I have a question about loading midi file, is it possible in the Montage ?

Yes, you can load 64 Midi files.

We be able to answer questions about arpeggios as we get closer to release.
It may be like the S-series which can load User Arps but does not create them.

Thank you Bad Mister for this clear answer, great for the 64 midi files, for user arp wait and see 😉

Okay, i dont get this...

People will want to create their own music with the Montage, and then there is only room for 256 user arps, which it seems they can not create on the Montage..

Isnt this very limmiting?

No not really. People THINK they want to create their own arpeggios; people also THINK they want to create their own instruments (sample); the reality is that they purchase Libraries and they will be able to get new arpeggios either with those libraries or by loading them in. Not very limiting at all, actually.

I stress the word THINK, because creating your own arpeggios might seem to be an easy thing, until you have your first experience do so. If you are a Motif, Motif ES, XS or XF owner, how many (truthfully) arpeggios have you written. Even if your answer is 1000, you would be the exception not the rule. It is now February - the product ships in May. just saying.

Bad Mister wrote:

No not really. People THINK they want to create their own arpeggios; people also THINK they want to create their own instruments (sample); the reality is that they purchase Libraries and they will be able to get new arpeggios either with those libraries or by loading them in. Not very limiting at all, actually.

I stress the word THINK, because creating your own arpeggios might seem to be an easy thing, until you have your first experience do so. If you are a Motif, Motif ES, XS or XF owner, how many (truthfully) arpeggios have you written. Even if your answer is 1000, you would be the exception not the rule. It is now February - the product ships in May. just saying.

What if i told you that I have made dozens of arranger styles, some from scratch some by adjusting other styles and others from abusing midi files, it isnt that hard.. Same goes fro arps.. (I can even convert all those arranger parts to arps)

And now you are telling me, that i dont know what i want to do with the instrument, but you know what and how Yamaha intends me to use the instrument, only in their way.... Not allowing creativity, because customers are brainless and need to be protected from being creative...

I hope that you are not an official Yamaha representative, because that opinion you just expressed is drowning in arrogance... Because you state that Yamaha knows better what i want then me myself and i...

Not just here, but also in other posts and discussions you use these arguments... You taking away true creativity and handling people a box with buildingblocks to create whatever they want.... which turns me off big time, instead of a creative tool, you are offering us a toy...

Anyway, 256 user arps is a shame...

Not at all what I said... If you have dozens of arranger styles that you have made from scratch, (I think you should be thinking about marketing same yourself... the area is open and the opportunity exists) I just try to tell it like it is. I have tirelessly tried to help scores of folks write their own arpeggios and have a pretty good handle on how many people are doing as you do (but I've been wrong before). And although as you state it is NOT that hard, reality is what it is.

I do not know if there will be an application to create your own arpeggios. I can tell you that it NOT built-into the Montage itself. There is no PUT TRACK TO ARP function. Not sure how you want someone to pass that information on to you, but that is not available. You can load Motif-series arpeggios, as far as I know.

I also think your conclusion about what the building blocks of creativity are and will be in this particular product are premature.

I understand that you could create your own in the Motif/MOXF series, and you will still be able to make your own arpeggios there and import them to Montage. That's all the information we have now, but again - May is months away. If this is bad news for you, Please don't shoot the messenger. Not arrogance - just a reality check.

256 User arps loaded in at one time, as many as you want a click away on your USB drive.

you are offering us a toy...

Perhaps I'm on an island, but I have used user arps in order to add an extra set of hands when the parts are too busy to do everything at once. The typical use-case is when I'm playing a "lead" string part and there's a 32nd note run of a harp in the background.

It's not difficult to generate the arp (on the Mo6 and I imagine the workflow is the same or similar on the MOX, MOXF, Motif ES, Motif XS, Motif XF). Note this is off the top of my head.

1) Song mode
2) [JOB] then "Song" then "Clear Song" to initialize the song for easily starting to enter the user arp.
3) I set the tempo down to a slow value depending on the resolution of notes (16th, 32nd, ...) maybe 60bpm for 16th notes and slower for more dense notes
4) Hit full rewind to start (left arrow with the vertical line) then "Record"
5) ... record brings up a screen where I can verify/change the tempo. I usually set the entry type to "Replace" so I can overwrite/start-over if I flub a note. I'll usually set quantize to the note value I want although this is not necessary since I'll manually quantize later. Hit "Play" to start the 4-beat lead-in and start playing my "fast" run at the slow tempo.
6) Press "stop" once I'm done, press "play" to audition the result - once happy I'll continue or else go back to 4
... steps 7-9 optional unless I want to "post-produce" the result I played
7) Press [JOB] then "Notes" then Quantize and set the note value according - making sure to cover the measure range and set to "All"
8) Press [JOB]/"Notes" (usually just "Exit" which brings me back to "Notes") and select "Set Velocity" - again making sure the measure range is correct and set "All" value to 127 usually or some other value. This is not entirely necessary unless I want it to be even.
9) To change the length of each note, I can set [JOB]/"Notes" and gate time setting "All" to some value although this is also not necessary if I'm happy with the feel of the original performed notes. Typically I'll use this to set the notes to a shorter value if I want daylight between the notes.
10) Press [JOB]/Track - "Convert Track to Arp" This brings up a menu where I can set:
a) The user arp number (1, 2, 3, etc..)
b) The Arp name - I usually don't change or edit this and just skip this step. Although more recently on a MOXF experimenting with arps I did label them before saving a USB stick
c) The arp "type". These runs I always want to be able to single-finger transpose a run, so I use "OrgNotes" type and choose the Original Root as the same note as I played in the run of notes. Sometimes I'll choose original root as a different octave if I want to shift around the run along the keyboard. This goes into if I want a really high sounding run, but I'm pressing a very low note (due to how my splits are) - I may adjust the octave here to "8va" (or more) the part.

