Before purchasing a percussion library, check to see what you have inside the presets.

1) Press [CATEGORY SEARCH]
2) Touch the search icon - it looks like a magnifying glass (I've put a pink box around it in the picture below)

3) Type:
Timpani
4) This will search for any Performances with "Timpani" in the name. You'll find there are two already inside Montage.
(#1862 = Timpani + Cymbal, #1969 = RealTimpani AF Mfl)
5) Try each one of these.

Or ...

Note that there is also a drum kit with Timpani: "Orchestra Kit"

You could search for "Orchestra Kit" in the same [CATEGORY SEARCH]. Timpani is located at F1, G1, A1, B1, C2, D2 (MIDI notes)

On a Montage 8, the F1 is the 2nd "F" key from the lowest "F". This assumes you have no transposition or octave offsets. You can just try lower F notes until you find a Timpani sound.

For "chimes" - I'm not sure what type you mean. The small ones that are generally played by sweeping across them and essentially playing all the chimes at once - or the larger orchestral chimes that are also called "tubular bells". Montage has both. I'm assuming the latter.

If, in the 5-step search instructions above, you search for "tubular" - you will find 3 Performances. #643 = FM Tubular Bells, #1829 = Tubular Bell 1, #1968 = Tubular Bell 2. You would likely want to skip the "FM Tubular Bells" if you are wanting to have a more "real instrument" sound as "FM" denotes this Tubular Bell is synthesized with the FM-X engine.

There is a drum kit with one tuning of a single Tubular Bell. This probably won't help - so I won't list that.

EDIT:

I see you mentioned "wind chimes" - so this wouldn't be the type I mentioned above.

"Wind Chime" can be triggered using the "Orchestra Kit" mentioned above and pressing the C5 MIDI note. That's 4 octaves above the C below the F1 mentioned above. Just play "C" notes above middle C until you find it.

Once you hear if these are good for your use - you can further customize the factory presets to place say different drums at different keys other than stock and combine Performances together to make your own collection of sounds that have what you want - where you want.

As the first step, I'm just outlining how to explore what's in the box already before buying 3rd party sounds.

Before purchasing a percussion library, check to see what you have inside the presets.

+1 to that...

Among the 5.67GB of factory Preset Wave data are a complete set of Orchestral sounds.
Spend time with the Data List booklet (Waveform List)

Any Waveform can be used to create the exact situation you need. In other words, you can build your own key mapping for any of the Waveforms.

A Waveform is a collection of digital samples - this can be used to create the exact mapping you may require. If you need an octave of timpani, along with several other orchestral percussion sounds, you can map them to the Keys and tune them to the pitches you require.

Spending (more) money is premature...

How is it that ..."on a Montage 8, the F1 is the 2nd "F" key from the lowest "F"..." Key number 49 is then called A3 instead of A4 ? And #40 is C3, not C4 ?

And, regardless of the great and easily searched sound library already available in Montage, I am too very much interested in getting guidance about the necessary steps to use a stick having all those sounds received as a present...please.

How is it that ..."on a Montage 8, the F1 is the 2nd "F" key from the lowest "F"..."

Source: Montage Owner's Manual pages 6 and 7

Let me know if that clears things up.

If you want to load new sounds into your keyboard, you would most easily buy something that has an X7L or X7U file or both files and simply load this into your keyboard using the [UTILITY] "Content" menu for loading.

If you want to go from samples, there's at least one video for that. This one is old - the OS has had improvements since it was created - but it's still a good reference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXASiv3YfSE

or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo0lzByZWGs

Depending if you want to create a drum (1st link) or AWM (2nd link) based instrument.

Having a Montage you can more easily use SampleRobot (Montage edition) to create AWM2 instruments from sample files.

Thank you, Jason.

I know the Yamaha naming for keys since I bought my first digital piano in 1996. And It took me some of my time understanding a couple of things before I realized that particular naming was part of the reasons rising the issue while trying to understand Equal Temperament, like #cents=1200*log (f1/f2)/(log2) or f2@n=f1*2^(n/12)

My question now was in fact: why is it so ?
Everybody (almost) telling tuning fork at 440 Hz (almost) is placed at key 49, A4. 4th octave starting at key #40, named C4, And that 88 keys keyboards range goes from A0 to C8..

I wonder why Yamaha keeps "substracting" an octave.
I see no possible reason... Shouldn't it be a standard assignment?

Sorry - thought your question was genuine.

