When I first bought a Tyros 3 (my first arranger).. It blew me away.. It sounded like a real ensemble of people playing. The T4, T5 improved on that.
I think our own musical development, will greatly affect what we think of the Genos.. I'm a studio player, quit playing in bands at 30.. I was more interested in arrangement, production, I would venture to say almost all of the older members here played the Tyros like it was originally designed for, a live one man band..
As I've aged, I now like variety and subtlety in the sounds I choose to work with.. I complement the Tyros with Sample libraries, and virtual instruments in Logic Pro.
I read the article by the Genos designer. He went and saw a lot of performers use it.. and drew from that in his design.
I have absolutely NO USE for any of their EDM styles, or patches.. The marches, polkas, and other world inspirations are of little use to me..
AND I'm sure that younger, new instrument users will like it.. I wonder if Yamaha tried too hard to make the Genos too 'universal'. Putting all of these different flavors..
Surely an EDM producer/performer will have little to no use of 70% of the machine.. They want outrageous sounds, nothing organic, or realistic. And a performer playing senior centers, restaurant, etc, will have no use for any of the EDM stuff.. And there are far cheaper solutions, with more outrageous sounds for EDM.. I do understand the Genos wanting to accommodate the newer generation of one man bands.. But for the last 20 years, those have been DJ's. Some of them add a kbd, and jam along with their records, or their own productions.
What I love about the Tyros series, and arranger kids, in general it can be a great introducer and instructor into arranging, and production. I built songs using the Tyros only, put it into Logic's score editor, and got literally a couple of years worth of theory and arranging instruction.. Sometimes now I score out a style, and then just comp it myself..
I bought some of yamasoft expensive MIDI songs, and saw all the tweaking, and tweezing they did to get the brilliant sound they got.. Constantly changing some of the instrument patches for the same instrument family.. Just as orchestra instruments have all these techniques for variety, Yamaha coaxed it out by cleverly changing patches.. Delicate and complex use of pitchblende, detune, variation, chorus, etc.. makes some instruments in the Tyros better the majority of Kontakt libraries
Now our older entertainer base, probably plays the game of songs from the 40's - 80's too accommodate their audience. So they want a good complement of traditional instruements and styles, a few of the 'newer' stuff to appease their audiences's now adult children..
To be honest, when I first turned the Genos on, The faceplate is totally different, I'm OK with that. Growing to like it.. Although I do have this weird thing with touchpad, and my body chemistry.. Sometimes, keypads don't register my intention correctly.. Having a bit of trouble changing some of the faceplate rotary knobs, but I know I'll get that..
When I first turned the Genos on, my impression was this is tinny and loud.. The Tyros and Motif line (which I've had a few of each) were very much to my liking. Good balanced sound from bottom to top. Some of the traditional instruments in Genos, are a down step to me. Don't like the 'kino' strings they added.
I never bothered with Tyros compression and EQ they worked perfectly as is.. As I grow more accustomed to the Genos, I'll find more things I do really like about it, and know which patches and styles really work for me..
The Tyros was the centerpiece of my recording set-up, I use a fair amount of it's voices, but thru the years I've found sample libraries and VI's that 'do a better job for me and me only)..
I carefully studied it's rather complex MIDI set-up and realized the software designers, had designed it to become very interweaved in a DAW/studio set-up.. It is a great composition device. The Genos has expanded on that with the Digital Outs.. Although the circuitry used in it's analog output is very clean.. and with all those extra DSP, chained together you can create something pretty different.
So yes, the Genos can be very at home in a big recording set-up.. It will also stand as live performing instruments.
Yamaha is trying to create a VERY delicate balance of features at a certain price range. The price increase, is in par with everything else.. actually better than Apple hardware, with their neurotic changing of connectors and outputs.. If I was performing live, I'd want a large SSD or RAID system with traditional hard drives to get the SSD speed.. But then you could just do away with that, and create part of the song at home, and play along live with your mp3 in the Genos..
But on the other side of the coin like some here, I would NOT want to carry my Genos around to gigs. It's too expensive, to scratch up, break, or loose. Still those demanding the best live performances, will insist on it.. and the younger users will have what I had in my 20's - 50'a.. 'Technolust".. That is the junky like mentality to have the newest and the best, right up to the hour technology
Like any good piece of software, there are usually alternative ways to accomplish something, if you stop, pause, and think 'outside the box'.
Yamaha is a very successful company and they've been pleasing the customer for ever.. I feel confident in their decisions.. otherwise they would have folded a long time ago. I might just hold off on selling my Tyros 5 right now.. They could possibly enjoy an afterlife like the Roland 808 drum machined. Praised at one point, then tossed aside for being old, and then revered for it's qualities. Will the Tyros become as famous as an old MINIMOOG, ARP2600, a real Wurlitzer electric pianos or all 1/2 ton of a Hammond B3 with two Leslie speakers?
We can and should continue to give our first impressions. From a number or different users here, there are some things a Korg arranger is great at, and Yamaha at something else.. Nothing can be everything to all people. I don't like to hear the expensive new kbd I just bought, be bad mouthed or put down. I AM certainly willing to listen to someone's opinion I respect that another machine excels in an aspect the Genos doesn't. Then again, one can usually find a work around for anything..
As Bette Midler said in the movie 'Beaches' when she was doing a TV show.. 'SHARE DON"T JUDGE'..
That's my $4k plus contribution (East Coast price of Genos)
