Hi Derrick,

Did you fall upon a Montage by chance or did you deliberately buy one for your musical needs?

I only ask as your questions come across a little baffling with the greatest of respect.

You're into EDM genre, great stuff, but what are you expecting from Montage in that regard in terms of what comes out of the box?

And more importantly, your musical needs in what sounds good to you, and your expectations on others to deliver that?

I've added some thoughts to your points below.

This comes from an amateur that enjoys playing for pleasure but has grown with Yamaha instruments for 40 years.

Been through formal grading to diploma level and adapted my needs and expectations from the instruments across all genres in the process.

Believe me playing Queen one minute then bach the next is a headspin when you were trying to be a 'cool' teenager at the same time 😉

As an aside, my teacher was an ex club circuit player in the 50/60s, became a Yamaha demonstrator in UK/Europe, and after he started tutoring me at the age of 4 he then went on to open their first UK music school - so I caveat everything in that I say in that I may be a tiny wee bit bias and fully excepted if you think that.

Greetings and best regards,

Alex

>.> >

Looking for some cool sound libraries for my Montage and all I can find is easy sounds libraries
but they seem to be re-runs of old Motif XF libraries .

>>> waveforms and basic element architecture is the same with the AWM engine so that shouldn't be a surprise. Montage versions benefit from the control capabilities of the surface and sound improved from the PAC onboard. There are some I"m sure also bring in new performance arrangements with the FM-X engine. Where the effects processing has been improved certain libraries have been refactored to a different sampling regime e.g. Live Organ / Organ Sessions ....

>>> btw all original XF waveforms are in the Montage, and for good reason, there are only many which ways you can sample / contain / replay with the same architecture without incurring relatively substantial cost for diminishing returns in any noticeable difference in tangible quality

Has anybody tried these easy sounds Libraries for Montage are they any good or mostly pop cheesy type sounds the dance demo seems geared more toward pop .
BTW I'm into EDM .

>>> yes. I dont have dance, but I have 5 libraries and they are extremely good and they should be given whos created them, but thats not to say they will fulfil your needs. Sonic Beauty is in the Ear of the Beholder.

Are there any other sound libraries out there ?

>>> yes, Kapro springs to mind, all the DX / TX back catalogue, other XF/XS sources, Synthology I believe released an American Grand library recently...and theres some greater content from owners linked from Moisseurs website as well. And can't leave this comment without mentioning a recent thread with Ron's classic synth samples which he's made available along with wise words on how to best use.

Does Yamaha plan on releasing new sounds and performances ?
I just updated to 1.51 and the new stuff there is great but we need more good programmed performances a lot more

>>> they have not said when but they have always indicated more content would come.

>>> Closing thought, the Montage is a synth why not use it as such and make the most of the content and surface already provided ?

Alex wrote:

Hi Derrick,

Did you fall upon a Montage by chance or did you deliberately buy one for your musical needs?

I only ask as your questions come across a little baffling with the greatest of respect.

You're into EDM genre, great stuff, but what are you expecting from Montage in that regard in terms of what comes out of the box?

Ok point well taken .

But look heres's the deal
I think the Montage is a work of art all the way around inside and out with top notch capabilities and sound ,
but to me the Montage Super-knob and Motion control features where not fully programed .
Many performances , the superknob doesn't do much except maybe open a filter or something like that .
And many of the pad sounds lack warmth .
Don'y get me wrong the performances that are programmed are great and maybe to much to ask for Yamaha to fully program them all because there are so many
but still not many performances show the super-knob capabilities .

So thats why I was looking to see if some sound libraries are out there that make use of the super-knob and motion control , you see I'm not interested in just another synth , I want something special and I believe the Montage is special but Yamaha won't so us how to use the dam thing .

I must admit when it comes to programming the super-knob I don't know what the hell I'm doing , that's why I look to good pre-programmed performances to show me what's possible .
Thanks to Bad Mister's great tutorial it's given me some confidence but let's admit it , if not for his tutorials we would all be completly lost on how to use the Montage .
For some reason Yamaha refuses to show us official videos on how to use this alien technology they created .
I mean I have even been watching Montage videos in a language that I don't even understand trying to get some understanding .

I can tell that this last update 1.51 Yamaha really went to work on the super- knob and motion control I can hear it Job well done but I want more from them because truth be told I don't think any of us know what the Montage is .
Can someone answer this question : What is the Yamaha Montage really what is it , how far can it go ?

I've seen to many great synth not reach there full potential like the Korg Oasys , Roland Jupiter-80 and don't want to see that happen here .

As far as sound libraries goes , I get your whole point about it's a synth make it do what you want theories , I get that and heard it countless times before
but the fact remains theres a reason that sound libraries is at a all time high for every synth manufacturer hardware or software because people just like new stuff .
So I don't think me looking for new sounds is a problem but yes improvement on sound design is good for any producer but at a premium coast I want some of that load taken off.

BTW thanks for your insight I learned something
Respect to you

No, easysounds is not the only source for Montage sound libraries. I run through a few sources here:

https://www.yamahasynth.com/forum/upload-performances-motif-xf-in-montage#reply-18878

Which focuses on content that can be re-purposed from Motif XF although some sources, as noted, have Montage native content. Part of the reason for the post was to shed some light on good candidates for conversion by the original authors as the process of making a Montage performance from Motif XF material is fairly simple for the original producers of the XF content.

Yamaha's own site for selling synthesizer content hosts both Yamaha-released content as well as 3rd party.

Also ... keep in mind the FM-X side of Montage which is able to consume "patches" originally generated for other earlier FM synthesizers. With the online conversion tool, you are able to choose from thousands of existing patches that have been developed over the multi-decade history of Yamaha FM synthesizers.

Regarding the "alien" technology and tutorials:

Montage is actually more incrementally evolutionary than revolutionary. The concept of macro controls has been around for a while and there are other examples of past musical devices (from Yamaha and other manufacturers) which employ many of the same concepts. Montage represents a fairly elegant instantiation - but also is heavily leveraged from the "soul" of tried-and-true old-tech which deviates just a little from Montage's predecessors from Yamaha. How lost one would be depends on, I believe, how familiar one is with previous Yamaha flagship synthesizer/workstation products or otherwise familiar with the concepts and building-blocks these synthesizers were built upon.

You mentioned not being aware of Yamaha released videos. There is a running list I've recently updated to include some new 3rd party and also Yamaha-released material. See: https://www.yamahasynth.com/forum/request-training-video-for-montage#reply-13628

The languages include English, Spanish, French, and German. There is a bias for English since that is my first language but there is nothing preventing others from updating the thread with videos featuring other languages.

The video count is currently just shy of 50 (including all languages - although I did not list the German ones so they do not add to the tally - just mentioned clicking on the English version of some will allow navigating to a German version).