But if you really want to know why and that answer would help you - then this has been covered in previous topics:

https://www.yamahasynth.com/ask-a-question/why-is-middle-c-not-in-the-center-of-mx49-keyboard

BM's response seems to indicate that since Yamaha was founded on its first product being an organ keyboard that the C3 naming convention for middle C comes from that heritage where the the first keyboard instrument was not an 88-note keyboard but rather an organ with fewer octaves.

You can read through the threads (the one above and another linked within that thread) to get more details.

Another message in the thread is that MIDI has no enforced standard for the assignment of notes to physical keys. Therefore - it is most important to know what the convention is and then use this convention when MIDI notes are used. And, to this end, the documentation is clear and up-front as to the convention used.

I agree, It would help sometimes (not all the time) if the MIDI specification enforced a standard convention. However, that is not the state of the standard and therefore it best you simply use the knowledge you already have and put that knowledge to good use rather than get too hung up on something that is not likely to change despite pointing out what has already been debated for decades.

This is similar to Fahrenheit vs Celsius for temperature. Here - Fahrenheit is the standard that people are comfortable using as the standard relationship of numbers to temperature. However, there are so many other places that standardize on Celsius - and if I move to one of those places - I better not complain about the use of Celsius (because it won't change change anything) and instead use my energy to use, without complaint, the Celsius standard of relating absolute temperatures to a number.

Thanks very much, Jason.
I am very happy to finally understand it.
😀 😀 😀 😀
I don't mind the naming anymore, as I went climbing the mountain of musical knowledge it turned out having no importance, but in the beginning it was a real handicap...

Still laughing, BM: "Mythological MIDI keyboard.....You can map sound effects to the extra notes, or use them to control lighting or other tasks needed in the performance of music..."

Well, the rest is even easier, 5/9*(F-32). It's been 30C today.

Nevertheless, I will never understand them calling MIDI 0 the first note. First is 1...!!!!

😀 😀 😀 😀

Computer registers are 0 based and human readable is usually translated to 1-based (so there's no zero). This comes up in lots of places. Under the hood, MIDI Channel 1 is represented as a 0 and MIDI Channel 16 is represented as an 0xF (decimal 15).

If we started the registers at 1 - then we would be wasting one storage element inside computer registers (0 is always the "first" value). If, under the hood, we started at one - then there would be less total notes available to store within the bits provided.

Program change is the same way - and Yamaha adds one to PC when representing the value in the GUI. Usually meaning for most software - which uses the raw MIDI register values - you have to subtract one from what the keyboard reports for "Program Number".

As a synth player, this is one of those things we are expected to grasp and compensate for. The difference between one representation and the other. There are plenty more conflicts of interpretations than just the MIDI note octave values.

Thankfully, Yamaha chose to represent CC values as 0-based so we do not have to add or subtract CC values and have a quasi-standard for those.

Scientifically speaking, 0 is the first number.
If you’ve been counting to ten starting with one, again you are taking the narrower, non-scientific view of the world. There are different conventions in play for different functions. When listing a set of User Arpeggios, it serves no purpose to start counting at 0. There is room for two hundred fifty-six User Arps in the User Bank, they are numbered 1 through 256. But for the MIDI coded messages that run things behind-the-scenes, you are bound to run into some scientific (computer) listings. (Get used to them).

00-0F (hexadecimal) are used to represent MIDI’s sixteen Channels, 1-16 (uh-oh, subtraction is going to be involved)!!!
With hexadecimal (hexa being six, decimal being 10) you can represent values using just two characters up through 256
Computers love 8 and multiples of 8 (ever notice)...

There is no word ten in hexadecimal... what we say in common language as ten is “zero-ehh” (0A) in hexadecimal.

We can, with hexadecimal, represent the first sixteen numbers with a single character. 0 thru F.
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F
The first two hundred fifty-six numbers, running 0 through 255 can be represented by two characters.
Or in hexadecimal 00 through FF.

Listed first is the hexadecimal (based on 16) followed by it pronunciation and its decimal value (based on 10)
00 spoken “zero-zero” is 0
01 spoken “zero-one” is 1
02 spoken “zero-two” is 2
03 spoken “zero-three” is 3
04 spoken “zero-four” is 4
05 spoken “zero-five” is 5
06 spoken “zero-six” is 6
07 spoken “zero-seven” is 7
08 spoken “zero-eight” is 8
09 spoken “zero-nine” is 9
0A spoken “zero-ehh” is 10
0B spoken “zero-bee” is 11
0C spoken “zero-see” is 12
0D spoken “zero-dee” is 13
0E “spoken “zero-eee” is 14
0F spoken “zero-eff” is 15
10 spoken “one-zero” is 16

By representing MIDI Channel 1 as 00 in hex, we can cover all sixteen Midi channels using 00-0F (yes, subtract one)

A Note-On event is represented by two characters... the first is a nine, the second is channel number.
So when you see “90” in the Midi convention, it says “Note-On” on “Channel 1”
While 9F says “Note-On” on “Channel 16”.

