About a week ago I was shopping for a keyboard of a different type, and on multiple online shops noticed a lot of Montage pricing/discounting on odd (what looked like) left over stock, that would tend to suggest this, too. As though an unofficial clearance sale was going on to make way for whatever's next.

[quotePost id=120378]A Yamaha rep has informed my Long and McQuade rep that the Montage will not be produced anymore and that it has officially been discontinued.

Here's hoping for a replacement to be announced soon, possibly at the upcoming NAMM show.
[/quotePost]
Rumors speak of the announcement at NAMM of the successor to be called Montage +, plus, ES, EX....or similar 🙂

Incidentally, today Steinberg launched HALion 7, which has an FM module made in collab with Yamaha.

It seems to feature a lot of the stuff people were requesting in the Montage/MODX FM-X:

It has an FM-X emulation mode (and a DX7 one) and all the 88 algorithms, but that's just the start.

Freeform OP routing, feedback for all OPs, negative mod, carrier panning, all waveforms you want besides the FM-X ones...

Speculation: Montage+ takes away FM-X and comes with a free FM module HALion license. Replacing FM-X with another engine.

I've been waiting to order my superknob part replacement (the part you touch that will show the RGB colors) and yesterday I checked. Now 24x7 tells me to call for the part where before it said it was available.

There's likely obsolete single source parts that force a hardware refresh.

Although I selfishly wish for a lot of overlap (like MODX to MODX+) because that would at least leave the door open for parallel firmware updates extending the "life" of Montage - I'm not counting on it. Either the overlap or continued updates.

There's usually a last update at the tail end just before the new gen comes out. Crossing fingers that there's something out of this.

Guess I'll wait and see.

Hello everyone,

MONTAGE is still a current product. It has not been discontinued.

Thanks!

Blake

[quotePost id=120391]Hello everyone,

MONTAGE is still a current product. It has not been discontinued.

Thanks!

Blake[/quotePost]

This is good news! Thx Blake

[quotePost id=120391]Hello everyone,
MONTAGE is still a current product. It has not been discontinued.
Thanks!
Blake[/quotePost]
all of us who own a Montage hope to see a firmware update with new features announced at NAMM 2023

[quotePost id=120391]Hello everyone,

MONTAGE is still a current product. It has not been discontinued.

Thanks!

Blake[/quotePost]
Putting the FM-X engine in HALion was still a great move, and makes the whole Yamaha-Steinberg thing feel more as an ecosystem.

Quote...

"Hello everyone,

MONTAGE is still a current product. It has not been discontinued.

Thanks!

Blake...."

We know that it may still be purchased, therefor it is current. Blake deliberately went around the aforementioned remark.
This would be typical regarding the discontinuation of a product until officially announced, so don't expect a heads-up from anyone at Yamaha.
Bad Mister said a few years ago that the Montage had a huge and very powerful feature-rich life left for more than a few years. Perhaps he was referring to the swp70 chips?
Don't expect Yamaha to say that the Montage is ended until they do so. There are very complex arrangements regarding money relating to distributors, sales people etc as well, image positioning/planning.
Nothing truly new; would be possible; regarding a new hardware synth from Yamaha. They would probably still continue to have poorly thought-out navigation, and programming/editing protocols.
If everyone insists on having backwards compatibility for the Motif/Montage line, then don't expect much.
Manufacturing has cheapened quality since pre-pandemic times. I wouldn't be surprised to see this in the next flagship release, if any.
One thing I will say in Yamaha's favor is that the actual analog output stages of the Montage are very good sounding and a cut-above any other digital complex multi faceted synth. One of their early corporate videos explained by company engineers, discussed this effort and it is obvious in real world listening in mixes and life performance. The Montage does etch itself and cut through in an organic, acoustic-like sound signature.

[quotePost id=120391]Hello everyone,

MONTAGE is still a current product. It has not been discontinued.

Thanks!

Blake[/quotePost]
Hello Blake,

As you may recall, on October 25, 2018, Yamaha Support sent me and most other Yamaha synth owners, a survey with the subject "Yamaha Support Survey / Sondage sur le support – Beta", and if I recall correctly it asked us what new engine we would most like to see added to our Yamaha synths. Most people chose the "Virtual Analog Modeling" option, and it has been evident in Ideascale that it's been the #1 most requested feature/enhancement for the Montage all these years.

All of us chose the features we most liked/wanted for our "current" Montage or MODX synth, NOT for some "future" replacement synth that we wouldn't have the option to enjoy the new feature on (unless we had more money to purchase another new synth).
Between the survey and Ideascale that we have all been encouraged to provide Yamaha ideas/feedback on over the years for our existing/current Montage or MODX, you know very well that NO ONE was providing that feedback or those ideas to Yamaha for a future synth that they don't own.
So it's been nearly 3 years since Yamaha have provided an OS update (3.50) to our Montage synths, which introduced Smart Morph and other enhancements. We have continued providing feedback and ideas especially through ideascale/forums for our current physical model synth. I hope, yet never expect my ideas to be implemented, nor to receive new features, but I think many Montage owners expect that you might provide us with another update; However with all the rumors that are going around based on changing activities at retail stores, etc., if the Montage is going to be replaced in a few months time with a new physical synth (Montage+ or whatever), and all those ideas and feedback that we provided to you over the years end up being added to the new synth, but not to our existing Montage via an OS update, then Yamaha will have 'used' a lot of loyal customers like us, dangling a carrot for ideas on what we'd like to see added to our current Montage synth, only to have shunned us customers and give it to future customers of a new replacement synth model.

