I can't believe I hadn't thought of this...you are a genius.

David - could you go through that set up in detail? Especially the channel assignments. Is midi advanced set to single or multi? I can only the keyboard control parts to play with one part at a time from 9-16 rather than all of them simultaneously.

Thanks in advance

I'm headed out of town but I'll check when I get back. I tried so many combinations I can't recall. I had to activate "zone" under each part and then assign each of 1-8 to send a MIDI signal to those corresponding voices in 9 -16. Just think about it like the Montage is performing both functions, sending and receiving MIDI signals separately as if it's (2) synths instead of one. You can set these under the "zone" function to the proper channels. You can mute the 1-8 parts to get an audio test if the 9-16 are sounding under keyboard control. Just trial-and-error it until you make it happen.

WOW!!!! Bad Mister! Where are you????? If David can do this (still don't know how) Then can you please bump this up to the engineers and make it possible in an easier process via firmware??? We now know it can be done and is a HUGE accomplishment! My only concern and David can weigh in is that the CPU and/ or flash memory are capable enough to handle the added sounds. Thanks David and YES, we need a process from you as to how to go about this without blowing it up! : )
Thanks for your hard work David and Bad Bad Bad Mister! PS, David, how about a you tube video explaining the steps and letting us hear that montage of sounds you put together!?!?!?! Nice Job!!!

Hi.

David, have you the local control of the Montage set to "on" ?

if you have the local control on + midi out connected to midi in you have a midi echo, each note played go to midi out and come back in midi in to be played a second time, it's very quick so you do not have echo in the sound or double note earing but you have like a "chorus" on all sounds.

On modern sounds (pad, lead, synth ....) perhaps you not feel it, but with a acoustic sound you can clearly hear it, that's what i hear with midi out > midi In + local control "on".

Joel, try turning it off then and see what happens. The main point here is that this machine can be set up to produce 16 part performances so the hardware is definitely capable!

It's a work around but it does work. The Montage is clearly 16 performance/part multitimbral machine so It should not explode! I did the same thing using a remote synth to control the 9-16 (external MIDI conroller) but I don't understand why the Montage can't perform this task internally instead of using up the MIDI ports. I got it to work after midnight so I didn't attempt to clean it up like with the echo that was mentioned. Certain voices and settings will be better than others. I just grabbed some random parts up to a full 16 and made sure that all of them were sounding. Think of the FMX with16 parts for a real power performance. I would mute channels 1-15 to make sure 16 was working in performance mode, then wash, rinse, repeat, testing one channel at a time. Once I got the hang of it then it wasn't too bad. It's a new designer possibility and you can mute parts in the mixer on the fly. When I get back tomorrow I'll provide some better instructions. Thanks

I just got off the phone with the tech at Yamaha and he thinks it should work fine. He also thought it could be programmed internally as well via a firmware update and indeed you could easily have access to all 16 parts operated by the keyboard without the midi cable connection. My guess is that this was probably a planned firmware update.....I can't imagine anyone not wanting this function and it not being a big selling feature. The Kronos can already do it but the Montages better and faster hardware should do much better with it.....Now we can use the 4 part CTX and still add 12 additional parts. What makes this great is that we can now add better sounding instruments together without compromising on sound. Let's hope Bad Mister passes this on and it it done internally within the keyboard soon!

Joel wrote:

Hi.

David, have you the local control of the Montage set to "on" ?

if you have the local control on + midi out connected to midi in you have a midi echo, each note played go to midi out and come back in midi in to be played a second time, it's very quick so you do not have echo in the sound or double note earing but you have like a "chorus" on all sounds.

On modern sounds (pad, lead, synth ....) perhaps you not feel it, but with a acoustic sound you can clearly hear it, that's what i hear with midi out > midi In + local control "on".

I'll have to check this tomorrow night. I didn't get to experiment with it much. If Yamaha can implement this internally within the OS then perhaps the delay will be removed.

