When Yamaha's flagship Genos digital arranger workstation hit the market several years ago, it was a game changer, and legions of keyboardists, composers, and songwriters jumped onboard. Now, the second-generation Genos2 assumes the mantle with more great updated sounds, accompaniment styles, and effects; fresh, innovative features; and a host of technical improvements that make it the new 800-pound gorilla of performance arranger workstations. And while its actual weight is a gig-friendly 31 pounds, the Yamaha Genos2 is nevertheless a beast. Boasting unparalleled sample quality, cutting-edge styles, and pro-level connectivity, Genos2 defines the state of the art in songwriting and performance keyboards. Topped off by extensive onboard MIDI and audio recording facilities and seamless DAW integration, the Yamaha Genos2 is the only keyboard you need to ace an important gig.

Indulge your passion for making music

If your passion is composing original music, arranging professionally produced tracks, or simply playing your favorite songs, Genos2 is your go-to instrument. It gives solo musicians on a quest for perfection the highest-quality sound and style content, along with unprecedented real-time, hands-on performance control. With 800 Accompaniment Styles on tap, you have your pick of the best musicians for your backing band in any genre, making it easy to individualize your music while exercising control over chord changes and arrangements. This functionality is made all the easier with Chord Looper, which lets you record chord progressions for the Style engine to loop, freeing you to experiment with two hands or to solo without having to comp the changes. Yamaha’s Voice & Style Expansion Packs let you further customize your Genos2 with an abundance of additional content from around the world.

Expedite your creative process

Genos2 puts you in complete control over composition and performance. With its large, crisp 9-inch LCD color touchscreen, assignable knobs and faders with their own LED parameter status sub-displays for real-time feedback, and a silky 76-note, aftertouch-enabled FSX keybed, you’ll instantly find and tweak the perfect sounds and whip up an authentic-sounding arrangement in any musical genre. As you layer your compositions, Genos2 will astound you with its ability to handle massive, lavish arrangements with poise and panache. Simply put, Genos2 expedites the creative process, which can be painfully cumbersome on other arrangers that are not as meticulously designed. To your delight, you’ll find the well-thought-out design extends to every aspect of music creation. And then there are the sounds — which are totally amazing.

A massive, premium soundest

Yamaha's premium CFX and C7 concert grand pianos are jaw-dropping in their lifelike realism. Recorded in world-class studios, Revo! Drums leverage unprecedented multi-dynamic sample layers and round-robin wave cycling to deliver the most breathtakingly realistic MIDI drums ever offered in a keyboard. Ambient Drums are sampled to include both close mic and room mic audio that you can blend to taste. Non-keyboard instruments are superbly rendered by Yamaha's acclaimed Super Articulation 2 sound engine, which realistically replicates the expressive nuances of instruments such as flute and guitar. A generous 384 voices of polyphony ensures there will be no note stealing, no matter how complex the arrangement. And with instant access to 1,990 instrument presets and 75 drum kits, you'll never run out of killer sounds. To quickly access your favorite configurations, Registration Memories provide an efficient way to save and recall panel settings such as Voice, Song, Pattern, and Style.

Enhanced DSP for studio-grade effects

All Genos2 sounds benefit from multiple advanced effects engines. Yamaha engineered Genos2 with enhanced DSP for a banquet of studio-quality effects that sound downright stunning. Included are meticulous models of coveted vintage rack and stompbox units as well as classic guitar and bass amps — all of which take full advantage of the gorgeous 9-inch TFT color LCD touchscreen with intuitive, high-definition displays that mimic the actual devices. These great-sounding effects include Yamaha's VCM (Virtual Circuit Modeling) — the very same technology used by the studio-grade processing on the company's high-end digital consoles.

Powered by leading-edge tech

As Yamaha’s flagship arranger workstation keyboard, Genos2 is packed with the company’s latest analog, digital, and hardware technology and will serve as the platform for future Yamaha keyboards. Though the original Genos broke considerable ground upon its introduction, technology marches on. Indeed, digital keyboard design has advanced dramatically in the ensuing years. In that interim, Yamaha engineers have been diligently at work designing its successor, incorporating the latest tech as well as user feedback and select feature requests into Genos2. Improvements from the original Genos include:

Authentic ensemble performances for true divisi playing within a section

The Ensemble Voices feature re-creates string, brass, and wind ensembles by intuitively mapping the instruments to their appropriate ranges for authentic-sounding ensemble performances. Previously, a Voice such as Brass Quartet would use a sample of four players. If you played two notes, however, you'd suddenly have eight players — which could be cool, but perhaps not entirely realistic. In Genos2, Ensemble Voices always give you the same number of players because Yamaha instilled this instrument with the musical knowledge of a professional human music arranger. Play two notes with a Brass Quartet Ensemble Voice, and Genos will intelligently send the trumpets to the top notes and the trombones to the lower notes. We love it!

