A useful device on the top task bar is the 'FX' icon which brings up the 4 types of effects for a Pf - a quick way of determining which is doing what. But sometimes the 'FX' icon is both greyed out and crossed out, and no amount of fiddling with effects will change the sound. But sometimes it does! So what is the significance of the icon being cancelled? Does it signify that the sound was sampled like that and can't be changed? Only sometimes it can, which is a bit puzzling. Thanks for thoughts ...

The Effect icon (FX) is a shortcut to the “Effect Switch” Utility screen... this is where you *bypass* certain functions.

This is not a status that is stored per Performance. The four main (FX) items allow you to bypass the Insertion Effect block, the System Effect block, The Master Effect block, and/or the Master EQ block.

Example Use: When playing “live”, you often encounter a room with its own ample acoustic characteristics. By deactivating your System Effect block you can bypass the “Reverb” and “Variation” Effects — which are most often used to recreate a spatial configuration. If you’re playing in a room with tons of echo, you might want to opt to bypass your System Effects by setting that block to OFF... it will apply to the entire instrument.

Example Use: The MONTAGE has 32-bus Audio Outputs - Main USB L&R plus 30 Assignable USB Audio Outputs... If you want to have 16 identical pairs of Outputs, you would bypass the System Effects, the Master Effects and the Master EQ. It is these three blocks that differentiate any numbered USB pair (USB1&2, USB3&4...USB29&30) from the USB Main L&R... the Main L&R Out go through the SYSTEM, MASTER FX and EQ. Bypassing these three blocks makes all USB Outs the same in terms of processing — each Part will have a discreet stereo out, and be able to use its own two Insertion Effects. When working with a DAW, this is often how it is done... things like Reverb are added only once all parts have been recorded — the traditional application of Reverb is to create the illusion of a band in a room — reflected sound is critical in how humans locate sound — reverberation and time delay are the items that help create that illusion in recording audio. So individual tracks are typically recorded “Dry” (this is a preference, but one that is in wide use in actual practice)... the decision about *how much* reverberation is made in context of all instruments together... This includes other instruments, vocals, etc., that maybe a part of the project (often the synth is only one component in the entire Project). Having a matching reverberation strategy often makes the most sense. Often when adding synth tracks to a record session, the recording engineer will as you to bypass your Reverb or Delay... for just this reason, they want to wait until they assemble all the components before committing to that ‘acoustic space’.

When you see the “FX” icon greyed out — this is to alert you that you have activated one or more of the 4 Effect bypass functions. As long as you have activated a bypass the alert will be there. It doesn’t get stored.

“From the Effect Switch display you can make Effect Bypass settings. None of the settings made on this display will be stored. When the instrument is restarted, the parameter values are also initialized.”

In firmware version 2.00 the “Global A/D” On/Off was added. When On the device plugged into the A/D Input will be live at all times... this allows that audio to travel through the MONTAGE unchanged Performance to Performance. When Off, the device plugged into the A/D Input can be programmed on a per Performance basis. Activating the “Global A/D” bypasses the Master Effect and the Master EQ. This will cause the “FX” icon to appear *Bypassed*... because that icon is an alert that a bypass is activated.

Extra Credit:
Although not Effects, you will find the “Arp Bypass” which will cause the [ARP ON/OFF] button to flash when bypassed... and the “KBD CTRL Lock” which when activated makes Part 1 the instrument you will be interacting with from the Keyboard.

Kbd Ctrl Lock (Keyboard Control Lock)
Determines whether Keyboard Control Lock is active or not. When this is set to on, the Keyboard Control is turned on only for Part 1 and off for the other Parts.
When this is set to off, Keyboard Control settings for all Parts are returned to the original status.
Settings: Off, On
NOTE When you use the MONTAGE as a 16-part multi-timbral sound module with DAW software, the Keyboard Control Lock function is useful for creating or editing MIDI tracks one by one.

Thanks BM! You have cleared a number of points in one hit! Now I know why the 'FX' icon is there and how it works. The fact that 'it affects the whole instrument' explains why I seemed to come across it a lot, and not saving the changes on shutdown explains a lot more. To keep the changes its no good just by-passing the block, I must go into the block and make actual changes in order to keep them. Like a lot of things, it's simple when you know how. I was trying to use the 'FX' icon as a short-cut to something it was never meant to do. It's still very useful as an indicator of where to go, though, so it's handy for a studio soundman as well as a stage musician. The idea of using heavy reverb while performing in a cathedral made me smile ...