The easiest use of "overwrite" is when you edit a performance and are given the option to either [STORE] your performance edits back into the same performance you have loaded, or make a whole new performance to store those edits. From my thinking I don't use that feature to try to overwrite a different performance that already exists but has a different "origin" than my current performance.

Under utility (Contents->Data Utility) you'll see the complete list of user performances in the user area. If you've promoted user content to the library - you won't see those since you do not have provisions to rename or delete individual performances in the library.

If you press [PERFORMANCE] (HOME), then [CATEGORY SEARCH] 3 times - the bank should be set to "User". Then press the [COMMON] button next to the word "PART COMMON". There are two "COMMON" buttons, this one is the upper one. What this does is select the "All" category. Or you could use the touchscreen to touch the "All" main category.

Now, under CATEGORY SEARCH - you should be seeing the same list of user performances available to delete under [UTILITY].

What you named the performances doesn't make a difference.

I'm thinking you maybe did something like clear user memory before the index naming so all you have are those performances in the user area.

Hello Jason, and thanks - I have been attempting to repeat the problem, without success. It would appear that the contents of one Library got included with the 'User' Bank - I have no idea how or why, and have been unable to repeat it. It serves to highlight the dog's dinner that is currently the Library system, and I very much hope that Yamaha are working on changing it to allow selective Library content, at least as an option to the 'all or nothing' method in use now.

Saving to the library area or saving to the user area is not done unless a user invokes either one. The easiest to invoke is the performance save since a [STORE] button will default to save the current edit buffer to the user area. In order to make content go into the library area, you have to go through menu systems that allow for this to happen - and the source/destination of the content is clear on the user interface that the source will be a USB stick (for an X7L file). With the system as it stands today, I would suggest any time you promote something to the user area, you write down the date/time and what you did exactly. I think this is just a case of forgetting what you did in the past and using the content for a while (because use of library content is easy even if creating library content is not, relatively speaking, as easy as saving user performances).

Rather than writing down notes in a notebook (which I would still encourage for you in addition to...) I would name my library files that I create from my user performances something that documents what the content represents. When you save all your user performances to a user file (as preparation for creating a library of your user content) - you name this file. Name it "UserBak20170614_1PM" - but replace 2017 with the current year, 06 with current month 14 with current day "1" before PM with current hour and "PM" with current half of day (AM or PM). This will, using the filename, tell you the date and time you created the library file and also tell you that it holds a backup of your user performances on that date.

If you think of the library as a way to "write protect" your performances you do not want to delete when you "clear memory" - the system may make more sense to you. Any time you want to view content which is not "write protected" - change the bank filter in category search to "User". Any time you want to see your user content which is write protected (a library) change the bank filter to "UserBak########_#??" - where ### are numbers for the date and time and ?? is AM or PM. You don't have to type this in - it will be part of the dropdown list when you touch the "Bank" filter in [CATEGORY SEARCH].

There are ways to improve the usability of this entire system - but would mean a fairly substantial overhaul to the user interface in order to "hide" some of the complexity from the user and make the system appear more "flat". Yamaha's approach is to give you, the user, more fine control over how things work - but this also places some amount of burden on you to understand what's going on and the various mechanisms to create/manage/delete the different "file-system" entities. I personally appreciate having the finer control - but how you relate with the system is a function of how much you value the feature and control of those features vs. ease of use.

There is a creative way to manage to generate a GUI which provides both ease of use and "power user" usage. It could always be worse.

The "all or nothing" is a consequence of the way the underlying technology works for the library memory. In order two write new data - you have to fill all memory cells with "1"s in the library area then write new content. So it doesn't make sense to place only one performance in the library - because this would mean the entire library would only hold one performance "forever" or until you erased the library and added something different.

That doesn't mean Yamaha couldn't do something more with the USB file-system to help things incrementally. They could allow for "appending" to X7L or X7U files so you could one-by-one (and not all at once) add to either file type. This would place some burden on that system as it would have to check to make sure the number of performances doesn't overflow, that the live set was properly pointing to the right data in the X7L/X7U (because the order could end up different than your Montage's order), etc. And then upon loading to allow some kind of (for the user area) "for identical performance, don't update. For performance with same title/name but parameters are different, update the user area from the file. For performance that doesn't exist in the user area, add a new performance unless all performances (640) are used. Throw an error/warning if all are used and stop the import".

