GENOS in the HOUSE!! Pics and first impressions...

Okay, as difficult as it is to tear myself away from playing with it, I knew people are eager to here some first impressions from end-users. So here are some pics and some of my first impressions:

1) The keyboard surprisingly light and svelte. It came right out the box easily.
2) The screen is HUUUGE and a nice surprise. Almost like a small computer monitor.
3) The inset of the screen is weird as is the capacitive touch function which needs a decisive touch to work. Ugh.
4) Biggest bummer for me is that Tyros 5 expansion packs (*.ppi) give an error "Unsupported file Type" :-[ I depend on them for my work and the promise was Genos giveth and Genos not taketh away. What's up with that?
5) All the buttons and knobs are HUGE, a bit TOO huge. And spread out. Going to take getting used to finding (read: stretching) my way around blindly while playing.

Going to play a bit and if I don't fall asleep at the machine, I'll post an update.

Happy playing everyone!


Posted also @ http://www.psrtutorial.com/forum/index.php/topic,40470.0.html

More pics...

Showstopper! Changing from variations D to C while playing with OTS enabled (style 'UnpluggedBallad'; voice: Strings from OTS on variation D) the Strings volume spike up until you let go and play the next note (which is guitar as the OTS for variation C) --- THIS IS SO IMMATURE and harks to the old PSRs. Come on Yamaha!

More: Common use is to press next variation (with auto fill-in on) on the last note of a beat (verse) so the fill-in leads you into the next verse. On the Genos if you have OTS enabled it will truncate the note you are holding for the whole fourth beat and nothing sounds until you press a key for the next note on the downbeat of the next variation (which is then the next sound). OTS remains broken. Amature hour!

On a positive note (pun intended :P) the sound is very rich and full, a big step up and will be enjoyed by many. The strings are realistic sounding -- and I'm usually very critical of 'fake' strings.

More:

---Just played some more. The large screen sure makes getting around easy and editing volumes/effects, choosing sound/styles are all markedly improved.
---I do miss some of the neat features of my Korg PA4X such as dragging down or up to change a dial on screen instead of trying to turn the virtual knob exactly, and the kludgy Genos screen sensitivity does help either.
---At the end of the day I hear the Tyros inside, it's like a kid who went to college and came back with a beard and glasses.
---I dislike having to reach to enable/disable voice 1 2 or 3. It should have been placed right in front and center or close to it. Fail!
---Did I say the buttons are huge? Recalls the Roland arrangers from 15 years ago.
---I don't see the hardware knobs (not the sliders!) being of much use and Yammie should enable live tweaking and morphing of sound (and beats!) from the screen like Korg smartly did with their Kaoss addition to the PA4X. Such a large screen, use it!
---The screen is not very responsive to touch and feels like there's a lightly frosted layer over it. Pressing down doesn't give an immediate reaction, needs massaging or double tapping. For such an expensive machine they should have spent a bit more on a better screen interface.

At the end of the day as of now it's a disappointment. A lot of hype sure, but once you sit with it a bit it seems like an impostor in fancy clothing. It may do well in a slow paced studio environment but for a live performance, not so sure.
I will reserve final judgement for after playing it for a few more days. My gut tells me I'm going to be keeping and loving my PA4X (and I was a Yamaha guy for 30 years!) and will be selling the Genos (anyone interested?). Yamaha really needs to listen to the people on the street who actually use their gear every day and not just ask a few artists and people who will tell them what they want to hear.

Tomorrow is another day, and...hey...life's still good! ;-)

You talking about the roland va7 from 15 years ago right. That had big buttons. Would you say the korg pa4x sounds and styles are equally as good as genos?

Yes! It's like a reincarnation of the Roland VA7, with candy buttons and all ;-)

The pa4x sounds are --to my ears at least-- far superior. However Yamaha wins points for great string patches this time round.

Good to know. Oh i remember the buttons on that va7 were a bit stiff...but solid..and light up completely. It was kinda cool for 2001 i guess lol

Can you edit or mix drum elements within the style like on Pa4x?? Is there a mono legato on Genos??

I wasn't expecting to hear the bad news so soon....will you be returning the genos for something else or? Appreciate your honesty and reviews its alot of money and people are very curious...good luck to you and your music.

