MODX is the closest in terms of price. If someone was shopping for a Kia sports car, the sales person probably wouldn't offer a Ferrari as an alternative.

Still, maybe it means something deeper than this. I don't know. My bias is to have Montage (original) to be replaced later rather than sooner. That would at least raise the probability of future firmware updates that I would appreciate.

That said, as a lowly customer, I don't have the slightest control over Yamaha's product roadmap. I'll still be OK if a Montage follow on is announced before I'm ready to invest in another keyboard. I may skip generation(s) as I have in the past.

[quotePost id=121233]MODX is the closest in terms of price. If someone was shopping for a Kia sports car, the sales person probably wouldn't offer a Ferrari as an alternative.

Still, maybe it means something deeper than this. I don't know. My bias is to have Montage (original) to be replaced later rather than sooner. That would at least raise the probability of future firmware updates that I would appreciate.

That said, as a lowly customer, I don't have the slightest control over Yamaha's product roadmap. I'll still be OK if a Montage follow on is announced before I'm ready to invest in another keyboard. I may skip generation(s) as I have in the past.[/quotePost]

This would make a great post for IdeaScale. And then others could vote on this...

/s

NAMM is revealing that Yamaha has nothing to reveal.

[quotePost id=121233]MODX is the closest in terms of price. If someone was shopping for a Kia sports car, the sales person probably wouldn't offer a Ferrari as an alternative.

Still, maybe it means something deeper than this. I don't know. My bias is to have Montage (original) to be replaced later rather than sooner. That would at least raise the probability of future firmware updates that I would appreciate.

That said, as a lowly customer, I don't have the slightest control over Yamaha's product roadmap. I'll still be OK if a Montage follow on is announced before I'm ready to invest in another keyboard. I may skip generation(s) as I have in the past.[/quotePost]

Yes I see your point about the prices. I just find it disappointing that the Montage doesn't get mentioned much these days. I own both an original MODX and a Montage.

My hopes were for an announcement of a big software update for the Montage as I believe there's still room to get more out of this synth and that would surely bring in more sales,

... I also wouldn't mind if Montage was "replaced" by a Montage+ that hardly changes anything except EOL (end of life) components to keep essentially the same product in production. Maybe a memory bump or something minimal to say there's forward progress -- right in line with what MODX+ did for MODX.

All content would be backwards/forward compatible and, done right, there'd be hardly any extra development costs in releasing firmware for both the old and new boards.

BTW: at NAMM Greg Phillinganes was a featured Yamaha artist and performer. His main axe in the performance is a Montage and he had a MODX7+ as a second keyboard he mentioned not having any familiarity with -- although assuming he's familiar with Montage then he's plenty familiar with MODX. At any rate, it was marketed that he uses Montage.

If you don't know the name - do yourself a favor and look him up. He's a heavy hitter. I really dig the videos he was doing for Spectrasonics. You get to see just him playing tunes he's had a hand in recording over the years.

[quotePost id=121243]and he had a MODX7+ as a second keyboard he mentioned not having any familiarity with[/quotePost]
Which sounds kind of strange.

Anyway, I can't imagine any high profile or just professional keyboard player going onstage with a MODX.
(Speaking of which, here's Tori Amos' rig from a week ago: https://youtu.be/f5Kj5Fx-nMQ )

There's a big number of well known musicians / keyboard players who are using the Montage and *need* what it offers.

2nd keyboardist playing with him only had a MODX8+

Greg Phillinganes.

Same thread.

https://www.yamahasynth.com/forum/namm-has-begun-what-is-yamaha-revealing#reply-121243

So you don't have to look it up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VWF9aDCRoI

There's another video of the same performance with worse audio quality and "better" (less chaotic) camera work. I prefer better sound.

... worse sound - but has more talking where the MODX is described as not being familiar. Probably meaning it was a backline unit and not his personal one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD_cN26VmuE

I've seen some YT vids.
As I said, I find this strange. A better word would be: disturbing.
Yamaha is using a top level player who doesn't even register the MODX on his radar, to try to "validate" the MODX as something usable at that level. It's not.

Hi! The wonderful player Mr. Dave Delhomme on the right seems to be doing pretty decent job indeed playing the MODX8+ !