I that is true, I will be the very first buyer.

I that is true, I will be the very first buyer.

You, and a lot of other people will follow...

We're talking flagship synthesisers here.

Not ladies shoes.

If Roland can do it, and take away sales from Yamaha because of it - Yamaha can do it, and do it better...

What evidence is there that Roland is stealing market share and sales?

If the public press is to be trusted, if anything is stealing sales from the Montage it is their own MODX - selling like hotcakes apparently. (EDIT: and even so this would likely be a cleverly calculated and conceived strategy from Yamaha, not a blunder).

Roland/Yamaha/Korg are constantly competing in the Digital Keyboard market. There will always be some to-and-fro. But I doubt any of the three will suddenly abandon their current models in a knee jerk reaction to a competitor product release.

You might wish that, but it is very unlikely.

You mean other than common sense...? When a new, more powerful, 2019 product comes out vs. a 2016 product...? :p

It's called competition - competition is what pushes better products to the market.

I have talked to several dealers and every one of them has told me the same thing - they are willing to deal on the Montage - but they don't need to deal on the Fantom.

You can get a Montage now cheaper than a Fantom for a reason.

You wouldn't like a newer Yamaha with bigger touch screen? A better UI? Better work-flow? More power? More memory?, etc., etc., etc...?

One that doesn't look like it was in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey - with its over 70+ 1960's looking orange (amber) lit buttons...?

I know quite a few people that would.

I mean, come on, seriously, look at this thing... And I am a Yamaha fan boy.

Selfishly, I wish for updates in the form of firmware updates in order to extend the life of the current platform over getting a larger touchscreen (which I try to use very sparingly live - which is my main purpose for the instrument) or some other features that would require hardware changes.

A new platform will be more of an opportunity for yielding to the feature set chosen (product roadmap - i.e. Yamaha's choices) or others' requests that are either more easily implemented, more in line with the roadmap, or somehow calculated as being more profitable (not my personal choices - but someone else's).

Rarely will you see that a new platform gives you "everything" you're hoping for. That's the way of the world EW&F.

I also tend to dig in to the gear I have - to attempt to "exploit" the capabilities as much as possible for as long as possible. I let XS and XF pass me by while on the ES platform until moving to this gen.

If another gen comes out - the buttons and such will likely be in different spots and I'll have to retrain myself how to do the "dance" of pushing buttons. The "technical" side of the playing. I'm not necessarily looking forward to that any time soon even if I get more expansion memory and other stuff. In general, Yamaha hasn't made huge changes to general button placement. It still ends up being somewhat of an adjustment period to integrate the new gear.

It doesn't hurt to wish, however.

I've been in the workstation market for a few months now, with Kronos and Montage being my main interest. I have a Roland RD-2000 so didn't want the Fantom because I want different sounds. I talked to several dealers and was pretty set on getting the Montage, but then talking to a reviewer who's opinion I respect had be back to wanting a Kronos. Buy either Kronos or Montage at this time is scary to me because both are at point they are probably due for a major upgrade. All the major dealers I talked to I asked it updates are coming, knowing they can't say yes, but could hint at waiting. They all gave lists of reasons they don't expect any updates. I decided to go with the Kronos and started to call and buy it and I got busy and couldn't call that was on a Friday. Monday rolls around I get on the inet before calling to buy and boom the Korg Nautilus is announced. So decide it's crazy to buy now NAMM is not to far away best to wait. I'm one of those people who hates buying something then 4-6 months later a new model comes out and I just spend a lot of money on now over the hill product.

I hope Korg and Yamaha have flagship workstation announcement at NAMM next week. With delaying my purchase I'm now back to wanting a Montage be it a upgrade or a new flagship workstation. I one wish is something like a Montage 8 that went on a diet and lost 25 pounds. I'm getting older and the current Montage 8 would be a beast move around. The other nice thing if not a new Montage is MoDX with a better keybed.

So hope Korg and Yamaha have some flagship level announcements next week.

I like the Montage design a lot - it has a very decent, clean and clear design.