When you press middle “C” you might create the following three Byte message: 95 64 3C
Translation:
95 __ Note-On, Channel 6
64 __ Velocity of 100
3C __ Note # 60

To translate hexadecimal to (regular) decimal numbers, multiply the first character by 16, then add the second character...
64 (six-four) is therefore 6x16 = 96 plus 4 = a velocity of 100
3C (three-see) is therefore 3x16 = 48 plus C where C = 12 so note #60

That is the convention. That is what is adopted. Deal with it or, at least learn to deal with it.

I’ve seen musicians argue that the Major scale should be the white notes on the piano A to A, instead of C to C.
Again a limited, piano centric view of the world... akin to thinking the Earth must be the center of the solar system or Columbus *discovered* anything other than he was really lost.
Or that C4 is the *right* convention... it is just one of many conventions. Knowing which one is in use is really all you need to know.

Piano is not the first instrument, (actually compared to most, it is a fairly recent addition to the musical family), and it is not the most important instrument just because we happen to play it. Saxophones, and Souzaphones are two more recent instruments, but most instruments in the orchestra have longer histories than the piano. Most don’t even care if middle C is the third or fourth C on the instrument

The convention has it that the Major scale (not even the most important scale) is made of all white notes C to C.
It’s a convention argue with it, if you wish, but the wiser among us recognize “conventions” and adapt to them, others insist the Earth is flat because they have a limited viewpoint. When you say to a guitar player or flautist the “white notes” it is meaningless to them (not apart of their instrument’s convention).

So indeed the fourth C on a standard 88-key acoustic piano is somewhat in the middle of the 88, but if you know the history of keyboards, for over two thousand years (300 BC through 1700 AD) the distance between the first organ keyboard and the first 88-key pianoforte, the standard for keyboards was 5 octaves (61 Notes) - that is the origin of the third C on a standard keyboard as the middle C... (and it is actually in the geographic middle of a standard organ keybed).

MIDI is a series of coded messages, hexadecimal helps you unlock the code. Don’t know if you ever got into code breaking, but subtracting one is a common cipher trick... perhaps understanding why the count begins at zero for representing MIDI data helps... hope it does. (As far as MIDI is concerned, Hexadecimal is the ‘easy to read’ version of the binary (base 2) code which uses just zeroes and ones, exclusively).

Yamaha is no more right or wrong from companies that use the C4 or C5 convention for middle C. Just recognize that we do use C3 = middle “C” and adjust.

Thankfully, Yamaha chose to represent CC values as 0-based so we do not have to add or subtract CC values and have a quasi-standard for those.

Yikes, misplaced praise showing a lack of understanding of this (I’m surprised). A Control Change value of 0 is, of course, firstly, not a Yamaha-thing but is by MIDI convention, but in this case, zero means “none” just as in common language, as in applying no modulation, as in applying no change, zero = none. There are one hundred twenty-eight values, 0 through 127.

I suppose if MOD WHEEL went from 1-128, you couldn’t stop modulation.
If VOLUME went from 1-128, how could you reduce something to silence?
Zero, is a significant number, it has meaning. It has value.

I have such a great time reading you all, I cannot tell.

Well, it is not me the one not considering the zero.
It is so important that in the Beginning, there was Void.
If there is anything, zero is not used. Or used to say nothing is there.

Simply, I count up to ten, exactly the number of apples in front of me, and then I say "ten apples". To make it sure I count, and it goes one....five....ten.
I am not any smarter by telling you zero, one....five...nine.
Nine? No, no, ten. Let's count them again: zero....one...nine.
If you remove the apples, I cannot count any, and I see it is time to tell you there are no apples left or that the number of apples is zero. While both ways show a clear picture of there being no apples, people will laugh out loudly if I say there are zero apples instead of there are no apples.

Simply put, if I am to use 88 keys, I say this first key here is key number one, and that last key there is number 88.

Streching things to the mythological, how funny, 128 key MIDI keyboard there is no need to use MIDI 0 then keep counting till MIDI 127 and then tell us about the marvelous 128 keys keyboard. Painting a number on each apple will easily show us there are ten, placing a one on the first apple we meet.

