The Yamaha Genos II is Almost Here?

[ton37]

 If, I emphatically say: If the release date for the Genos II were November 16, then we can expect a preliminary announcement around October 26, 2023? Right?
This is based on the launch of the Genos I. Do you remember?
The duration of the official announcement by Yamaha of the Genos I at the time was:
12-09-2017: first teaser
Afterwards, more details followed each week: with a total of 4 different teasers: 15/22/ and 29-09-2017.
The release date was told by Yamaha: October 2, 2017.
So a duration of 3 weeks....

Exciting weeks!

[Del]

Yep sounds good, I will be getting the new genos once I have seen it, and having a play, it is time for me to upgrade.

[maartenb]

Teasers would be nice, Ton. But it depends upon Yamaha's marketing strategy for this new arranger.

The teaser with Genos (1), the floating hands playing the keyboard made out of dots, was simply brilliant. However, the following videos, like for example "Rhythm is a dancer", were incomprehensible. So I expect a different approach for Genos II.

The approach used for Tyros 5 or 4 I can't remember.

I don't know what features Yamaha want to emphasize with the new instrument. I guess they'll want to focus on that.

Whatever happens, I think it's safe to say that once the embargo is lifted, we'll see videos from the large USA retailer chains, the well-known UK dealers, Sud-Claviers and more. And I look forward to the fantastic short official Yamaha videos with Martin Harris!


Maarten

[EileenL]

Don't really want teasers but want to know what additions it has over Genos 1 before I purchase.

[Danny1972]

Don't really want teasers but want to know what additions it has over Genos 1 before I purchase.

Can you see a scenario where you wouldn't buy one? I think I only experienced this once with the T4 where I didn't feel the T5 was worth the upgrade. I am hoping the differences between G1 and G2 are significant.

[EileenL]

Hi Danny,
I would not buy one if the only additions were to enable use of add on's easier as I buy my keyboards to sit and play them just as they are so I am looking for additions to voices, styles, multi pads and easier ways to create and edit styles without having to delete tracks first. Would love to see a control track in the midi recorder like we had in the old Tecnics keyboards.

[maartenb]

Would love to see a control track in the midi recorder like we had in the old Tecnics keyboards.

Hi Eileen,

What is in the control track? What's its purpose?


Maarten

[hans1966]

Hi Maartenb, I assume that EileenL is referring to a master track where you can control various control changes (volume, time, pan) without necessarily having to enter the event editing page of each channel.

For me personally, I think it is a very important editing tool, since it saves you work time.

just my thoughts

Hans

[Amwilburn]

Can you see a scenario where you wouldn't buy one? I think I only experienced this once with the T4 where I didn't feel the T5 was worth the upgrade. I am hoping the differences between G1 and G2 are significant.

That was very observant; we even told our customers the same thing; most upgraded from T3 or earlier towards T5, except everyone who had been waiting 10 years for a 76 key again (T1 -T4 came in 61 only, but the previous PSR9000/Pro *did* come in 61 and 76, so there was 10 years of pent up demand for a 76).

The main differences between the T4 and T5 were (slightly) more strings & brass, Audio styles, 76 keys, a lot more S.Art 2 voices, ensemble mode and organ world. The Choirs were 100% identical, as were the top ensemble strings.

However, what we didn't realize was how much difference YRM (sorry, correction YEM!) was about to make, meaning the T5 started selling *again* later in its life cycle!
Expansion memory + YEM was a huge difference, we just didn't know it at launch.

Mark

[maartenb]

YRM?

What does that mean? Can't find it using an Internet search...


Maarten

[Amwilburn]

Sorry, I meant YEM (Yamaha Expansion Manager). Brain fart on my part, sorry

[nmiliotis]

https://youtu.be/NOwex51u2HE?feature=shared

Interesting...

[maartenb]

No, not really. It shows a very dark picture of a Genos (1) with some very vague text.

It's just a commercial for a French online shop.


Maarten

[richkeys]

Regarding teasers, Yamaha announced over the summer on yamahasynth.com that the Montage was being discontinued and a new one was coming out in October. I guess their synth division is different than their arranger division.

yamahasynth.com is interesting because it seems to be an official Yamaha site that has a full synth focused forum on it as well as a whole bunch of tutorial articles posted by their experts. Guys like Blake Angelos, Hans Heinkel and Joel Borg give regular tutorials on the TechTalk channel. Additionally, they have Soundmondo, a free sharing website where users can post and share their voice edits, tagged in various genres, based off of the presets. Imagine if arranger users could share styles that they altered or tweaked, legally of course. That would open up a whole new world for people who want to try other user's styles in genres that go beyond the typical presets. Yamaha has nothing like this for their arranger market for some reason. When is the last time they offered an expansion pack? Guys like Martin Harris, Peter Baartman, Gabriel Aldort do have scattered YouTube demos on the various Yamaha arrangers, but many of them are from years past. I see that Martin Harris is a Sr. Manager at Yamaha. Perhaps it is time for him to step up and build something similar for their arranger customer base rather than have this constant rumor mill on if next arranger launch is imminent. If they don't want to put the resources into tutorials and user sharing, it kind of makes you wonder what they think is the future of arranger keyboards.

Currently, only this forum offers the best for arranger users for a place to go. Just an observation. I originally wasn't intending to write this much!

[Gunnar Jonny]

What is in the control track? What's its purpose?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22denN_MiMM

I agree with Eileen regarding missing the controltrack. Very useful tool. I used the controltrack to make it easier for me when playing live.
Example:
While we did added new songs and had practices and played through the songs, I set the controltrack to record all changes during the songs such as stop/start, fill, variation and sound changes and so on, and then saved it.
Then I only had to consentrate on the playing, and if needed to add length to the song during live play, I just turned the control track off and continued play and do the changes needed 'as usual' as long as nessesary.
Hope this gave some meaning.

