I think he's talking about this, which has bitten me, illustrated here by way of an example...

I'm jamming with a sound, say a Rhodes. I decide it would be cool to call up some other sound which I have not pre-specified into a Live Set, let's say a Vox organ (because, hey, this jam suddenly sounds kinda Doors-like, let's go with it!). So while I continue to play Rhodes with one hand, I call up Category Search, and pick Organ... oh no, my Rhodes has turned into a tonewheel organ sound, not the organ sound I'm after! Okay, quick, hit the Combo button... oh no, now I've got a YC Combo organ! Then I finally hit the VX Surf organ, and get the sound I wanted. But what I really wanted was to keep hearing the Rhodes until I located and switched to the Vox organ.

Okay, here's the part where you tell me there's a setting for this, which I missed... 😉 Or a whole other way to browse through the sounds without selecting anything as you go...

Your playing your Rhodes Performance… you decide it would be cool to call up a Vox organ sound… you reach up and press [CATEGORY SEARCH]

If you have read my previous post, you are now in “Performance Category Search” says so on the top line left-side. You can freely look through all the organs, without selecting any of them, by simply knowing what you CAN and CANNOT touch/press…

Start by simply tapping the Main “Organ” category. The Search result field will fill with Organs…
Tap “Combo” to further refine the search results…
Using the non-selecting options outlined (again) below, scroll until you see “VX Surf Organ”.
Once you see the organ you desire you can recall it using a selection tool option (outlined below) to actually *select* “VX Surf Organ”… switching directly from your original Rhodes.

Options
Options you can touch without making a *selection* = “Main”, “Sub”, “Bank/Favorite”, “Attribute”, the Character entry Search box, the soft “Page” up/down arrows (low right corner of the screen); the hardware [PAGE UP/DOWN] arrows in the lower far right front panel (scrolls the results field).

Options you cannot touch BECAUSE they *select* a Performances = any thing in the Search result field itself, the entire set of hardware*selection* options that are grouped just to the right of the screen that include the [UP/DOWN] and [LEFT/RIGHT] CURSOR buttons, the [INC]/[DEC] buttons, and the Data Dial. They are and have always been SELECTION tools.

If you have been using the SELECTION TOOLS (grouped just to the right of the screen, don’t be surprised that they immediately Select the Vox Organ. However, if you use any of the other options outlined here, you can easily look through and view your selection BEFORE you enter it!

Auto Selection when you want it
No auto selection when you don’t.
Simply avoid the Selection Tool hardware until you’re ready to make that selection. Hope that helps.

Let us know.

BAD MISTER: Your playing your Rhodes Performance… you decide it would be cool to call up a Vox organ sound… you reach up and press [CATEGORY SEARCH]

If you have read my previous post, you are now in “Performance Category Search” says so on the top line left-side. You can freely look through all the organs, without selecting any of them, by simply knowing what you CAN and CANNOT touch/press…

Start by simply tapping the Main “Organ” category. The Search result field will fill with Organs…
Tap “Combo” to further refine the search results…
Using the non-selecting options outlined (again) below, scroll until you see “VX Surf Organ”.
Once you see the organ you desire you can recall it using a selection tool option (outlined below) to actually *select* “VX Surf Organ”… switching directly from your original Rhodes.
...
Let us know.

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to this.

It doesn't work. Which makes me think I'm not understanding what you're trying to tell me. Here's a video. As per your instructions quoted above, repeated here step by step, you'll see...

... I am playing my Rhodes Performance
... I reach up and press [CATEGORY SEARCH]
... I am in “Performance Category Search” and it says so on the top line left-side
... I start by simply tapping the Main “Organ” category. The Search result field will fill with Organs…

BUT... my sound IMMEDIATELY changes to the first organ on the page. I can NOT "freely look through all the organs, without selecting any of them." Instead, the first sound in the category is automatically selected and playing as soon as I tap a category.

What am I doing wrong?

What am I doing wrong?

It apparently works differently on the MODX.
The MONTAGE always allows you to search without selection and additionally you can use the right front panel of buttons to navigate the result field (select Categories, select programs and scroll through the listings). One of many differences between the cost-down and top-of-the-line models.

What am I doing wrong?

It apparently works differently on the MODX.

It apparently works differently on the MODX.

