I am the happy owner of a brand new montage 8 white, beautiful machine. Except for this problem,: when i play (using the sustainpedal) I randomly get a glich, a sort of all notes off midi action. I recorded it, so you can listen yourself. The glitch happens at 00.07. (MP3 in the zip file)
What I already tried:
- disconnected usb cable
- changed sustain pedal
- tried all pedal settings (FC3&FC4)
Can't seem to reproduce the problem, it happens really random (1x per few minutes).
I don't want to return the montage, so I hope for good advice: anybody has a suggestion of what It can be or what I should do?
Sorry you are having an issue. You mention:
What I already tried:
- disconnected usb cable
- changed sustain pedal
- tried all pedal settings (FC3&FC4)
Please leave the USB cable disconnected while troubleshooting this issue to eliminate any interference from a connected host (computer, tablet, smart phone etc), also disconnect any 5-pin MIDI cables to eliminate messages from any external device… just during the troubleshooting phase.
You don’t mention what type of Sustain pedal (model name and number) you are using
Do you have an FC3A or and FC4A?
If you don’t have a Yamaha FC3A or FC4/5 those setting may not apply as you think.
At what point are you engaging the sustain pedal in the audio clip you attached?
The audio sounds a bit strange — can’t really tell much about it.
If you have a USB stick, you can record an Audio file of yourself playing a Factory Preset … place the USB stick in the “To Device” port on the back panel.
_ recall the Performance (please include which Performance you selected).
_ Press [RECORD]
_ Select “Audio”
_ you can record for up to 74 minutes… see if you can get the glitch… this way you’ll have a really good, clean, clear recording.
Also, can you verify that this is happening on a Factory Preset. This is important because it is possible to program sounds that glitch — next time it happens please write down or make note of what Performance you are playing, this will help troubleshoot the problem.
Let us know.
Thank for your reply.
Pedals used are ordinary Roland and now a brandnew alesis ASP2.
I have tried today to reproduce the problem with cfx concert, but nothing went wrong. (more then 1 hour played)
Then I tried it again with my own made pianosound that was used when recording the glitch (which is cfx stage+pad+changed velocity, made on a modx6) but also now I couldn't reproduce the problem.
Very frustrating. Since I recieved the montage a week ago I experienced this problem, but it was really random since day 1 (some days random, some days nothing at all).
I will keep trying and recording.
If you hold the sustain pedal down and play enough notes quickly enough without lifting the sustain pedal then you'll experience something close to what you've described.
Therefore, in general, it's important that a sustain pedal is fully compatible and operates as expected. That when pressing the pedal down it engages the sustain every time and when letting go it disengages every time. Some pedals may have reverse polarity and therefore would generally leave the sustain engaged which would become problematic if enough notes are played with the sustain pedal engaged. I'm not saying either of your sustain pedals fall into an incompatible category - only that this would be part of the detective work particularly when 3rd party pedals are involved. There's ways to tell if "off means off" and "on means on" by doing testing on just a piano by itself and using your ears. Passing this kind of test would probably be sufficient to take the pedals themselves out of the suspect list.
Then there's the layer of how "heavy" you are on sustain. If generally you ride the sustain engaged for the entire session or if you use it lightly or somewhere between.
Given that sustained notes have a chance of "eating up" polyphony more than non-sustained ones - when you create your own Performances you need to think about the sustain pedal and if engaging it needs to sustain all of the Parts or not. For a piano - yes. But for the pad - maybe not. Depends. This is a nuance since your modified Performance I didn't see a long list of different instruments where this may become a problem (like Piano+Strings+Pad+Organ+ ...). Something like this "certainly" organ shouldn't have the sustain receive turned on (disable for organ). Some of the other Parts would need some scrutiny. There's other ways to control polyphony usage other than sustain programming - so this is a deeper topic than I'll cover here.
Current Yamaha Synthesizers: Montage Classic 7, Motif XF6, S90XS, MO6, EX5R
This may or may not be the case but I will mention it in passing.
I had issues controlling a Performance I had created. I wanted foot pedals to only control certain Parts, not others.
BM helped me out and, if memory serves me well, it was related to MIDI Receive Switches.
