Montage by Yamaha

[Mosquita Muerta]

I tried it at the Anaheim Namm 2016:

First impression after playing it for about an hour :

Quality sound: Yamaha Motif series with better A/D D/A convertion 24bit at 44.1kHz 192kHz capable via the ( v2.0 USB to Computer ) 2.0 ? really ? YES. , REALLY 2016!

Headphones output terrible noisy, play the FM patches and you will hear that noise...horrible (u$ 2,999 street price for the Montage 6) ...noisy output...no way.

Super knob function...cool...but nothing really new.

No single sounds...every patch on the Montage are performances, 16 midi channels per sound, 128 AWM2 polyphony separate from the FM-X 128, so do not expect to play only AWM2 sounds using 128 notes (no way!)

Leds and interface...cool, LCD, really good, but not responsive fast as the Korg's. I had to press more than twice to load a preset (wth?)

Pianos really good, but nothing spectacular
Electric pianos, rhodes, elec tines and dx7 style....as it should...chorus and phaser a lot, nice sounds but too 90's

EDM massive saw sounds...big, but not more than I can create using Zebra 2 or Dune v2

Reverbs, super...if not the best in business one of the top 3

Synth Strings warm and open

Acoustic Strings...ok...cannot compete with Viena or other massive Library

Basses, really cool, but not more round and fat that the Roland FA-6/ Integra-7

Drums...not good, same as Motif, more compressed and volumen pumped up.

Pedal modulation using the super-knob...nice live feature

transition between performances ok, some notes cutting off (polyphony issues here), just in one patch, imagine using massive patches sequences...

Sequencer...well, primitive and nothing new, no editing, deleting events, patterns, nope...none.nada.zip.

Arpeggio's presets...10,000 huuuuuuge

Sampling options....nope...cannot mapping, cannot reverse a sample, looping...nope...nothing more than load a sample and play, keymapping...probably next update....(wtf? ...2016 really?)

Flash memory included 1.75GB ....hahahahaha...a joke

Why not 4GB at least....well guys...I pass on this one....will see what is next on 2017 Namm if something really cool appears....hasta la vista baby (Yamaha if still producing this kind of synths, it's over)

<a href="http://imgur.com/hWhJ593"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/hWhJ593.jpg?1" title="source: imgur.com"></a>

<a href="http://imgur.com/Ilouvrn"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Ilouvrn.jpg" title="source: imgur.com"></a>

<a href="http://imgur.com/mMAMZOV"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/mMAMZOV.jpg" title="source: imgur.com"></a>

[CEB]

I am very interested in this because.

1. The action on my current synth (FA-06) sucks but I use it for the sample player and sequencers. Was considering add a Virus TI2.

2. I want to be able to manually control the rate of climb and rate of fall of buildups and drops using the expression pedal.


Right now I do all my builds and drops in Cubase making them precise lengths for eas tune then save them to wav files and trigger them with keypads on the FA-06. If I could use riser patch from a hardware systh and control it live with an expression pedal life would be a lot easier.

My main board is a Kronos 2-88. IF there was a way I could do this with the Kronos and add a KP3+ to the chain off an assignable output jack I could save a bunch of money and still add a myself an acceptable synth action board.

[spaceman3]

The internal aw sounds are only 16 bit.
It sucks that YAMAHA did not improve this.

[EvilDragon]

You wouldn't hear a difference between 16- or 24-bit, since all samples are normalized anyways, so that envelopes could influence the sound correctly.

[NIO0850]

Yep the Montage is going to be a big flop. I hope that Kronos successor has 64bit, 480gb SSD, 16gb ram, wifi bluetooth, ipad quality touch screen and 10sec boot time. Please Korg.... If Sony can sell a PS4 for $300 or Samsung Tab 4 for $99 geesh you would think Korg could really put some new current technology into the next flagship workstation.

[chilly7]

I think this thing cannot give true 24bit/192Khz so it is marketing. Or another synonymous word to marketing is lair.

[EvilDragon]

And you think that's not true based on WHAT? Checking the actual hardware? Don't be ridiculous.

[SanderXpander]

No samples in any keyboard or softsynth are 192KHz anyway, nor can you hear anything at its Nyquist Frequency (96KHz), this is just a long standing fiction on Chilly's part. All you get is larger CPU load and larger files.

[voip]

Using 192kHz sample rate, that's still only 4-5 samples per half cycle of a 20kHz component in a signal, so there's considerable distortion of the waveform at the high frequency end, which won't itself be audible as distortion but will result in sub-20kHz products when the sound frequency is not an exact sub-multiple of 192kHz. At 44.1, or 48kHz sampling rates, the situation is much worse, and contributes to the perception that CDs sound harsh compared to vinyl, for example.
.

[shefu]

I hate this trend of "performance" type banks instead of single sounds. It's the same on my Jupiter 80. They had to release an OS update months later for people to actually play individual sounds on it. It's retarded...

[Mr_SamDoogie]

Got curious about this synth which is priced at the similar amount as the Kronos. First it indeed can't do what the Kronos does best but it isn't that kind of synthesizer.

Yamaha called it the montage and I take that literally as that this can do things with sound we've not yet have experienced from one keyboard.

But what really got me and what probably will pique anyone interested for that particular feature is this.

He is saying quote "In theory this synth can "Tap Tempo" using side chaining which renders the synth in sync with the rest of the band." In theory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Db2lZyuyCU

[aron]

>I hate this trend of "performance" type banks instead of single sounds

It can create problems. The PX-5S is similar. Although you can save "tones" i.e. voices, you can only hear them in the context of a stage setting i.e. performance.

The obvious problem is that if you want to play single voices only, you eat up performance slots. The second is that if you audition within the context of a performance, the effects, transposition, etc... are active.

[Mr_SamDoogie]

>I hate this trend of "performance" type banks instead of single sounds

It can create problems. The PX-5S is similar. Although you can save "tones" i.e. voices, you can only hear them in the context of a stage setting i.e. performance.

The obvious problem is that if you want to play single voices only, you eat up performance slots. The second is that if you audition within the context of a performance, the effects, transposition, etc... are active.

Because its in there doesn't mean you can't disregard that.
Performance is just another name to refer as what other call bank, group or
set list. There are keyboard whom are fully dedicated to single tones.

But I guess you don't want that

[apex]

>I hate this trend of "performance" type banks instead of single sounds

The obvious problem is that if you want to play single voices only, you eat up performance slots.

Nah man. Just put several of your favorite single voices in one performance. Use the scenes to mute and Unmute the different voices and BAM... Homemade set list mode. Or an entire set sitting within one performance.

[aron]

Yes, like I do with Kronos. However if you want to easily see what sounds you have or to audition single sounds, it's still more cumbersome.