Hi Jason --

The wind blows fast! 🙂

Thank you for the corrections. There are probably some other typos and mispellings, like "MOXD". Musical instruments are more forgiving than computer keyboards when fingering.

This is probably a good time and place to say that I don't have any official affiliation with Yamaha -- I simply play and like Yamaha arrangers and synths. I'm just a guy blogging away by myself and I do appreciate the feedback (including corrections).

My enthusiasm for MODX remains high. Now that I'm back in town, I hope to try out an MODX6 soon, maybe this afternoon. I will take a bite of the apple once I find a home for my S950, a nice instrument made redundant by a Genos. 😀

All the best to ya -- pj

It's good to state - I know where you sit in the world of Yamaha (sidelines like me). I see your articles quoted/referenced by other regular Jans/Joes. Primarily the amount of audio channels was something I wanted to clean up as people like quick tables with "marketing" style bullets to make purchasing decisions and wanted to be sure that got corrected. While I was at it, I added the typo I noticed. Would regularly click on the webmaster/"contact us" link - but didn't find one. Glad the ponies got there, regardless.

Not to splinter off too much (but I will) - I sat down at a MODX for the first time yesterday. Owning a Montage, I was interested in how well MODX would handle some of the things I do.

It's interesting that Montage has received little attention on the customer feedback regarding how [CATEGORY SEARCH] (it's just called [CATEGORY] without the "SEARCH" in MODX) could be improved. The feedback was around what default categories and such are selected when you press the button after previously having performed a search. What's interesting is the arc of support. When I was "playing" with the MODX - I noticed that lack of the extra buttons (right-hand matrix) meant you could no longer press the [COMMON] buttons in order to activate the shortcut of the "All" category and sub-category. Therefore, when you are dealing with [CATEGORY SEARCH] in Montage, you can usually button your way out of inefficient or strange selections of the defaults while MODX does not have this luxury. I think now some of the problems faced with [CATEGORY SEARCH] in Montage are more apparent in MODX so now we do see movement (for Montage) that, at least, the need for firmware improvement is acknowledged my Yamaha.

So what I noticed is that some lack of buttons make things harder for me on MODX. This demands some (further) adjustments to the GUI to facilitate loss of buttons and really optimize the touch experience if that is going to be more demanded in the MODX.

I did notice the problem of random access selecting user Performances. I use Live Set - so this gives me the same random access to 16 different Performances at a time on both MODX and Montage. However, I use buttons to swap pages - because it's faster than finding a small page flip button on the touchscreen. I did notice that [SHIFT] + [INC] or [DEC] does flip pages on MODX (probably Montage too) - but the [SHIFT] function is not what I use on Montage since [SHIFT] is a little difficult for me to manage when the band leader calls an audible (I press MODX's missing MUTE/SOLO buttons on Montage which are shortcuts in Live Set for page up/down).

I think some slight tweaks to the GUI can accommodate. Since cursor keys already can work for INC/DEC (right can be the same as INC, left the same as DEC) - I think it'd be better to make INC/DEC change the page so there's a button for that. Also the GUI may want 4 "buttons" to one side or the other so any of the 1st 4 pages of Live Set can be selected. That gives you random access to 4x16 = 64 Performances. Not 256 (like Montage) -- and using touchscreen area instead of real buttons -- but maybe some relief. The landing area for the buttons would need to be large-finger-size and also preferably on an edge of the screen (bottom, or side) so that "finding" the button is easy without having to hunt-and-peck.

Even with button shortcuts - for touchscreen items that would be used live (selecting Performances, selecting ARP number, etc) should be placed and sized to reduce the need to "hunt and peck". And without the "luxury" of buttons in MODX for many shortcuts - the need is greater.

... what I did like is how sliders and assignable knobs were removed - but no loss of functionality is really incurred. I wasn't sure exactly how the assignable knobs worked to get to all 8. I see that pressing [ASSIGN] a second time gives you the "other" knobs flopping between 1-4 and 5-8. This works fine. Back to the critique - I guess the I2C expander ran out of GPOs to keep the hardware/button/indicator interface consistent (cost and weight do not apply to standard LEDs and an extra two holes in the plastic). The other items that are "banked" (Sliders, Scene buttons) have one LED per bank and a silkscreen (1-4, 5-8) to label each LED - and the button will toggle which LED or bank is selected. This could have been done the same way for the assignable knobs. That would have probably been the preference. Flashing as an indicator works - and, overall, I'm OK with that. Just a little wonky to have two different approaches to the same kind of information. The Scene/Slider method is better at self-documenting and also doesn't require an active keyboard (turned on and going through the states) to demonstrate how it works.