The summary without detail is:

1) Use song mode to record a sequence of notes
2) Use job to transfer sequence to a user arp - remember (for me) to use "OrgNotes"

Pretty simple to remember and implement.

For the arp type:

"OrgNotes" will allow you to transpose the run - playing a single note (with the user arp ON and used in a performance) will play the same intervals as the run which was recorded but will transpose to the root note of the pressed key.

Below I may have switched around the descriptions

"Fixed" will always play the same run in the original key played and will not transpose when playing different notes. This makes sense for drum parts

"Normal" seems to just play the same note played on the keyboard with no intervals - using the note values (durations) of the original recorded run. Maybe this is good for strumming patterns or similar.

I only really use "OrgNotes"

=================================================

Establishing that in my workflow - using previous Yamaha Motif/MO to generate a user arp is simple, this brings me to next issue.

I used a MOXF to generate 5 user arps.
a) User Arp 1: 4 quarter notes broken chord major triad: root (middle C), maj 3rd, 5th, maj 3rd ("OrgNotes")
b) User Arp 2: 16 16th notes scale from middle C up to next C and back down ("OrgNotes")
c) User Arp 3: 16 16th notes scale from middle C up to next C and back down ("Fixed")
d) User Arp 4: 16 16th notes scale from middle C up to next C and back down ("Normal")
e) User Arp 5: 4 quarter notes, two notes in harmony for each beat a 3rd apart (beat1: C+E, beat2: E+G, beat3: G+B, beat4: E+G) ("OrgNotes")

After creating these 5 user arps in minutes, I saved the arps to a file

Inserted a blank USB stick,

[FILE], changed type to "Arpeggios", edited the name to "ARP1", and pressed function key for "Execute" which saved the user arps on the stick as an ".X6G" file.

Placed the USB stick into the montage and tried to call up the X6G to populate the Montage's user arp with my recorded (on an XF) arp. However, although the USB stick was recognized - the Arpeggio data was not found and there were no options to read the data from the USB drive.

The format of the save files is heavily leveraged - I didn't try renaming to an .X6A file

Given Montage does indeed have user arps - if local editing is not in the roadmap (which is fine with me) the means to import an X6G is fairly important to utilize the feature. Maybe something better is in the works - which is fine - but implementing an ARP import from ARP save files is fairly important. If ARPs can already be read from an "all" file (.X6A) - supporting the .X6G would be a subset ("easier").

--- on a related but slightly different note: I did try to use motion control to control "pitch" in order to create a user arp - but this was getting me nowhere fast. Perhaps there's a way - but much more complicated than recording notes and pressing a few buttons to transfer that recording to an arp.

Thanks for shedding some light on either the future ability to read user arps from xf-series save files or some help in finding the hidden menu/option to do this today.

Hello Bad Mister,
Long time reader, 1st time forum question...

I'm sad to know that I can't create my own arps on my Montage. So I tried to use my Ableton patterns as a midi arp pattern thinking it would make an arp for the Montage to use, but it just triggers the voice in the 1st slot as a song playing one time and I have to press the play button to start it, not like a live arp while I play other voices and can switch among other arps.

I do not own a Motif or Moxf, which Im under the impression the user of those keyboards can create their own arp and then transfer it to a usb stick to then upload on a Montage, and then playback on the Montage? Is there something I'm missing, or are we just waiting for a program to download that will allow us to create our own arps, and then to upload and play on the Montage?

Hello Steven,
We will be posting a series of articles starting later this month (or early in September) that will delve into Arpeggio creation on the Montage. You will be able to make your own Arps on Montage, as well as load Arps from the Motif XF .X3G or .X3A file (btw- having a MOXF does not mean compatibility with Montage).

The idea in the compatibility with Motif XF Arps is not to say you need one to create your own Arps, it's so that if you load a library made for the Motif XF, that happens to also have arpeggio data, it will load and play as expected. If you own a Montage be sure to check back often, and keep your firmware up to date. Yamaha, throughout the Motif-series consistently added features and functions to the hardware via firmware updates. Those who owned one know this, if you are new to Yamaha, please check download.yamaha.com for firmware updates or check back here at YamahaSynth (I'm sure we'll have information on it). Subscribe to Music Production Guide... This ride is just beginning.

Right on, I'm excited for that!
Thank you for your reply

Bad Mister-
So I just watched the new Ver1.2 update video, and Katsunori didn't go over the new user arp function...
Do we now have the ability to edit arps on the Montage itself, or does it still require a computer to be connected and the Montage Connect program to be running?

I haven't updated the firmware yet, but the "new features" manual bundled with the firmware shows screenshots of the user arp function and instructions.

You can manually record an arp or it looks like loading a MIDI file can get you there too.

Press the "|>" (that's trying to look like the sideways triangle - or "play" button in the play/record/fast-forward/etc area of the keyboard just below the super knob).

Pressing on the song name will bring up a menu which allows saving the user arp.

This is the interface to the recorder which allows for you to transfer your recording to an ARP. Since it also allows for loading MIDI files here - you should be able to go from MIDI to ARP.

Thanks for the insight Jason, I hadn't yet dug into the update file folder to see that there is a new manual bundled in there to go with it.
It looks promising so I will perform the update tonight and cross my fingers that it will work in the way I am hoping it will...

I've tried to create a few arps with this new feature in different ways. Some of them i recorded by myself and i used midifiles from songs where i found good sequences.
No need of using a computer and pretty easy. Really awesome feature. Maybe it gives better ways, but for me it was the first time i got the result what i want have.