Montage has had continuous updates from day 1. Very early we got fairly significant updates and have also had messaging from support that there's more to come. The types of updates we got early gave me, at least, confidence that the promises were not idle vaporware. I see others with doubts - and they are welcome to whatever pessimism suits them.

Holding cards close is probably a combination of competitive advantage and also not to get hopes up for features that end up being not possible due to disruption (house of cards). I'm sure there were plenty of firmware update type efforts Yamaha has tried to change but ultimately canned because they upset the apple cart too much. It would have been worse to promise something and then take it back.

Already - conversion (from earlier sample encoding - that would've made inspiration in a flash and others work) was over-promised and that had to be reeled back. So over-sharing can cut both ways. Personally, I'm better with happy surprises than disappointments of promised features not being realized.

@david

I was wondering how many people sold their Montages prior to the OS 3.5 or knowing anything about the FM-X morphing capability?
We've kind of grown to doubt or not expect such a big change except on a future model.

I bought my Montage 8 just over a year ago after nearly 8 months of research (& saving), because I was hearing from Yamaha reps that had seen their roadmap for the Montage & MODX, and that it was unlike any of their roadmaps of the past. They decided to go long on the hardware and provide new features/enhancements via OS updates, which is far less expensive to engineer than designing both the software & hardware, not to mention the additional testing required with both...

I have no intentions of ever selling my Montage 8, then again I still have my 30 year old DX7II-FD sitting right beside it.

What's the purpose of hiding big improvements, and Yamaha knows good and well most of us think Montage ESX might be coming out.
A monster advantage to marketing is letting your faithful followers and potential new customers know what you are planning.
Still don't think hiding it is wise. So does Yamaha plan anymore considerable improvements for the Montage we all might want to know about?

I would say they wouldn't want their competition to know what their next big thing is. Yamaha have the advantage if they don't reveal the next big secret & giving Korg or Roland a heads up about it. They also have the advantage on renewing/enhancing the Montage/MODX line at any time via OS updates if Korg or Roland come out with a new 'hardware' synth like the Fantom (or whatever Korg's next big synth will be)...the Fantom came out and not long after the Montage went from 2.5 to 3.0, providing a pattern sequencer, LFO enhancements & other effects, as a response. No new hardware, but it's basically a shiny new upgraded synth.
I & hopefully others at this point, suspect Yamaha are either working on or already have the VA Engine ready to go, as a future response to whatever Korg or Roland come out with next. And what other enhancements do they have up their sleeves?
As a Montage owner who was told this would happen, by a reputable source, I have never doubted that the new stragey/plan has been to compete with the competition by providing existing customers/owners of a Montage/MODX with virtually a new synth for every time the competition come out with their next big keyboard release, and sometimes even inbetween such as with the 3.5 update!
People who have doubted Yamaha from past experiences(maybe rightfully so to some extent) are just starting to realize that their investment in these synths is worth a lot, that they can expect much more for some time to come without needing to buy a new synth, and many (including non-Yamaha customers) are seeing these synths as a good investment in a Monster Synth that keeps getting better & better. Yamaha are changing their reputation, and the competition might just be scrambling/rethinking their roadmaps/strategies, as they see Yamaha take on more & more new customers daily.

I would guess that Yamaha's return on investment with this new strategy & their ever increasing reputation/trust building, is really paying off, and their competition likely see/feel it ... I could only guess how many more synths will be sold since 3.5 came out, especially the MODX2.5 synth!

Communication with customers is essential.
My friend down the road who used to work for Yamaha as a rep. said exactly the same thing about hiding intentions and he said as quoted below:
"AND it was such a break from past trajectories of not upgrading OS just releasing new boards.
It was a great advancement but they zigged when most zagged. Not good for relationships."

I love that Yamaha are surprising us with new updates just when you don't expect them (although I have been expecting & doing a fairly good job at predicting them to some degree.

This is now hitting me like a ton of bricks. I know they have great support about technical issues on the forums but on the engineering, marketing and development side we are 100% in the dark as life-long Yamaha customers. Now's the time to reach out and keep communicating with us from the "dark side".

Without telling us directly (& thus giving it away to the competition), Yamaha have been communicating with us from the "dark side" for quite some time now ... I think part of what's hitting you like a ton of bricks (& probably others) is that your Jedi senses are just now telling you to 'Use The Force', 'Trust your instincts', and have faith that the next new Update & the update after that are coming!!

