Good idea John
I was also thinking about it. At the moment the problem is that they use different formats. MONTAGE X7 and MODX X8. so they are not completely compatible.

Good idea John
I was also thinking about it. At the moment the problem is that the use different formats. MONTAGE X7 and MODX X8. so they are not compatible.

That would be a strange move of yamaha wouldn’t it?
Unless they are not interested in selling me another keyboard...

But seems you are wrong, i quote from another post of Bad Mister :
The MODX (2018) will certainly be able to load any data made for MONTAGE (2016)...
The MONTAGE cannot Load MODX proprietary Files.

The modx can load everything the Montage saves
Montage can not load what modx saves
Simply o do with the fact that modx is newer..
His is okey for me, the montage will be m creative brain
The modx my performance annimal on stage..

MO has always had a different format than the "companion" flagship.

Motif XF: X3A, X3V vs. MOXF: X6A, X6V

etc. through first MO which had a different save format than it's big brother Motif ES.

Writing a conversation utility due to the similarities should be fairly easy so if sharing Performances between the two is what you want - I don't see why that couldn't be written by a 3rd party if Yamaha doesn't provide a way.

For me, due to the similarities in sounds produced (including engines), I see too much redundancy to go MODX+Montage myself. I'd prefer a 2nd keyboard with different sounds.

There are still some compelling reasons to have both. Namely advantages due to weight.

Good idea John
I was also thinking about it. At the moment the problem is that the use different formats. MONTAGE X7 and MODX X8. so they are not compatible.

That would be a strange move of yamaha wouldn’t it?
Unless they are not interested in selling me another keyboard...

But seems you are wrong, i quote from another post of Bad Mister :
The MODX (2018) will certainly be able to load any data made for MONTAGE (2016)...
The MONTAGE cannot Load MODX proprietary Files.

The modx can load everything the Montage saves
Montage can not load what modx saves
Simply o do with the fact that modx is newer..
His is okey for me, the montage will be m creative brain
The modx my performance annimal on stage..

You are right John,
Newer formats always include at least the last predecessor format. But at the moment there is no way back from the MODX to the MONTAGE.

Today I got a MODX 8 as a companion to my Montage 6. Always wanted to have a piano keyboard but the Montage 8 was too expensive, too big, and to heavy. The MODX solved those issues for me. It is smaller, lighter, and way less expensive. So this is great.

I was not able to load a backup file (did not really expect it to). But I could import a user file from the Montage and everything behaves and sounds the same except for one issue: Apparently the Montage has a higher resolution internally. Or something similar. In several performances I get distortion because apparently they are too loud. In the Montage I did not get that problem. It is easy to solve by reducing the performances’ master volumes. Still weird. I guess I have to go over all my performances and reduce their master volume.

Apart from that I could not hear any difference at all between the two. Connected to the same mixer and played the same performances on both, listening on a Sennheiser headphone.

Of course SSS works only up to 4 parts, but I do not really use SSS at all because of issues mentioned in other posts.

I believe there were demos online that compared Montage and MODX where MODX was louder. It was a complaint that the performer didn't equalize the volume of both so the users could evaluate - but maybe using the same settings was intentional to demonstrate what you've noticed.

Maybe the two boards just have different DACs or other parts in other gain stages. There's lots of places this could turn up. Yamaha would be better to spell out how to best manage since they know the circuit.

You may want to go to the store and try a few out to ensure the behavior is consistent. Or maybe wait for some input from Yamaha before going through that effort.

I firmly believe that MONTAGE output convertors simply got more headroom and can withstand more "abuse" before they distort. After all, the all-new state-of-the-art Pure Analog Circuit in Montage outputs was a major selling point over the previous generation (Motif XF), however, nothing similar has been ever mentioned about MODX.

Regarding the comparison video, the one that I recall had Montage being obviously louder, making it sound "fuller". This is how loudness fools the ears...
We are yet to see a real comparison with normalized audio and possibly playing MIDI data in order to avoid the "human factor".
Maybe Stefan can make one? 😉

I can get rid of the distortion by setting the Main L&R output level to 0 db. On the Montage it is set to +6 db, I have no distortion then. But comparing to other performances I realized that those are really pretty load. So adjusting their volume is probably not a bad thing in any case.

Apart from that I cannot hear any sound differences at all. I carefully adjust the volume to be the same and after that even with a blind test I could not hear any switches. I think making a video comparing the sounds would be pointless. If I cannot hear the difference over pretty good headphones I very much doubt that a Youtube video would reveal anything.

UPDATE: The distortion was actually user error. In the case of the Montage I was using the performances directly. In the MODX I was selecting them through the Live Set. Turned out that some were much louder in the Live Set. Selecting the performance in the MODX directly removed the distortion completely.

I'm not sure there was a call for a Youtube video. Was just pointing out that since there were differences in volumes of a youtube video produced by a reasonably complete/technically capable individual that this could indicate an actual difference in volumes/response when setting the values of the parameters identical on both keyboards. Your testing is more valuable as you have long-term familiarity with the Montage and can inform the group of how the two differ (on the volume/gain/distortion/etc.) front in a more precise way. Thanks for the info.

Is it just me or is Yamaha aiming for people that gig to buy a modx?
While using the montage in the studio?

I'd say NO. The modx is simply the cheaper, cut down version of the Montage.
Funny thing is, the modx is actually better suited to be used in the studio than the montage. Well not really better, but certainly not worse.
I own a Montage 6 and I gig. I wouldn't change my Montage with a modx for my gigs. My montage has the better keybed (one of the most important things to me because it is the connection between myself and my instrument), I can use more complex performances with up to 8 parts still with seamless switching, and - IMHO very important - the modx is actually very bad at sound selecting and that is an important aspect when playing live. On the montage, I can select up to 256 livesets with just two button presses. The modx misses those buttons and AFAIK, jumping from page 1 to page 16 in liveset mode requires you to press the up/down arrow 16 times. Those who play live with a few sounds will not see a problem. Those who create song based performances and have a lot of them will soon have the problem that it becomes quite difficult to select your sounds in a very short time (between songs).

Random access to content is important. Live sets is the way out - but does break down, as noted, for MODX if more than about 32 is your pool.

MO has always had the extra buttons before so a bit surprised to see them gone.

There seems to be a trend of removing legacy features that were part of the "DNA" of past generations.

Hopefully touch features can be added to gain back better random access. There really are not the buttons to do it.