I had some time to sit down & play with the Yamaha Montage` today
and all I can say is WOW!! This thing is a beast it sounds amazing deep you can really take your music to new heights in so many ways for sure if you know what your doing, key feel is excellent also,.......I'd say there is a steep learning curve but it's manageable with time and effort.
This keyboard screams QUALITY from head to toe.
If you can go try one for yourself. Good job Yamaha.

That's great, Donny. I'll try one maybe in a few weeks.

I have a few questions:

1) Which sounds have you tried (pianos, strings, brass, woodwinds, etc...)?

2) How do the sounds compare to other keyboards (PSR-S970, Korg PA, etc...)?

3) Have you tried Performances? Do they sound like an arranger's styles (drums, bass, guitar, etc...)?

Thanks.

Mikem,....The sounds that I tried were superb,
and the realness & quality and richness you can hear right off the bat, so much character in the samples & waveforms.
The Arps are simply amazing and when you Turn the Big Knob all kinds of things start to happen to shape the sound form,..
you just have to play one to feel the experience..
It's a totally different animal then an arranger KB & steps above Motif for sure.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9wzev494_k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnioINKF02Y

Bachus compared the Montage to the T5 on the PSR forum:
See Here

Thanks, Donny, for your very enthusiastic response! This is a good sign!

The Montage may be a step forward with new sound technology. From what I heard from the videos, it appears to be directed toward the younger generation, dance music, etc.. Hope any new arrangers don’t go too far in that direction and leave us oldies behind. If they will only apply those sound-quality enhancements to the traditional instrument voices and styles! I can’t see those repetitive, pounding bass drum sounds and moose-snorting synth sounds fitting very well with When The Red, Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin’ Along.

Yes, i did, i was actually quite surprised about the difference in sound quallity... even witouth DSP, the Montage just sounds warmer and more naturall. and if you then add the fact that there are 2 seperate insert effects available for each sound.. it explains a lot..

Many of the SA voices of the Tyros5 are also available in the Montage (not SA2) and just sound warmer and even more naturall

the best and most enjoyable part however is the superknob and how it allows you you in many of the performances to drastically change your sound..


Just one thing i also noticed...The Vintage Organ sounds in the organ world sounded better and more natural on the Tyros5... feels like the montage is still using the old set of samples..


But in general the Montage comes very close to my Kronos for a lot of the professional sounds and in a lot of areas, like the solo wood, brass and winds absolutely devours the Kronos. (but so does the Tyros5)


With a little distortion DSP you can even make the FM engine sound almost like an analogue synthesizer.. the FMx engine can do a lot more then the typical somewhat metalic sounds of the DX7.


I think a combination of Montage 8 and Korg PA4x could rival my Kronos/Tyros 5 combination...


For the upcomming Genos (Tyros6) i hope they replace the keyboard voices (L,R1,R2,R3) with the 8 part performances of the montage including the superknob... and the DSP system og having 2 DSP effects/sound..

How is it to navigate the Montage keyboard. There seems to be a big dependence on the superknob.

Sorry if I missed this... Does the Montage have a touch screen ?

Dan very easy to navigate & logically laid out, touch screen works flawlessly to adjust all functions and more.. ...the buttons, sliders, etc, are of super quality, & all lit too,...the SUPER Knob is just a part of it's AWESOMENESS in creating music. You can do amazing things with this workstation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iINB9_kwIZo

Touchscreen, which worked very very intuitive for me... And there are enough (programmable) buttons for the really important things...

The superknob is only a small part of the instrument and can be programmed to your likings for a plethora of things... In general the standard performance consists out of up to 8 sounds layered and split over the keybed. You can add 2 effects to each of these 8 sounds... For a total of 16 effects ...
There are also 8 scene button, that are used to choose presets based on the 8 sounds... I.e. Sound 1 is a string on the left part of the keyboard, sound 2 is an organ to the right of the split and sound 3 a trumpet to the right of the split layered with the organ sound. Now scene 1 would be strings split with organ, scene 2 would be strings split with trumpet amd scene 3 would be strings split with a trumpet on top of an organ sound....
The superknob in this case could be used for example to slowly crossfade from Organ to Trumpet..

You can build further from here, add 3 arp tracks, first a drum track, seccond a bass and third a strumming guitar.. Which when programmed in the right way on the left hand could give the idea of a simple arrangement... You can then use the scenes like variations, giving a different arp for guitar, drum and bass with every scene..


On top of that there are 8 more tracks, which can be used from an external keyboard or a sequencer, or even from Varranger...each of these track also has 2 insert effects of its own...

Hope this helps... But might be wiser to check out a demo...



However Donny is wrong, this is not a workstation, but a performance synth alike the Roland Jupiter 80. Almost all workstation features that where on the Motif series have been cut from the Montage... There is only a simple record function left... There is just sounds and arps(and many ways of realtime influencing them) perfect for performing... But not a workstation.