It's not all a complete mystery either ... I've been following YamahaSynth.ideascale.com for close to 2 years, submitting ideas, and two of my ideas I submitted we just got through the last 2 OS updates. They have also sent out questionaires & surveys, one in particular asking what type of new Engine we'd like to see most in the future. I'm quite certain a new VA Engine is coming to a Galaxy near you in the future. 😉
Just to further the point. One of my ideas was regarding adding KBD CTRL in Scenes (Update 3.0). The other was to fix the stepping (not smooth) issue with Pitch Bend (Update 3.5), except I and other found that it didn't quite fix the stepping issue & is not as smooth as it should be...right away Yamaha employees on this forum heard our voices, listened, even asking for specific Performances that they could replicate the problem on, so they could fix it fully! Don't be surprised if Update 3.51 comes out within the next month with the fix and possibly a few other tweaks as well 😉

Yamaha are telling us that updates are coming instead of a hardware synth, because they keep consistently giving them to us! And also because reps who have seen their new roadmap/strategy since years now, have been reassuring us & continue to instill faith!
This is their roadmap, their strategy. They are saving a fortune by not designing/engineering/testing new hardware, and instead releasing software features/enhancements for far less cost, but with exponentially increasing rewards in sales & reputation!!
With the MODX alone, they are making so much in sales & likely the Montage is increasing farely well too. They have told us as bluntly as possibly without saying it directly, that the Montage & MODX are their Flagship & Ecomonically friendly duo, and they are sticking together for the long haul. To prove it, they just gave us unpresidented 'forwards' compatitbility, whereby Montage owners can now load MODX .x8u & .x8l files on a Montage ... that says a lot in my opinion! They are instilling confidence in customers & potential future customers that they are making all the right decisions, providing the right new features at the best time, and making people start to believe more & more that they are not actually in the dark if you think about it, because they can respond to anything new Roland or Korg come out with in hardware, as Yamaha have software updates at the ready and you can be sure they will be awesome & worth the wait.
I bet there are many others out there like you, we will see a huge increase in second hand sales (in addition to new sales), whereby people who had sold their Montage or MODX, will want to get their synth back, knowing it has a lot of life left and many awesome surprises to come in the future! Maybe their had a Montage & will pick up a used MODX or vice-versa...
I also think we will see an increase in people not jumping ship and selling their Montage or MODX so soon going forward, because Yamaha are proving their worth, their value, your investment with every new update feature enhancement.

Having already owned one, you know the quality of the Montage 8 synth & what it's cable of, so picking up one second hand should be an easy sell for you. Having faith that more updates, features, enhancements are coming should be something you expect at this point!
Regardless of how many more updates we get (& I think there are MANY to come), I think the Montage is a complete beast of a synth even without the new 'Smart Morph' functionality 😉
But being a DX7II guy, I do love the new 'Smart Morph' FM-X enhancement!!

@Jason

Montage has had continuous updates from day 1. Very early we got fairly significant updates and have also had messaging from support that there's more to come. The types of updates we got early gave me, at least, confidence that the promises were not idle vaporware. I see others with doubts - and they are welcome to whatever pessimism suits them.

Holding cards close is probably a combination of competitive advantage and also not to get hopes up for features that end up being not possible due to disruption (house of cards). I'm sure there were plenty of firmware update type efforts Yamaha has tried to change but ultimately canned because they upset the apple cart too much. It would have been worse to promise something and then take it back.

Already - conversion (from earlier sample encoding - that would've made inspiration in a flash and others work) was over-promised and that had to be reeled back. So over-sharing can cut both ways. Personally, I'm better with happy surprises than disappointments of promised features not being realized.

I quickly glanced over your response before making my own, but in reading yours more closely, you've said twice as much as I did in less than 1/10 the words ... WOW! 😀

I went on instinct and what they have previously done forever. The power under the hood and hardware limitations at some point will be maxed out. Like your Playstation 4 or computer, it's still going to be obsolete eventually. Typically because of decrease in costs of hardware components as years go by, the future Montage ESX would be double the capabilities of the original. They don't have to redesign the system or even the housing but only double up on what's inside. I promise you they will. The unknowns are the limitations of the guts of the system.

