BACK TO THE 80s with Yamaha GENOS 2

Demo of the RETROPOP Style Category on the YAMAHA GENOS 2 ARRANGER KEYBOARD.
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[@ZoeSummers1701A]

80's FTW! Thanks Woody!

[@WoodyPianoShack]

melodies never a problem, but darn it's hard to remember and hit those chords.

[@ProFleer-ep4wq]

Those 80s ballads do sound nice. No obtrusive or mechanic sounding drums. Genius does shine here. Kudos!

[@mikosoft]

You completely smashed the first one! It's like you knew exactly what to do, a testament to not only how well known the song is but how intuitively good the style is. It has exactly the right sounds for each section and sections are in their respective order.

[@keyfan]

The magic of Arranger Keyboards: press start and immediately immerse yourself in one of mankind's many great musical achievements. 🤩

[@mrdavies7894]

Love your stuff, Woody! So much fun!

[@RichardRobbins-jt5bt]

Woody, you make demos and playing so entertaining and full of life! thx

[@Jamestyros4]

Great demo Woody. Can’t wait for delivery of my Genos 2 next week! Thanks for sharing.

[@WoodyPianoShack]

wow, mark a week or two out of your calendar, congrats!

[@graysonpeddie]

If I could have Genos 2 in a keyboardless/desktop form factor, I would definitely buy that in a heartbeat. I love the 80s music. Wow those arrangements sounded fantastic.

[@RobinPalmerTV]

It is a splendid instrument but it's astonishingly expensive. I would love it if they provided legacy samples/patches of their electone organs which are now discontinued on the whole in the UK/Europe. Would love ELX1 patches for this.

[@marklocke8094]

Last style was for A Night To Remember - Shalamar. Great vid and brave risk to play styles for first time 👍

[@sorendorgaming7883]

Amazing playing with all those 80s classics! How did you know what notes to play in each one?! Incredible!😍

[@WoodyPianoShack]

thanks, oh, i'm not sure, just comes with practice, playing the melody seems to come easy, but not the chords!

[@mrdavies7894]

The default/assumed articulations on the solo parts is really impressive. Good choices!

[@HappyOrganMan]

Cool demo, thanks Woody!

[@Panos-Veria]

Welldone Woody!! Retropop styles are my favourite because I love 80's music of course 🙂 17:40 I assume it was "Woman in love" by Barbra Streisand. I don't think they need a licence for the styles Woody and that's the reason they don't use the name of the song for the style and they don't play the exact melody of it in intro/ending variation no 3. Probably they pay a license though to play some songs on the official presentations of a new model but the rest are just improvisations to avoid copyrights.

[@WoodyPianoShack]

i think you are correct with those assumptions, i heard similar from more official sources. yes, the intros and outros have slightly changed chords and melodies!

[@ICanFixThat2]

Fun video! Thanks Woody! hehe

[@midinotes]

Extremely brave to try Yamaha styles for the first time live where they are very influenced by classic tracks!

[@musicmaniac1965keyboard]

"Sorry for the cords" LOL, from what i can hear there's nothing wrong with it. You just seem tp shake them out of your sleves without a worry. I enjoyed this a lot. Thanks for sharing.

[@WoodyPianoShack]

haha, thanks! to my ears they were 50% hit or miss!

[@dannymormone]

Hey Woody, the style 80s DX Ballad from 10 minutes is for the song Anything For You by Gloria Estefan, it’s an amazing style, very well done.

[@WoodyPianoShack]

good call, thanks!

[@TronDawg]

Love hearing papa Geno’s finest. Keepin the groove goin strong ✨🐕✨

[@dannemachmar]

Millions of people are waiting for you to sing

[@WoodyPianoShack]

haha, i will leave that to you, your time to shine!

[@RobinPalmerTV]

Needs a vocoder perhaps? @@WoodyPianoShack

[@mistergrooveman1018]

😂

[@RonWesterbeek]

Funny sounds in a nutshell Woody 🎉 Cool programme lead sounds there! Great era's in production to enjoy 🤸‍♀️🎵💃🖐😁

[@AaronLester-rt7iu]

🎵Now this is how you sell a keyboard! 😁 Thank you for sharing songs we all love and can relate to! Reviewers often waste our time and miss the mark when they do demos featuring syrupy, abstract melodies that we neither know or could care less about! Whether played at home, in public, or via video, we ENGAGE listeners with relatable selections. 🎵

[@WoodyPianoShack]

thank you! keep i'm mind, on this channel I'm not sponsored or trying to sell anything by the way. I'll just demo it for you and let the viewers judge for themselves. I know you were joking around, but just wanted to say that :D

[@AaronLester-rt7iu]

@@WoodyPianoShack Exactly. You're welcome, my friend. Pardon my phraseology. Indeed your reviews objectively divulge the good and the disappointing aspects of all arrangers and synthesizers. ❤️ What I meant to convey, is that you chose songs that made me consider the practicality of buying that unit! 😁 I do gigs, and those are songs my audiences would most love to hear. My better tip$ come when I play oldies and popular songs, as opposed to improvisational or progressive jazz. I also like it that Yamaha arrangers often give clues in a style's title as to possible songs one could play. For example, on my PSR-S975, there's a style called 'DiscoPhilly', which has the distinct instrument and beat variations of 'Gonna Fly Now' from 'Rocky'!

