I got my Genos for about 2 weeks now, after trading in my PSR-S970. Time for me to contribute to this forum and give my feedback:
Voices
- Beautiful and lovely piano samples. As best as samples can get, I guess. Wish Yamaha goes for more virtual modelling technology.
- Yes, S.Art2 voices work like magic. I like Woodwind, Brass, Violins, Cellos, Harmonica, etc.
- Default DSP effects are good. The Voice Part Setup gateway is very handy with very suitable DSP to turn on and off or adjust.
- My favourite Strings and Allegro from 970, good for pad and layering with other strings, is now hidden in Legacy... I now need to learn among many new Kino and Seattle strings.
- The first page of Pad now has only 80sPad voices which I found too much? I used to seeing the most common pad voices on the 1st page like VPSoft, AnalogPad, etc. VaporPad goes to Legacy for some reasons..
- Ha, my favourite Mediterran is back to Pad and no longer hidden in Legacy anymore.
- My favourite Chinese voices like Pipa from 970 are missing! Not sure why the top arranger is less in some aspects...
- I like to switch Vocal Harmony default to Off. When switched on, I prefer less, i.e. Balance L30>H.
Styles
- Revo drums are very real in quality. I don't miss the Wave Audio Styles at all.
- Without the Ballad category, I have to look for my favorite ballads under several categories now...
- With pages and pages of voices and styles, I think Yamaha should also implement the Search function on Voices and Styles as well. A Styles search function with name, tempo and time signature filter combination would be perfect.
Keybed
- Big improvement over 970, much firmer and quicker response.
- Like the 76 keys. Now I can play a lot more Classical pieces by myself as well as having more freedom in split settings using two voices during gigs.
- Appears that the key plastics are slightly less firm or less hard than the Tyros 5. A difference between Tyros Made In Japan versus Genos Made In China, or intentional? The Genos I got in Canada comes from Yamaha's Suzhou, China factory.
Design
- Love the black color. One of the appealing reasons to me compared to the grey Tyros.
- Like the curve design at the back and square at the front. Also, the blue and orange button colors, looks professional.
- Weight is quite light. Excellent for moving it around. When I plug in a cable at the back and its tight, it moves the whole keyboard!
- The right hand side of the 6 gateway buttons has a good flat space for placing my cell phone.
- The buttons are quite a bit farther apart from each others than my 970's.
- I still need to get used to or decide whether to use the 1st octave (far left so I have more room for right voices, closest distance to Style Variation buttons for fill ins) or 2nd octave (more natural playing position but farther distance from the Style Variation buttons) for playing left hand chords/ACMP.
- Very useful joystick with good non-slippery material.
- Live Control sliders are good and handy. I prefer them to have slightly more fiction on the feel.
- Knobs surface material is too smooth to operate. 970 live control knobs are actually better.
- The music stand that comes with Genos when attached in position is not very secure, together with the light weight of Genos, it can move slightly forward and back during play which is a little annoying.
Registrations
- The Search function is very useful. Note that it gives search results from the entire USB drive, not just the current folder and below. The good thing is that the full path of the selected one is shown at the bottom which makes things clear.
- Appreciate the additional registration slots 9 and 10.
- A bit too many buttons to press just to save a registration bank.
- Unfortunately, Voice Setting like S.Art2 Auto Articulation parameters are global and do not get saved to registration memory for some reasons...
Touch Screen
- A quick light touch like doing it on my cell phone will not work. Need to touch and keep your finger there for half a second or so. OK, just need to get used to it.
- I like the ability to swift pan right and left between Menu1 and Menu2.
- I would like to have more swift actions for scrolling many pages of Voices and Styles selection as well.
- I miss the 970's popup Style Part On/Off bar that allows me to look at the main page still. Also, real buttons allows faster operation than this touch screen. The Genos's Channel On/Off page is there but it covers the whole screen.
- I like to have Transpose as one of the Home Shortcuts as it shows the current transpose setting right on the home page. I wish the Split Point can do the same...
Overall, a huge upgrade from 970. Thanks to all contributors of this forum. Back to playing my Genos.
Ricky
