Thanks guys for all the information and possibilities explained above!

First, I should back up and address the FM-X question. FM-X doesn't have XA control. XA control is a sample feature (AWM2). You'll have to find another way fo!r FM-X. I've given examples here (other threads) how to do this. You can use the AEG level offset to mimic XA control. AEG Level as a destination to using A.SW1 or A.SW2 as a source - or you can use other controllers.

Do you have a link to another thread that explains how to use AEG level offset to mimic XA? (AEG Level as a destination to using A.SW1 or A.SW2 as a source)
*Edit - I figured it out. It was quite easy, thanks!

I still like the idea of Scenes with Splits and Layers (and if necessary 'Mute' sounds in different scenes), but will definitely take advantage of the XA control and AsSw1 & 2 where applicable, and for now I can make that work for me...

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* Yamaha would be giving everyone an awesome gift and enhance the Montage/MODX synths greatly if they added the following two features:
1. Increase the number of Parts that can play under [KBD CTRL] from 8 to 16; but more realistically even if they increased it from 8 to 12, that would be awesome for everyone!
I want to create some awesome String sounds, made up of numerous Choir Voices, Pads, Violin strings, etc. Plus some DX7-II voice strings that I programmed from scratch many years back (actually I morphed parts/operators from 3 different voices, to one algorithm that fit, and tweaked it as best I could). Most of these strings have 2 parts (Left & Right), so that cuts the number of layers in half right there.

2. Add [KBD CTRL] to Scene mixing! This would allow us to seamlessly switch between Scenes and not have PARTs cutoff. Instead of Muting PARTs, we could just disable [KBD CTRL] on PARTs.

Both of these make so much logical sense to me, and would help the Montage/MODX's functionality surpass the Kronos!!
I hope these are high on Yamaha's new feature enhancement list!

guys, are there any youtube demo links related to this SSS topic? as what you explained here is very detailed and helpful, I think it would be much easier to follow up on a video explanation. any volunteers? 🙂 please please please!

The problem with the premise of this subject was suggesting that scenes do or should seamlessly switch between sounds in the same exact manner that SSS works between two different Performances. It doesn't do this - which is what becomes "complicated" to talk about something that doesn't exist and why. What does exist is very simple - you press a scene button and settings change to that snapshot of settings.

From a good overview video of using MODX: https://youtu.be/2pOUrS5fiiA?t=1653

For Montage - but basics are similar. Only difference is Montage has 8 buttons instead of 4 (at one time) and Montage has blue scene buttons while MODX are amber - purely a superficial color difference. https://youtu.be/wL4sUtYD5k4

What's "missing" from both is a discussion of scene memory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7Gsc_2xTbk

For clarity and conciseness, I prefer Michael Tan's videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c63TWO1dlY

Thanks for the quick reply, but I was talking about a video regarding SSS between Performances. Is there something about that?

Not a very exciting subject for a video... SSS is designed for when you are manually playing a Multi Part MODX Performance with four or less Parts, you can move to any other manually played Multi Part MODX Performance with four or less Parts without any hiccup in the sound — it will be completely sonically invisible.

“Manually playing” a Multi Part means you are directly playing the Parts involved. Quite naturally if you have an Arpeggio “playing” any of the Parts those Arps will stop when moving to another program, and quite naturally if you a Motion Sequence “playing” through any of the Parts those Motion Sequences May continue into the next program. Both the Arp and the MS are like having another set of hands “playing” the MODX... SSS is just for when YOU are playing the sounds yourself (without their assistance).

SSS is designed to allow you to overlap sounds from one manually played Multi Part Performance to another manually played Multi Part Performance... the limit is a maximum of four Parts in each program on the MODX (it’s eight Parts each on the MONTAGE).

MONTAGE has enough processing muscle to support 8 Dual Insertion Effects in the first Performance and 8 Dual Insertion Effects in the second... because it can support 16 Parts with Dual Insertion Effects.
MODX will support 4 Dual Insertion Parts on either side of a program change.

Example, recall the orchestral string Performance “String Sect Swell” (a four Part Performance manually played) — Hold a chord, either with your hands or the Sustain pedal... switch to “CFX Concert” (a four Part Performance manually played). The strings will continue to hold, no change in its Insert Effects to giveaway the change... the “CFX Concert” is recalled without any disturbance— you can play the piano overlapping on the held strings.

This is Seamless Sound Switching works when YOU (not the Arp, not the MSeq) are triggering the sound yourself.

Extra Credit:
Alternatively, you could “merge” these two four Part Performances into one Performance. It is possible to seamlessly transition between any Parts within the same Performance. There are a number of ways to do so... you can use the Super Knob to design a crossfade between the Parts; another method: you could use the XA CONTROL (Expanded Articulation Control) feature to switch sounding Elements within the Parts—using either the AsSw1/2 or a Foot Switch to seamlessly transition instrument sounds.

Seamless Sound Switching is at the level of difficulty that lets anyone move between any two sounds that meet the requirement (manually played); if you are not afraid of a little programming you can design other methods of moving between instrument sounds where it remains “sonically invisible” to the listener.

Mutes are not sonically invisible, they disconnect the sound from the output... and therefore is akin to a light switch that is abruptly On or Off. Crossfading / morphing from one sound to the other allows a kind of overlap. This is one type of transition akin to a film fade out/fade in. The Super Knob is like a dimmer switch, for one sound it reduces and for the other it increases — you design the amount of overlap, if any.
With the XA CONTROL it uses the two AssignSwitches to determine when an AWM2 Element is sounding, you can play one sound Sustain it, hit the switch, all subsequent notes will be the other sound. The current sounding instrument Elements when the Switch is hit are not cutoff, so the transition is smooth as silk.

