I'm not at the keyboard. If you go to category search and narrow down the main category to "Strings" and sub category to "Ensemble" - there should not be that many strings to preview.

Press A.SW1 and A.SW2 to see if there's possibly a button combination which cuts out vibrato.

I can say that Yamaha is traditionally a big fan of vibrato and "overuses" vibrato in their presets. Yes, there are a minority of non-vibrato options. However, the balance is by far on the vibrato side. They generally call these sounds "sweet" - and I guess the non-vibrato are thought of as "sour". This is a little unfair of a description - but I do have a feeling like vibrato is put on a musical pedestal within the presets. For the solo instruments - I get hardly any choices in non-vibrato violin samples, so if I don't like the one or two presented - I'm "stuck" as opposed to the more generous list of vibrato samples.

I still think there's a huge opportunity for someone to document the presets so that each performance has information on what's "inside" each. Something like vibrato (or not) would be useful to know for each horn/string/etc. performance. It's a huge task - so I don't expect this to materialize anytime soon, if ever.

Thanks for your reply!
Sour indeed! 🙂 Documented presets would be a most helpful. But I just cannot understand how something so blatant could be overlooked by programmers/users. It seems I'd have to look for external libraries if I could only be guaranteed that some of the string/brass/woodwind solo or small ensemble instruments are guaranteed vibrato-free...and relatively affordable. Just laid out a bundle for the 76 Montage. I've been all over this keyboard (impressively accessible) and have pieced together something to hold me over, but my work requires a variety of acoustic instruments in all their characteristics...not just the "sweet".

Anybody have any library recommendations???

I've brought this observation up before.

Source: (June 30, 2017) https://www.yamahasynth.com/forum/why-does-yamaha-hate-aftertouch#reply-22005

I haven't been a big fan of Yamaha's view of "sweet" meaning vibrato pre-applied. This goes further than "sweet" - but the labeling seems to give some insight to the affinity towards what I would argue is over-use of vibrato. I'd rather not have vibrato the default sound and take some gesture to make vibrato kick in. Could take the trumpet swell approach and transition between waveforms of no vibrato and various sampled rates and also use effect generated for other performances to save the resources (parts, elements, etc).

Response from Yamaha:

There are several examples of this in Factory Performances... Concert Flute, is one example, it begins with the Non-Vibrato Waveform and transitions to natural vibrato samples by morphing between active Elements 1, 2 and 3. This allows you to control when the vibrato is applied with a familiar MW gesture and even control the depth... compared to the application of the strict time of an LFO, the pre-recorded vibrato is more natural sounding, imho.
Montage, it's a synthesizer, you can change it.

... and my response

@BM - glad some of the performances have a choice. My main beef (and it's not a huge one) with vibrato and Motif/Montage has been in the solo string category. In the past, only "fiddle" was a non-vibrato voice (pulling from the limited set of a single non-vibrato waveform). Violin 1 has a non-vibrato. However - Violin 2 (1st/2nd) do not. Cello, Viola, Arco Bass do not. I think when assembling the string options - there is a programming bias towards the vibrato sound which is why the more dry sound of non-vibrato strings is "under represented" (opinion).

Violin, with all of its different bow gestures, and expressive (different sounds) nature makes it a difficult instrument to pull off as a convincing solo instrument. What I've struggled with is being satisfied when a country tune calls for a violin sound. I can work perhaps more on the EQ to try to get a closer characteristic sound. Maybe add effects to try to get something closer. The waveforms themselves do not offer many choices as primarily the core is non-vibrato I'm after. In other words, I haven't exhausted all the options yet. Although I may end up investing in an alternative set of string samples to get a closer dry violin sound.

I think there is a general bias towards a certain sound - a vibrato=better philosophy. It's hard to put the kitchen sink into any product. Hopefully as memory size increases over time - more "flat" acoustic samples can be added to the internal set.

The tie-in to aftertouch is that non-vibrato, or otherwise "flat" waveforms lend themselves to use of controls to add the "gravy" (vibrato, etc).

