Hi Vu,
Welcome to Yamaha Synth!

The BH (Balanced Hammer) is the same weight across all keys with Aftertouch
The GH (Graded Hammer) has multiple weights across the keys... more resistance to the lower keys- less as you go up the scale. Currently, there is no Graded Hammer action with Aftertouch.

Yamaha is a company that builds its own keyboard actions. And the research and development in creating new, innovative keys is on going... From the new HQ (High Quality) action on the mini-Key refaceCP/CS/DX/YC to the GH3 (Graded Hammer triple sensor) NW (Natural Wood) action of the CP4 Stage... and all the ones in between... but there does not exist a GH with Aftertouch...

You can play the MONTAGE from any set of external keys you desire, but we think the front panel of the MONTAGE is compelling and that playing a synthesizer, is very, very different from playing a piano. More has to happen than just the playing the keys. Playing MONTAGE, as a music synthesizer, means performing the knobs, ribbon, Scene buttons, Aftertouch, etc., these become a very important part of making the synth speak.

Thanks Bad Mister for your sharing. Now i know GH is not with Aftertouch. In fact, I am truly happy with my Montage 8, it is just the feel on BH keyboard is a bit different from an acoustic piano or GH keyboard, i mean for my piano playing. As a piano guy, I am seeing Kawai MP11 is a good stage piano with great touch, but I will wait for the next generation of CP Stage Piano. Hopefully, it will have the Bosendorfer sound built in 😉

I'm a new Montage 7 owner and to achieve the best results on piano sounds I drive it with CP4. I'm simply delighted when playing the Boesendorfer patch.

For playing acoustic piano emulations, the Graded Hammer action does give an advantage. When playing a synthesizer doing the hundreds and hundreds of alternate sounds from emulative to pure science fiction, the Balanced Hammer (which is very similar to the GH, except that a single weight resistance is deployed across the entire Key bed), is absolutely fine. Of course, this is all personal taste and there is no right or wrong.

What you can do with a MONTAGE 8 to personalize the action is set the global Velocity Curve to one that suits your playing style. This rather obvious thing, I've found over the years, is not given the respect as one would think. Most piano players begin by thinking they can tell everything you need to know about an action even with the sound off.

While you can get a general idea about the keyboard without sound, like is it weighted or spring-loaded, the critical part of the "feel" thing that is sonic, you cannot decide on without playing the sounds. And I tell keyboard players, particularly those who define themselves as "piano players", to spend at least fifteen minutes playing a little bit of every style of perfoming they can... before trying the next Velocity Curve option for fifteen minutes.

I've seen folks discard the Hard or Soft Curve, by only playing a few notes. That to me is "human nature" because why would you "know" that your "feeling" about how an electronic keyboard can change by simply adjusting a single parameter.

Here are the toughest part of "fitting" a keyboard to a player:
Making them realize how much effort it takes to get maximum result.
Making them realize there IS, in fact, a maximum result.
Setting the play volume (at the player's position) so that they can make a judgement referenced to reality.

These are things we don't necessarily think about in the acoustic world. But it is important that when you press a key on your MONTAGE 8, that the piano sound gives you a volume output equal to the effort you made to press the key. If the sound system makes the sound LARGER than your effort, you will reduce your energy attacking the keyboard to compensate, and conversely, if the sound system makes the sound smaller than your effort, you will increase your energy attacking the keyboard to compensate.

You do this automatically, but you want to avoid the extremes... you actually want to find that sweet spot where how loud you are, is equal to how loud you expect to be if seated at a piano. Your adjustment is very much like what happens when you put on headphones, then attempt to describe what you're hearing to your friend... you wind up shouting at the person standing right next to you. You are used to hearing your own voice as a balance between internal vibration and external air molecule vibration. Because your ears are covered (headphones) your ability to judge how loud you're actually talking is out of balance, so naturally you turn up your vocal volume by talking louder.

This can happen with playing... especially when judging action, you want set the output so it sounds as loud as a piano in a room. Then play a ballad, then play something that requires great effort ... evaluate the action setting only after spending about fifteen minutes with it, playing all kinds of musical pieces. Then ask yourself... was that okay, did I find it okay for dome things, was it all wrong.

You may find that the Normal, Hard, Soft, Wide settings do make a huge difference in how you feel about the action overall. But give yourself time to walk around and see if it fits.

Use the new "View" on the [PERFORMANCE (HOME)] screen to look at you overall Velocity as you play. If you move the cursor down to highlight the VELOCITY RANGE settings for the PART you are playing. A crosshairs will show you how much effort you are applying when hitting a key and where (low-high) left to right you played.

And always remember, 127 in the world of electronic keyboards represents your MAXIMUM EFFORT -EVER. You should not be able to reach 127 without a significant effort... getting your forearm and shoulder involved.

If you can reach 127 without significant effort, your setup is probably off. Set the curve to "Hard" and turn your sound system up, so you are not tempted to hit the keys that hard. In classical music notation 127 is quadruple forte, ffff treat it that way in terms of your physical effort.

Matching your effort and the volume is very important in evaluating how your action actually "feels" - more than you'd think.

Hope that helps.

Thanks a lot Bad Mister, i will play around with the Velocity Curve. In fact, i have owned the Yamaha Clavinova CLP 465GP which is equipped with the GH3 keyboard. I love it pretty much as the action / touch is similar to my previous acoustic piano. I practise everyday on the CLP 465 GP, and my hands and ears are familiar to the action / feel / sound of it. I have just bought the Montage 8 for one month, and I have recognized that there is something different regarding the action and the output sound despite same sound/voice (CFX) and same expression, which is well explained in your previous replies.So, I guess I would need to try the Velocity Curve and tailor the response of the Montage to my effort playing the keyboard. It would take me some time to get used to the BH keyboard of Montage 8. Again, thanks for your instruction and detailed sharing, It is truly informative.

The BH (Balanced Hammer) action is identical to one of the graded regions of the GH action, except it extends across all keys. What can be different, and thus gets into the technical side of things that as musicians would rather not get into... but the response of an instrument (how quickly it is able to respond to your key-on) is very, very important to your overall feeling about the "feel". But it is not really only how quickly, because what they do is make sure the sound begins precisely at the point in the key travel that is correct. Matching the sounds the instrument makes to the keyboard is one of those extras you get in Yamaha electronic gear... that extra care and feeding.

Hanging out with engineers, and being a 'test dummy' participating in their studies, I have a small idea about how critical and intense this part of making the instrument is. The CLP-series are dialed into that "Piano response" thing in a very, very big way... uncanny how they have that nailed.

You can only really compare this when playing a piano sound on MONTAGE. Piano weighted action is 1:1 with acoustic piano sounds... at best. It does not really help in performing anything else, necessarily. A piano trill is different from a flute trill.

And to have any conversation about how the MONTAGE behaves, we need to know you have the latest firmware. Current as of today is 1.51.x

I was in a store the other day, played on a MONTAGE that had old firmware, and immediately noticed a difference... I updated it...

Make sure you check-in from time-to-time as Yamaha will release both bug fixes and improvements (including new features, new Performances) in response to end user feedback... where appropriate. These updates are in the product plan... the MONTAGE platform is very robust so it is not unusual to see new Effects, new navigations tools, certainly additional sounds...

If you have an older firmware we cannot be certain what type of response you are getting.

It is a good finding... I check and find that my Montage is with the old firmware. Will update it as you suggest. Thanks ^_^