Record polished vocals with ease

When it’s time to lay down a vocal, plug your condenser mic into the XLR jack, switch on 48V phantom power, and you’re ready to roll with a studio-grade signal chain the quality of which is unprecedented in a keyboard. Yamaha’s VH2 vocal harmony engine is onboard to adorn your vocal performances by adding up to three virtual background singers, complete with pitch correction, synth vocoder, and other effects for a polished, professional sound.

Yamaha built Genos for songwriting and performance. The swoopy, dynamic visuals of its svelte chassis are quite alluring from the audience perspective; yet to the player, its clean, no-nonsense layout is designed for unfettered creativity. At Sweetwater, we get our hands on many sophisticated keyboard instruments, and the Genos2 has mightily impressed the discerning keyboardists here. From its superior ergonomics and productivity-boosting features to the off-the-charts quality and mammoth size of its soundset, the Yamaha Genos2 lays claim, once again, to the title of “ultimate performance arranger workstation.”

Yamaha Genos2 76-key Arranger Workstation Features:

• Silky, organ-weighted FSX keybed with aftertouch
• 9-inch TFT VGA LCD touchscreen display
• Assignable knobs and faders with individual OLED parameter status sub displays
• 384-note polyphony handles large orchestrations without note stealing
• 1,990 Voices and 75 Drum/SFX Kits
• 800 Accompaniment Styles provide an instant backing band in any genre
• Style Creator lets you quickly create and customize Styles for instant recall
• Voice & Style Expansion Packs let you customize your Genos2 with additional content
• Yamaha's premium CFX and C7 concert grand pianos
• Revo! Drums leverage multi-dynamic sample layers and round-robin wave cycling for ultra-realism
• Ambient Drums are sampled with both close mic and room mic audio for pro studio-quality sound
• Non-keyboard instruments are superbly rendered by Yamaha's acclaimed Super Articulation 2 sound engine
• Chord Looper lets you record chord progressions, freeing you to play with both hands
• Enhanced DSP delivers a broad range studio-grade effects, including classic rack and pedal units
• Automatically apply Vocal Harmony effects; use Synth Vocoder to shape synthesizer sounds
• Ensemble Voices map instruments to their appropriate ranges for authentic-sounding ensemble performances
• Registration Memories provide an efficient way to save and recall panel settings
• Onboard 16-track MIDI recorder
• Mic input on XLR combo jack with available +48V phantom power
• VH2 vocal harmony engine with synth vocoder adds up to 3 virtual background singers
• USB-to-Host port for connection to computer or mobile device
• 3 USB-to-Device ports for recording to/playback from flash drives
• 15GB internal user drive
• Wireless LAN capabilities
• 1/4-inch headphone jack
• Onboard metronome
• 3 function-assignable footpedal jacks
• Included music rest and IEC AC power cable

Tech Specs

• Number of Keys:76
• Type of Keys:Full-sized
• Other Controllers:9 x Faders (assingable), 6 x Knobs (assingable), 9 x Buttons (assingable)
• Polyphony:384 Notes
• Presets:1990 Voices, 75 Drum/SFX Kits
• Memory:15GB Internal
• Storage:USB Flash
• Audio Inputs:1 x XLR-1/4" combo (mic), 2 x 1/4" (aux)
• Audio Outputs:2 x 1/4" (main), 4 x 1/4" (sub)
• USB:2 x Type A, 1 x Type B
• MIDI I/O:2 x In/Out
• Headphones:1 x 1/4"
• Pedal Inputs:1 x 1/4" (volume), 1 x 1/4" (sustain), 1 x 1/4" (articulation)
• Other I/O:1 x HDMI Out, Wireless LAN, Bluetooth
• Features:800 Accompaniment Styles
• Software:Rec'n'Share App
• Power Supply:Standard IEC AC Cable
• Height:5.94"
• Width:48.58"
• Depth:17.95"
• Weight:31.31 lbs
• Manufacturer Part Number:GENOS2