The Yamaha Genos Digital Workstation | Review & Demo

I like the sound of this one. But I’m going with the Kurzweil K2700

Important thing you didn't mention, KORG or KETRON started correctly the MAJOR or MINEUR chords with the long intro. Cuz it has a different pattern. GENOS is awfully 🤔, hear the big differences

Yamaha Workstation > Everything ! (Quality Matters) ~ ☑️ ... 🎭

I hone in on the string ensemble sound which is one of the most difficult to produce electronically. Pianists tend to play percussively, whereas violinists have a smooth transition with bowing on the string. I play both the violin and piano and know the play physicality of each instrument. Yamaha should have a filter that would smooth out the string ensemble sound despite the keyboardist's strong key strike, that is, to blend in consecutive sounds, particularly for slow movements, such as in a quartet.

I bought one and I have zero use for it. It's not what I expected. And I am not interested in the sounds for my needs. What is crazy is it's ALL plastic and expensive. I have 3 other keyboards that I love. No love for the Genos. I am selling mine.

Does it gave weighted keys?

The one good thing about flagship arranger keyboards being very expensive is that music producers can't be too easily done
over like a kipper. I'm not bashing this keyboard but arranger keyboards are more intended for a one man band player
so unless you need auto accompaniments don't buy an arranger keyboard. Either stick with VST instruments or choose
a proper synthesizer workstation like Montage, last year I very nearly or could have made the mistake of buying a Tyros 5
thinking it would be an ideal alternative to rebuying Halion for my new computer but there is no sense in that even though
I used to say "arranger keyboards are not just for one man band musicians" but the auto accompaniments are the main
selling point of an arranger keyboard and it is the wrong sort of instrument for music production.

One thing you rarely hear talked about is how amazing the arranger workstations are to those of us who enjoy playing, but will never be great because of disabilities, etc.

As much as I’d love a Genos, I could never afford one but i bought a PSR-970 a few years and never played it so much just because no matter how bad you play, the abilities of the keyboard allow you to sound so much better. I never really liked the key feel though so I tend to play with an external semi-weighted keyboard.

For anyone with dexterity problems or poor coordination, there is so much these keyboards can help you that it really makes you enjoy it more. You can get tons of songs as lead sheets and I’ve yet to find songs the PSR-970 didn’t have a style you could play to and i can’t imagine how much better the Genos would be in that regard.

My only real issue is Yamaha really lets these keyboards down by it’s poorly supported software. I have a WIFI adapter for mine but I’ve yet to find a real use for it but if Yamaha created PC/Mac/Tablet software where you program registrations, control the keyboard, etc it’d make its keyboards so much easier to use, find and create things with it’s keyboard.

Amazing guitar sound

Does it have weighted keys? It better!!

Great video!! What a machine! Question... is there a way to save the default instruments and mixer settings upon start up?

This video was very informative this keyboard is a Boss. i enjoyed it. I;d like ti see more on the styles and features. Also do videos on the psr sx series too.

What a pity that no genos arranger module exists.
We have houses full of keyboards, we need portable modules!!

Brilliant sounds but not reliable. Had mine 4 years and keys not working, cannot find anyone to repair as Yamaha UK don’t maintain their web site.

Looking for something else now but won’t be touch Yamaha again. Best part of £1,000/ year for a home plinky plonk. It doesn’t get moved around, not used professionally and not humped from gig to gig. Expected better.

I've been looking for a workstation that has premium sounds, and the Fantom, Kronos and Montage all sound great, but I could tell that certain sounds aren't the real instrument. Maybe I should start saving some pennies up for this. You could get a used Moog One for the same cost, so I'm not sure if it's worth it for me.

Guitar still not right, that's why guitar is so special.

I have a Genos and am very impressed by its capabilities. However, as you say , what I want to be able to do is to sit down and produce a song from scratch but I find it very hard to get behind the clear intent of the machine to produce a usable result. Unless you are an extremely proficient player, it is quite difficult to add tracks seamlessly and then edit mistake because of the clunkiness of the track editing features. I a DAW software setup, it is relatively childsplay to correct notes and move phrases around or insert things. But the primitive editing avalable in the Genos inhibits me. It is extremely difficult to depart from recording using styles to lay down your own ideas because of the embedded integrations of styles. Like Microsoft Word, most users deploy about 15-20% of the capability.. to explore the entire functionality in order to ‘make music’ takes enormous effort and experience. Would definitely appreciate further videos the start from scratch song creation hacks.

I think the next step in the Genos evolution would be to add a fully programmable synth section. And maybe more life-like strum/pick articulation for the guitar voices, so far they sound like someone tapping the strings on the fret board like Stanley Jordan.

superb 🥇🥈🥉🎈🎉🎉

Its a terrific instrument. It has a huge library of eminently usable high quality sounds. My only criticism is that I find the multi track recording feature a little basic especially after using computers (not that i'm suggesting it could ever get near computer editing - that would be ridiculous). However, I would like it to offer more features for editing your songs and therefore encouraging me to stay within the instrument to make music - after-all, I believe that is the purpose of this machine - self-contained requiring no other gear.