Paul, I'd be interested in one of your in-depth hardware analysis articles on MODX 🙂 I wonder how much different it really is as compared to Montage. One or two SWP70 processors? I think this is not quite clear from the specs, because if you compare polyphony & number of insert effects, MODX seems somehow "3/4 of Montage" (and not 1/2, as one would naively expect from only one SWP70).

Hi Jason --

I'm just now coming to grips with the MODX interface. No major issues so far. The large screen on the Genos has me spoiled and requires less care and precision to press its larger button widgets, etc. I'm finding it easier to navigate within a window using the cursor buttons. I do appreciate the navigational short cuts, for example, changing between Common and specific parts/elements. Since I'm coming up from MOX, this is dream editing.

I've written two sets of comments based on my early experience:

http://sandsoftwaresound.net/yamaha-modx-snap-review/
http://sandsoftwaresound.net/modx-effects-screen-capture/

I'm sorry that readers have to chase me down on Forums, but I decided long ago to save time by not moderating comments on my site. It's a crazy world out there. 😉

Thank you for sharing your impression of MODX WRT Montage. I hope that Yamaha finds the feedback welcome as well.

All the best -- pj

Hello Falk --

Yep, I'd like to dive into MODX internals, too. At some point, I will. For once in several months, I don't have a trip looming in my face. 😀

Quickly though, and it might sound strange, but there are many factors other than TG chip count that affect recurring product cost. Elimination of all those panel buttons and controls is the most obvious to us as well as dropping the FSX keybed (and aftertouch) and use of a molded chassis -- all quite apparent to the eye. I'll bet that much of the electronics now reside on a single board, including the analog circuitry which is separated out with Pure Analog Circuit (PAC). Many of these differences are needed to reduce size and weight as well as cost.

Another enormous factor is a single unified code base for both products. This clearly wasn't the case for the later Motif and Mo product lines before. I'm quite optimistic about this because MODX people (and beyond) will directly derive a lot of benefit from the flagship.

As I start to play and program MODX, I'm very glad that it's 75% of a Montage for about 50% of the street price! 🙂

All the best -- pj

P.S. I'm getting bugged to deep dive the Genos, too. 😉

Hey pj

http://sandsoftwaresound.net/modx-effects-screen-capture/

Thx for the hint about screen capture. Sometimes.answers arise out of nowhere before even asking... 😀

Cheers
Michael

Hi Michael -- De nada! -- pj

Hello Paul.
My name is Paul as well. I found a post of yours where you state you have a Yamaha Reface YC service manual. I have the YC and need to repair it as it will not power up. I have tried to find the service manual but the only place I got on the web was your small post. I would be very grateful if you could tell me where I can download it. Many thanks and apologies for jumping in on this thread. You are a hard person to contact.
Paul.

If you are in the USA — be sure to read the “Important Notice” concerning repair!
Link — Ordering Service Manuals

If not, you can visit the Yamaha Corporate site for your region and look for a similar function - just search “Service Manual”

If you are in the USA — be sure to read the “Important Notice” concerning repair!
Link — Ordering Service Manuals

If not, you can visit the Yamaha Corporate site for your region and look for a similar function - just search “Service Manual”

That section of the site doesn't seem to exist outside US.
I'm trying to find a way to order a MODX6 service manual in the EU with no luck.

That section of the site doesn't seem to exist outside US.
I'm trying to find a way to order a MODX6 service manual in the EU with no luck.

Bummer… reach out to your regional Yamaha office, the details are usually in the back of the Owner’s Manual.

Hello.
I am looking for a copy of a service manual for the Reface YC mini keyboard. I followed your suggestion to order through Yamaha. The company that deals with the service manuals is Schaltungsdienst Lange oHG in Germany. I just got a message back saying that Unfortunately, Yamaha does not provide any service documents for this model.
Does anyone know if this model is known as something different as Paul J. Drongowski above states in a post that he has such a service manual. I am at a loss how to get one now so Paul, if you ever read this please send me a copy or post it on your website. Thank you. Paul C.

Hello.
I am looking for a copy of a service manual for the Reface YC mini keyboard. I followed your suggestion to order through Yamaha. The company that deals with the service manuals is Schaltungsdienst Lange oHG in Germany. I just got a message back saying that Unfortunately, Yamaha does not provide any service documents for this model.
Does anyone know if this model is known as something different as Paul J. Drongowski above states in a post that he has such a service manual. I am at a loss how to get one now so Paul, if you ever read this please send me a copy or post it on your website. Thank you. Paul C.

I got the same reply from the same people.

Paul J has it because in US Yamaha doesn't look down on its customers.
You can easily order one in the US, but they don't ship outside of US.