Hi Stef,
Welcome to YamahaSynth!

You are doing nothing wrong and you actually answered your own question. The MONTAGE has 2044 Preset Performances, and room for 8 Libraries each capable of up to 640 Performances each, not to mention the User Bank with another 640... both Bank Select (MSB/LSB) and Program Change messages are necessary to elegantly select sounds via MIDI.

Add to this you can differentiate between sending a message that changes the entire 16 Part Performance and a message that changes just one specific Part on any one channel. This is all accomplished by the Bank Select portion of the Bank Select/Program Change protocol.

When you place a Performance in a LIVE SET, the MONTAGE has a specific Bank Select and Program Change assignment for each Live Set slot. As you can guess, both messages are necessary because sending a Program Change 0-127 simply is not going to be enough. Even a Program Change increment message does not define what you want to increment... the entire Performance or just the individual Part on one channel of the Performance.

That's the why...

What you can do:
Plug a momentary Foot Switch (FC4/FC5 Type) into the Assignable Foot Switch jack on the back panel of the MONTAGE.
Set the “FS Assign” = Live Set+

Doing so with allow you to advance through your Live Set one Program after the other with each press. You can place the pedal under your Master Keyboard Controller (even though it is attached to the MONTAGE). Unless you can send Bank Select and the Program Change, you will need to change programs by communicating directly with a connected pedal... or by pressing the front panel buttons.

This will work if your Foot Switch cable can reach to a spot where you can comfortably tap it when you wish to increment to the next LIVE SET Performance.

Extra Credit: You can have your MONTAGE boot up on your personal LIVE SET once you engage the Live Set, you can be on any screen within a LIVE SET program when you engage the FS... in other words, you do not have to leave the screen of the MONTAGE on the LIVE SET (HOME) screen... Once the Live Set is selected and the "LIVE SET+" option is assigned, it matter not what screen of the currently selected LIVE SET Performance is showing, you can advance to next program on the set list... so if you prefer the regular PERFORMANCE (HOME) screen where you can view KNOBs and Values, you can advance through your Live Set viewing the Home screen. If you are doing a lot of work with Motion Sequences (real time manipulation of the Amplitudes, for example) you can remain on the MS Edit screen as you advance through your Live Set.

Hope that helps.

Hi Bad Mister,

Thanks for your reply. Apparently the Roland can send Bank Changes, but only the ones the internal sounds are addressed to by pressing the corresponding button of that sound/bank. The bank changes used are:
MSB 66/LSB 0, MSB87/LSB64, MSB87/LSB0, MSB87/LSB1
Are any of those valid adreses of any live set location? Or just any performance location? Off course I will need to add the program change number but that's not a problem. If I know any of these bank change adreses are valid in a user section, where I can write my own performances, I will be very glad 🙂 And if not I guess I'll go buy a footswitch:p

About the extra credit, that's really cool! But how do I set up the Montage to boot up on my personal live set? I have the "Power On Mode" set to Live Set, but I can't select any bank. The firmware version is 1.50.0

Thanks!

Regards,

Stef

Apparently the Roland can send Bank Changes, but only the ones the internal sounds are addressed to by pressing the corresponding button of that sound/bank. The bank changes used are:
MSB 66/LSB 0, MSB87/LSB64, MSB87/LSB0, MSB87/LSB1
Are any of those valid adreses of any live set location? Or just any performance location? Off course I will need to add the program change number but that's not a problem. If I know any of these bank change adreses are valid in a user section, where I can write my own performances, I will be very glad 🙂 And if not I guess I'll go buy a footswitch:p

No, none of those would be useful. Better look into a Foot Switch.

About the extra credit, that's really cool! But how do I set up the Montage to boot up on my personal live set? I have the "Power On Mode" set to Live Set, but I can't select any bank. The firmware version is 1.50.0

You should make a BACKUP File of your data (.X7A)... then update your firmware to version 1.60.x

[UTILITY] > "Settings" > "System"
Set Power On Mode to "Live Set"
This will recall your USER 1, Page 1 Live Set. If no User Live Set exists it will recall your first Live Set (Preset or Library)

Your MIDI controller isn't going to be able to support this - but you may eventually use an external controller (keyboard or footpedal) that can send the proper MSB/LSB+PC. When or if this ever happens - you'll need to know what the expected values are from Montage's perspective -- and you could also answer questions regarding what the "right" values are.

This information is in the data list. https://usa.yamaha.com/files/download/other_assets/0/1121740/montage_en_dl_e0.pdf page 181 for performances. Following are all in decimal, MSB/LSB+PC:

0/0 + 0-127: GM Voice
127/0 + 0: GM Drum
63/0-15 + 0-127: Preset Performances (Single Part)
... and so on - see chart for details. Following are just MSB/LSB
63/16-20: Single Part User
63/24-63: Single Part Library
63/64-79: Preset Performances (Multi Part)
63/80-84: Multi Part User
63/88-127: Multi Part Library

Then there's the ability to access live set through MSB/LSB+PC. This is documented in the "new features" PDF which is released with firmware. Latest firmware has all previous history of new features. This thread walks you through live set:

https://www.yamahasynth.com/forum/montage-live-set-external-midi-control

it's in hex. Decimal is (MSB/LSB):

62/0: Live Set

... so you're looking for an MSB of 62 or 63 for starters depending on Live Set vs. Performances (directly).