Also, saves and loads are able to change - then there's a matter of ensuring there's backwards and forwards compatibility with old vs. new style file formats if any formatting needs to change to accommodate. I don't think there needs to be any file format changes to support this - but as you develop a solution - you may run into a situation of a corner-case requiring a new piece of data (in the format) to fix.

Changes in policy have ripple effects - so I may not be capturing all the considerations when employing these changes.

Understand half this is brainstorming and directed to Yamaha - but the file management (what to name your library files) and note-taking is the part I think that would help you in the here-and-now.

Hello Jason, and yes, I'm wishing for the Stars - but I do try and work within what I have (BM's watchword!) and succeed much of the time. Understanding this stunning machine takes a bit of doing, but I hope I'm making some progress. Having been away from it for 3 weeks doesn't help! I do write notes to myself and keep them on file on the computer, but I don't keep a 'rolling log' as it would take up far too much tinkering time. I was wondering if the 'Favourites' system could be employed for selective Library content - at the moment they are swept up with everything else, but it may be possible to keep them apart? Agreed it is necessary to employ the USB as a store, and watch what's on Montage at any given time - I think I must use it differently (and not as intended!) as most people seem to have no problems. As it stands, I tend to avoid using the Library facility other than for downloads, which are relatively few.

You will do best by learning to work the system the way it works now (leave the lofty goal of how it should, or how it might-could work to those who have more time on their hands - waiting for things to change, even if it happens, doesn't help you now. You need to focus on how to work now!

You only see the Overwrite option when you begin to edit a Performance that is currently in one of the 640 USER Bank locations. User Bank is you "work area".
You cannot Overwrite ROM (Read Only Memory). Montage has two types of ROM. Presets are permanent ROM. Libraries are in semi-permanent ROM.

OVERWRITING a ROM Library requires Import Library (to User) > make your changes to User Bank and Overwrite the User location.
When complete SAVE the USER Bank as a new LIBRARY FILE... Delete the Source Library, Initialize the User memory, then install your updated Library File.

If you trust Yamaha, this is the most efficient way to manipulate your data. If you can follow it, you will be able to manage your data quite well.

Motif started with volatile memory (which you had to load each time you powered on), evolved to rewritable Flash Boards (custom data was immediately available once installed), and now Montage system... which when used properly does all the heavy lifting for you.

@Rod

I'm not sure where you're going with your Favorites comment. You can mark any performance as a favorite or you can unmark it. The updated data list doesn't mention favorites so I'm not sure yet how they store this information (in the performance, or some other index). If stored in the performance, then this would mean user performances marked as favorites would (theoretically) become marked as favorite in the library without a provision to un-mark (since you can't affect the "read only" memory of a library - except for erase the whole thing or replace the whole thing).

Again, I'm not sure where you're going with this favorites business or why you think it would help whatever you think is the problem.

"Keeping them apart" and "swept up" are kind of ambiguous terms to me.

All of your library content is placed in a different BANK - so it's completely separated from your other content. When you first press [CATEGORY SEARCH] - the listing defaults to "All" BANKS. This means presets (the thousands), and your user performances (how ever many you've [STORE]'d since the last erase of user memory), and each library you've INSTALLED --- are all mixed together when the "All" bank is selected. To "separate" them - just press the BANK selection and pick either user, presets, or your libraries which are listed by the name you used to save (the filename of the library before .X7L).

Since the name under BANK is what the filename is - I was advocating naming your library files "SOMETHING.X7L" where "SOMETHING" is meaningful to you when you're looking at the banks to choose from. I made a suggestion, but you can fill in anything meaningful there.

Even libraries you get from Yamaha (Chick Corea, etc) you can rename them on your PC before loading. This way, you can force the text of the BANK list to match whatever would help you identify the content as a library from Yamaha. Like "YLIB-Corea Rhodes.X7L" for the Chick Corea Mark V set. And maybe "YLIB" means this is a yamaha provided library. So when looking at the banks you can better remember what the banks mean. It's wide open.