TL/DR.... This is a long post. In it I hope to give new-to-Yamaha users Fair Warning about some of the problems they may face early on, and strategies for getting beyond the honeymoon.  

IMO, the Yamaha Montage is second to none. There simply isn't a more powerful instrument on the Market, but with all that power comes complexity. I am hoping these frank and honest notes will help for a smoother ride. 

Intro

I recall back when the MODX was first released and there was a flood of "New to Yamaha" MODX owners,  there were a lot of "Does Not Work" Threads. 

It was the same following the initial release of the original Montage a few years earlier.

I'm seeing the same again with the Montage M release. 

The cause of the problem in many cases, was that the User had inadvertently stepped over product design limitations. In other cases, the User had misunderstood the purpose and intended useage of a particular feature or function.  Or, some combination of the two. 

Pick and Mix

On the surface, creating your own Custom Performances would seem as simple as picking the Factory Performances (or Parts) you like, and then combining them into your own Performance. 

Certainly,  this is the impression given by the "Owners Manual" otherwise "Quick Start" guides, and similar supporting material (Marketing, Sales, Product Demos etc).

In some cases this will work. But, as many of us have found out, this apparently simple process if often strewn with "snags", which can range from minor irritations to show-stopping anger. 

IMO, it's worth acknowledging this ugly fact up front, because "up front" is where you have the best opportunity to avoid issues (and not in the middle of a gig for example).

It's not that the design is "broken", it's just a case of "The Devil is in the Detail".  

The root cause is that avoiding these snags, usually requires an intimate knowledge of the Montage's "Operations".... or Operating System. 

Such a level of knowledge is rarely available early on, unless you already have experience with previous products (e.g. Yamaha Montage Mk1, Yamaha Motif etc). 

Moreover, gaining the pre-requisite knowledge is unlikely to occur in the first few days or weeks, even if you read the Manuals cover-to-cover (although this certainly helps). 

Again, as a New User, its worth acknowledging up-front, that there will be a significant learning curve, and factoring that in to the time you will invest in the instrument. 

The Issues

Every Preset Performance is potentially a complex set of "many moving parts".  

Not all the "moving parts" are immediately apparent to a New User.   Usually,  the only apparent characteristic is that "it sounds good", and therefore you wish to use it in your custom "project".

The understandable belief, is that you can simply move the desired Part or Performance as a "Working Block" into your own Performance.

The truth is, when you remove a "working block" from its "Factory Home" (Factory Presets),  it stops working. 

Imagine,  removing an Engine from one vehicle, with the intent of putting it into your own vehicle.  More to the point, imagine removing the engine without first undoing all the bolts, and carefully removing all the wires and pipes.  You will be ripping, and severing all the external vessels that allowed that engine to "work". 

Now imagine placing that "ripped" Engine, as is, into the "hole" in your car.  Even if you made an effort to connect all the bolts, wires and pipes of your own car,  you would find that the remnants from the old car got in the way.  It may be the case where a vital component of that engine got disconnected in its removal, and was left sitting in the old car.

It's a good analogy of what happens when a User attempts to merge a Factory Part or Performance into their own Project.

The Solutions

Day One, without the experience, there aren't any.  

Your best shot is to try it and see what happens. If something breaks, and you don't understand why,  then resort to a technical support forum like this. 

Going forward, be aware of the following. 

1) Factory Performances or Parts will often contain a lot of "Dead Wood".  These are features or functions that are present, but not in use or "deactivated" in their Home Performance.  

When this Factory Part or Performance is installed into your own Performance, that "Dead Wood" can suddenly become "Activated".  

This is because the newly installed Part(s) are now subject to the mechanisms of your own Performance (Common Audio). 

2) Factory Performances or Parts often contain a lot of "Control Assigns".  These are usually dependent on the Part(s) being in their Home Environment.  When removed from their home, these functions will often cause erratic behavior,  or just stop working completely.

Think of these as the Engine's "wires and pipes".   To work, they require connection to their Home Performance,  or otherwise, an identical configuration and integration in their New Performance. 

Similary,  there may also be "Dead Wood" components in the Control Assigns, that become activated (as per point #1) and create conflicts in your already designed control assignments. 

The reason that Factory Performances are like this, is that the Preset Designers were not obliged to "clean up" their submissions. This is not a fault, and only to be expected.  

Very often, the Designer would create an initial Template, incorporating all the moving parts he might potentially use,  and activate only those components needed. 

Alternatively,  he might repurpose an existing Preset, and just tweak it,  leaving unused components in place,  albeit deactivated.

This is what you need to be careful of. 

With experience,  you will begin to notice these incompatabilities and remove or delete them before they become an issue. 

This is what I refer to as "Good House Keeping"

Suggestions

1) Use any spare time to read through the Manuals.  I wouldn't recommend doing it all in one sitting. 

Pick a Subject (e.g. Control Assigns, or Arpeggios etc) and set to learn and understand that subject in isolation. 

Set up a "scratch" Performance,  and experiment with the settings. Keep the Manual handy, try different settings, and listen for any differences in the sound, or observe differences in behaviour. 

2) Try re-creating a Factory Performance from an INIT,  without "importing" any components from the Factory Performance. 

In short, a re-build from scratch. 

This will help you learn and familiarise the system as a whole.  

More importantly, it will help you identify the "Active" and "Non-Active" components in a Performance,  and how they integrate and interact with each other. 

When you re-build the performance,  build only the Active compenents.  Avoid building a component just because you can "see it". Check first that it actually "does something". 

What you will find is that your new built Performance is a lot lighter and less "cluttered" than the Factory version. 

This will help pave the way to importing "clean skin" Factory Part(s) into your Custom Performance. That is, importing only the components you need, and then integrating those into your Custom Performance. 

3) Try Storing a Factory Performance "as is",  and then try "Cleaning It Up".   Identify all the working components,  and then delete everything else (The Dead Wood).  Remove any unused Elements, Control Assigns, Arpeggios, Motion Sequences etc. 

An under-utilised feature is the ability to "Label" working components, such as Assign Knobs.  Try labelling all the remaining working components where possible. 

4) Get into the habit of using Factory INIT Presets to build your own sounds from scratch.  Use Factory Presets as a reference only. 

This way, you only "add" components you need. You'll discover what you need over time, and pull them straight from the source e.g. Waveform Category Search, Arpeggio Category Search, User Arpeggios etc. 

Likewise, build them straight from source e.g. Filter Settings, Envelopes, Control Assigns etc.

Over time, you'll find this a quicker route to achieving the sound in your head, rather than trawling through the presets, and hoping to find a close match. 

Gradually, you will reduce your dependence on Factory Performance Presets. 

Summary

IMO its worth adapting your behaviour from the start, knowing and anticipating the kind of issues you will likely face.  

My MODX was my first ever keyboard, and what a mountain to climb it was.  I wish I had known then, what I know now. So, I am passing my thoughts in the hope it will be useful to others.