Do you have a specific scope of comparison in mind? Like Montage vs. MODX8 (strictly Yamaha-to-Yamaha comparison) - or wider like Yamaha vs. every single 88-key option out there from various manufacturers? ... and there are a lot of those.

I am about to buy a montage 8 and was wondering what the opinions are from the members about the montage with respect to its strong points?

The strongest point about the MONTAGE is its sound quality—add to this the variety of sound making capability. Acoustic instrument emulation accurately handled by the AWM2 (sample-based) engine, while the FM-X engine handles an unprecedented range of sounds in the ‘pure synthesis’ realm.

Based on what Yamaha refers to as the Motion Control Synthesis Engine, you have a creative tool that excels in the area of electronic music making. It’s an interactive system where one thing can modify or modulate another. For rhythmic based music this opens the door to endless possibilities — side chaining, vocoding, envelope following, are all a part of the interaction that can include external audio signals. Cutting edge effect processing with real-time control via an innovative control matrix — which allows very specific control of multiple parameters across multiple Parts.

Instead of a cc message changing the Cutoff of all your Filters, the control matrix can be configured so that you individually design the control over each filter. When interacting with multiple Parts a Knob doing cc74 would open or close all filters together, useful on some things (it’s what we’ve always done, and that is still available) but what if you are controlling different types of instruments simultaneously? Each Control Set (16 per Part) allows you to customize to a dizzying degree how you apply changes within the sound. A single gesture can be used to open one filter, while closing another, moving one an extreme amount and yet another just a smidge, you design each as your music requires. You scale the size, shape, and direction of parameter change. The sonic complexity is immediately apparent when you listen to MONTAGE.

Combines some traditional workflows with some that you will inevitably wind up making for yourself. Truly, most of what MONTAGE does really well is yet to be discovered. There will be moments when you are trying something that will know for sure you’ve never been here before... you will find new ground to explore.