Hard.

It does the job well, especially considering how broad the instrument is.

As any professional tool that does a lot of stuff at a high end level, there is a learning curve.

Also, very important, it is well documented.

The docs themselves are good (could be improved but they do the job), the docs / tutorials on this site are amazing, the youtube talks and tips, the music production guide pdfs... If you want to learn instead of wasting time complaining, the resources are there, plenty.
So in this context, these might be the best option for a newcomer who wants to learn this type of instrument.

And once again, those using these synths with a DAW/computer environment are doing themselves a huge disservice if they're not using the John Melas tools for editing performances and managing content. Faster, easier and give a better overview of what's happening.

Compared to its main competitor, very hard.

[quotePost id=116431]Hard.

[/quotePost]

Valid point.

Everyone has their own unique, subjective view on what is "too hard".

Equally, they will likely have their own view on what is "too basic". As in, it does not have enough functions to meet their needs.

There is a classic trade-off going on. Functionality vs Complexity. The cross-over point for everyone will be unique to them, and vary massively across the market demographic.

As a manufacturer you can't please everyone. Person A will expect, nee demand, criteria "X". Yet "X" may be, and likely will be, completely unacceptable to Person B.

The MODX is suffering from a certain amount of irony, and downstream, becoming a victim of it's own success.

The Montage has not befallen this fate, because, with it's $5000-$6000 price tag, there is a fair assumption that it's target market were/are seasoned Synth veterans who needed/wanted more power. Also, being veterans, or Yamaha loyalists, the complexity was somewhat expected, and the terminology already understood. The Montage is not a "beginner" synth.

By comparison, the MODX (seemingly for the first time in history), created a budget, direct shortcut to the Montage's power, and thus became highly attractive to "beginners".

The irony is that the MODX (nee Montage) is about as far as you could imagine from being a "beginner synth". The attraction is not hard too understand... "the best for less".

An Analogy that springs to mind from personal experience. "Non-elite" drivers manage to buy a rear-wheel drive sports car (Porsche, Audi, Ferrari etc) and then manage to smash it up beyond repair within the first week of ownership. They've never owned a sports car before, they want all the panache, but don't feel obliged to jump through any "experience" hoops.

This site, Bad Mister and Jason commended, has been both a great help, and a necessity to me.

Because, yes it is hard. There is a level of complexity, combined with my own inexperience, that I could not have overcome on my own.

I still see here and other forums, regular indignance from new owners who have clearly not put in any effort or (magic word) patience into getting the most from their MODX. In some cases, they not even read the basic Owners Manual.

The problem with any business being "first to market" with a product is that it takes all the risks, whilst their competitors eagerly watch their "sink or swim" tribulations.

Inevitably, successes will trigger similar "innovation" from competitors. However they have the benefit of witnessing faults, and will endeavour to improve on these.

IMO, Yamaha broke the mould and dared to "compete" with its own Flagship by releasing a less expensive yet still 100% featured, and compatible product.

It was a run-away success, but not without its unforeseen hiccups, that competitors will now (and already are) capitalise on.

The precedent that Yamaha set here was breaking the Golden Rule of Price Differential vs Product Differential. That is escalating Prestige and Premium Pricing through product "ranks".

Had Yamaha released the MODX as just a "feature restricted" Synth (compared to the Montage), that would have been "normal". Releasing it with the same feature set as the Montage was ground-breaking.

Surprise, surprise, we now have the Roland Fantom-0. Korg missed the mark with their "Kross" and the more feature rich Nautilus (Which was expensive enough to warrant spending the extra money and buying the Kronos II).

Yamaha hopefully do still hold the advantage of being "first to market". They will also be learning from their own experience, and will have that all important time advantage... operationally, as well as strategically... next generation Flagship and spin-offs.

Complex... yes. Too hard... no. Not if you are willing to pay due time and diligence, for the benefit of a powerful Synth.

When the MODX is your first synth, everything after is going to be easier to use and more rewarding.

Antony, if you try a Novation Summit, you're going to be absolutely amazed at how lush a synth can sound, and how easy it can be to make lush sounds. And how good a synth's onboard effects can sound.

If you're song making, the Fantom and 0 series is multiple times more capable, friendly to the processes of song making and easier to use.

An Akai MPC takes this (song making) to an entirely different level of ease and prowess.

Fortunately for Yamaha, as a first instrument, you can add one or more of these to it, and perhaps not want to sell the MODX because it has FM-X and some good traditional sounds (particularly brass and guitars).

