While the Montage doubles the Motif on parts it is no longer billed as a "workstation". It is billed as a "performance" synth. That's it's whole MO. Somewhere in the Montage development stages the power and potential for 16 parts under keyboard control was aborted (most likely set aside for the next generation) It's a powerful hardware synth for sure and it is fully capable of 16 parts multitimbral which has been proven. I love playing all 16 FMX parts using my MIDI jumper solution.

I think each part can be comprised of up to 8 waveforms so you could build more "instruments" into a "part" and find a way to harness that ability in real time by switching waveforms on/off as desired. Might get confusing though but it's possible.

Although the MIDI workaround works I get a MIDI signal delay (negligible but present) and slowed touch screen performance. I'm guessing that during testing something appeared unsatisfactory to the development team and so the limitation was born. They probably didn't want any limitations appearing i.e. EX5 so they confined the system to 8 parts. But it can do 16 parts with limitations.

Perhaps Yamaha will reconsider the design and state such limitations openly and then update the OS to allow for internal routing without MIDI delay for 16 part usage. One limitation will remain that only 8 of those 16 will be under motion control which is fine because 16 parts under motion control is probably not currently possible within the system parameters or abilities. I'm only speculating but maybe it is possible. How robust is this system I wonder and are they dealing with hardware or software only issues?

I feel like they wanted to test the waters with the Montage initially and determine how well it would be received being such a paradigm shift from the typical workstation. I'm quite astounded by the Montage. I was bored by the Motif ROMpler and only bought the XS but then sold it. The excitement factor for me has been a solid 10 out of 10 with the Montage but then again I don't have any specific professional needs like some of you guys out there. Therefore I'm really thrilled with my Montage 8.

* 8 parts under motion control is fine but as stated, I need to be able to access all 16 parts in an easy to use interface.
There are times when we would want the sophistication of combined multipart instruments including the ability to layer/ split etc.
There really is no valid reason to have not included this ability as other synths have offered as much years ago.

Again, I understand that this is not your typical workstation regarding sampling and/ or sequencing. I get it.
But as a "performing" synth, there is no valid reason to not give the performer access to all 16 parts onboard.
None what so ever. Especially considering its "Performance" designation. And a minor 2nd gripe, with memory so cheap,
10GB of user memory and 10GB of internal memory would have also made a lot of sense. Expandability shouldn't have to rely
on outside components.

David, have you had any success going over the 8 parts with AWM2's? The delay is perceptible. I'm hoping this can be updated like you said with an OS upgrade soon. My Kronos 2 can do all 16 parts and this Montage seems to have more power from a hardware perspective.

Keep in mind that the Kronos doing 16 parts can only do 2 or 4 (whatever their terminology is) sounds per part whereas the Montage can do 8 I think. It's a give and take between the 2 synths and their architecture.

I'll have to try the AWMs 16 part test again. The FMX worked fine. I can't understand the delay caused by MIDI if that's the cause (is it really?)? If you were going to remotely control the Montage via an external keyboard you can't have any MIDI delay even then. You press the remote keyboard key and 0.5 seconds later the Montage plays a note. It has to be an instantaneous MIDI signal or nothing else MIDI doesn't work properly. It's just a signal so I guess I don't understand it.

I'm getting a delay too. Its a bug that needs to be addressed.

My 2nd test was using the same 8 part TX816 but then I added 8 more AWM single parts on the back end. I'm not getting any audible delays. Describe the "delay" that you are hearing?

On my 3rd test I replaced the part 4 (FMX) with a AWM2 part. Still no audible delay detected.

On my 4th test I started with the CFX concert parts 1 -4

Parts 5-7 Super DynoChorus Amp

Part 8 is the S700

Then I added parts 9 and 10

9 was the Jazz organ and 10 was the 74 Phase

Still no audible delays and sounds great.

Make sure you set Channel 1 to transmit to Ch 9 and set Ch 2 to transmit to Ch 10

TBC (I'm going to add 6 more parts)

Next I added "Poly Pad MW DA" to part 11

Part 12 Quartet

Part 13 Orch Glockenspiel

Part 14 FM ICE Heaven Pad

Part 15 Pad/Choir

Part 16 Ethereal

Still no audible delay and check out the sound when you use the finger ribbon. Adjust your part volume levels to make sense. Don't forget to turn on your transmit channels for parts 9 - 16 or they won't play any sound. Make sure that you get back into performance mode and not part mode and use "mixing" to view all the parts 1 - 16.

I noticed that although CFX part (2) doesn't trigger unless you hit hard but it still triggers transmit channel 10 as it should normally.

It's a monster sound. To get back to regular performance operation I usually just swap the MIDI over to USB so your regular performances will play correctly. Enjoy!