Moving to Genos from a T4 or T5

[David L]

Hello Genos users,

I currently own a Tyros 4 which I love.  I remember the pains when moving from a T1 to a T2, then 3 and finally 4.  I modify all the preset styles I use and of course save them on the hard drive. I also revoice all the sounds for the right and left hand parts.  I then save all my song titles in the music finder with the modified settings.

My question is for those who have moved from a T4 or 5 to a Genos.  How easy was it to bring over your personalized styles and settings?  Since they changed to a list finder instead if the music finder, were you able to get your song list from MF ported over to the list finder?

I am no way ready for a change over having just started really playing my T4 again, but I do love new features sounds and technology.  Knowing what Is involved to move from others that have would be very helpful and very much appreciated.

Regards,

David

[Toril S]

All my T5 styles work fine on Genos. I do not use Music finder or Playlist, and usually do not use registrations either. So transition was easy for me.

[Fred Smith]

Hello Genos users,

I currently own a Tyros 4 which I love.  I remember the pains when moving from a T1 to a T2, then 3 and finally 4.  I modify all the preset styles I use and of course save them on the hard drive. I also revoice all the sounds for the right and left hand parts.  I then save all my song titles in the music finder with the modified settings.

My question is for those who have moved from a T4 or 5 to a Genos.  How easy was it to bring over your personalized styles and settings?  Since they changed to a list finder instead if the music finder, were you able to get your song list from MF ported over to the list finder?

I upgraded from T4 to Genos, and had the Genos working with all my user styles and registrations within 30 minutes of turning it on.

-- Back up your entire T4 hard drive to a USB stick.
-- If you have anything on your User drive that you want, copy it to a PC or USB
-- When you get your Genos, update to the most recent OS (2.11)
-- Put your USB stick in the drive underneath the keyboard
-- Copy anything you need into the User drive

Your styles will now be all accessible (and you can search for them!). Your music finder will have to be converted to a playlist, but the keyboard will do that for you (it may take a little time depending on how big it is). Any registrations you have will also work.

Cheers,
Fred

[David L]

Thank you very much Toril and Fred for sharing how you made out going from a Tyros 4 or 5 to the GENOS.  Sounds like it wasn't something that you needed an engineering degree for.   I appreciate your taking the time to let me know how things went for you.

My best,

David

[Lee Batchelor]

As soon as you use registrations, it's a whole new ball game.

One thing Fred and Toril didn't mention is that "most" of your registrations will work fine. Yamaha has been very good to write a process where if (for example) you used the T4 piano, the Genos will sub in the new Concert Grand. The same thing happens for most of the other voices. However, this does not always work. Sometimes the T4 voices will stay the same where a much better voice should have been subbed in from the Genos.

The moral of the story is, going from the T4 to Genos will basically be seamless but you MUST check all registrations one at a time to make sure the correct (newer) voices have been selected. I failed to do that going from the T5 to Genos. I had a few train wrecks at my first show with the Genos. What I thought was correct, sounded like a gong show when I pressed the first chord. Don't get caught like I did. Even to this day, I find the odd registration I somehow missed and it has the T5 drum kit, where it should have had the Revo kit. It sounds fine for a show but it could have sounded much better.

[Fred Smith]

As soon as you use registrations, it's a whole new ball game.

One thing Fred and Toril didn't mention is that "most" of your registrations will work fine. Yamaha has been very good to write a process where if (for example) you used the T4 piano, the Genos will sub in the new Concert Grand. The same thing happens for most of the other voices. However, this does not always work. Sometimes the T4 voices will stay the same where a much better voice should have been subbed in from the Genos.

The moral of the story is, going from the T4 to Genos will basically be seamless but you MUST check all registrations one at a time to make sure the correct (newer) voices have been selected. I failed to do that going from the T5 to Genos. I had a few train wrecks at my first show with the Genos. What I thought was correct, sounded like a gong show when I pressed the first chord. Don't get caught like I did. Even to this day, I find the odd registration I somehow missed and it has the T5 drum kit, where it should have had the Revo kit. It sounds fine for a show but it could have sounded much better.

True. As with any new keyboard, you will want to revoice some of your registrations, OTS and styles.

While you can get the keyboard up and running quickly, you'll want to go through each of your songs. But I liked the fact I could do this at my leisure. As you said some voices the Genos chooses are fine, but could have been better.

Cheers,
Fred

[Lee Batchelor]

Thanks Fred. Also, when checking the new registrations on the Genos, you'll find it necessary to rebalance the volumes, EQ, pans, effects, and many other parameters. This is critical if you want to leverage the superior sound of the Genos. Otherwise, you'll have a T4 with just slightly better sounds .

It's well worth the time. Like Fred said, do it at your leisure - perhaps 10 or 20 at a time. Your ears need rest as well. If you do a lot in one sitting, after a while, everything will sound correct when in reality it's either wrong or could be much better.