The limitations involved in a computer language needing 0A for 10 is nothing but a funny thing for me, so happy a human being.
And I thank them a lot, since there is such a great big beautiful tomorrow shinning at the end of every day thanks to all those achievements !!!!

Quite another thing is having to send a zero signal, using zero as none or as a midpoint between negative and positive signals (-63, 0, +63).
I nevertheless still see often a given capability is shown as L64-R63 (Roland Fantom) option to dial in, and again this asymmetry goes far beyond my understanding. Why panning can reach as much as 64 on the left but only 63 on the right ? Montage, thankfully, offers L63-C-R63. How relaxing !!!! Coffee and a 24 minute snap.

Even volume can be shown as having 100 steps, nobody complaining when told 0 means no output or perhaps no attenuation, as you wished. You set it to 0 and you have no output or full blast, then go to 100 and get full power or full attenuation, but everybody will easily and readily understand it. No need to say volume provides 101 steps, being the first one zero and the last one 100. Since we talk about the existence of volume itself and we place one where it first appears from the void or shows at 100% if no attenuation is there.
0 volume for no sound, 100 volume for full volume.
0 attenuation for no attenuation and full volume, 100 attenuation for full attenuation and no volume. It just a matter of understanding what is being dealt with.

Back to the tuning fork, the assignment of the keys on a piano such as C4, key 40, 4th octave seems to arise from current pianos having precisely 88 keys and good teachers trying to provide the pupil with as many resources to his memory as feasible. Probably just a few people knows how long and hard it took for us having a Montage at our disposal, or the fingering used in the beginning, neglecting the use of the thumbs, or the short extension of harpsichords, the many tuning efforts and temperaments used along centuries of music, etc.

Far from complaining about it being called A3, A4 or A5 I simply did show you how greatly surprised I got when I discovered soon in my first steps into music the tuning fork point could be named differently. At that time I was just grabbing the lexicon, thinking it was a very basic point to start with, assuming for sure it had been fixed after centuries, years before I myself existed.
Exactly the opposite as one goes on with another maker, and for sure no one is to be blamed by me: oh, please, do not say track, it is a zone; oh, no, no, it is a pattern...Oh, no, no, it is just a partial...Oh,well, here a wave is a wave and since nothing is added, a wave makes a track...

How funny to get our intelligence going on and on, as it is simply a measure of the speed "the system" gets accustomed to a new environment.

😀 😀 😀 😀

Yikes indeed - but not born out of any misunderstanding on my end. Perhaps ambiguity. This should clear it up.

I didn't mean "data value" - I meant the value of the 1st (7-bit) byte parameter which is the CC number. I'm glad these do not have to be translated. These are what would be considered to be a pseudo-standard due to the (suggested) assignments in the MIDI spec. The data values (control values) are not really anything I would consider is or should be standardized - at least not between different synthesizers from different vendors.

BTW: my loosey-goosey language was easily misinterpreted so bad on my side. The spec calls for "controller number" as the standard language for the value I was referring to and "control value" for the value I was not referring to. Using "value" in a description where standards call this a "number" is downright confusing and deserves a slap on my wrist.

Also - referring to the controller number as a "value" has a home inside the MIDI spec - so although perhaps ambiguous, it's not wrong. More globally a generic message has a series of byte values and Table III of the MIDI spec 1.0 refers to the controller number as "2nd byte value". So "value" is OK - just needs the proper context not to be confused with the 3rd byte value (or "control value" ).

The MIDI standard must have gotten something right because it has been a stable protocol for many generations despite advancements in other technologies that have reinvented themselves several times over. Despite what you may think makes more sense as a user - the software and hardware is optimized differently. The devices you have used are not the only devices based on the MIDI standard. Even so, there are keyboard instruments that use more than 88 keys out there. And non-keyboard instruments that do not or should not think of "88" as a magic high number (MIDI guitars, lighting systems, etc). Even so - you own keyboard - even if you have a Montage 6 - can reach more than 88 keys. The octave key gets you extended past the 88 natural keys of a piano. Sometimes I use every single key with my splits and reach different areas with the octave key during different sections of a tune. Intro starting way down low with the lowest octave shift (note shifted up to compensate) and end of the tune I'll be at the higher octave shift (note shifted down perhaps to compensate).

Where it makes sense, Yamaha often translates this as a more "user friendly" presentation. There is the rub if you start using tools targeted more for the technical side rather than musical side. Then there may be a skew between the human readable presentation and "under the hood" presentation.

Despite early issues - I think you managed to sort through it OK.

MIDI 2.0 helps address some of this by integrating the more human-relatable presentation into the hardware. This may serve to help.