Someday down the road they will eventually replace both the Montage/MODX with new hardware synths, but it won't be for some time.
The Montage still has far more polyphony & processing capability than the Korg Kronos does when utilizing more than one Engine. I've played midi recorded songs with 7 sequenced PARTs (9 - 15) playing, while I manually play 6 PARTs (1 - 6) in various layers/splits in a variety of Scenes (KBD CTRL), including a lot of effects processing on each PART, and never once had a hint of maxing out!! Plus several of these AWM2 PARTs had multiple elements sounding at the same time. I can do on 1 synth what would have taken 16 synths years ago, and still have more polyphony & processing power, so I think it's safe to say that for the foreseeable future, the Montage has plenty of life left in it hardware wise, which is why Yamaha designed the Montage hardware the way they did, knowing their roadmap would require hardware longevity! 😉

I hope so but we'll never really know until it's here. I'm not sure I ever saw the YC61 coming and it's more my speed. I might pick up a used Montage 6 to see what's changed. The great thing about used in today's market is you can sell it for what you paid.

I've wished that Yamaha wouldn't leave technology on the table and make new synths include the "best of" stuff from the past. Like instead FM-X being based on some mix of half of past tech - I'd wished they would include formants from the FS1R, RCM from the SY99, feedback on all ops from reface, more FM standard waveforms as past post DX7 products, and maybe alternate algorithms that can realize the cross-modulation of the GS-1 (modulator 1 output can route to modulator 2 input and modulator 2 output can route into modulator 1 input as well as both modulator 1 and 2 able to route into input of 2 more operators that can be carriers). ... and not leave glissando on the table and other past FM features.

But instead of creating a series of instruments that are supersets of all past features - Yamaha makes snowflakes. Each instrument maybe taking something from the past - but leaving much behind and then adding new features. So each instrument has its own "character" that can't quite reproduce all the goodness of the past. So if you really want RCM or formants or other features - you have to own all of those old keyboards too.

This is a lot like how acoustic instruments are. They all have their own identity. They're all snowflakes. And typically a horn player isn't going to own every pro horn under the sun to get that super dark sound with one horn, screaming ease of high notes with another, and so on. Some do - but mostly you find something that resonates with you and you stick with it. Long past innovations of newer horns surpass maybe some features you gravitate towards. And this seems like the general approach Yamaha takes to even electronic instruments. Synthetically creating "character" that isn't totally replaced by some new instrument that allows to cannibalize the older instruments.

Taking this approach also allows for the product to stay lean without having to add more hardware every generation in order to allow for older features to stay in the hardware alongside the new stuff. My 1st paragraph would have been quite a lot to add. I can wish anything I want - but everything and the kitchen sink is, I know, a lot to ask.

What I'm getting at here is that even though there will be a Montage "replacement" down the line - history shows that it'd will probably leave some of the cool stuff Montage does currently on the table and forge a new path with different stuff.

I mean - take even the last generation of Motif XF. Full sequencing was left on the table. Assignable MIDI receive channels / master mode. Network connectivity (although complex - still a transfer option), support for older sample encodings so inspiration in a flash and other promo material from the past worked, sampling, lots of smaller things. So although Montage added a lot since Motif XF - it also subtracted quite a bit (even considering the newer pattern sequencer).

"And typically a horn player isn't going to own every pro horn under the sun to get that super dark sound with one horn, screaming ease of high notes with another, and so on." No Jason, horn players don't but guitar pickers do: we all have GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome--I have about 8 guitars kicking around here!). Sure there will be a successors to the Montage and MODX eventually but the older boards won't really be obsolete: my 16 year old Motif 8 still sounds great (it just weighs a ton compared to the MODX!).

I tend to get rid of all old gear because I don't have the space & need to sell off to replace the new expensive stuff. I get their philosophy but I'm not going to own every vintage piece so I can have every feature ever made. Don't care that much about it. I did buy a used Montage 6 so I could mess with the smart morph since China has destroyed my life. Not sure who has been affected but I lost the best job of my life directly due to COVID19. It still doesn't seem real.

Sorry to hear about the job loss David. I don't have a lot of old gear around here, just the stuff I really like. Some of the old things have sentimental value like my ancient Hohner Pianet N. As far as new stuff I always have to ask my self "is this something you really need, rather than just want?". As a result there ain't much new stuff around here. I hope you enjoy the Montage. I went with the MODX7 because it's more than I'll need right now. Take care.