My opinion is that Fantom has a terrible design and is way to colored / used to many different colors. Hope that Yamaha never goes this design way.

But as you can see the preferences can go totally oposite...

br
Werner

For what its worth, if my opinion as a keyboard novice counts...

- The sounds from the Montage/Modx are so much richer than what I've heard from the Fantom or the Kronos. Yamaha gives me goosebumps in that respect. Sound quality is paramount for any instrument.

- The UI and Workflow of the Yamaha are intricate and complex, but the payoff with that is powerful ability. I would rather have a "can do" system with a complicated interface, than a limited system with easy controls.
Its just a matter of learning.

- I agree a MODX "Deluxe" with a better keyboard option would be welcome even if they were an extra $500 per model.

Finding myself wondering now if I should open my Montage when it arrives Monday or somehow force myself to wait 2 weeks.

@Antony

For a novice, you sure "nail" my own opinion of what makes Yamaha's keyboards a class above Roland. Roland, for me, tends to have too much gloss on the sound. Which, I admit, has its place for certain genres and/or that "synth" sound. I tend to gravitate away from needing or wanting that character of sound. That said - I do like Roland's modeled pianos. That was the main driver for me purchasing the Fantom - to replace an RD2000 and gain some other sounds along with it. As far as Korg - that tends to be a mixed bag for me. There are certain sounds I use often that I either prefer the Korg preset(s) for that sound - or like something about the difference(s) in Korg's programming capabilities to modify the sound. For both Korg and Roland there are other non-sound related considerations like how zones/splits/layering works and how I can "map" my sounds across the keys. With Montage I haven't run into any major issues - although I do sometimes need to do something "silly" to make everything fit (like transpose a range of keys to a false key in order to use the fewest upper keys for a line that only needs a small range). So this is more in the MIDI implementation arena. And I think, for this, Korg has a slight edge. I cannot comment on Roland since I haven't unboxed it yet. I have other priorities.

As inspired as I was in front of Kronos - and so close to pulling the trigger when a local music store was moving and selling the floor models (back before Montage was released) - I didn't pull the trigger for whatever reason. I think I was reluctant having a Yamaha keyboard as my workhorse and not wanting to totally re-do everything. Montage provided an easier transition for my existing sounds. I do think Kronos (or Nautilus) is complementary enough to warrant a second look. I think the effects and sounds are pretty good. Better than Roland for me. I also have the very unpopular opinion that Nord doesn't sound that great to me. I've tried to like it - with an open mind. However, every time I heard one from the audience (and a good player behind it) - I would cringe at the sound. I know that's not a popular opinion, but that's what I used as my guide.

I find it very interesting the way sounds are rated by many of you according to the maker.
Strings are better here, guitars better there...

As a Roland Fantom owner I use the sounds provided as a very basic starting point, then every single song calls for some adjustments in every zone/voice/partial used, in the range 16/64 as there are 16 zones with up to 4 partials, so none of my songs will have any final voicing in common.

Of course, better sounding instruments as a starting point will be a nice thing, but...you understand me, don't you ?

To me it doesn't make sense for Yamaha to come out with a new flagship replacement for the Montage at this time. It is way too early in their product roadmap to change the hardware, because their roadmap for both the Montage & MODX is to extend the hardware life and provide new enhancements & features via software updates, which is for more economical than re-engineering both the hardware and software.

I think we will be getting new updates for many years to come before they provide a new hardware synth replacement. Montage & MODX are so complimentary with each other, it wouldn't make sense to break that up at this time IMO. What new features/enhancements the Montage gets, the MODX gets soon after. They are quite compatible and more the same than they are different. Why mess with that now, while MODX sales are great!?

When 4.0 comes out, don't be surprised if it has a new VA engine, new groundbreaking effects, possibly the C7 piano library, and other new enhancements & functionality with the sequencer. Who is to say they won't provide a modelled engine at some point...maybe OS version 6.0 or 7.0? I can see them expanding on the Morphing technology from 3.5, both for FM-X & possibly with AMW2... Add up what Yamaha gave us in the 3.0 & 3.5 OS updates and you have a completely brand new Synth!