[@this.is.shashwat]

Retro styles sound quite decent

[@mcramp20]

Really good version of Night to Remember from Shalamar really early 80s

[@runestone1337]

Just to let you know, Woody, I've had that Sheena Easton "9 to 5 Morning Train" song in my head all day now. Thanks very much 🤕

[@WoodyPianoShack]

yeah, talk about catchy, same here!

[@runestone1337]

The Whitney Houston style was beautifully done. In fact, all of those styles brought back many memories -- a lot of work has gone into them by Yamaha.

[@mrdavies7894]

…and _almost_ a nice save there at the end! 😂

[@damonsummers]

OMG this video is super funny, spot the 80s song!!

[@dwsel]

10:50, 11:05 Totally beautiful solo - standing out on its own, even if I don't recognize the original song. You're doing great job as the improvising performer. I don't agree though with your opinion that 15:23 sounds authentic. I think here is the copyright part when the score sounds realistic but the instruments were modernized so the end user gets 95% of the recreation, never 100% I'm curious how would that sound if you swapped the bass for DX7 and backing synth for less modern one as well (careful with posting it on YT as I don't know what happens if it's too close). Also, any chance that different variant of intro/outro covers another song alongside with the showcased one?

[@WoodyPianoShack]

thanks for comment, yes you could switch out instruments and effects, the other inouts are shorter and less busy but do not hint at other songs.

[@heebie9174]

15:03 The Best 😄

[@U.N.]

Thank You :)

[@EdmondM3]

Nice video, what I notice all the arrangers need to balance between solo sounds and accompaniment sounds which are lower volume.

[@WoodyPianoShack]

yes, the right hand lead can sometimes be overpowering

[@mrdali67]

lol .. we have just been "Rick rolled" by Woody. Just missing your beautifull Bariton there Woody 😂

[@mrdali67]

Yamaha just missing out here in my opinion. There is so many nice song styles. They should provide a "cheat sheet" for all those styles you "kinda" feel you know but just can't figure out .. and hell .. make people able to buy a Playlist for all the onboard Songstyles with chords. Pretty sure many home owners would gladly pay for that .. and maybe send a free one to all those 1st move custommers that baught it before they dropped the price. and put a check along with it. Thanks in advance Yamaha for allways kinda shitting on your custommers.

[@WoodyPianoShack]

yamaha already got you covered, or it may be 3rd party, but there are free playlist files for download with 20,000 song registrations, with the real song names and all the right sounds, tempo etc.

[@mrdali67]

@@WoodyPianoShack I did download some 1800ish playlist, but they are really poorly made most off them .. and that was from Yamaha's site. Seems like its just some of the old tyros song finder files that have been imported. And most songs doesn't come with chord lists. (some do.) If people are learning to both play and learn their new instrument, I don't get why Yamaha doesn't support the advanced features of todays instruments with some original Quality made stuff. I know Yamaha have had online sales of notations for popular music at least for tha Asian market during the years of Organs (Electones) also with support for the various newer generations of arrangers with registration setups. Countries like Germany where Arrangers is very popular have a big market for these things, but I think it's primary the local German people that makes these things. They even have a special version of the Korg Pa5 "Muzikant" that is tailored for the german market with new sounds and various things that is a bit more expensive than the original model. It took about a year for them to make the software for it from the Original release. But I do think it comes with actual German language also on the hardware.

[@jeanmccullough1064]

Where are the speakers in this Genos here are they included in the price or separate. I Love listening to the great songs.

[@WoodyPianoShack]

not included, optional accessory about 300 bucks

[@nonchai]

If you have any comms channel to Yamaha please keep pestering them to issue firmware updates to make these latest arr. keyboards more composer/producer friendly. You know what I mean...

[@WoodyPianoShack]

i don't have any comms to those people, but i would bet that they are listening.

[@xander_fox]

I totally agree with you it is still called an arranger keyboard and there’s so many things to address like being able to register a stop command for the multibank not for the user having to invent a workaround for that or a voice creator, which even the previous models had and different LFO types sometimes I feel like that the only thing that makes it more Modern is the touchscreen. They took so many useful things away. Back then the PSR 8000 felt like genos and montage in one keyboard.

[@normalizedaudio2481]

YAMAHA should let him keep it.

[@WoodyPianoShack]

they've been generous enough to invite me to berlin and lend me such an expensive instrument! not even sure it makes sense for me to keep it, have to rotate new gear in all the time.

[@dwsel]

Probably Woody sold with his videos several units 😉

[@tridaxprocumbens6079]

Very interesting

[@Dumis65]

Is good italo disco 80,genos prifessional👍👍👍

[@Digiphex]

You and I should start a band "Cheeze Inc." and we can do these retro pop anthems in a very parody like way.

[@mistergrooveman1018]

« i will i know !! » Com on !!

