Jason wrote:

... or maybe "there's nothing different with your Montage". "Wrong", in this case, would be a subjective call by the musician of what comes out of Montage vs. expectations.

Well what I meant was there is nothing wrong with this specific Montage, in the sense there is no hardware defect (like in the original question) and it does not need repair. I think that's not subjective.

He may not be happy with the result, but it's what every Montage user would hear. Of course there may be ways around it, like for example getting other sample libraries which have samples in the higher range. There may also be the possibility to apply a filter or EQ to the affected range to at least reduce the effect. But that's a different thing...

OS version 1.7...? lol

David, the issue identified is not the "chipmunk" issue where samples played higher pitched outside their recorded range will start to sound synthetic. This is a noise floor issue as if the room AC was recorded or some other background noise. It is likely to get buried in the mix if laying strings over other instruments - but exposed (if doing some "delicate" solo string work) may present a noticeable and unwanted component to the sound. The range presented is certainly within the natural range of a violin, so there is not an issue of "you're playing outside what makes sense".

Sometimes different players do not notice these artifacts - but when you point them out - cannot be subsequently unheard.

Thanks for sharing the audio clip and perhaps we will hear why the "extraneous" sound should be there - or perhaps positively affect the future of the Seattle Sections performance.

For now, I would apply an HPF.

Thank you, all guys for your feedback and comments.
I mainly play guitar and this is my first synth keyboard.
Of course I'm not happy with this noise. It really sounds like my cat hissing.
With very high $$ amount paid for the synth, I'd expect perfect or near perfect sounds on the whole range of keyboard.
I'll try HPF (High Pass Filter) setting as Jason suggested but it may take a while since I just got the synth a week ago and not familiar with all those settings yet.
Firmware version 1.7 with this fix would be great! lol
But I may be just dreaming.

Yamaha has the original Seattle Strings samples so they'd be the ones to repair the issue if it's possible. I'll have to check this out as I've never noticed it before.

Well, I can't imagine Yamaha, if it was made aware of this, would just let it go and not correct it.

It's important to point out that the OP mentioned several performances which share this behavior. So it would be best for the OP to document, similar to the ZIP file already included, any other performances which can share this critique.

Also, as certain "noises" are actually intentional as in the electric piano - space should also be left for Yamaha's response that the "extraneous" sound may be intentional and serve some function. Interested to see what shakes out.