Genos Piano Sounds

[Tankdave]

I have seen quite a few posts of users mentioning the Genos piano sounds are not all that great.

I have never owned an arranger before or a piano so my own experience of piano sounds is limited to say the least.

All I will add is that I do find the piano sounds a little "dead" sounding.

So can I ask the experts out there,  are better piano sounds available that I might like to consider?

[EileenL]

Try adding a little more reverb and altering DSP settings to your liking. You will be surprised at just what you can do to get your own favourite individual voices. We all hear things differently.

[Lee Batchelor]

Fully agreed with Eileen. As mentioned in an earlier post, all Yamaha keyboards come from the factory with very conservative and "flat" settings. Yamaha has no way of knowing what speakers all us musicians use for our playing. Each of us must customize the sound to our speakers and the room in which we play.

No need to import or buy better piano samples. You can modify their sound right on the Genos. There is also the Voice Creator where I believe you can modify factory sounds too. I've performed some modifications and will post them later today for you TankDave .

[Lee Batchelor]

Just fired up the Genos. For my Bose Compacts, I use the following Genos settings:

In the Mixer>Master tab

Compressor - Punchy
EQ - Loudness

I don't modify any of the dial settings. The defaults work fine for me. I find these settings cut through in both quite and noisy venues. My sub just reinforces the low end the way a good sub should.

[voodoo]

I have tried many third party piano samples for PSR and Genos. And I also have a Nord Piano in my Rig. But I think, that the standard preset piano sound of the Genos is a really good one. You can play softly, but also have enough power to cut through the mix when playing harder. Many times, when I switch on the Genos, I only play only with the standard power up piano sound, because I like it very much.

On the other side, I don't like the B3 organ sounds of the Genos and its Leslie simulation. But that's another story...

Uli

[Lee Batchelor]

I "get by" with the organ sounds but they do need work. Fortunately, I only use them a little bit. The king of B3 emulation is Nord or a real Hammond B3 if you're young and foolish enough to carry it around . I've never thought Yamaha could produce a decent B3 sound - not even on the Montage.

[Tankdave]

Fully agreed with Eileen. As mentioned in an earlier post, all Yamaha keyboards come from the factory with very conservative and "flat" settings. Yamaha has no way of knowing what speakers all us musicians use for our playing. Each of us must customize the sound to our speakers and the room in which we play.

That sounds completely logical, I should have thought of that myself, Thanks Lee

[panos]

So can I ask the experts out there,  are better piano sounds available that I might like to consider?

Far from expert Tankdave but I guess
a digital piano has better piano sounds than Genos,
a synthesizer can create better sounds than Genos,
a cathedral's pipe organ sounds better than the pipe organ of Genos,
a bunch of musicians can play more complicated arabic percussions than the multipads of Genos,
Action Strings of Native Instruments have better string samples (on a pc) than Genos
and so on...

But noone tell us which keyboard can do it better,
or which device has these things in one pack:
has better black and white keys,
can play thousands of styles better,
has better voices for ALL organs,
and so on....

When it was the last time I have picked up a style (preset or one that I have downloaded), used the OTS voices and start learning a song without modifying anything?
hm....
probably I didn't like the song that much and never finshed it, for doing such a thing 

[Lee Batchelor]

You're most welcome, Tankdave. If you need help setting up the sound of your Genos, supply us with a complete list of the sound gear you use, along with model numbers. Perhaps we can take a look at the specs and help you customize your sounds a bit. What we can't do is help with room responses, unless we meet you at the venue. If one of us does, the first beer's on you .

[Tankdave]

Last night I done some tinkering in the mixer level and was able to add reverb, delays, etc to my Right1, Right2 and then on to tweak the style drums and the style bass sounds, I also sussed out how to adjust the master Eq. to my liking

Whilst the master eq was easy to save to "user1" or "user2", saving the rest was not, because I was adjusting two keyboard sounds and also the drums & the bass sounds of a style I was using, I got confused on how to save all this.

