HS7 should be good. Do you have a sub? If you need one or not does have general guidelines - but maybe your ears want more bottom end. I take it you have adjusted the back-panel switches (on the HS7) to the best sound you can get for your room and liking.

I'm sure someone is going to bring up speaker orientation. So ear-level with each L and R pointing towards your head with the same distance between the speakers as there is distance from each speaker to your head (equilateral triangle orientation). That's more of a best practice. Most anything can be broken and isn't wrong if it sounds better to you - so maybe experiment with reflected (speaker in a different orientation than previous advice) vs. incident wave.

Not all piano sounds are created equal. They serve different purposes. The more parts a piano has, the more expressive it is. The less parts, the more versatile it is in terms of constructing performances with multiple instruments.

Make sure you have the speakers connected to the OUTPUT L&R jacks and not Assign L&R. You may want to experiment with turning on/off effects (press the "FX" icon on the touchscreen, and turn the 3 effects on and off).

I don't know if you had a chance to download the Bosendorfer pianos - but those are a different set to work with which may agree with your expectations. The bottom end of those pianos are more "rich". I haven't installed the pianos yet, so I do not have 1st hand experience with the library yet - just speaking in terms of my impression of the piano character.

Hello Chin - congrats! Initially you may be a little disappointed, but it grows on you. I too find the pianos, especially, a little lacking, and have been told it's due to my near bottom-of-the-range monitors, which I accept - but my Tyros 3 and Korg M3 sound absolutely fine on them, so I'm not rushing to drop another bundle! Instead, a bit of tweaking can even things up a bit - some sounds are a bit flat, too, sort of 2-dimensional - Yamaha are a bit parsimonious with reverb, and a bit of that lifts things. All depends on personal preferences - I'm not so much interested in hearing exactly what's there and only what's there, preferring a bit of life and colour to precision - but I'm not a musician. Just a sound-man. Persevere! Montage really can do the business, but not quite how you expect!

I've been able to compare the Yamaha CP1 to the Montage and of course the CP1 is a stage piano and a bit more present and full. I use the BBE 882i Sonic Maximizer and the Yamaha TF1 mixer to boost the Montage. The maximizer can really boost the signal without increasing the gain. I'm not savvy on how it works but the reviews are excellent and you can read about it below. I use the JBL LSR4328s system with matching Sub which can really rock the house. Hope this helps.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002CZU56/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

See this post for a photo of my setup in the last reply at the bottom. You can see the BBE in my rack and the TF1 and the JBL sub on the floor. I'd try the cheaper route using the BBE which will improve every electronic setup by default. Your Montage is only going to sound as good as your drivers can reproduce the output.

https://yamahasynth.com/forum/let-s-see-your-setup

I feel a bit different.

I've used many pianos in the past, aswell as the Kronos & Integra 7 which I still have.
until the Montage, the Integra 7's SuperNatural pianos were my clear favorites. but the CFX performances in the Montage became my new favorite. I love everything about it. I just remove a bit of the reverb. and of course you can always quickly EQ to taste.
I love the clear definition of this piano sound, sharpness and separation. the best part of it is that it's wonderfully dynamic.

You also get XF's "Full Concert Grand" on the Montage, as well as many other pianos, including the Bosendorfer library, and one of my favorites - "Acoustic Piano DA" - which was programmed by Diasuke Asakura! I love it - it's a really cool take on the S700.

Thank you Jason, Rod, David and Eyal. Will try out all of your suggestions.

I tried playing with the audio output from 16 stereos to 4 stereos. improved a lot.

Hi Chin,

I am having the same kind of problem. It's not so much that the sound is thin. This can be overcome with layering multiple parts. But I am not satisfied with the quality of the output. It's not the fault of the Montage. When using full-ear headphones the beast sounds absolutely great. But when playing over external monitors, there is a big cut on the quality. I do mean, when playing live over a PA-system and not over HiFi studio equipment.

For my personal monitoring PA I do use the Yamaha 600i Stagepass. I am quite disappointed on it's expressiveness and consider it more of an announcing system then a musicians extender. But, these passive speakers are just for my monitoring, so it suits me. The 3-band EQ boosts the mid-frequencies, which I don't like and interfere with the vocal section, but which frequencies are still essential for the characteristics. The monitor line is fed to the main-stage-PA, And from thereon, it's out of my hands and they are on their own.

