I have a Roland XV-88 and it's not a arranger keyboard!! It's a synth!! It's like a module from the XV series but with keys, 88 piano action keys-the same found on the RD-600 and A90, I think.
It has an arpegiattor, but it still isn't a arranger keyboard in any way!...

The sounds on the SD1? They're great! Hear them... and hear the GREAT GREAT styles from this machine!
I bought my SD1 1 or 2 months ago. I didn't like PSR9000 and didn't even look at the tyros because I couldn't live with only 61 keys.

Holy Crap! I just checked some sites.. musiciansfriend, zzounds, 8th street, and this thing is selling for like $1,200... Geez.. All it has is an XG voice set, and the unit itself is quite dated.. That's a high price for the QY-700 if you ask me.. You can pick them up on ebay from $600-$700 tops.... If this thing had panel voices and a few other features I could see the price, but it only has the XG voice set..

Squeak

The Genesys has portamento control. The hard disk recording is limited to a single stereo track of mono track and the only way to record multiple tracks is to record a track, then save it to a CD and then reload it to hard drive and record another track. This is not a great way, but all there is to get more than one track.
I hate to get on the price topic with Genesys because there is no published retail price. Each dealer has established their own price. Contact a dealer if you want to get their price. I have been asked to not quote Generalmusic prices on this website. Please contact me for my price if you are interested.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

I'm rather shocked & disappointed to hear this, especially because GEM published a retail list price for their other flagship keyboard, the Promega 3, which lists at: $2,995 US dollars (according to Keyboard Magazine 11/02).

This is the SAME beef I've had for years with Technics. It really gulls me to walk into a Technics dealership to see the price tag on a KN7000 at $6,900, and then have the dealer tell me that he will offer me the deal of the century: $4,500, but only if I buy TODAY, knowing full well that the dealer cost is closer to $2,000.

Ok, some here may defend the dealer saying that's the buyers responsibility to beware, but without a manufacter set retail list (ceiling) price, this just encourages overly greedy dealers (I'm defintely NOT referring to George Kaye or Dan O'Neil here, of course) to jack up the prices as high as they think they can get away with.

Most arranger Keyboard manufacterers I know of (ei: Yamaha, Roland, Korg, etc) publish & provide a suggested list price, which at least gives us, the consumer, some idea of what the dealer should be charging, and a point of which we can negotiate DOWN from.

WHY does Technics (and now GEM, with the Genesys?!) choose NOT to provide the consumer with retail list prices. What really is the advantage of this other than encourage dealers to inflate prices as high as they can?


Scott

Scotty: you raise good points but the fact is that informed consumers that can learn how to operate a sophisticated instrument on their own like you and I are not the normal customers of music stores. Professional musicians make up a very small percentage of business actually... most consumers are walk-in, Mom & Dad or grandparents, churches, beginners, hobbyists, etc. Some shoppers would compare a $10,000 home upright piano to a Technics KN7000 priced at $6,900 and figure the Technics offered them more for the money (especially when it goes on sale for $4,500). They always expect the dealer to take the time to answer any questions they'll have about how to operate their new keyboard for days, months and sometimes years after. I used to sell keyboards at MSRP to cover my support time, and even then that didn't always cover my time once the questions started. The worst problem was selling Yamaha PSR keyboards at list price only to have Circuit City and Sam's Club sell the same keyboards at deep discount and refer their customers to us to answer questions! We purposely started selling keyboards that only MI stores could get after that.

The market for expensive high-end technical keyboards isn't really that large (compared to the guitar market for example) especially in smaller markets, so some KN7000's take up retail space for months. This is why you almost never see a Yamaha 9000 Pro on a display floor. Maintaining retail space costs money that you get back only in the long run if the keyboard sells at a good margin.

Sure, music stores can't sell a KN7000 to US for $6,900, but I have no problem with them selling it for that to anyone they can.

Anyone ever compared the sounds of the genesys to the SD-1, 9000pro, or Tyros? Those seems to be the other keyboards I'm interested in for sound quality? In terms of styles, would I be wrong in saying that probably the SD-1 and the Tyros have the most realistic? Or do all these keyboards now use sampled drum grooves in conjuntion with midi drum styles?

If Genesys comes out in 88 keys. I think I'm sold once I hear some sound comparisons. Their websites audio page seems to not be completed.

So George, you're saying that if I have some midi style tracks, record a vocal wave, save it to disk, then I can load it back up into the multi-track song file and then record another wav file along with that one with both playing together? that would be cool. If not, something they should consider for the 88key version.

Take a look at the Yamaha PF1000 and PF500. 88 key arrangers, though not quite portable.

Yes, you can record a vocal track to some midi song tracks, save it and then convert it back to a wav file and then do it again, and again, and again, however eventually you might start to loose some quality if you do this many times.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

I do not believe that the harddrive size on Genesys allows for multiple audio tracks. Therefore, I believe that audio recording is intended simply as one stereo track that represent the audio of all the midi track at once. Now that is useful if you want to make a very quick demo. I do that all the time.

But for those who DREAM or think they want to use multitrack recording of audio, please research construcing a DAW or buying one of those korg/roland/tascam machines.

I have constructed a studio at my home and I use Cubase SX and Wavelab to do that.