Thank you

Did you remove the plastic film from the screen before you touched it a lot of guys had that problem on the TC voice live 3 because they for got to remove the plastic film after they did that it worked fine I never had that problem I still have the plastic film on my voice live 3. Cal

Yamaha ...what have you done?

That is why Yamaha is still keeping the cat in the bag. Good politicians. Selling us a lot of air and promises 😀😀.

Being a Pa900 guy with no interest in a new board of any kind, I don't 'have a horse in this race', and I respect every one's opinion about KBs, but before 'jumping off the bandwagon' and cancelling orders, don't you think we should have a few more 'hands on' reviews' ?!? ...
I believe frankiev said he was impressed with the Geno's ...
I am sure there will be some 'Yammies' who will love it, and if not, WOW ...

As with any important decision I will sit on it for a few days and then make a final determination. I have a Korg pa4x which I recently got and I really love it. It's ease of use and MANY player-centric features that make life easier and knock Yamaha out of the park.

If I do sell the Genos it will be for local pickup (Rockland County, NY) and if anyone is interested please PM me. I also have the Genos speaker system (Yamaha GNS-MS01) that Yamaha made for the keyboard.

Grrrr.

It didn't come with any plastic film on it.

You are 10000% right! Everyone needs to try it in person and decide for themselves, plus use cases are different. For ME this is not a revolutionary keyboard and I will probably be selling it shortly and keeping my pa4x.

I posted some updates and more photos on PSR tutorials. Instead of double posting, here's the link:

http://www.psrtutorial.com/forum/index.php/topic,40470.50.html

I like how it looks. Very impressive.

The screen size makes a difference...

So true! It's like a small computer screen and helps get around immensely. I still don't know why anyone approved placing the RH 1 RH2 sound buttons ALL THE WAY over on the right side. While playing, keeping hands on and close to the key-field is vital and this just takes the hands away from playing. Should have been placed where the One Touch Setting buttons are now, or at least push that up and put it right under it (plenty of room!)

First and foremost, I would like to complement zalmang for posting his observations about the Genos here on the forum. It's always nice to read someone's first, hands-on experiences and impressions about ANY arranger keyboard and I for one value them a lot over speculative comments, posts and threads.

Now, about the large, plastic buttons. For many years, arranger keyboard owners and players of ALL brands, have asked for larger, positive lock, lighted buttons that were not made of rubber on the TOTL arrangers - again, Yamaha answered and responded favorably along those lines.

The same goes for the touch screen, and from my observations, at least from what I can see on the videos posted, the response time is about the same as any touch screen system - not slower or with any greater delay. I could be wrong, but that's just from from a video observation - not hands on. I've worked with lots of touch screen devices, smart phones, marine electronics, etc..., and they all have some detectable lag time, though it has never been significant to me, maybe because I don't need fast stuff at my age.

Finally, zalmang's post was after just a single day of hands on with his new Genos - which for me would be difficult to evaluate that quickly. Every piece of electronic gear I've ever owned, marine, smart phone, PC, arranger keyboard, PA system, vocal processor, mixer, you name it, took some time to get it to function the way I felt was best for ME. Despite more than a half century of working with electronic gear, I could not possibly have evaluated any of it in a single day with any degree of certainty. I think the biggest problem I ever had along these lines was I always wanted my new keyboard to sound and function just like the one I was replacing, only I wanted it to sound better without doing anything to it - that never happened.

Again, a big thanks to zalmang for posting his comments and hands on experiences, but I will have to reserve my judgement until I either drive for 8 hours up to Frankie Vee's, or see many more hands on evaluations by others, particularly live entertainers who utilize every aspect of the keyboard in their daily lives making a living onstage.

All the best,

Gary

Gary are you interested in getting a Genos now that would be great to hear you playing one even just at home???

Gary,

Spot on!! Happy to share my findings and I hope everyone understand to make their own decision based on hands-on experience.

Although as I mentioned in post #91 on PRS tutorial (http://www.psrtutorial.com/forum/index.php/topic,40470.50.html) some lousy surface controls choices were made and I'm surprised no one raised them internally.

I knew that first time I heard it demoed...
I closed my eyes and heard TYROS 4,5,...
but there will be space for it somewhere Im sure for many people..
thanx for your reviews..

People inside Yamaha thought it wasn't really ready yet. I'm sure they are working on the software to fix the bugs. OS updates after a major release isn't unusual.

software change is one thing....design cannot be changed..