So in order to make sure that the output signal is approaching to my wishes, instead of boosting the low and highs, I did put in a stereo 31-band equalizer. This allows me to fine-tune the sound. And although it is an improvement is remains a problem, as the sound is related to the used instruments. Having 16 channels I can not optimize every single sound (see attached chart). Well, actually Montage can, but that is too much of work for me. So i did make an average usable-under-all-circumstances setting.

And then there is the problem of the varying stage-PA's. There are all kinds of different brands and speakers on which you can not anticipate. But the way I use my pre-EQ there is no more direct need to adjust the sound on both (personal and stage) PA's, allowing them to stay at approx. 0db, and requiring little to not at all fine-tuning at the amplifiers for corrections to the club or hall.

At the end it all comes down to the quality (and pricing) of the amplifiers and speakers.

I've always been given to understand that Youtube videos do not do justice to the sound of keyboards. But for Montage, it turns out the videos sounded better. 🙂

I'm a novice at this. Not sure what sort of processing (if any) is involved to make those videos sound good? A mixer perhaps?

Here's a good test. Get some pro in-ear drivers like Westones. Compare the results to your studio monitors. See my post above as I use the BBE, TF1 and JBLs to get the most out of the Montage.

Keep in mind that room treatment / acoustics plays a part as well with the following suggestion - but is how I arrived at the monitors I use.

When you go to your favorite music store that stocks Montage (there are a few choices here) - they will have some speakers setup. For me, this started when I got the S90XS. I heard the sound through the speakers at the store - liked what I heard - brought the keyboard back to the studio and plugged into my amp system - which was a bass speaker w/tweeter from a bass rig type system and a few choices for clean head units to drive the speakers. The sound I was getting was really bad. I think the S6 (?) piano already had some "problems" in the mid section (to a group of ears on the net) - but the sound reinforcement I was using was really making this sound bad. I went back to the store - noted they were using Yamaha HS-series monitors - and put in an order for a pair. Once I used these - the sound was much better.

So the tactic (in addition to all else that was said by others) - is perhaps if you like how it sounds in the store (and keeping in mind the part about room treatment/acoustics) - then perhaps take a look at the setup they are using and feed that into the input of what may match both the keyboard and your ears.

Here locally, I think they are demoing the Montage with something like an HS8S sub and a pair of HS8 or HS7 monitors.

Chin wrote:

Hi. Just got my Montage. I realize the piano sounds rather thin. ...

I have Piano sounds from a Roland Jupitor 80, Integra 7, Montage, and more Kontact synths than you can count. I have the HS7 monitors and my music room (Play Pen) is well treated and has a great sound.

The Montage piano sound is by far the best and is now my go to piano sound. The dynamic range is phenomenal!

Walt

Yeah...

How do you get the Montage to sound like the Yamaha videos...?

The videos certainly do NOT sound thin! 🙂

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

Hi,

I am having the same kind of problem. It's not so much that the sound is thin. This can be overcome with layering multiple parts. But I am not satisfied with the quality of the output. It's not the fault of the Montage. When using full-ear headphones the beast sounds absolutely great. But when playing over external monitors, there is a big cut on the quality. I do mean, when playing live over a PA-system and not over HiFi studio equipment.

I'm having the same problem as above. And that is especially with the old presets that come from the motif's. If I compare the output quality of the montage vs the motif xs with exactly the same preset, the montage seems more wide and have a richer low end, but the motif xs really pushes in the mid section (and the high end is more crystal clear too in my opinion, but that is taste). I can hear it on my HS80 speakers, but I can hear it definitely through a D&B PA system when the band plays along. The audio engineer complains that the montage doesn't cut through a mix like my motif did. I've been trying different things: put a compressor on it, boost the mid section.... But those things change the character of the sound and it's not the same anymore than. It seems the montage makes the sounds too wide. Beautiful with some headphones, but not that useful in a live situation. And yes, I am complaining, but no, I will not go back to my old Motif because the Montage has a lot of functions which I DO like! 🙂

I really hope this will be fixed with the new Presence effect in the 1.5 update, Although it will occupy an effect slot...
Looking forward to it!

Regards,

stef

Also with the Montage (through the main outs) has that analog processor working on it to give it a different character. Maybe try bypassing the main outs and see what happens.

MONTAGE features professional balanced outputs with “Pure Analog Circuit” (PAC). PAC improves the quality of signal after being converted to analog from digital for clear harmonic reproduction and even frequency response. The result is an output capable of reproducing MONTAGE’s internal content expressively with power and clarity.

The new update (1.5 - available Feb. 6) is supposed to increase the sound quality also.