Hey everyone,
I recently got a Yamaha Genos 2, and This is my second arranger workstation — my first one was the PSR-S950. I've used that keyboard for years, but the Genos 2 feels like a whole new world. The interface, functions, and overall layout are very different, and I'm still trying to figure out how to adapt to this new ecosystem.
I'm a music producer and usually work with Pro Tools, but my main goal with the Genos 2 is live performance. I play in a band, so I need fast and reliable ways to switch between sounds, whether they're user voices or factory presets, right in the middle of a show. Quick access and smooth navigation are super important on stage.
Beyond that, I want to fully master this instrument: learn how to select voices and styles, create custom styles, apply DSPs and effects to get a bigger, cleaner sound, and even shape the audio with EQs and compressors on the main output bus.
I'm also very interested in creating custom sound packs using Yamaha Expansion Manager. I have a big library of samples and custom sounds that I'd love to bring into the Genos 2, but I'm not sure how accessible that process is or how to do it efficiently without relying on the screen.
I know about the Voice Guide, and while it helps, I'm worried about using it during live performances — I don't want the audience to hear it through the speakers. Is there a way to route the Voice Guide only to headphones, or disable it from the main output?
And lastly — has anyone tried placing braille or tactile stickers around the touchscreen area to mark key touch zones or buttons? Even if it's a touchscreen, maybe it's possible to map out key areas physically for easier navigation.
Any advice, tips, or tricks from other users — especially blind or visually impaired musicians — would mean a lot to me.
Thanks in advance!
– Luis Daniel

Hello Luis,

welcome to the forum.

I suspect the touchscreen can be a problem for a blind person. Although I'm not blind, I avoid using the touchscreen while playing a song. This works very well with registrations, especially with the system of using a separate registration bank for each song. You can even chain multiple registration banks if necessary. This works just as well on the Genos as it does on the PSR-S950. However, it requires that you can plan the song progression in advance.

Kurt

Hi Kurt!
Thank you so much for welcoming me.
The truth is, I never used the registrations on the S950. What I did was program my sounds into categories. A trumpet in the trumpet category, a piano with a pad in the piano category, a Rhodes with tremolo in the electric piano category. I just changed categories and had my sounds at hand, switching sounds with the row of buttons along the edge of the screen, those on both sides, left and right. But I understand that the Genos doesn't have category buttons, right?

If you contact Yamaha they do a brail cover for the screen, also you can download a talking app on yamaha site.
I hope this helps you.

Quote from: Luis Daniel Pérez on Jun 22, 2025, 05:26 AMthe Genos doesn't have category buttons, right?

Genos doesn't have physical category buttons, but the voice categories are displayed in two columns on the screen when selecting voices

Quote from: Whitecolin11 on Jun 22, 2025, 05:44 AMIf you contact Yamaha they do a brail cover for the screen, also you can download a talking app on yamaha site.
I hope this helps you.

How is it that Yamaha offers you a screen cover?

Quote from: Rupp on Jun 22, 2025, 08:38 AM

Quote from: Luis Daniel Pérez on Jun 22, 2025, 05:26 AMthe Genos doesn't have category buttons, right?

Genos doesn't have physical category buttons, but the voice categories are displayed in two columns on the screen when selecting voices

So, could you please explain to me how voice selection works?

Quite simple: touch the preset/user/favorite(star) on the top first.

Preset: touch left side column for the category and choose voice. Voices are on more pages, P1-Px at bottom. Presets can be marked as favorite simply by holding finger on voice, yellow bar appears on the side.

User: choose your user voice location: expansion, or (if an USB is plugged in) USB1, USB2. Select voice location by directory. They cannot be marked as favorite.

Arrow in the right bottom corner moves you up in the directory structure, then you can choose even more voices like in legacy category. (The mega voices are not purposed to keyboard play.)

For the playing in a band (without acmp) I'm using registrations:
I prepared an "universal" reg bank for instant access to some most used voices as say
- ac.piano1 (right1), ac.piano2 (right2) and pad/strings (right3 for possible layering) as registration 1
- el.piano1, el.piano2, an pad/strings as reg.2
- el.organ1, el.organ2, an pad/strings as reg.3
and so on for all 10 reg buttons.

And for playing in a band with known playlist I have another registrations in banks for the songs with appropriate voices set incl. splits (using the left voice), layers, pan, volume, eq, reverb and other settings.

Quote from: Rupp on Jun 23, 2025, 01:08 AMQuite simple: touch the preset/user/favorite(star) on the top first.

Preset: touch left side column for the category and choose voice. Voices are on more pages, P1-Px at bottom. Presets can be marked as favorite simply by holding finger on voice, yellow bar appears on the side.

User: choose your user voice location: expansion, or (if an USB is plugged in) USB1, USB2. Select voice location by directory. They cannot be marked as favorite.

