I have been working with Yamaha synthesizers since 2011. I started with a Motif XF, and in 2016 traded it for a Montage. I learned a lot, but it was frustratingly difficult to put together a backup band. (For one thing, I am not talented at creating drum parts.)
Recently Yamaha introduced a "Pattern Sequencer" on the Montage. This helped me create backup bands, but it also convinced me that I like playing in front of backup bands more than things that a synthesizer is really designed for, like creating new sounds that no one has ever heard.
That thought pointed me towards Yamaha's arranger keyboards. As an experiment, I brought a PSR SX900. Two weeks later, I had fallen so in love with it that I traded it back in for a Genos. I bought both of them from
Sweetwater, a company that is really great to work with. They took back the SX900 for a full refund, no problem.
(I also bought the Montage from Sweetwater. This involved returning the first two they sent because of defective lights in some of the buttons. There was no problem with this either. Like I said, they are great to work with.)
I have been on this forum for about a month so far, and I am totally impressed with both the help I have gotten with a number of questions, and what a happy place this is. Example: someone started a thread titled, "The Only Thing I Don't Like About The Genos." It turned out what he didn't like was that he didn't have enough time every day to play it.
In time, I hope to have learned enough to be able to help other people and return the favor. Since I'm a retired software engineer, I might even write some code to accomplish something with style files, if I run into something that everyone else who has already worked on this has not taken care of.
But mainly, I will be playing music happily on my new Genos.
I mainly play rock and jazz. My
favorite band is the Grateful Dead.
I recently spent a couple of years learning to play their song,
Estimated Prophet, which is in 7/4 time. I was at this concert. It blew my mind when I realized what they were doing. I was always ambitious to learn to play this song, but never had the time to devote to it until recently. I now have it as a Montage Pattern, and once I learn how to do it I am going to convert it into a Genos Style.
If this wasn't enough about me, you can find more at my
Portland Community College web site. I teach Computer Science there.
(I was so wound up learning to use the PSR SX900 and then the Genos, that I didn't have time until now to post this.)
-- Michael Trigoboff