[@mistergrooveman1018]

Rick Ashley producers: Stock Atken and waterman !! Sounds Nice !!

[@JKVisFX]

What is it that makes arranger keyboards like the Genos more expensive than top-of-the-line synths like the Montage M? I would think that the opposite would be true.

[@WoodyPianoShack]

beats me, the time, cost and effort to create the styles is the only thing i can think of.

[@RobinPalmerTV]

The keys feel a little too cheap for my liking - even the more budget Nord keys feel more substantial and better crafted. They really let the Genos down IMO.

[@calikokat100]

Fun !!!

[@davidm3569]

I am beginning to warm to the Genos 2. However unless I ever win the Lottery...........always going to be just a dream........😥

[@sonic2000gr]

It's a mix of fun, nice and... cheesy :D

[@Skippersboss__]

10:11 Would have been Linda and James. Not Whitney (IMHO of course)

[@JamesNoteology]

Not sure about the choice of sounds in some of the once touch settings

[@WoodyPianoShack]

no, nor me, but they can of course be changed but I wanted to show you out of the box

[@doordedeur]

Why are the drums on all arrangers so soft? With a live band the drums are a lot louder.

[@WoodyPianoShack]

i guess they are attempting to emulate the sound of the recording not the live show.

[@gawnbawngkurz]

"Woman In Love" (Barbara Streisand) @ 17:40 FYI

[@WoodyPianoShack]

great shout, thanks for clearing that up!

[@gawnbawngkurz]

@@WoodyPianoShack absolutely! And thanks for this helpful upload 👍👍

[@cliffsandwitch]

9:30 song name?

[@ZenithMusicNet]

Impressive sound and styles. But let's be honest, this is just toys for boys! 😄

[@bz1994]

Haha yeah no doubt , can anyone deny the over the top fun of the styles in the Genos 2 😊❤️😊

[@m.keser6498]

15:42 Yeni Çıkan Bütün Cihazlar Ozellikle Yamaha Fabrika Ritimleri Taş Devrine Huzur Evlerine Hitap Etmek Yerine Keske Biraz Caga Uygun Modern Ritimler Yapsa Roland E 20 Audio Ketron Xd Serisileri Daha İyiydi Yamaha Korg Ketron Aldikları Paralari Hak Etmiyorlar lar.. Türk Muzisyenleri Takip Etmenizi Tavsiye Ederim..Yamaha Genos2 Korg 5x Ve Keşke Ketron Ewent ta Olsa Nasil Kendi İmkanlari İle Cihazi Uzaya Cikartiyorlar Basarilar Dilerim Calismaya Devam :))

[@Bud-cp3ct]

I can spend hours doing this on mine 😂

[@JamesNoteology]

I’m much prefer generic styles that can be used with multiple songs.

[@dwsel]

Same, more generic are more useful for composing own music. Isn't it the case with stock styles on Korg arrangers?

[@JamesNoteology]

@@dwsel yes there are some song styles but the majority are generic.

[@spud1252]

I just checked out the price och lol

[@timweinheimer1]

Pet Shop Boys 🎉

[@davidosolo]

Maybe it is just me. But all those styles trying to copy specific original songs with so much detail would make me feel really restrained, I think. It comes at the expanse of personal expression. Despite all the “spectacular" sound realism, I really don’t like where the Yamaha arranger keyboards are going.

[@WoodyPianoShack]

you are absolutely right. many styles (especially new ones) are highly accurate recreations of popular songs. i feel the same way, it limits how you can use them. although you are free to combine parts from several styles to create a new hybrids.

[@davidosolo]

@@WoodyPianoShack Instead of focussing on those accurate style-recreations, I would like to see that the developers would focus more on improving the interface with which you can create your own styles. With the Korg Pa-series, creating your own style is a very cumbersome process. I don’t know about Yamaha, but I suspect it is the same hassle. I mean, those arranger keyboards aren’t cheap: is it really that hard to develop a user friendly style-creator interface?

[@RedDelM]

All the styles have 3 intros and 3 endings. Number 3 is usually the one that is based on an actual song. Using the simplest, number 1, can help to make the style sound more generic.

[@botabaixo]

17:45 "Woman in love”

[@dwsel]

"Lady in red" or "Woman in love"? 🤔

[@botabaixo]

@@dwsel, my mistake 😂

[@idemditto]

In fact the styles when you play covers in a gig or alone live are not very useful. You recognize the songs very easily but are different. And I no why, but still.

[@zpxlng]

Oh wow, it's just like shopping at a cheap Japanese supermarket.

[@NiklasMalmqvist]

Doesn’t this $5000 toy show you what chords to play, and even how to play them? And did you ever consider buying this Genos 2 intead of all those synths?

[@WoodyPianoShack]

i already made loads of videos about G2 so no point me keeping it, since my focus is creating videos, not creating music! this is not an instrument for beginners and does not show you what to play, you need very good skills to get the best out of a genos.

[@MsPopota69]

The fact they don't pay for royalties makes them put crappy intros and endings in famous styles! Just check out Roland and Korg for instance, its all there! Might as well just go for generic rhythms instead of doing that bulshit, yamaha!!!