Call up a Preset Drum Kit or build one from scratch.

In a Drum Kit Part you can add a New Waveform. (See page 126 of the Reference Manual)
You can select a Key in the lower right portion of the screen... touch "Drum Key"
You can then activate the "Keyboard Select" function, touch a key on the keyboard to recall its assignment.

Touch the "New Waveform" box to take the shortcut to the Load _ Audio File screen and your USB stick folder.
You can load your audio directly to the Keys of the Kit. C0~C6

AWM2 "Waveform" - you have placed your original .wav in memory, where MONTAGE adds certain parameters to it that will allow it to be played with 128 Notes of polyphony and it is now velocity sensitive, and has a Key that it is associated with... and depending on the other parameters you set, it can be tuned and scaled across the keyboard in different temperaments. A .wav is simply audio that plays back in stereo, at a fixed volume, at a fixed pitch.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!!!!

Really appreciate your help!!!

Many Blessings!!

Jason,

The video link requires using a DAW to export it from your DAW as a WAV file before loading to Montage.

I am all hardware aside from trying to get updates and things for Montage and Line 6.

When I had an Elektron Analog Rytm, Elektron provided software called C6 that loaded WAV samples into the Rytm.

Maybe I need some type of software to convert then load to Montage? Wonder if Audacity would do.

The video doesn't require anything. It shows, for less than a second, that you may (as an example) export a WAV from a DAW to get your WAV on a USB stick. The video, I believe, both answers your question and has less of a second of material to ignore because you have, presumably, already figured out how to get a valid WAV file on a USB stick.

Valid WAV files are ones that have compatible frequency and bit rates. The video mentions a couple of items about sampling frequency ("44" or "48" kHz). Not sure if "48" is accurate - have not tested. I believe the bit rate can be either 16 or 24 bit.

https://www.yamahasynth.com/forum/26616-loading-wav-files-to-montage

The performance recorder (see owner's manual) itself records in 44.1kHz, 24-bit. So there is a clue.

Note that a DAW (like in the video) is perfectly capable of exporting sample rates and bit widths that are incompatible with Montage -- so there's nothing in that short blip that really helps in that arena by virtue of using a DAW.

Public domain audio editors such as Audacity or others are able to select various options for WAV export that will render the audio compatible or not compatible with Montage depending on the options. I've been able to just download WAV files off the internet as a starting point and this has worked fine. Including class lectures for college. No need for a DAW. There is a need, however, for a USB stick and a WAV file on that stick. That is shown in the video.

Jason,

I already tried loading one shot samples from my usb stick to my Montage without success. I was able to load the Bosendorfer and Expanded libraries but the Montage didn't seem to recognize my drum samples (purchased from Loop Loft WAV).

I have watched every tutorial video on the process...

Not sure if they are 16 or 24 bit. No worries, I am a very slow learner. I'll keep trying and eventually have my aha moments with help from you guys 🙂

We cannot help directly if you have a commercial set of WAV files -- and there is reason to move away from that set to try something that is proven, as there are unknowns about the format of those WAV files in terms of bit width, sampling frequency, etc.

I searched the net for public domain drum samples in 24-bit, 44kHz and found:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/62ltsshahthxlk7/Drum-Kit-Cave--free-samples-download--VOL1.zip

The sounds are said to be royalty free and I believe they are authored by the website owner without any commercial material. Reference:

http://georgievsound.com/free-downloads/
http://georgievsound.com/copyright/

I used "wavosaur" - a free utility for the PC - to verify the WAV file was 44.1kHz and 24bit.

... now that that's over - I used the ZIP file referenced and unzipped a single WAV: "Kick1 AB.wav" found in the "AB" folder. Here were my steps:

1) Copy "Kick1 AB.wav" (from ZIP file referenced) to a USB flash drive using a PC
2) Plugged same USB flash drive into Montage
3) Followed video referenced ...
3a) [CATEGORY SEARCH], selected "Init Normal (AWM2)"
3b) Press [+] for PART 2 to create a new PART. Selected the "Init Drum" PART
3c) Touchscreen (TS) touched the "Init Drum" PART (PART2) and chose "Edit" from the left-hand menu that pops up
3d) TS: Touched "Drum Key" button (lower right)
3e) TS: Touched "Keyboard Select" button (above "Drum Key" button on other side of currently selected drum key)
3f) I then pressed a piano key I wanted to assign as this kick drum - I pressed key C3 which is middle C for me.
3g) TS: Pressed the "New Waveform" button which is above the "Keyboard Select" button - near the upper-right hand of the touchscreen.
3h) Content type defaulted as "Audio File" and shows my USB stick. TS: Touched the USB stick folder, then touched "Kick1 AB.wav" - Montage responding with "Now Loading" and a bar graph to show progress.
3i) Back to the drum waveform screen, I pressed the gray "OFF" box in the upper-left which turned the drum key ON and shows green now. This is the "easy to miss" step from the video.

After doing this, when I press C3 (Middle C), I hear the imported WAV file playing as a drum key.

At least get on the same page to prove the general workflow then branch out and start possibly re-exporting your samples to an acceptable format if that is the issue. Audacity, for me, doesn't do a great job of showing the WAV properties which is why I used Wavosaur.

Jason,

That is phenomenal!

Very grateful to you for this extremely detailed help!!

Jason,

This is phenomenal. Really appreciate it.

FYI, here I the drum samples I really hope to import into the montage. They are awesome.

https://www.thelooploft.com/products/matt-chamberlain-drums?_ke=Z2VvZmZyZXltZXJyaWZpZWxkQGdtYWlsLmNvbQ%3D%3D

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That sample set says the WAVs are 48kHz, 24-bit. I tested public domain samples found here: http://studio.dubroom.org/download0027.htm (lower-right red "DOWNLOAD" link). I used the file: "VOXX_L2S_Project_Stick01_Steal_WorldMax_14x6_stereo.wav" which was verified with Wavosaur to be 48kHz/24-bit/stereo. This matches what your commercial sample set should be using.

I was able to load the sample into middle C, following the same procedure outlined both in the video and in this message. The snare made a snare-like sound. I cannot help you directly with the commercial set since I'm not going to buy it - but you should be able to walk through this and get going. There are no "gotchas" that are not covered in the video (which is outlined, in text, in this thread) already.

Hey Jason!

Many, many thanks for all of your detailed help! I responded last week but for some reason my response didn't go through.

Thanks!!!

Great News!

I finally broke through my walls and was able to load and play my favorite drum samples on my Montage! I am thrilled. I really, really appreciate your help Bad Mister and Jason, and your patience with me.

I couldn't be more grateful to you both!

Bless You!!

A million thanks! I was able to load and customize my samples.

Thanks Jason and Bad Mister!

Bad Mister

On the Montage, has Yamaha considered syncing WAV playback files to performances so that once you choose a performance all you have to do is press play and it plays the backing track WAV file that you've pre-loaded and plays directly from the USB stick? I would like to see that feature, specifically where it's only synced and playing back the file from the USB instead of loading the file in as a sample. Also, the ability to set the volume level of playback within the performance so it's the same level every time you play the performance. I have several backing tracks that I access on my Montage and they vary on the volume level, so I'm always having to adjust the volume on the fly from the playback screen. This seems like a cool feature that could be added in a future firmware update if Yamaha would consider it. I would at least like to see a playback que or Playlist that will play audio files in a user defined sequence from the USB stick. I used to be able to do that on my old S90XS.

These are just suggestions that I'm hoping Yamaha will consider adding.