Arrow in the right bottom corner moves you up in the directory structure, then you can choose even more voices like in legacy category. (The mega voices are not purposed to keyboard play.)

For the playing in a band (without acmp) I'm using registrations:
I prepared an "universal" reg bank for instant access to some most used voices as say
- ac.piano1 (right1), ac.piano2 (right2) and pad/strings (right3 for possible layering) as registration 1
- el.piano1, el.piano2, an pad/strings as reg.2
- el.organ1, el.organ2, an pad/strings as reg.3
and so on for all 10 reg buttons.

And for playing in a band with known playlist I have another reg banks for the songs with appropriate voices set incl. splits (using the left voice), layers, pan, volume, eq, reverb and other settings.

Wow! I thought it had style and voice category buttons, like the PSR-SX 920 does. I know they have those because I was able to try them out in a store. So, how difficult do you think it is to play live with the Genos 2? I mean, quickly accessing different voices, just like I did on my old PSR, where I only used the right buttons (the voice category buttons) to select the voices in each category and that way I had quick access to each of the voices. I suppose with this keyboard, the only way would be through the registers, right? Programming 10 sounds per bank.
Thanks so much for your answers!

Quote from: Luis Daniel Pérez on Jun 23, 2025, 01:40 AM... that way I had quick access to each of the voices.

On Genos it requires one more click than on SX, the rest is the same. Pressing part select first (instead of direct voice category button on SX), then category on the display.

Quote from: Luis Daniel Pérez on Jun 21, 2025, 08:39 AMI recently got a Yamaha Genos 2

So try it.

Quote from: Luis Daniel Pérez on Jun 23, 2025, 01:40 AMProgramming 10 sounds per bank.

Actualy you can get 30 sounds per bank, R1, R2, R3 per registration.

Quote from: Luis Daniel Pérez on Jun 21, 2025, 08:39 AMHey everyone,
I recently got a Yamaha Genos 2, and This is my second arranger workstation — my first one was the PSR-S950. I've used that keyboard for years, but the Genos 2 feels like a whole new world. The interface, functions, and overall layout are very different, and I'm still trying to figure out how to adapt to this new ecosystem.
I'm a music producer and usually work with Pro Tools, but my main goal with the Genos 2 is live performance. I play in a band, so I need fast and reliable ways to switch between sounds, whether they're user voices or factory presets, right in the middle of a show. Quick access and smooth navigation are super important on stage.
Beyond that, I want to fully master this instrument: learn how to select voices and styles, create custom styles, apply DSPs and effects to get a bigger, cleaner sound, and even shape the audio with EQs and compressors on the main output bus.
I'm also very interested in creating custom sound packs using Yamaha Expansion Manager. I have a big library of samples and custom sounds that I'd love to bring into the Genos 2, but I'm not sure how accessible that process is or how to do it efficiently without relying on the screen.
I know about the Voice Guide, and while it helps, I'm worried about using it during live performances — I don't want the audience to hear it through the speakers. Is there a way to route the Voice Guide only to headphones, or disable it from the main output?
And lastly — has anyone tried placing braille or tactile stickers around the touchscreen area to mark key touch zones or buttons? Even if it's a touchscreen, maybe it's possible to map out key areas physically for easier navigation.
Any advice, tips, or tricks from other users — especially blind or visually impaired musicians — would mean a lot to me.
Thanks in advance!
– Luis Daniel

Hello Luis Daniel, how are you?
I'm also visually impaired like you, although I have a Tyros5 instead of the Genos 2.
I know this won't help you much, but I can say with absolute certainty that, among Yamaha's top-of-the-line keyboards, it's at least the one that still gives us some level of independence — more so than the mid-level keyboards like your former PSR-S950.
Yamaha's Voice Guide was a small step forward, but they could do so much more than that. The experience could be much better. For example, when browsing styles or voices that are in a pack or on a USB stick, you won't hear the name of the item, just "loading." When saving a registration bank, there's no feedback — at least on the SX900 I had the chance to try out in a store, I couldn't get through that part.
Regarding the Yamaha Expansion Manager software, I don't know which operating system you use (I assume it's Mac since you said you're a Pro Tools user), but on Windows, unfortunately, it could be much more accessible.
Even sighted users here on the forum have pointed out things that shouldn't be so complicated to do with it — things that, in our case, we simply can't do without their help, like changing LSB banks, for example.
Creating packs is something we can do, but with many limitations — only through making soundfonts. Beyond that, for now, there's really no accessible or comfortable way to do it.
So I believe this also answers your question about programming custom styles on the Genos — I don't think the Voice Guide will help you much with that.
The way you interact with the touch screen using Voice Guide is not at all like how we navigate on an iPhone with VoiceOver or on Android — it's at the very least strange and, in my opinion, ridiculous, not to mention the lack of feedback in many situations.
The whole system is based on WAV files with pre-recorded messages, which really shows how temporary and limited this solution is.
Best regards,
Gabriel"