An ASM Hydrasynth (especially the Deluxe) reveals what a next generation blend of hardware and software sound design, motion/animation/control and dynamic player input control can and should be.

Relatively easy, like learning anything new you have to be prepared to encounter the odd problem. Doesn't mean it's too hard or difficult, maybe just different from what you expected.

[quotePost id=116442]Relatively easy, like learning anything new you have to be prepared to encounter the odd problem. Doesn't mean it's too hard or difficult, maybe just different from what you expected.[/quotePost]

Relative to what?

By comparison, the MODX (seemingly for the first time in history), created a budget, direct shortcut to the Montage's power, and thus became highly attractive to "beginners".

This has been the standard product portfolio from Yamaha synths for quite some time. My previous keyboard, a MO6 was the budget Motif ES6. It had song, pattern modes and all of the sounds of the Motif. So it was nearly all but sampling and didn't sacrifice much either in terms of knobs and buttons. No aftertouch or ribbon controller - but the same amount of sliders and knobs - and pretty close to the ES.

This product segmentation continued with the Motif XS / MOX, Motif XS / MOXF with similar give-and-take on some "trivial" items but by seemingly stacking the deck really high on the "MO" series.

I never saw the "MO" series (MODX included) as the beginner user's version of the flagship (Montage/Motif). Rather, I saw it as a way to get the flagship (also inheriting the complexity, usability, and most properties of the bigger brother) at a more affordable price with a short-list of tradeoffs. MODX had less features to "shave off" (like Sampling - which doesn't exist in the first place) - so this generation the control surface was carved out seemingly more than previous generations particularly for system navigation.

This doesn't change most of what was said. I just thought I had read that this was a new trend and wanted to provide the correct context.

I don't think the (original) question is geared towards a user like me - having come into this generation having owned a previous MO series keyboard. So I won't chime in on that.

Not a big deal, but just in case you didn't know, there is a 'MODX Series Synthesizers' forum under Yamahasynth.com whereby they discuss mostly MODX related things:
https://yamahasynth.com/forum/categories/modx-series-synthesizers
...not sure how much it's used as I rarely go there, but there might be good information and more answers there that relates specifically to the MODX, as this is the 'Montage Series Synthesizers' forum...

But since you are here, congrats on your MODX7! You have the world's most economically cost effective & lightest synth 'for what it can do', even in comparison to flagship synths that are double the price and weight. You did not waste any money, and getting the best bang for your buck, hands down...

I would say that the MODX (since it's relatively quite close to the Montage) is somewhere between Easy and Hard, but leans a bit more to the Hard side. So, yeah there's a learning curve, but out of the gate you've got pretty much all the same world class sample waveforms that the Montage has, as well as the FM-X capabilities. There are tonnes of 3rd party libraries you can purchase for additional programmed Performances. Some of them (especially Yamaha ones) are even free... And it has most of the same functionality as the flagship synth as well.

It's funny to hear people compare the MODX to flagship synths such as the Fantom, Kronos or others, because the MODX doesn't really have any comparative competition in its price range, aside from maybe the Korg Krome, which doesn't really compare well since it is quite limited in sounds & doesn't have the vast built in library of waveforms and Performances. The MODX is really in a league of it's own, but for a first synth, it a far greater value than the flagship synths...again the MODX is half the price and has some compromises in keyboard quality and functionality, but just watch the videos, read the forums, and you'll get the hang of it before too long...
Start off with the basics of understanding the difference between (a) Preset Performances and Waveform memory (ROM), (b) Library Memory, and (c) User Memory. And how to Save, Backup & Load various Performances, User memory, Libraries, etc., so that you don't lose any modified Performances. Also, the difference between Saving a Performance that you have modified (into User Memory) vs doing a Library Import of a Performance & it's waveforms from a Library (into User Memory).

Sure, there are other synths on the market like the Roland Fantom, that may be more intuitive & have a smaller learning curve, but those synths are Flagship synths and are twice the price ... in the end there are advantages and disadvantages to each different synth out there. The MODX (like the Montage) can produce sounds that are world class, but at a very affordable price. I don't believe there is another synth on the planet that can do/sound like what the MODX can for the price!! (someone correct me if I'm wrong)
I have the Montage, which is basically the MODX with a better keybed and a few other things, and I have yet to find any sound that I can't do on it ... so basically the possibilities are nearly endless of what you can do/reproduce on your MODX essentially!

