Data that is stored to the dedicated area in the User Memory can be saved to USB flash memory stick as a USER File. (.X7U)
Data that is stored to the dedicated area in the User Memory can be saved to USB flash memory stick as a LIBRARY File. (.X7L)

A Montage can create a (.X7L) you do so by saving the current INTERNAL USER memory as a LIBRARY File. So the process of assembling a Library is to put the PERFORMANCES, Motion Sequences, Arpeggios, MicroTunings, User Curves, Waveforms and Live Sets into your current USER MEMORY... then you can SAVE AS... "LIBRARY File"
That Library File can then be LOADED directly into one of the eight Library slots (each Library slot has maximum storage for 640 Performances).

Are you sure you are ready to create a Library?

Please see the following article for details on managing your files: USER and LIBRARY Files

I won't tell you my first thoughts! I am reminded of the adage 'Any fool can make it complicated - but genius is keeping it simple'. I will go away and attempt to understand the rigmarole! Perhaps I've been spoiled by the simplicity of the Tyros, where storage of sounds is a matter of pressing a few buttons into easily accessed spaces. I thought the Montage would follow on similar lines ... thanks for your explanation of the nearly inexplicable!

Stay well ... though how you stay sane beats me!

To my mind the Montage is even simpler - you press Store, choose from either overwrite or new - job done.

Hello Phil - in a way, it is, but it sounds a lot more complex - I'm not sure I understood Bad Mister's reference to having to store not just the Performances, but all the settings that went with them? Have I misconstrued that? Performances seem to be saved complete with everything to make them work ... anyway, I have assembled and re-named all the Single Part Piano Performances in the Piano User area, and successfully saved the lot to my USB stick as a User File, and brought them back again, so that part seems to have gone OK. Are the files still;on the USB? I imagine I brought back a copy, but am uncertain.

Before creating a 'Library' file though - can I start with only a few (39 so far) and then add more to the same file later? That is, the next batch would go into Slot 40 onwards. Just a tiny doubt that once you load into a Library, you can't add to that same Library. Probably wrong, but better safe than sorry!

As with anything, practice makes perfect, and after a few scary attempts it all flows smoothly - just differently! I still shout and kick things when it doesn't go as I think it should, but there has been a decrease in the number of heart attacks, so I think progress is being made - and if I can do it, anybody can!

Yes I think you have misunderstood what he meant. When you save a user file to a USB everything in the user area gets saved automatically - that was the list that bad mister included in his post - you don't have to worry about saving settings or live sets or user tunings etc it will all be saved in the one file. That file then resides on the USB stick so you are effectively just reloading back into the user area again - in exactly the same way as it would be on a computer. Be aware though that loading a user file overwrites what is in the current User area (the montage will warn you of this) so you would lose anything extra you had added since the last time you had saved the user file to the USB.

You can sort of think of a library file as an extension of this in that it can be reloaded back from the USB into one of the 8 library file locations. Effectively then you have a user area with 640 performances and an additional 8 library file areas with the same amount. You are right though that you can't add to a library file once it has been loaded - you need to assemble everything in the user area first then save it as a library file then reload it into a library area. All the performances in all the libraries are available to you at once at the same time though. If you want to bring a performance from a library to the user area (for instance if you want to edit it) you would use the Import function so that any waveforms associated with that performance are also brought with it - again this is the montage doing the donkey work for you without you having to worry about it.

Hello Phil, hope you're well. I was thinking of Library files because User files do the over-writing bit on re-import from the USB, as you say. I know I should save everything to the USB, but I forget ... a lot ... hence the Library files thought, which don't over-write. Having second thoughts though, insofar as my current idea is only repeating what's already there, and I could use the 'single part' filter easily enough. Thanks for your explanation of things Library - glad I misunderstood Bad Mister! But about these Libraries, the Bosendorfer is on my Montage as a Library file, but appears in the User area of the Piano group. I would have expected it to have to be called up as a Library file? So, supposing I had generated another 600-odd amazing piano sounds in the same Library - surely they wouldn't all appear in the User area of the Piano group? Would I not have to call them up as Library 1 or something? And if so, how? How would I call up Library 5 if there were something in it? Supposing there were 523 Performances scattered over all the instrument groups? Questions, questions ... so how does one call up Libraries?

Bonne journée ... !

I'm not sure what you mean by the Bosendorfer being in the User area - was the Bosendorfer piano part of your Montage when you bought it or did you download it? When you do a category search by default the Bank attribute is set to All so you will see everything that is in your Montage - the presets, the contents of the User area and anything that is in the libraries. A performance can't be in the User area unless it has been stored - performances from the libraries will appear in the User area if they have been imported. Perhaps this was already done before you received the instrument - if however you downloaded the Bosendorfer piano sounds it would have been as a library file so it would appear in the Bank attribute either under All or as Bosendorfer (the library name) but not I think as User.

To limit what you see in the Bank attribute to a certain library simply select its name from the drop down list - the name will be the name you gave the library file when you originally saved it. You're not actually "calling up" a specific library - everything is available to you - the category search simply allows you to view the performances in all the areas of the machine that you can choose from (with of course the option of filtering out those you don't want to see).

Incidentally p174 of the reference manual shows the difference between what is saved in a User and Library file.

Hello Phil - the Bosendorfer was already loaded when I got the instrument, and appears under 'Bank' as 'Bosendorfer', and its various manifestations (16 in all) appear in the 'User' area of the 'Piano' Bank. Any Performances I create appear between the pre-sets and the Bosendorfer - as expected.

Having re-thought the idea of repeating the single part instruments, I am starting on a new series of sounds using 2 piano parts. No problems there, but I have not found a way of checking which piano parts I used! All you get in Performance Control is the generic piano type - is there a means of checking which named piano parts I used in a particular mix? If not, I'll have to start keeping records!

Thank you for explaining the hierarchy of the Montage - I see the underlying principle now, which is indeed simpler than I was imagining! The screen is King! Not unlike the Tyros, but both deeper and wider in function, and actually simpler as there's only one mode to worry about.

I'm not sure what you mean by "is there a means of checking which named piano parts I used in a particular mix?" How did you create those performances initially? Did you merge already existing performances or did you start from scratch?

On the performance home screen you can click on each part and select either type or name - name will give you the name of the performance where the part originated I think.

Good morning Phil - sorry, it's the 'everybody knows that' syndrome again ... with Montage I've gone right back to basics, starting at the lowest level. So I 'create' a sound by merging (another word to learn!) two existing single part sounds, tweak each, give the new Performance a name, and store it. This continues for a while, and then I go back and review what I've done. Not happy with one, so I want to see which two Performances were merged - it may be better to change one of them than go on tweaking. But the parts just have generic names - not given names. Bit odd, that. So is there a way of establishing the given names of the parts I used?

Not at the Montage, won't be for a while - it's tucked away down in my soundproof 'dungeon' (metre thick stone walls), so I'll look at the 'Performance (Home)' tip a bit later on - may be the answer! Stay well ...

Hello again Phil, and you are of course right. Question of observation! Alongside the name panel in Performance Control (or 'Home') there are two choices - Type (default) and Name. Choosing Name gives me the given names of the Parts concerned. Thank you!