Can I load my 128 Motif XS Master settings onto the Montage?

No. They have no relevance to the Montage.

They contain performances to control the Motif and an external midi synth.

No actually they do not, contain the Performance - they only "point to" specific locations within the Motif XS - which do not exist in the Montage.

Or do I have to start again and set everything up from scratch?

Yes, new keyboard, new setup. There is only PERFORMANCE mode in the Montage... you have a MASTER ZONE keyboard setup within each PERFORMANCE.

So the Master settings on the Motif mean nothing to the Montage.

And the Performance settings on the Motif mean nothing to the Montage.

That leaves us with the Voice settings.
I believe that the Voices can be transferred to the Montage??

Compatibility with Motif XS

The voices of Yamaha’s MOTIF XS synthesizers can be loaded into the MONTAGE by using MOTIF XF Editor VST software. Only voices that are based on the MOTIF XS’s internal waveforms can be read, so voice files created using user samples cannot be loaded. The steps for loading a voice file are as follows:

_ Save the voice data in the MOTIF XS. Select either All Files (.X0A) or All voice Files (.X0V) as the file save format.
_ Import the saved file using MOTIF XF Editor VST.
_ Save the imported file using MOTIF XF Editor VST. Use the file extension .X3E.
_ Load the saved .X3E file into the MONTAGE via USB flash memory.

Hope that helps.

So the answer is a kind of nightmare, after 2 years spending hours creating presets on the XF, Montage could read just the basic, all the rest (fx,performance, etc) has to be re-do it...another 2 years....Oouch!

So the answer is a kind of nightmare, after 2 years spending hours creating presets on the XF, Montage could read just the basic, all the rest (fx,performance, etc) has to be re-do it...another 2 years....Oouch!

Sorry, but that sounds crazy. If you don't want to change, don't change keyboards. Not only is Voice mode not in Montage, there is no separate Master mode, either. Each Performance contains its own settings for both internal and external devices - a Master Keyboard function exists within each Performance. Besides if in those two years you really understood your XF's Master mode you would know it only contained "pointers" to the associated Voice program, Performance program, Song or Pattern Mixing program. It did not contain the actual data of those programs. Those "pointer" would be meaningless to Montage.

In other words, if your Master 001 was associated with USER VOICE 001(A01)... It points to whatever is in that location. Whatever Voice happens to be loaded into that spot "inherits" being selected by your Master 001. If you load in a new Bank of Voices to USER 1, your Master named "E.Piano/Strings" could turn into sounding a CS80 Brass if you happened to load that User bank.

The Montage is not a Motif XF (2010)... If you know how it worked, you can be happy that at least the vast majority of your individual Voices (basic playable entities) survive. You'll see (or maybe not) if you dig in you'll see the differences, if you do not dig in (as you didn't with the XF) you will not understand these fundamental differences- in that case take my word for it... There is NO WAY for your Master programs to translate to the new keyboard, it would have to be your old keyboard with your programs in their original (same) locations.

If you buy a different Motif XF you can load your Master data into it. But if you buy a Montage expect a lot if things to be different.

Hope that helps. New keyboard, new workflow. Embrace it, you'll enjoy configuring your new setup. Or stay with your old. Your choice 🙂

If you buy a different Motif XF you can load your Master data into it. But if you buy a Montage expect a lot if things to be different.

Just to highlight the pointer issue, this is also not completely true. (Can certainly be loaded, but expecting the same output is conditional.)

If the Master data (or Performance data) points to factory preset Voices this is fine.

However, if the pointers point to USR data that has been edited in XF#1 and not XF#2, then the same type of issues occur.

I think it will be straightforward to port to Montage, say for a given XF Performance:

1) Identify all Voices, Arps, and effects.
2) Port each individual component (Voice or Arp) into Montage Performance parts.
3) Tweak effects to match those of the original XF Performance
4) Insure compatibility of Arps with correct voices (connect the Arp with correct keyboard zone and activate with proper voice-now a part in Montage, say drum kit).
5) Reemploy any required MIDI control info for external devices or computer.

Montage is ordered and hasn't arrived yet, but as an XF owner that is what I'll be attempting for a limited number of select XF Performances.

I've transferred 128 Masters and many performances manually. It took me 5 – 15 minutes per master/performance. So after two months I did them all and sold my Motif.
I simply put the Montage and Motif above each other and systematically took over the relevant parameter settings. By heart – this was my workflow:
- I converted all voices to the Montage
- Per external device (e.g. Korg synth) I created a template.
- Per new performance, I selected the old voices and added the external devices
- All zones to ON and zone settings
- Setting key ranges and octave shift
- Take over common effect parameters and sends per part/voice
- EQ settings
- Quick Edit settings
- Checking receive switches (sustain, assign SW etc.)
- Play both synths in order to find differences
I think I’ve mentioned all steps, I don’t use arpeggios a lot but these can be transferred simply as well. I did some old default Motif performances which I liked.
Unfortunately the Motif and Montage names (voices, arpeggios etc.) may differ sometimes a little bit (f.e. spaces)

It’s like a manual lookup table. 90% of the “transfers” worked out perfectly. I had to adjust some performances. It’s very do-able so I didn’t understand why it can’t be done automatically. If it couldn’t be done manually reasonably fast/good, I would have returned the Montage. Fortunately it all worked fine and I'm enjoying the Montage
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