My prediction is that you will be waiting years before there is a new successor to the Montage. It is a Monster and can do anything I need it to do & so much more.
The Montage and MODX are too tightly linked & compatible with each other, and the MODX is still quite new & a hot seller. There are too many cost savings for Yamaha right now in software engineering/programming new OS releases of both the Montage & MODX, that it wouldn't make sense to throw money at engineering both hardware & software of a new flagship Synth that would likely ruin compatibility & alignment with the MODX. I don't think the Montage/MODX are near done with their product roadmap...and I also suspect that Covid may have pushed the roadmap out even further than originally planned.

I believe the next announcement you can expect to hear about is the release of OS update v4.0

I'm hoping the ASIC team is spinning up some new silicon. Some limitations and competitive disadvantage is locked into the core - so it'd be nice to shuffle that deck some.

There is nothing coming anytime soon that could be considered a successor to the Montage.

Yamaha is stuck between a rock and a hard place, and like all highbrow Japanese firms that get into this position, they'll take a lot of time to make decisions, rather than risk looking like they're making a wrong decision with a marquee level product range.

Their market rivals have moved faster and stronger into positions all around and throughout the opportunities Yamaha perceives as easily Yamaha-ish, so that's the hard place. The rock is their loss of programming talent and momentum with software development at a time when it's nearly impossible to recruit, manage, motivate and coordinate excellent programmers on bigger projects.

The market itself (consumers) are also in a very weird space, forcing Yamaha to reconsider everything about themselves, as they're a primarily live instrument focused manufacturer of musical equipment. You need only look at Germany and Austria in terms of lockdown policies and segregation, and now enforcement and the complete silence of all other nations (them not condemning this means its coming to every country) on this matter to see that live venues may not be a common thing driving musical equipment purchasing for several years. For the whole world!

In marketing strategy meetings, what the market is doing, and where it is going, are now the biggest things being discussed, as these health policies change everything we ever knew about aspiration and objectives of consumers and users of all types of products. Especially those focused on live performance over all other attributes.

There's an absolute crapton of low hanging fruit remedies and feature additions that can be added to the Montage and MODX to make them more buyable and enjoyable in the time between now and whenever Yamaha thinks they're able to make a decision about what to put into tomorrow's markets, but they're stuck with a hardware platform that requires exceptional programming talent to get the most (or anything) out of it.

There's nothing else for them to do, though, so expect an update of significance after the cold months, as they'll likely work hard through the winter.

Yes I expect the next OS update to make some significant changes to the Montage/Modx.

As Yogi Berra once said, “Predictions are hard, especially about the future.“ 😀

As Yogi Bear once said, “Hey, Hey, Hey." "Hang on Boo Boo!" "Just sit back and let Mother Nature carry us toward her own.“ :p

Forget the past, for it is gone from your domain! Forget the future, for it is beyond your reach! Control the present!

— Swami Yogananda

😀

Здравствуйте !!!Моему другу прислали приглашение с компании Yamaha чтобы обсудить Montage 2 То есть преемник Montage Скажите или дайте ссылку где это обсуждение происходит

Здравствуйте !!!Моему другу прислали приглашение с компании Yamaha чтобы обсудить Montage 2 То есть преемник Montage Скажите или дайте ссылку где это обсуждение происходит

Google translation below:

Hello!!! My friend was sent an invitation from Yamaha to discuss Montage 2. That is, the successor to Montage. Say or give a link where this discussion takes place.

Hi Faur,

Recently, Yamaha sent out a questionair focusing on checking interest in future sound banks for some of their product. Could it be this your friend are referring to?

They did however not mention which product this would apply to.

Any other polls or discussions, I'm not aware of at this time.

Your best bet of being included in future polls and discussions with the R'n'D team is to sign up to Ideascale.

There you can also post any ideas you have regarding features wanted in present and future products.

If Yamaha rolls out a new Montage, they better be prepared to offer a trade in program. Because they would be implementing many features they felt werent needed in the original that users have requested after purchasing the OG. To do otherwise would probably lose market share

Fear not, @c, I suspect there's a big update coming to the Montage. Just not right quick.

The issue is the MODX.

It's significantly down on CPU power, and won't be able to do all that's being added to the Montage, so combined with their slow programming, they're stalling out until the sales of the MODX slow down sufficiently that it's not going to hurt its recent rates of very profitable sell through, as they'll have to discount it once the big Montage update comes out with ... _features-that-can't-be-done-in-MODX_

I'm suspecting an AN1x like engine, fully compatible with Motion, etc. There's enough extra CPU power in the Montage to easily do this in conjunction with the existing FM-X and AWM, but not so in the MODX.

my gut says the popularity of the MODX has stalled this particular part of the Montage updates for quite some time. If it does come to the MODX it'll probably be that you can use either FM-X or AN1x modelling in a Performance, but not both.

The other thing that's probably slowed them down is COVID.

For two reasons. One, the obvious slowdown of everything.

Two, they were probably planning on naming the AN1x-like engine the Virtual Analogue X engine, or VA-X for short.

Obviously that's no longer appropriate.

Please tell me Yamaha has plans to come out with a linear sequencer for the Montage! I used a Mox 6 to write songs for years, then thought I'd upgrade to a Montage. I made the mistake of assuming it would have a linear sequencer considering the huge jump in price and quality of sound. I was so disappointed. The pattern sequencer is extremely limiting in that you can't change time signatures, change tempo, edit single measures/notes. No 'true' punch in/punch out for individual tracks. Only 8 scenes verses 16 patterns on the Mox. You have to get creative with the looping to have good variation in your music. I am paralyzed and write music one note at a time to include all sorts of instruments and changes throughout a song. The Montage kind of took away some of my desire to create music and I've barely touched it in the past year. I'm sure it's a great keyboard. I just need one geared towards a workstation and this thing seems mostly for live performances, which I can NOT do. 🙁

I have no idea what the future of the sequencer is for Montage/MODX - but the original offering was an attempt to "push" users outside the keyboard and use a DAW or other external sequencers to replace what was formerly offered in-the-box. The pattern sequencer we have now still doesn't fully offer the previous generations' features. It still seems to get that level of detail - the "message" is to use some external environment then transfer file(s) to the Montage/MODX.

I guess we'll see ...

I like everything in one unit so that I don't have to deal with a lot of equipment at once. I don't have the space for a laptop on or next to my Montage. Or the ability to manage those things together. I used to write all my songs on the Mox, then hook it to my laptop and record each individual track in wave form. After that, I could use any preferred software to mix and master. I've even taken the waves to local studios to be mixed. It was a setup I was used to. I'm still hoping for that sequencer though.