Dave wrote:

I just got off the phone with the tech at Yamaha and he thinks it should work fine. He also thought it could be programmed internally as well via a firmware update and indeed you could easily have access to all 16 parts operated by the keyboard without the midi cable connection. My guess is that this was probably a planned firmware update.....I can't imagine anyone not wanting this function and it not being a big selling feature. The Kronos can already do it but the Montages better and faster hardware should do much better with it.....Now we can use the 4 part CTX and still add 12 additional parts. What makes this great is that we can now add better sounding instruments together without compromising on sound. Let's hope Bad Mister passes this on and it it done internally within the keyboard soon!

I'm not sure that you can have full functional control like parts 1-8 as the MIDI signal is mirrored, so to speak, from whichever channel is controlling it. Such as channel #1 is set to also control channel #9 and channel #2 is routed to control #10 etc. Works great for added layers. We'll have to see what Yamaha programmers can come up with to improve on the current configuration.

Ok so control 1 also controls number 9. So in your example the strings and the organ would be combined or paired together and all parameters like volume, reverb, etc. would be applied to BOTH instruments correct? If so, then would it make sense to have instruments with 4 parts like the CTX on 1.2.3.4 or 1.2.9.10?

Hello.
With local control off it doesn't work from the test i have done.

I'm in Midi I/O multi, are you on midi I/O single ?

I have also tried with CFX piano.
To have the part without keyboard control playing with the part with keyboard control, i need to be on the part with keyboard control "off", it doesn't work if i'm on "common" or part select on tracks with keyboard control "on". I have only part1 CFX playing with part without keyboard control set to channel 1 in zone settings, the others CFX parts not playing

I cannot reproduce like you 16 parts playing together.

Of course zone are "on" in utility and for parts i have test.

What's are your midi I/O settings, others midi settings, local control on/off, what you have done for each part.
If you can put step by step explanation, it would be great 😉

Here it's morning, i go work, i will restest tonight.

@Joel, I tried a bunch of combinations at about 1:00am until I got positive results. I'll post screen shots when I return tonight. I think local control was still on as I wanted the Montage to play as it normally would but also transmit MIDI signals in that process. So part 1 would play normally but also transmit a MIDI signal to part 9. Part 9 was set to receive a MIDI signal from part 1 via the MIDI cable loop (single MIDI cable going from "in" to "out" on the back). I had to go into "part" control to test each channel 9 - 16 and make sure they were sounding. Make sure you remove the "mutes" on all parts as when I was testing I would forget to turn those all back on again. Once parts 9 - 16 were sounding in "part mode" individually then I would go back into "performance mode" and into the mixer to make sure all channels were sounding. I can't recall if multi or single made a difference. "Single" brings up an option to assign a single channel to receive on I think (wasn't that a global setting?). I know I had to physically go into each part (edit) and turn on the "zone" and assign it to receive signals from parts 1 - 8. For example, [edit] part 9, turn zone "on" and an option comes up from channel assignment. I assigned that channel to channel 1. So with part 1 muted (2 - 8 also muted for testing), playing the keys would literally play part 9 (thinking back now, that part would play anyway in "part" mode so I must have gone back to performance mode to test if part 9 would sound when normally it would not be sounding). I did the same for parts 10 - 16. Mute part 9, [edit] part 2, turn zone "on" and assign it's channel to part 2 and test it. Once everything was sounding individually I unmuted everything and went back into performance mode, into mixer and all channels were responding. It was haphazardly but it was only a test.

Sorry, I think I stated that backwards. Go into part [edit] for 1 and assign MIDI transmit to part 9 instead of the opposite as mentioned above. I'll be back tonight. Thanks

It is pretty curious why, if it's possible for all 16 parts to be sounding, Yamaha would limit you to playing only eight from the keyboard. I can understand why SSS might be limited to eight parts. But not keyboard control.