Genos2 R&B styles converted for Genos1 - Sand, software and sound

Styles got a major update in Yamaha Genos2. The original Yamaha Genos (generation 1) had 550 styles when it was released. Genos2 grows that number to 800 preset styles. Although many people use styles for cover songs, the 800 styles comprise an amazing library of musical phrases and ideas for songwriting.

If you live in North America, it may be a while before you have a chance to test drive a Genos2 in person. That’s my situation even though I don’t live in a “backwater” community! Yamaha is pressing sales in Europe where the arranger market is broader and hotter.

What to do? Convert some Genos2 styles to Genos1 and check them out!

With 250 new-to-G2 styles to choose from, I concentrated on the genres of most interest to me: R&B, Soul, Jazz and a little Dance. Some of the styles are brand new; some were taken from other Yamaha keyboards (PSR-SX900, CVP-909 and even CSP-170). All of the styles got a make over using new voices, new DSP effects and new drum kits.

If you would like to try these converted styles, download the ZIP file:

http://sandsoftwaresound.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/G2_RnB_styles_G1.zip

Please remember, you’re still not getting the REVelation reverb and Ambient drum kit goodness. If you want to play, you gotta pay. 🙂

My conversion notes (TXT file) detail the Genos 2 voices and effects that were used in the style parts and OTS. Substitutions are suggested. There is a huge amount of low-level detail which illustrates the level of effort required by Yamaha to update styles.

A few general considerations are worth mentioning.

Several styles use the new Genos2 FM voices. I did my best to substitute G1 voices, but, hey, voice names like “SynthLead4” don’t offer much clue as to how the original FM voice sounds.
Yamaha preset styles use “Style Voices” which are ordinarily hidden in a separate “StyleVoices” directory. These Style Voices substitute for SArt2 voices.
REVelation reverb is used almost everywhere. Comparable Real Reverb presets are substituted.
Many styles use the new multi-band compressor effect. Uni Comp compressor presets are substituted. Genos1 expanded the use of per-part compression and G2 follows suit.
Several Ambient (Ambi) drum kits are based on Revo kits. The equivalent Revo kit is substituted.
Two Ambi kits (Production kit and Dirty kit) assign kick drum sounds to the lowest MIDI note numbers. The MIDI notes are transposed to a Revo kick drum.
Genos2 has new Mega Voices: acoustic bass, electric bass and nylon guitar, among others. Mega Voices with the most similar velocity maps are substituted. The maps do not always align, but I left the original MIDI note data unmodified.

I hope my notes and observations help other adventurous souls with their own style conversion projects.

Before closing, I’d like to suggest an experiment for some lucky Genos2 player. I would love to hear an A/B comparison of one of these converted styles against the full-phat Genos2 version. Any takers?