Hello Charlie - I too use any synth as an arranger, at least in part, although my main interest lies in sound creation rather than the music itself. I had a Motif XS yonks ago, and liked it, but was seduced by a Roland Fantom, which yielded to a Yamaha MOX6 - which I hated - and that gave way to a Yamaha Tyros 3 - which I love to bits. But it has wee foibles, like 5 different modes for doing stuff in, and I fell for the 'single mode for everything' claimed for the Montage. Which seems technically true. However, it is a more complex machine than either the Motif or the Tyros, more demanding (in the speakers used, for example), and less generous in some respects (no VGA output, only one limited USB device port). It compensates with far more synthesis power, some of which is easily implemented, and some of which is a rigmarole even when you've found out how to do it. Depends what you expect from it - I expected too much, perhaps, but on balance I'm still glad I bought it - but it is far from the dream-machine I thought I was getting!

There, now you're thoroughly confused! But definitely go and try one out before parting with 3 Grand - but remember the shop will be putting the sound through another 3 Grands worth of amplifier/speaker combos!

Thank you very much Rod.
Do you know if there is a way to search for Performances on the Montage, that are similar in structure to the Motif and Tyros?
In other words, Performances where a drum, bass and another instrument will accompany me, as I play chords with my left hand, and then can play lead with my right hand?
So, I am NOT looking for individual instruments. ( I read in the manual that everything in the Montage is called a Performance.........no more use of the term Voice.)

Hello Charlie - I'm no expert (ask anyone on here!) but the Montage incorporates a number of split keyboard multi-part Performances which can be searched for only as 'Multi-part Performances' - they are not accompaniments as such, but can be wangled to work as such. I am attempting to find out about Arpeggios too (there are alleged to be 10,000 in there, but I can't find any way of auditioning them), and they might be better suited to your particular purpose, given the way you play.

There are also many single-part Performances, which are effectively individual instruments. These are the most useful to me, as I can mix and meld as I wish, and they are also specifically searchable. But do remember the sound monitor element. I am now in a quandary - do I blow another couple of Grand on new speakers - or wait for Yamaha to produce a matched set as they did for Tyros? I am currently re-organising my tiny music room to enable me to switch between my beloved Korg M3-73 and the Montage, using the same speakers I've used for years with all kinds of synth without real problems. Until now!

Gotcha bro. Thank you very much.
I'm losing interest.
I'm getting a vibe that I should be happy with what I got.
As for you, how about a good set of headphones, and possibly, if needed a headphone amplifier?
As for speakers, not sure.
I think you're in the UK.
not sure whats over there.
And I'm not sure about shipping heavy things overseas.

I have loved my Motif XF for years now.
one of the funnest things in the world for me, is to play it in Performance mode.
I like many of the Performances, including Latin ones perhaps especially.
I just sit down and play chord progressions with my left hand and solo away with my right hand.
absolute bliss. I could do it all day.

With this information we get a good picture of what you like about the Motif XF. You will be happy to know that all 1350+ Factory Voices form the fundamental core of the Montage sound library. These are tried, true and proven sounds. In addition, you have all this new content (5.67 GB of it, total), you have new strings, new brass, new drums, etc.,plus a complete FM synthesizer. All 7881 arpeggios also find their way into the Montage library, additional Arps brings the on board total to 10,000.

No, you will not find many XS/XF type Performances in the factory set, simply I'm going to guess, not to repeat those here (yet again). They were looking for things that would showcase the new Motion Control engine. That's not to say you couldn't recreate the XS/XF style Performances in Montage. You most certainly can - all the content that made the Motif XF Performances exists in Montage. I've already posted a remake of "Bop 'til You Drop" for Montage to show how it can be done. And I believe, Easy Sounds (who make sound libraries for Motif/Montage) is working on content of this type.

If you have fun putting together these type of things, you may never leave your Montage. Maybe just for food and water... All the tools for assembling these type of backing Performances exist with plenty of possibilities for extending the concept. Not only are eight Parts and eight arpeggiators now in play... There are eight arp phrases that can recalled by pressing ARP 1-8 buttons. There are new ways to interact with the sounds and brand new sounds to play with...

The direct Performance Recorder lets you document your "funnest thing to do" direct to audio (USB flash drive) as a .wav or as MIDI data internally.

lol.
thank you for your excellent reply Bad Mister.
well, based on what you posted, its not a question of "if", its a question of "when", I will get a Montage.
I am very much looking forward to it.
thank you again. 🙂
Charlie

Hello Charlie, and Phew! - I was trying to answer your question honestly, and was mortified that I had put you off the idea! As I said, I'm glad I bought one, but it doesn't work the way I think it should! Bad Mister knows it back-to-front, so I'm happy he has been able to cancel out my negative waves! I'm playing about with the way my music-room is set up, and things are getting better - you'll find the same, more easily as you're accustomed to the Motif to start with.

I also did miss some of the "go to" XF performances but the content is there as Phil/BM has mentioned - and he should know 🙂

Glad that Yamaha built on the heritage waveform / voice part stock and has gone with the new performance part / multipart paradigm and has not bloated the Montage will all the XS/XF performances. None of which for a start are cognisant of the Motion Control architecture let alone the additional control features for 8 parts / SSS and scenes etc.

I think people would gripe if they had been included as-is and the effort to fully re-engineer doesn't really have a pay off.

All that said, and what is really really exciting for us all, and it is coming and that will be the performance sharing facility that Yamaha are working on.

Like Phils Bop till You Drop this will allow parts of our community to recreate and enhance previous incarnations, share and at the same time make wholly new compositions of sounds.

Montage is a synthesiser aimed at performance first but does have power to flex and give you some broader capabilities like of old just don't miss out the fun of what lies in the new belly of the beast.