Hello Don,
Thank you for your advice.
I am also intrigued by the Korg PA4X.
I understand that you perform with one.
If so, since you have both the Genos and Korg,
you may be the only one here who might be in the best positon to give a fair opinion
on both these instruments.
Assuming that you are presently using them side by side.
Best Regards,
Pianoman.
I don't have a Genos, only the PA4X. My most recent Yamaha is PSR S970. I dearly love the Korg. It has all the sounds I need, even though that dreamy new Pedal Steel Guitar on the Genos is tempting.
The main thing I love about the Korg is the size, weight and wonderful operating features. It has many programmable sliders, buttons, etc., the great Chord Sequencer, and the Songbook is great. The Vocal Harmonizer is by T.C. Helicon and is truly outstanding. The midi-to-style converter works surprisingly well also. If you start with a good midi file, in 10 seconds or so you can have a good style!
It does have great guitars, saxes, organs and pianos and the drums are very realistic. The guitars, and other sounds, as a rule are not as "prepared" as they are on Yamaha, but they are deeply editable and it's easy to set them the way you like. Korg has DNC voices, which work similarly to Yamaha's SA voices. I have become a fan of them. I often find that some of the Yamaha voices do too many things automatically and that I'm not in control of them. I just read there may be a way to disable some of that though.
You would probably enjoy and benefit from the KAOSS feature that appeared with the latest free Korg update. Check it out on YouTube. It's not something I use much, but is great with more modern music.
There would be a learning curve, but no worse that if you were going from Korg to Yamaha and having to learn that operating system.
Another great feature is the EC5 foot pedal, allowing five assignments, plus another single programmable foot switch, and dedicated volume and sustain pedals. The EC5 is not expensive, but well built and light in weight.
The Genos has three pedal inputs, but they are all three programmable, so that would certainly suffice for me in that category. I only have two feet so more than three pedals is too much for me to fully utilize anyway.
The new Revo drums seem to be finally at a professional level! About time!
One drawback on the S970 is that the audio drums, in most cases, sound so good that it makes the midi drums sound worse. Not so with the Genos, which has made the audio drums not necessary, at least to Yamaha's way of thinking, and mine as well.
I will certainly audition the Genos after the first of the year, but I don't expect it to replace my Korg. If I win the lottery, I would have both.
But I never buy a ticket so that may not happen!
I didn't know you were considering the Korg. If you are really busy and don't have some free time to learn the Korg OS, you may be better served to stay with Yamaha, and reward yourself with the Genos! Just my opinion of course. There's not really a wrong choice, but one of the other may suit you better. The Korg is certainly less expensive, if that is a concern, but money is well spent if it improves the tools of your trade!