Great article. Certainly fills a gap in the Reference Manual's description of "MIDI Send" in the Zone Settings.

The Reference Manual defines "MIDI Send" as:

"By turning this parameter on, MIDI Bank, MIDI Pgm Number, MIDI Volume, or MIDI Pan is transmitted to
the external tone generator depending on the setting of the Transmit Switch.
This is not available when the Transmit Channel is set to off or when all of the four Transmit Switches are set
to off."

Which I chose to ignore due to ambiguity and lack of "expected" (best guess) difference when toggling "MIDI Send". Real-time transmit of values when you change them in this screen makes much more sense. Wasn't ever looking for that as a feature - but good to know what the button does now.

... just so the reader can follow along - the article states (much more clearly):

MIDI Send - when active (green) the Program Change, Volume/Expression, and Pan Settings are sent in realtime from this screen. When inactive, the values are only sent when the Performance program is initially recalled. (Note: Bank Select changes are not sent until the Program Change is selected... This means: changing just the MSB and or LSB does nothing until a Program Change value is selected).

Thank you for this useful article.

I recalled on my previous Motif XF when connected via firewire to my computer, i can select i Port 3 (if i recall correctly) so that the track in Cubase will play the external synth connected to the XF MIDI out, is this the same for the Montage?

Thank you for this useful article.

I recalled on my previous Motif XF when connected via firewire to my computer, i can select i Port 3 (if i recall correctly) so that the track in Cubase will play the external synth connected to the XF MIDI out, is this the same for the Montage?

Yes, Port 3 will pass through the MONTAGE allowing you to connect and address an external MIDI device connected to the 5-pin MIDI ports on the back panel. This happens when the MIDI I/O is set to USB

Both the Motif XF and the MONTAGE are audio/MIDI interfaces for your computer. The MONTAGE is a 32-in/6-out Audio Interface for the computer and MIDI Port 3 is reserved for an external device connected to the MONTAGE making it a MIDI Interface for an external device all via USB. The Motif XF was a 16-in/6-out Audio Interface for the computer and MIDI Port 3 was reserved for an external device connected to the XF, all via a FW connection.

Wow, this post, and associated midi zone article are total keepers. I wouldn't have had a clue how the zones really worked without this. The port 3 info sounds very important if I wanted to say connect my MO6 to the DAW setup. Thx!

Bad Mister, thanks a lot for these useful articles about MIDI settings on the Montage! They help so much understanding what's under the hood.
I'm eager to read out the next ones.

Thank you Bad Mister, your article solved my problem with key press dropouts on the Montage. I couldn't get Montage Connect to work, I would get occasional dropouts when just playing the Montage (infrequent), but with a DAW (I have several) and Montage Connect the drops were severe enough to make me think I had a bad instrument. It was solved by reading your article, I've always had the Advance49 (Akai 49 key keyboard) usb'd into my set up, even pre Montage. It was the Multi vs Single Channel mode! I read your article, switched off the Advance49, everything worked. I changed the Montage default to Single channel midi, of course that worked! Just as you explained. There's a lot of detail missing from the user manual, thank you for your help!

Can anybody tell me how to get acces to the Article? I'm getting lot's of dropouts while recording midi (Cubase pro 9.5 and Yamaha montage). Thanks in Advantage!

Kind regards,
Leo.

It's difficult to keep up with the links that keep changing and invalidating.

If you see my post here: https://www.yamahasynth.com/ask-a-question/montage-midi-zone-master-faq

You'll see some google cache links that are still valid which point to the content originally in the Zone Master And I/O Mode document.

Most of the time I work DAWLess and Zones work amazing with my MO6, I use both the voice and Pattern Modes in the MO6. Then when using the DAW the port 3 stuff works easily in Cubase Elements. I pulled the MO6 out just to see how this stuff could integrate. I tweaked the assignments on the MO6 to match the Montage, so when zoning, to it just lines up. Im probably going to have to get a new synth eventually as the MO6 is mostly redundant with what we have on the Montage... but its fun to get the boards working seamlessly together.