Scenes do not remember or recall instrument sounds in a sonically invisible way... it uses Mute ON/OFF switches, or Volume level swaps to change what you are hearing which is the antithesis of overlapping sound transition. Using a Scene to transition instruments should be used when instantaneous change is necessary... overlapping requires a different approach.

Don’t use “snapshot” memory to transition if you are looking for instrument change without anything getting cutoff. Using the wrong tool for the job is operator error... not the fault of the technology.

I thought that SSS is something you can 'activate' or 'turn on' from somewhere in the menu, that's why I was curious to see a demo about it. So basically, if you switch between Performances with maximum 4 Parts, you're ok. Or, as you said, merge the two Performances into one and use super knob, etc..to crossfade.
But what Can you do when you want to switch to a 5 Parts Performance? What would the solution be? And another thing...although I could try myself first, is it possible to merge a 5 Parts Performance with a 3 Parts Performance?

SSS has rules and is automatically available or not.

MODX allows for up to 4 PARTs before SSS is defeated.

Source: https://www.yamahasynth.com/modx-category/mastering-modx-using-category-search

SSS - Seamless Sound Switch (Performance contains 4 Parts or less, under KBD CTRL).

Thank you !

But what Can you do when you want to switch to a 5 Parts Performance? What would the solution be?

The solution would be to buy a Montage. 😉 That permits seamless switching among Performances with up to 8 Parts, instead of 4.

SSS has rules and is automatically available or not.

MODX allows for up to 4 PARTs before SSS is defeated.

Source: https://www.yamahasynth.com/modx-category/mastering-modx-using-category-search

SSS - Seamless Sound Switch (Performance contains 4 Parts or less, under KBD CTRL).

...and also, significantly, they must be parts 1 through 4. If you used, say, Parts 1, 2, 3, and 9 (with the idea that Part 9 is being driven from an external keyboard), SSS will no longer work, even though you're still using no more than four Parts. This seems to be to be an unfortunate limitation, with no obvious reason. I wonder if there's an ideascale suggestion for permitting SSS to work with *any* four Parts, instead of only the first four. It would be very useful for people splitting their MODX sounds between internal and external triggering, where it really makes a lot of sense to reserve Parts 1-8 for internal sounds and 9-16 for externally triggered ones.

Hints given so far have to do with the effects resources. Also, given how receive MIDI channels cannot be assigned - you can see the general architecture is to favor static and hard-coded. PARTs are not re-used blocks - but are snowflakes. I can see how this would extend to the PART relationships to SSS rules and would represent a "real" reason. Just speculation, though (not authoritatively real).

Yes, SSS restrictions have been described in terms of effects resources (though I never understood how that resulted in a limit of 4 Parts instead of 6, since the MODX has 12 Parts' worth of effects resources available for internal sounds).Still, 4 Parts worth of effects are no more resource intensive if they are on the sounds in Parts 1,2, 3, and 9 than they would be with the same sounds located in Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4.

I have my own speculation for why MIDI channels-vs.Parts are hard-coded... being able to independently move any Part to any channel could conceivably create a real mess with multi-part single-instrument sounds, where the instrument may need to "know" where the different parts are located relative to each other, MIDI-wise. Yamaha did try to address the complaint that the Motif series was too complicated, and I could see where making it harder to unintentionally "break" things (as re-assigning portions of multi-part sounds might do) could be seen as part of keeping things simpler.

Not sure if your "resource intensive" is implying something like CPU resources. When I talk about resources - it could go either way - but I often mean resources like money. You have 5 dollars which is more resources than 2 dollars. Hard resources like memory capacity or DSP blocks (number of TGs) are easier to make inferences from than something like CPU utilization resources.

I don't have the MODX schematics - so I don't know the differences are in terms of resources.

DSP Ram, Number of TG ASICs, various bus interconnects (speeds and feeds - more about feeds, less about speeds).

At any rate, whatever the reason for building a system one way - you can start to set up a paradigm that's leveraged across to other parts of the design (since I have this thing fixed, that means this other thing isn't going to change -- so we'll just fix that too and ...)

In the end, it may be interesting for academics - but not very useful for the typical end user.

If you have a MODX and use more than 4 PARTs - then you have to evaluate if SSS is something you need or not. There are other ways to achieve what is accomplished by SSS - so one suggestion is to exhaust those first. For myself, instead of using SSS as the "go to" first solution - I just know it's there and will leverage it as a last resort if nothing else will work. Haven't used SSS yet at a gig. This may not match your sensibilities, however. So it's not the only perspective.

As I understand it, when it comes to turning sounds on and off, Scenes are basically memorized mixer settings..

Scott, your paragraph completely clicked for me.
I was trying to hit a low octave on a piano sound on Scene 1, switch to Scene 2 while still holding the octave.
But scene 2 has the piano muted. So of COURSE it's going to cut off. LOL

So I came up with a great solution I won't bore you with. (I will do just about anything to avoid carrying multiple keyboards)

But the point a want to people to know when they are searching here and thinking that SSS doesn't work. Check your muting settings in your scenes!

Mitch,
You jumped in on an ancient thread — with the recent firmware updates in both the MONTAGE and MODX a new method to change the Parts you are playing has been added.

You can now use Scenes to memorize KBD CTRL status. So rather than using a MUTE (which, as you know, cutoff the sound) you simply use the new Scene Memory function for “KBD CTRL”. This works by changing the Parts you are transmitting to — therefore, the transitions between Scenes is seamless (sonically invisible). You can do exactly as you described.

Please see the following for information on the recent firmware updates and the new features: This was added in the previous firmware update... if you’ve updated to MONTAGE 3.5 or MODX 2.5 your instrument is already capable.

Scenes in OS 3.0 (Montage) 2.0 (MODX)

Even better. Wow, every day some new treat with this synth.