, everyone from the beginner to the tweaker will be satisfied. This isn't going to replace a digital recording studio, nor a real band, but when you want to make music, it works simply and effortlessly.

Paul,

Thanks for the video and info. I was not familiar with this keyboard. It is really a nice keyboard. Please continue keeping us informed about these keyboards.

Peter

Just to let you know Alex, that video wasn't intended for the public to see. As you can tell from the terrific camera shots and the less than professional sound recording and dubbing. This video was taken at NAMM 2002 for the Reps to see and show the dealers what the new instrument was all about. Funny thing is, most of the dealers have never seen this video. I am shocked that in your area there are no GEM dealers selling the genesys. I will look into this for you, and if you really want to check out the genesys, I will make sure that a GEM dealer has one for you to listen and play in your area.

As far as weight, I can say this, yep its heavier than anything in its class. Yes, with the new ones coming out, they will be lighter. The sound system is huge in this instrument and will carry a small room, 25-50 people. For those that play bigger rooms, the sound system can double as a really great sounding monitor system.

Paul,
IMO the board has enough credibility just listening to it and seeing the video demo. I'm not particularily star struck though, but then again I doubt any of the names you mentioned are all that impressed with my work either.

------------------
jam on,
Terry http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html