EDIT-PART-COMMON --> Mod/Control Tab --> Receive SW Tab
I also seem to remember I might have needed to change a MIDI CC number from its default. The exact reason, and the menu location I did this I don't recall** See Update EDIT below.
EDIT: The Default CC values are in Common/Audio Edit (see Reference Manual Page 169). You may also need to change Sustain Pedal Setting in Utility - Sound - Sustain Pedal. I still don't recall why I had to change these. Sustain Pedal operation/settings are buried in various places around the manuals. I searched the .pdf for "Sustain Pedal" or "FC3A" or "FC4A" or "FC5" to home in on relevant information.
Thanks for your responses. I now use a simple fc5 pedal. The performance I use is CFX padded 2.
I have recorded all weekend but there were no glitches. very frustrating, and I began to think it indeed was the pedal or the MODX made performance I first used. But also on that performance I could not reproduce the glitch.
Then today I switched on the montage and started playing and directly had some glitches. In the recording I attach there is a glitch at 00:02.
Hope this is more usefull.
I have an FC5 - it's not as easy to "hold down" as a more piano-style pedal since there's a fairly small "landing zone" where it's engaged.
I would probably hook up the computer and record the MIDI so I could see the MIDI stream including the sustain to have some sense of what was played.
You could then play back the MIDI stream to a soft synth (some free one) which would quickly tell you without analyzing the data if the MIDI notes/sustain/etc are correct - but just a "glitch" with the playback. If you see sustain was "let go" where it wasn't expected - you would be left a bit with wondering if it was a problem recording/sensing your sustain or not. But there's a couple ways this could go that would point you in a more clarified direction.
Make sure the sustain configuration is for the right pedal.
You may also try pressing sustain down, holding or playing notes, and "wiggle" the sustain pedal wire somewhere near the connector on the synth. That may tell you if there's possibly an issue with the synth-side connector. Not high on the list of possibilities - but something to quickly rule out.
Current Yamaha Synthesizers: Montage Classic 7, Motif XF6, S90XS, MO6, EX5R
Thanks guys,
For me it is unlikely that the problem is caused by pedals (simple on/off switches). An expensive synth like this should be able to handle all kinds of pedals (again, simple switches in the FC5 setting).
I have tried everything. The problem does not occur on my MODX (with all the pedals). Therefor I think this has to be some sort of unique problem that appears randomly, with all kinds of performances. II have lost confidence in this machine. So with pain I send the montage back. Don't know if I will buy another.
Thanks for your support.
Not sure root cause is identified - but I understand the frustration. If you use the same pedals and same Performances on the MODX as Montage and the Montage is having issues then I'd tend to think it's a warranty service type issue if you're still in the warranty period.
Current Yamaha Synthesizers: Montage Classic 7, Motif XF6, S90XS, MO6, EX5R
Just a thought...
I trust both Montage and MODX are updated to the latest Firmware.
1 - Save Backups of Both Montage and MODX.
2 - Save offending Performance as a User File (make a User File from the Montage, and a separate User File from the MODX). Before doing this, I would recommend Storing & Renaming each Performance with a Suffix, _MNTG & _MODX respectively. For example Rens_MNTG and Rens_MODX, since they are otherwise identical once loaded back into the system.
3 - Make sure you also still have copies of any 3rd Party Libraries on USB.
4 - Go to Utility - Settings - System - INITIALIZE ALL DATA.
5 - Do it for both Montage and MODX.
6 - Once the Systems recover. Load the User Files to their respective units.
7 - Test the problem scenario on each keyboard again.
8 - Using the original USER Files created earlier, load each into its opposing unit (MODX into Montage, Montage into MODX).
9 - Test the problem scenario on each keyboard again.
10 - If the problem CANNOT be reproduced at this point then the original problem was caused by a hidden/unknown setting or parameter that escaped detection.
If the problem is seen on the Montage in both case tests, then maybe there is a Warranty issue... for example a High Resistance/loose-solder/loose-connector on the FC Jack assembly.
However, my overarching suspicion thus far is that it is a MIDI Setting/Parameter issue.