Good luck, have fun and enjoy learning your new mini-Monster of a synth! 😉

Please, define easy and hard!

Honestly, it took me only a few days to understand the basic structure of the Montage / Modx (vice vera - had first a MoDX) and to find where is what.

Like in every (or most) pro level product there is no direct explanation of what it's what and how to reach your goal. It is basics for me to know what additive or subtractive synthesis is. It's basic knowledge how waveforms/samples are working, (A-, P-, F-) ADSR enevelope or an LFO is affecting sound. If you talk about the FM-X engine there is even more basics needed: this begins from understanding of overtones. If you were good in maths and you have understood the theorie of Fourier than you will reach the goal much faster.
Also the controller mapping and routing, the Evelope Follower and Motion Control is not that hard to understand.
If you know all this basics I'm sure you will pretty fast learing to use each and every synth. No matter if it is the Korg Kronos/Nautilus, Roland Fantom series or any real analog or AN-modelling synth.

Making music with this complex boards (and DAWs) is more than playing an instrument and knowing music theory. You need to learn also the specific theory and music technology.

I think, most of the people are buying a Porsche and think they get the driving license for free....

There is a $100 difference between a Fantom 06 and MODX 6.

One of these is easy to use. The other is not. Relatively speaking.

As the context is (obviously - but seemingly ignored by most writings above) the other devices that offer multi-timbre, high polyphony keyboards.

[quotePost id=116453]There is a $100 difference between a Fantom 06 and MODX 6.

One of these is easy to use. The other is not.

[/quotePost]

I didn't use the Fantom 0 until now. But at least I would say that Roland ZEN-Core on the Jupiter-X & Fantom is also quite complex and not to be understood immediately by beginners.
May, that the one or other boards user experience fits better to an user or not?!?

Where I absolutely agree with Darryl, that the fewer control faders/knobs/buttons of the MoDX have a big influence on the smoothness of the workflow in using the boards.
While I have a Montage and MoDX side by side, I seldomly use the MoDX for designing sounds.

[quotePost id=116451]Please, define easy and hard!

Honestly, it took me only a few days to understand the basic structure of the Montage / Modx (vice vera - had first a MoDX) and to find where is what.

Like in every (or most) pro level product there is no direct explanation of what it's what and how to reach your goal. It is basics for me to know what additive or subtractive synthesis is. It's basic knowledge how waveforms/samples are working, (A-, P-, F-) ADSR enevelope or an LFO is affecting sound. If you talk about the FM-X engine there is even more basics needed: this begins from understanding of overtones. If you were good in maths and you have understood the theorie of Fourier than you will reach the goal much faster.
Also the controller mapping and routing, the Evelope Follower and Motion Control is not that hard to understand.
If you know all this basics I'm sure you will pretty fast learing to use each and every synth. No matter if it is the Korg Kronos/Nautilus, Roland Fantom series or any real analog or AN-modelling synth.

Making music with this complex boards (and DAWs) is more than playing an instrument and knowing music theory. You need to learn also the specific theory and music technology.

I think, most of the people are buying a Porsche and think they get the driving license for free....[/quotePost]

If comparing to a Fantom 0 series...

A better metaphor would be the 1980's turbo manual Porsche 930 vs the current gen Turbo S.

One is grossly suffering from lag, heavily rear weight biased, manually geared and needs an extra pedal to get the most from it, uses huge amounts of fuel (time) to get the best out of it, and antiquated in a lot of other ways. But lighter.

FM is a misnomer. Yamaha could make everyone's lives easier by explaining this.

it's Phase Modulation, not Frequency Modulation.

The envelopes in MODX/Montage aren't very good, nor flexible, by modern standards, and have some odd behaviours that limit the "normal" ways to use them, which adds difficulty when trying to sculpt sounds.

All of what you're writing is the context, without the comparison. If you're going to presume the context, and talk of it, the next phase is contrasting what others provide, so that the subjective (hard vs easy) can be determined.

Having used most of the devices in the context of most of the other devices, the MODX is objectively and subjectively a harder to operate Operating System. I doubt even Yamaha would dispute this, and may even consider it part of their "charm".

[quotePost id=116455][quotePost id=116451]Having used most of the devices in the context of most of the other devices, the MODX is objectively and subjectively a harder to operate Operating System.[/quotePost]
You have objectively no idea of what you're talking about, nor any idea of why you're owning a MODX.