[rimek72]

Hi,
I agree what was stated by Lee. I migrated from T4 to Genos.
almost everything works from the begning. but real fun starts from twiking T4 songs.
There is a significant difference between in the sound of T4 and Genos.
Genos sound level could be achived by tuning T4 songs/styles.
a good news is that editing styles is easy and fast, for editing midi files I have mixed opinion, where attention is required

Rimek

[David L]

Excellent comments from Rimek72,  Lee and Fred.  My biggest concern was porting over all the updated OTS, registrations and styles.  I have spent countless hours creating my own settings for all the songs listed in my music finder.  From all the comments it seems that these do port over well.

Your warnings about testing couldn't hit the mark more.  One of my jobs was at a music store a long while back, and I did a lot with new keyboards and organs and going through their updates etc.  I learned early not to take anything for granted with conversions, gee just like a computer lol.

I too remember some not so good times when demoing an organ and not getting the results I expected!  I am so glad you all reminded me of that!

Thanks again to everyone for your time and comments.

My best,
David

[pjd]

My experience is similar to other's.

You get a basic level of compatibility (yes, old styles will work), but need to do a fair bit of work to really exploit and use the new keyboard. This includes tweaking volumes, voices, ya-da, as other folks have mentioned. I've played my pop repertoire book from cover to cover many times, making tweaks along the way. Even after a few years, I still find a few divots to fix.

This is one reason why I don't automatically jump to the next shiny object. I went from S950 to Genos, and intend to stay at Genos (mk1) for a long time to come.

All the best -- pj

[David L]

Hi PJ,

Thanks for your insight and comments about moving up to a Genos.  I agree with you about not always getting the latest keyboard just because it's new.  I have spent a lot of time getting my T4 tweaked to my liking and I know changing to a new Genos will start that process all over again.  Newer voices and styles, drums, and software means you need to listen to each custom setting to be sure to get the best sounds out of the Genos or any other Yamaha keyboard you change to.

I'm looking for another T4 to a T5 to set up in my summer home in Maine.  This way I will not have to do a lot of tweaking to get up and running.  And I will know how to run the keyboard from experience.  We shall see what I finally do. I'm not rushing into anything for now.

Regards,
David

[Lee Batchelor]

Agreed. If I were still using any Tyros keyboard, I would wait for Genos 2 or its stripped down version that arrives a few years later. The Tyros is still a great sounding keyboard. Genos is far better but not enough to justify a Genos 1, now that Genos 2 is on the horizon.

[David L]

I agree totally Lee.  Let's see what they come out with since it should be in the near future. Hopefully the price will not go up another thousand dollars!  LOL..

DAVID

[mikf]

Let's see what they come out Hopefully the price will not go up another thousand dollars!  LOL..
DAVID

It probably won't go up a thousand, because the way inflation is running it will likely go up much more!!
We're heading towards the old inflation joke - I filled my wheelbarrow with money to go buy some bread, turned my back for a minute and someone dumped out the money and stole my wheelbarrow. 
Mike

[Del]

Agreed. If I were still using any Tyros keyboard, I would wait for Genos 2 or its stripped down version that arrives a few years later. The Tyros is still a great sounding keyboard. Genos is far better but not enough to justify a Genos 1, now that Genos 2 is on the horizon.

That is exactly what I am doing Lee, but I will be keeping the T5 in addition to the new Genos for the moment.

[Dutchman]

I know it's not exactly the same situation but I went from a Psr3000 to Genos and to my surprise all my Psr3000 styles and registrations worked on the Genos.
It's true that some needed some tweaking and change of voices but all in all the conversion went pretty smooth.
And I'm no engineering expert in any way.

[Lee Batchelor]

For sure, Dutchman. I've had a 95% success rate when playing old registrations on the next newer model. However, we must distinguish between "working" versus "optimized." I basically had to tweak all my registrations, otherwise there was little point in moving up 😬.

[tyrosman]

everything i had on tyros 5 was no problem no links or anything was broken it was no problem

[Lee Batchelor]

everything i had on tyros 5 was no problem no links or anything was broken it was no problem

Agreed. Almost all my T5 registrations played on my Genos after I imported them but I checked and refined each one. The sound blew the T5 out of the water. It's called "getting the most out of your keyboard 😀."

[David L]

It's great to see so many of you moved over to the Genos with no issues other than tweaking the settings once they were ported over.

I hope you're wrong on the price increase Mike, but I have a feeling that you may be right. Oh well, I will keep working part time and save up for the next Genos version!!  Definitely keeping my T4.

Regards to all,

David

[tyrosman]

Agreed. Almost all my T5 registrations played on my Genos after I imported them but I checked and refined each one. The sound blew the T5 out of the water. It's called "getting the most out of your keyboard 😀."

you are right Lee