What's normal latency for a hardware synth? I would expect that Montage is the fastest available since the flash was improved over the Motif/Tyros flash boards. Does the number of parts slow this down considerably? The sound structure itself might also have a feel to it that can be tweaked.

The performance "CP80 Layer" contains one part.

It's a bit worrying. Sometime it's worse than my Kronos. And THAT synth have been acknowledged by users to have long latency times.

No, it's not just you. The latency on the CFX is unacceptable. When I play a plugin piano vs the CFX piano the difference is startling. I'm REALLY hoping that this will be addressed in the next firmware update.

Lawrence wrote:

No, it's not just you. The latency on the CFX is unacceptable. When I play a plugin piano vs the CFX piano the difference is startling. I'm REALLY hoping that this will be addressed in the next firmware update.

In my opinion, if the latency issues comes from limitations in the hardware, a firmware update would unlikely fix the problem.

It's actually almost a dealbreaker for me, if I should return the Montage or not. Which is a pity, because it sounds so great!

How does it compare to the Motif XF and the XF piano that's in the Montage? Again, one big Montage selling point was the BIG improvement in the flash speed. So why does it delay longer if the response time is supposedly faster?

My guess is that like every other electronic/ computer product, one should wait before jumping in. Theres no way Yamaha or any other company can find every bug or glitch until the general public puts them through the paces. Hopefully if this is an issue they can stop production and correct this with a hardware tweak if it cant be addressed via firmware. This is the chance you take by jumping in as the first owners of a new product. Windows 10 is STILL giving me issues.....lol

@ David, as far as I understood, flash write speed has been improved in Montage. That does not necessarily mean flash read speed has also been improved. In fact, if it is correct what has been discussed on some websites, the Flash used in Montage is actually considerably cheaper than the one used in the XF (NAND vs. NOR flash).

I've made a video of what I'm talking about. Sorry about the lame videoquality though. But I hope you get the idea of what I mean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hbaygrh56M

@Matin. So 2ms or less is good/acceptable and 9ms is not? @Falk. To consider that Yamaha would design their new flagship flash memory to be cheaper or slower than the XF would be a serious design embarrassment. That would be hard for me to imagine. Am I in error to think that if any single Montage waveform (as was demonstrated by Martin) can respond within 1.5ms then the flash is not the issue else all the waveform would equally fail in similar fashion? The issue then lies with the waveform itself and not with the response time of the flash?

Can you check a few more instruments to see if it's an anomaly? As stated it could be the wave form. This needs some serious investigation by Yamaha as if it's an hardware issue this isn't worth half the price. Yamaha should be ashamed of themselves for not including more user memory AND the more expensive kind for a 4000.00 price tag! Shameful.

@ David what I read is that Montage features a new tone generator, the SWP70, which uses a different kind of flash memory than the older SWP51 found in Motif, Tyros, MOXF etc.. I understood that it's basically the same flash used in SSD drives (NAND). Whereas SWP51 used so-called NOR flash. I don't think you can say NAND is "better" than NOR or vice versa , they just have different characteristics. As far as I know NAND is cheaper though, and more widely used today.

If you are interested in more details, look here

http://sandsoftwaresound.net/swp70-tone-generator/

I have to say what I did not really get, if its true with the new interface using their SSD type flash etc etc, why Yamaha plugged only 4GB physical (I guess it's 4GB?) into the Montage.

Lack of realistic memory amounts aside, 9-10ms is crazy for a new supposedly fastest flagship synth. esp. when the CFX is one of the selling points.
Lets hope its a fixable issue in firmware as there will be more than a few people upset if this is something you have to "live with" as theres no way to correct it if the problem resides in the hardware. I'd feel better if it were just a random synth experiencing this but Ive now heard of 11 people who own them all saying the same thing. It looks to be a problem on all of them.

Wow Martin, Excellent detective work!...I too have noticed some latency, especially on performances utilizing the CP80 and CFX Grand. 9ms is simply not acceptable..I also run many sounds including pianos and electric pianos within Mainstage using a Zoom Tac2 Thunderbolt interface and am able to get tons of sounds to run (including all the large piano libraries) at about 3-3.5 ms...so weird that the CP70's latency seems totally fine in your example and many other Montage sounds feel very tight to me when i'm playing them even when triggered via midi from my CP4...but the CP80 and the CFX sounds I noticed right away seem sluggish..What gives?

I've also noticed there has not been a BM replay to this thread. Hopefully the next update will replace/correct these wave forms if that's the issue. Can you also check the Bos piano that was loaded for a comparison? What's odd is that these demo guys have played the CFX endlessly and no one said "what's up with this one?" It's been years in the making so I'd be hard pressed to think they don't already know about it.