Easily enhance your Genos sound

[Lee Batchelor]

Hi all,

In preparation for a few Christmas shows and playing my Genos over my new Bose Pro 8 speakers, I have discovered an easy way to REALLY enhance the sound of your Genos, regardless of which speakers you use, what kind of music you play, the settings in the Master section, the room in which you play, or the volume.

It has never occurred to me before but in editing my registrations to match the Pro 8 speakers, I have really become aware of how much reverb Yamaha sets as the default values. In short, Yamaha produces the best voices and keyboards overall, but they are reverb junkies! I've always believed that too many effects of any kind, mask the fine details that Yamaha has created in there voices. I all of a sudden asked myself, "Why put all this effort into creating excellent voices and then mush them up with copious amounts of reverb?"

Go into the Mixer > Styles tab > Chorus/Reverb > and dial the reverb way back on most parts. Try changing the type of reverb too. I estimate that I've dialed back the reverb about 70% in most cases. Especially important is limiting reverb on the drum kit. Yamaha seems to think we're all wanting to play in a huge concert hall. Not me .

I know this sounds like a very obvious thing to do and several users have already figured that out, but after 8 arranger keyboards, I finally figured out how to really improve the sound of my Genos.

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi Lee

I do that all the time as 60s and 70s music did not have large amounts of reverb.
Only Phil Spector murdered the sound with over washed reverb in an empty vessel.
I have noticed also there is still reverb on sounds even when the reverb level is zero..
Maybe going to the sound department will eliminate all reverb if needed.
Errol's voice in Hot Chocolate had no reverb on it , only in songs like No Doubt About It.
I like the sounds drier with just a touch of reverb.Seems to be warmer with more impact. Nicer to get nearer that analog touch.
I also been going on about making a backing track to save reaching manically for buttons every 10 seconds whilst recording.
Chokbu has come up with some great solutions , but doing the part in Yamaha Xg does not work for me and the style glitches when playing I will have another go at it later as it may be pilot era.
I now have found a foolproof way and that is to make your chord sections in chord looper( User Styles) which i just have got used to and stick them on all registrations. It is better than darting about in Chord Looper
Press record on sequence and this way gives you have time to put the drum fills in where you want them and it is more relaxing.
Once the chord track is done go for building your track.
This is a quicker way to record a song than keep going back to the start and RED BUTTON again.
you can knock the parts out you want to play live and you have the rest of the band complete. Bingo!!



All the Best
John
I do find once i have recorded a song  i can play it better. Weird ,but that does it for me.

[Lee Batchelor]

Great ideas, as usual John! I appreciate your thoughts and how to do things a wee bit differently. Therein lies one of the advantages of deep diving with the Genos.