Hello Sugarplumsss. You asked for it!! Why do I prefer the Tyros4 over the Genos. Well here is my answer!
Hello All, Have just returned from Perth (Au) and had a great play on the Genos. Shop had a good supply of Yamaha kbds and other instruments. I am now in Adelaide and spent 4 hours uninterrupted with the Genos. Again the shop was full of Yamaha gear. Shop in Darwin did not even know the Tyros, just the S.970 and S770. Perth and Melbourne shop are selling Genos like there was no tomorrow.
For me the Genos is a no-go. Did not like the touch screen and had great problems finding my way through the clutter on the screen. Screen was too flat for playing sitting down and reflected the overhead lights. Press the Style button and the boxes were just too small for a quick one touch. Tried 3 times to get the Ballroom styles up. No "world" styles, have to go through Legacy to find them. Looks to me as though they have added the Alpen pack to the Genos, all mixed up. Thought that Yamaha would have sorted the lists into alpha order not the old Yamaha number order. My two friends who accompanied me thought that the sounds were too sharp, not like the mellow Tyros.
Although in both stores,Perth and Adelaide, I was offered a really good deal, I will stay with my Tyros4. The Genos did not really impress me. Now that is only my opinion.
Regards, Den.
Now that I am home and have a decent typing keyboard I would like to express the things I found or not on the Genos.
First, it is NOT a touch pad but a poke pad. It needs a good push.
I wanted to find the Hawaiian style but the only way to find that was to put my USB stick in with my T4 program regs, bring up the song and then find the style.
I wanted to get a tenor sax in R1 – guess what! A sax is a woodwind on the Genos. Had to find that using my USB again.
Needed to put some chorus and reverb on - where is the mixing console and the functions?? Lost in a clutter of whatever.
Eventually found the Touch thingy, it is 4 squares with green ticks. Why would you want to just have touch on one voice and not all of them. To get the touch effects you need to lift your fingers, which defeats the object of legato on the other voices.
Now 8 assignable knobs. Assuming you have a fantastic memory and can remember what you assigned to them you need a stack of cards as the Hammond Spinet drawbars had. The sliders have no buttons for fine adjustments.
I do not know if the Genos has a hard drive or not but if not then recording to a USB stick is going to be a nightmare with “Drive Busy” and your recording lost.
All in all, using the screen to try and twiddle knobs or move sliders accurately is a skill you will really need to acquire over some time. The salesman said that “As long as you are within 10 either side with the sliders that is OK”. I would like my music to be a bit more accurate than that.
To this I must add that sound, like taste and smell, is a very personal opinion. To say “This sounds better than that” is up to the individual.
Finally, I think that Yamaha have made a keyboard answering all the requests of players but have done it in a very sarcastic way.
Would I buy one at $7500? NO
Would I buy one at $75? Again NO.
Ps. I bought another Tyros4 from the shop in Perth a few months ago and have bought from the shop in Adelaide. I went there with the money in the bank to maybe bring a Genos home. Unfortunately or otherwise the Genos did not meet up to what I thought.
Now these comments are MY opinions only and are not meant to upset any of our members on the forum.
Regards, Den.