It should have a protective film over the screen my Tyros 5 still has it on. Cal

Not for me, yet, Donny - I still have a sailboat to contend with unless some old fart comes along and wants a great deal on a boat big enough to live on and cross oceans. If and when the boat is sold, I might consider a Genos, but for the little playing I do now that I have retired, I guess I'll stick with my trusty S-950 - it still does a fantastic job for me.

Gary

Just proves that buying blind is a no no, and you should always try before you buy. (Or at least make sure you can get a full refund after a trial period)

Bill

Its fun to see that the first known Genos owner, like the Korg Pa4x better...

@abacus Well yes, but keep in mind that many folks in countries the size of the US or Canada live hundreds of miles from any store carrying any arrangers, or any kind of music store, let alone the latest and greatest.

Hey everyone I’ve been sitting back and reading all your posts I tried the Korg for 2 weeks and I hated it I play country music and I can say I never heard worse styles couldn’t get my head around how to create styles on it so I brought it back and got a Tyros 5 and I’ve never looked back I’ve the genos ordered and I can’t wait 😊

The Genos didn't come with any film on the screen.

I bought my KORG PA 4X blind.................

Me too! And I'm loving it (been a Yamaha guy for decades! Korg is now where its at)

Thanks for your honest review!

Can you tell me, does the Genos have the MusicFinder as in the T5?
Also, does Genos accept the MFC10 foot controller?

Many thanks and Good Luck!
Don P

Zalmang, can you please check something basic about the chord recognition for me?
In "AI Fingered" mode... If you play a single note in the chord recognition area, does the Genos interpret this as a unison [1+8], or a major chord? Thanks!

Guys: Don’t forget the problems with the early 4X as well. Don M. had issues with the screen and early software bugs if I recall.

I realize that at this price point...Yamaha should have a fully functioning board. With their reputation for delivering a great product, they must certainly be working in earnest to smooth out early bugs. At least I hope so!

I checked and it seems to do unison.

UPDATE

I got to sit with the Genos for a few more hours today. I also connected the Genos speaker set and it helped bring it to life. Like many intimated here, it's growing on me. Certainly a lot of work was done to the sounds and sound engine and it is apparent. The strings are fabulous. The solo Flute, Sax, and Guitar are also superb. I had a thought while playing that the Genos SOUND raises to the level of Yamaha's top of the line Clavinovas (I have the CVP-609). They always sounded better than the Tyros TOTL and now the Genos is on their level and even surpass them in some sound areas.

Looking forward to it growing on me more and more. My hunch is this would be good for a home/studio keyboard (maybe replace our Clavinova CVP-609PE) and use the pa4x for live gigs.

Music makes the world go round and round...and also our minds!!

Have you calibrated your Genos. I just got my shipment of keyboards in and noticed the touch rsponse was off so I pushed "menu", then "Utility" then "calibrate" and after doing so the touch worked just fine! You can also adjust the screen to make a sound when you hit it. It defaults to "off"

Good, helpful information, George.

zalmang, I sincerely believe that you will find more and more things you will like as you go through the instrument and tune it to your own, personal preferences. I've done this with every arranger keyboard I've owned over the past 20 years, and they have all been simply amazing after a few weeks of tuning and tweaking. None were amazing right out of the box, though Dom Mason tells me his PA4X was. Of course, so was his first wife, or was that his first girlfriend, I forget, now!

Good luck,

Gary

Good idea! Doing that now. BTW the more I use the GENOS the more I forget and feel like I'm sitting at a more recent Clavinova like the CVP-609 I own in another room. It's the screen and HQ sounds that give that impression.

Yep! Holding off flipping it to someone else for now.

I received a pdf file from yamaha this afternoon which was a quick guide tutorial for the Genos. One of the chapters was about compatibility with previous Tyros registrations and user styles. You can use all registrations from the Tyros 2 and after with no problems. The sounds will all work and if will pick a usable style automatically if the registrations style isn't available on the Genos.
Also, it states that if you own any Tyros purchased files from Yamaha Music Soft, there will be a new version for the Genos which will be free of charge if you had previously purchased it for your Tyros.

Found this pdf file in a tread at PSR Tutorial.
Some questions answered as far as I can see.
Hope it's not illegal to post it here

Did this calibrate function improve the touch sensivity?