I have been a strong Yamaha Montage cheerleader & proponent of using Ideascale and surveys over the years, so if Yamaha are planning to replace our synth with a new model and give future customers all the new features that myself and others gave you the feedback and ideas for, then you will have completely lost mine and others' trust and you will have proven that you have absolutely no loyalty towards us as customers. We will have been/will feel deceived & used by Yamaha! Though I hope to get more new features/enhancements on my Montage, I have never expected it;
However let me be perfectly clear ... I did NOT take that survey, nor did I add all those ideas/feedback to Ideascale so that 'future' customers get to enjoy them on their new Montage+ synths!!!!!
If you are not going to provide existing Montage owners with those features via an OS update, that is perfectly ok with me, but you better not provide those features in a new Montage+ synth in the coming months and leave us in the cold, because that will be a slap to our faces and you will have proven nothing less than complete disloyalty to us.

So Blake, your latest statement above appears to tell us not to worry and stop spreading rumors about the Montage being discontinued as it is still the flagship synth; However I just hope you are not planning to do a 180 degree flip in a few months, as your words appear to be carefully in 'present tense'.
If you at least had said something vague & future tense to the effect of "there will be no discontinuation &/or replacement of the Montage in the near future" (meaning in the next 6 months to a year), then we could all stop the rumors ... but the words you chose seem to have just fed the fire for more rumors..!

Like I've always said, I am extremely happy with my Montage and continue to repeat that I don't expect anything more, but I will be p!$$ed, feel used/deceived, and have lost complete faith in Yamaha (especially after your statement above) if you give our Ideascale ideas and survey feedback to future customers in a replacement Montage+ model synth sometime throughout the next few months. You will have just proven all of the naysayers of Ideascale to have been right, whom I have argued with & defended Yamaha against, and you will have then lost myself and many others as pro Yamaha cheerleaders, and will never get any ideas from us again!

Here's to hoping that my Spidey senses are completely wrong and that I will have to eat all my words above!!

I think the rumors are that discontinuation is imminent - not necessarily that the product is currently in a discontinued state. The update from Blake is that, as of his posting, the keyboard isn't officially EOL. It didn't address if any day now that status is going to change. I don't expect roadmap to be transmitted so I don't think I'm going to get any reassurance that Montage will stay current for another year (or 3 to make the 10yr mark).

In terms of ideas - I'm never sure if the current hardware or software architecture has locked down a given feature (or would just be too "dangerous" to update due to the cascading impacts). Therefore, I see most ideas as given for future generations. The "3rd engine" question is a little different. I think it was framed as being a hypothetical update to the current hardware. Still, sands shift. Resources become scarce. The market changes.

[quotePost id=120411]All of us chose the features we most liked/wanted for our "current" Montage or MODX synth, NOT for some "future" replacement synth that we wouldn't have the option to enjoy the new feature on (unless we had more money to purchase another new synth).
Between the survey and Ideascale that we have all been encouraged to provide Yamaha ideas/feedback on over the years for our existing/current Montage or MODX, you know very well that NO ONE was providing that feedback or those ideas to Yamaha for a future synth that they don't own.[/quotePost]

[quotePost id=120411]if the Montage is going to be replaced in a few months time with a new physical synth (Montage+ or whatever), and all those ideas and feedback that we provided to you over the years end up being added to the new synth, but not to our existing Montage via an OS update, then Yamaha will have 'used' a lot of loyal customers like us, dangling a carrot for ideas on what we'd like to see added to our current Montage synth, only to have shunned us customers and give it to future customers of a new replacement synth model.
[...]
We will have been/will feel deceived & used by Yamaha![/quotePost]

You can certinly omit me from that "we" there , @Darryl 😀

I would certainly be more than happy to see additions to the current Montage/MODX/MODX+ and I certainly won't complain if the AN-X engine shows up in those, but I also think that tech is advancing and a lot of the requests on IdeaScale can't be implemented with the current chipset anyway.

I absolutely didn't put any ideas there with the implied assuption that they'd only make sense, and I will only be satisfied, if they show up in the current lineup.

Some ideas I posted are actually specifically about future models, as they simply cannot be done with the current hardware (multicoloured button LEDs for example).

As for "expectations", I certainly would appreciate much more some more/better integration with software: MIDI transfer from the DAW, samples upload, integration of the sequencer with the DAW etc.
I think it's very cool what they did with HALion, even if it's very limited. But the fact is that we can (manually) translate FM-X patches into a softsynth, and that's cool. Even cooler would be to have some way to convert those directly.

I still think that in 2023 it doesn't make sense to include Cubase AI anymore. Most buyers are already settled on a DAW anyway.
It makes much more sense to include software that complements and extends what's inside those synths. A full license of HALion 7 would make the most sense, or at least a Groove Agent.

[quotePost id=120412]I think the rumors are that discontinuation is imminent - not necessarily that the product is currently in a discontinued state.[/quotePost]
Well, the phrasing was "still a current product" 😀 😀

I think you caught what I was throwing.