My additional commentary: Although there are likely a handful of other examples -- only two sets of waveforms (samples) in the presets are explicitly labeled as "Non Vib" - the no-vibrato flute mentioned above and also Violin 1. And by "sets" I mean normal version, keybanks as pitch shifted up, keybanks as pitch shifted down, etc. They're essentially the same source samples with slight differences. I do not have my notes for "Of" - but point being "sets" are, within the same set, highly related - and therefore there appears to be room for improvement in the category non-vibrato sample selection. Again, I know the "Non Vib" designation is not used for every vibrato-less sample - but it is a fair leading indicator.

... and another thread.

Source: (Jan 18, 2017) https://yamahasynth.com/forum/auditioning-built-in-waveforms#reply-16693

Yamaha's approach to vibrato on many instruments has pros and cons. On the positive side, sampled vibrato - assuming the vibrato is done in the "manner" which agrees with how you would have live studio musicians do it for your music is "always" going to sound better sampled rather than added as an effect. I say this because some of the nuance of instrument response for say a conical woodwind instrument, a string instrument (violin family, guitars, etc), or most any instrument will sound better and more convincing as a sample rather than as an effect or LFO. Certainly the range of expression in samples is greater than the current range of matching effects and LFO parameters one can use to try to reproduce a "natural" vibrato effect on a "dry" (not vibrato signal). On the negative side, and I have often run into this with an array of Yamaha sounds, is that I often want NO vibrato as an articulation choice. Here, the Montage does give non-vibrato options for many instruments. However, the balance seems to be about 5:1 (or "worse" - meaning less non-vibrato options) for vibrato:non-vibrato options per instrument (that I use). For some reason, guitar doesn't seem to have too much vibrato in most of the performances (also in Yamaha historically) - but acoustic instruments such as violins, woodwinds, etc - always have. Yamaha also coined "Sweet" (Like Sweet Tenor, Sweet ______ fill in the blank) to primarily mean that the sample is going to heave a heaping of vibrato. And I think this viewpoint is some legacy that brings us where we are. I would suggest that every single acoustic instrument that has a vibrato-recorded-in-sample waveform also have a non-vibrato version of the same player on the same instrument with the same room. Such that if we had 10 different vibrato waveforms or sets of waveforms (PARTs) - there would also be 10 matching non-vibrato PARTs. This would cover the vibraphone in there would be a MotorOff PART. At least a more "dry" or vibratoless option would allow for trying your luck at applying effects to achieve the vibrato rate and depth you want vs. using the one style offered by the preset available with vibrato. This still may not be as good as sampling many different vibrato depths and speeds - such that there is an array of options wide enough to fit most needs - but this approach would take up too much room (resources, memory) in my opinion.

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I'm not sure what libraries to use. I can find libraries that mention non-vibrato strings using internet searches that are compatible (or should be) with Montage (including MOXF ones). I cannot vouch for any of these - so probably best to get some feedback from users that have used the libraries.

Some have demo versions with missing notes or other issues - but enough to sample the library.

Thanks for the elaboration. Well stated case in point...especially the ratio and pitch change. I stress Eleanor Rigby as a pretty good example. Choppy bass, cello with no lag with viola, violin no vibrato....Anyone out there know any libraries that could provide such to be installed in the Montage? Time is regrettably of the essence...
thanks

Hi Drew - I'd also love to see more options with the strings, exactly as you and others have characterized. The closest settings to what you've described are the "Seattle" strings, all of them (2 violins, violas, cellos, basses, and sections). Do a search with the word Seattle and you should get the 6 performances standard in the Montage. Make sure the superknob is turned to the left (counterclockwise), if you turn it to the right you'll hear the vibrato come in. Oddly enough, with the vibrato you also get a quicker attack 🙁 These are the best I know of, if you're into programming you could probably modify the non-vibrato setting to get a quicker attack, but that's up to you.

Good luck with your upcoming performance on the Montage.

Thank you Paul. I will see what I can decipher in elements section from Seattle Strings and maybe pull something reasonable out of it all. In the meantime, I'm still seeking 3rd party downloads for my solo non-vibrato quick attack strings. Maybe Sample-Robot will help in long run but that comes out in April for the Montage.

cheers