Would saving this as a Registration, save all these alterations?   or would I need to save the two adjusted keyboard sounds as 2 new separate sounds and then also save the style as a new one to capture the bass & drum adjustments?  If this is the case, then save the registration to recall the style with the 2 sounds?

[soryt]

On the other side, I don't like the B3 organ sounds of the Genos and its Leslie simulation. But that's another story...

Uli

The Nord is one of the best B3 emulations , But i have modified a Lester K Rotary sim (made a extra footswitch connector in it to put the unit on the Genos and control the speed with a footswitch)
and i have used it now a few times with my band , and it sounds like good overdriven B3 . i made at home a little movie with the Lester on the Genos .
https://youtu.be/kDTFwmaSt2o

https://youtu.be/1FHdjg5A7wE

I know it never will be a real B3 ( and the Nord 5d is also much better) , but it is coming closer than without the Lester K

Soryt 

[StuartR]

The Nord is one of the best B3 emulations , But i have modified a Lester K Rotary sim (made a extra footswitch connector in it to put the unit on the Genos and control the speed with a footswitch)
and i have used it now a few times with my band , and it sounds like good overdriven B3 . i made at home a little movie with the Lester on the Genos .
https://youtu.be/kDTFwmaSt2o

https://youtu.be/1FHdjg5A7wE

I know it never will be a real B3 ( and the Nord 5d is also much better) , but it is coming closer than without the Lester K

Soryt 

I do the same thing except with a Neo Ventilator.

[jwyvern]

Whilst the master eq was easy to save to "user1" or "user2", saving the rest was not, because I was adjusting two keyboard sounds and also the drums & the bass sounds of a style I was using, I got confused on how to save all this.

Would saving this as a Registration, save all these alterations?   or would I need to save the two adjusted keyboard sounds as 2 new separate sounds and then also save the style as a new one to capture the bass & drum adjustments?  If this is the case, then save the registration to recall the style with the 2 sounds?

A registration will save all the data you mentioned including any dsp's you assign to the panel voice parts or style parts. If you like the effects achieved so much that you want to use the modified style in other set ups then for convenience you may wish to save the style as a user anyway.
Note if you happen to edit any of the DSP parameters assigned to Style parts away from their default values I find they do not save to registrations, (I think this is an omission Yamaha have yet to sort out) although they will save to a user style if you save the latter.
As long as you are sticking with preset values for those style dsp's this is not a problem. Also it is not an issue for dsp's assigned to R1, 2,3 and Left. Registrations will save their edited parameters/ Details.
John

[mikf]

You can certainly 'tweak' to get a sound to your liking , but for many of the voices, the realism is often as much in how it is played as the voice sample. Just listen to the demos to hear this. I have found the piano samples to be OK in most recent TOTL arrangers I have tried, and quite a lot of the comments about the piano sample are a bit overstated. I am a piano player, and find the feel (or lack of it) in the keybed to be more significant than the voice, because I think experienced piano players nurse tone from the feel. But then again many people like the light keybed.   
Mike

[panos]

Tankdave if you modified a style throudh style creator or/and mixer always save it as a new style.
Furthermore you can change the OTS of this new style with edited new voices.
You don't have to save these new voices somewhere else, they will always be at the OTS of that new style,
Now you got a new style with new OTS voices and you can use these voices in another style if you wish.
Registrations usually are used for editing more things than just a style and OTS and are little more complicated.

http://psrtutorial.com/lessons/start/s55_ots.html
http://psrtutorial.com/lessons/tune/adjStyle/index.html

When you understand how to tweak/mix styles and voices proceed to registrations.
http://psrtutorial.com/lessons/playing/regist/index.html

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi
I found it best to trawl and listen to the piano sounds from the OTS and you get a good idea how a good sound is made . I have done this with most sounds to get a good idea how Yamaha program them.
A little back engineering.


All the best
john