So what I demonstrated in that video would have worked as desired if I had done the same thing on a Montage? Interesting. It seems a strange thing to choose to change from Montage to MODX. I wonder if it might be a bug? Or maybe it was just an unavoidable consequence of some other change they had to make when bringing the Montage OS to the different hardware of the MODX. Well, at least now when you see someone complain about the auto-select, you'll know what they're talking about. 😉

EDIT - Adding Context ...

Bill's comment:

The action of actually changing the performance will cause the loss, without warning, of ALL changes a user might have made to the current ...

And my response is that in the event that this happens - keep in mind recovery is possible through the tip revealed in the 1st post of the following link. Originally phrased as:

For the time being - keep in mind the "undo" features you have available.

https://www.yamahasynth.com/ask-a-question/recall-saved-my-a-performance

... and adding additional context:

This is a reminder about a lifeline (solution) if you find yourself in this condition -- not any attempt to connect some previous observation to this thread. They are not equivalent but do share a common recovery process if you keep in mind the facility to use the recall buffer.

Bill, I think you may be conflating multiple issues. I saw the "The reason this is a bad idea... we've been fielding that request since, forever" quote, it was in reference to whether there should be an "Are You Sure?" prompt when exiting an edited Performance that has not been saved. The issue of the MODX and Montage doing something differently that has been discussed a few posts up in this thread was about something else entirely, i.e. whether or not hitting a category button automatically selects the first relevant item, which has nothing to do with the other. As for any suggestion that some OS fixed some problem, I don't know what you're referring to there, but I don't think it's either of the above things.

Shift + Exit should be the panic button.

It is needed. There are so many ways to stall and freeze once you get into sound design with these things that it's too much to document, and needed just for that area of usage.

And any connection with a DAW desperately needs a Panic Button because MIDI is bereft of error checking, and there a lots of ways around this that are each compromised in different ways, such that users must eventually make compromised choices, all of which would be better if a panic button enabled sureness and certainty in edge cases.

Bill,

I've edited my previous comment adding context if it wasn't clear before.

So what I demonstrated in that video would have worked as desired if I had done the same thing on a Montage? Interesting. It seems a strange thing to choose to change from Montage to MODX. I wonder if it might be a bug? Or maybe it was just an unavoidable consequence of some other change they had to make when bringing the Montage OS to the different hardware of the MODX. Well, at least now when you see someone complain about the auto-select, you'll know what they're talking about. 😉

I will check into whether this is specification or something that changed along the way and post back. (we briefly lost the ability reassign the PB to other duties until reported, here on the forum, by an end user).

Often when a thread goes as far afield as this one you get mixed information - I check whether I'm in the MODX forum or as this thread - the MONTAGE forum. Folks want to believe they are identical - but they are not... this is the reason we do separate articles, often have to post separate screenshots, and spell out definitely different button pressing routines to get to a particular place (Did you realize that the MODX does not have a [CATEGORY SEARCH] button? - it has a [CATEGORY] button) - stuff like that.
I try to be consistent in using brackets when a button is indicated and quotes if it is a parameter selection in the screen. You "press" a button - you "tap" or "touch" items that are in the screen... If you have a water damage issue please start your own thread - it does not belong with the subject "panic button" - well, its a stretch at best!

When posting in the MODX forum this would have had me verifying it on a MODX, but when posted in the MONTAGE forum, testing on a MONTAGE seems the logical thing to do. I simply cannot remember which keyboard everybody owns by just seeing your name (frankly, I try not to look at WHO posted so it wouldn't help anyway). And if you have an issue that is NOT related to the original poster's subject - posting about non-related stuff should be in its own thread, and should be in the proper product's forum heading - whenever possible.

I put a suggestion on IdeaScale for this: https://yamahasynth.ideascale.com/a/dtd/MODX-Category-Search-shouldn-t-select-anything-by-default/284634-45978

posting about non-related stuff should be in its own thread, and should be in the proper product's forum heading - whenever possible.

Yup. And it's certainly understandable that you'd have looked at it from the Montage side! There was definite thread drift. Andrew mentioned the automatic part select off-handedly in post #19; you asked what he was talking about in post #22; I chimed in to answer in post #26... and we were off to the races. 😉 So yeah, I agree that posting about a different topic should be in the appropriate forum with its own heading, but sometimes the transition to the new topic is subtle, and just kinda happens. But it's cool that you're checking into whether the current behavior is operating according to spec or may have been an unintentional deviation, thanks!