[Danny1972]

That was very observant; we even told our customers the same thing; most upgraded from T3 or earlier towards T5, except everyone who had been waiting 10 years for a 76 key again (T1 -T4 came in 61 only, but the previous PSR9000/Pro *did* come in 61 and 76, so there was 10 years of pent up demand for a 76).

The main differences between the T4 and T5 were (slightly) more strings & brass, Audio styles, 76 keys, a lot more S.Art 2 voices, ensemble mode and organ world. The Choirs were 100% identical, as were the top ensemble strings.

However, what we didn't realize was how much difference YRM (sorry, correction YEM!) was about to make, meaning the T5 started selling *again* later in its life cycle!
Expansion memory + YEM was a huge difference, we just didn't know it at launch.

Mark

Hi Mark,

Yes you're absolutely right, when you take into account some of the other things outside of the additional sounds and styles itself, such as the expansions packs, 76 key option, the 76 key factor alone may have been enough for someone to upgrade, but at the time I just wanted 61s. I liked the more slicker grey look as well. I did briefly own the T5 recently just to experience it and it's a lovely keyboard but I think had I of made the switch from a T4 to T5 at the time I would have been a little underwhelmed, whereas from a T3 is a great upgrade (I also owned a T3 as well that I upgraded to the T4). I then went from a T4 to the Genos (if we are talking flagships), but I did buy the SX900 before I got the Genos and had the T4 and SX900 connected together for a while, nice combo but I found I was using the T4 less and less and was on the SX900 a lot more, this made me think of now upgrading to the Genos and the differences between the T4 and Genos are very significant. 

[ton37]

Yeah.
My options, having a SX900:
1. Add an Korg PA5x (61 keys, after a new firmware update)
2. or swap to Genos II ? Only if the Genos II does exceed the Genos 1 much (in overall quality and new/improved functions) and if no 61-keys it must have improved considerably, which justifies the choice for me
3. or wait for the SX1000;
4. Once I swapped from Genos1 to SX900 with no regret.

I am well aware that these choice are just luxury 'problems'.

[Danny1972]

Yeah.
My options, having a SX900:
1. Add an Korg PA5x (61 keys, after a new firmware update)
2. or swap to Genos II ? Only if the Genos II does exceed the Genos 1 much (in overall quality and new/improved functions) and if no 61-keys it must have improved considerably, which justifies the choice for me
3. or wait for the SX1000;
4. Once I swapped from Genos1 to SX900 with no regret.

I am well aware that these choice are just luxury 'problems'.

I have a Pa5x 61 keys and it's a really nice instrument, I've never had any problems with it (even from the first OS) but since the last OS update it has transformed the keyboard. Linking your SX900 would be a fabulous combo. I think if you were going to do some waiting, you just don't know when the next PSR will arrive, but for the next Genos, since it does seem there is one looming perhaps wait for that and see what it's like before committing to the Pa5x. If we get to the end of 2023 and there's still no Genos2, then maybe your choices will be easier!

[Amwilburn]

Hi Mark,

Yes you're absolutely right, when you take into account some of the other things outside of the additional sounds and styles itself, such as the expansions packs, 76 key option, the 76 key factor alone may have been enough for someone to upgrade, but at the time I just wanted 61s. I liked the more slicker grey look as well. I did briefly own the T5 recently just to experience it and it's a lovely keyboard but I think had I of made the switch from a T4 to T5 at the time I would have been a little underwhelmed, whereas from a T3 is a great upgrade (I also owned a T3 as well that I upgraded to the T4). I then went from a T4 to the Genos (if we are talking flagships), but I did buy the SX900 before I got the Genos and had the T4 and SX900 connected together for a while, nice combo but I found I was using the T4 less and less and was on the SX900 a lot more, this made me think of now upgrading to the Genos and the differences between the T4 and Genos are very significant.

Absolutley spot on. There was a huge difference between T3 and T4, and again between T5 and Genos, but not so much between T4 and T5 if you didn't need the 76 keys, organ world, ensemble mode, , and twice the number of phrased articulation voices (S.Art2). I know that sounds like a lot of difference, but it really isn't (the biggest difference was YEM, which came later). Yes the T4 had expandable memory (using PC ram! Which meant every time you turned it on, you ad to wait for the samples to load from the hard drive into ram!) but not having YEM, it's a world of difference!

Mark

[maartenb]

Small correction: The T3 had RAM, the T4 had flash memory without loading times.

I'm nitpicking here.


Maarten

[Amwilburn]

Small correction: The T3 had RAM, the T4 had flash memory without loading times.

I'm nitpicking here.


Maarten

Ah, right, sorry. There have been soo many TOTLA's over the past 5 decades, it's starting to blur a little together!

But yes, you're right, T4 had the same flash ram as T5,b but no YEM

T3 had the pc ram option, so did T2 I believe, but it didn't even come with a hard drive, you had to go purchase an internal hdd yourself. And then had to hope it had the correct current draw, otherwise it wouldn't work!

I don't think T1 had any expandable memory? But for some reason I remember it having a hard drive. Even the PSR9000 had sample loading, but off of floppy disks!

Mark

[Wim]

Can you see a scenario where you wouldn't buy one? I think I only experienced this once with the T4 where I didn't feel the T5 was worth the upgrade. I am hoping the differences between G1 and G2 are significant.

Good Thoughts. I also not want only more styles you almost never use. But a real improvement what make you thing. Yes that's me worth 6.000 euro's
rgds
Wim