The a/d input tempo thing turned out to be an unreliable gimmick.. "result may vary" and boy, do they ever.. Flaky as hell in a live setting.. It does work if conditions and the input is perfect but in real life, impractical....
Any on the fly manual tempo adjusting on the Montage is a clunky impractical affair in the ebb and flow of ourlive improvisational music...

Watching the vids and reading the articles prior to my purchase somehow convinced me that live tempo changes would be a smooth easy part of "music in motion".. I guess wishful thinking had me fooled on that aspect ..

I'm still extremely happy with the sound of the Montage and glad I own one.. The tempo thing for me is a small thorn..

Tempo following is another thing entirely - I wasn't planning on syncing to an external source although had it at the back of my mind as a feature I may use for certain songs. So it's good feedback to hear what I can expect when venturing into this feature.

Still looking for if there's a knob I can turn on the keyboard to change the tempo for motion control and arps. Seems like a reasonable candidate for assignable knobs although currently not supported.

I see there's no hardware tempo button - just a series of touchscreen presses to get to the tempo.

Tempo can be tapped by using the [SHIFT] + [ENTER] buttons to view the TEMPO screen, then using just the [ENTER] button, tap your tempo.

Alternatively, you can just touch the Tempo area of the main screen to view the TEMPO screen, then use the [ENTER] button to tap the tempo out. Or tap the area of the screen designated for tapping... Or simply use the DATA DIAL to spin to the tempo value you desire.

Still looking for if there's a knob I can turn on the keyboard to change the tempo for motion control and arps. Seems like a reasonable candidate for assignable knobs although currently not supported.

Any time you are highlighting a tempo value (while the Montage is set to its own internal sync) you can use the the DATA DIAL to change the tempo. Tempo settings influence Arps, Motion Sequences, Tempo driven Effects and LFOs.

Auto Beat Detection
Unrealistic expectations are common when it comes to Auto Beat Detection. It works absolutely great on prepared data, (naturally). If you think your drummer is a steady source of rhythm, you quickly learn that this 'human rhythm' is far from being a steady clock source for the technology to derive tempo - they are two very different things 🙂

If the source is a commercially available music CD, for example, a track that is four-on-the-floor dance rhythm, this would be ideal. A song with vocals and lots of syncopation would be the worst candidate. Obviously. Mileage will vary, after a few attempts you get a pretty good idea of what will work!

Auto Beat Detection does not mean the instrument has a set of ears with a brain. It looks for strong rhythmic pulses from which it derives tempo. Spend three minutes playing around with Tap Tempo to gain a feel/understanding of how it might work. It needs at least three taps to determine a tempo change. Beat Detection has to weed through a lot of other things looking for the strongest pulses.

How ABD would be used 'live' on stage would be where you have a solid central clock source to generate a "conductor track" for all electronic members of the band. For example, the tradition of putting the drummer in charge of such things is probably wise and is most often done; but often the keyboard player is the source. Distribute the clock from one place - it helps if the drummer is in the 21st century and has some kind of drum module (like a DTX) or drum machine that can be used as both a clock and audio source but is capable of being a proper reliable "conductor".

If in a stage production you are working with pre-recorded audio sources, (so common these days) it becomes imperative that anyone in the ensemble that is using arpeggiators, motion sequences, clock sync'd effects etc, get a reliable clock input from a central source. There are different devices that can be used to generate an audible click - they can be programmed to generate complex tempo and time signature changes - and can be used in syncing lighting, and pyrotechnics and so on.

Would I ever trust a human as the sole source for beat detection (studio: yes, live: no)

You will have to determine the best way to accomplish this automated conductor based on your specific requirements.

In today's touring world, where half the tracks are pre-recorded (vocals, backing vocals, some times even horns and strings, not to mention sound fx, etc.) using anything tempo driven on stage means clock distribution. Having the Audio Input as an option is a welcome addition. Use it wisely though... But it's not "listening", it's detecting.

This confirms the initial observance of tempo setting - there's no knob which can be assigned to alter the tempo currently. Assigned meaning it acts like an assignable knob and stays to its assignment through most other changes (has a narrow way to exit from its given assignment).

I commented earlier in this thread that one workaround is to go to the tempo setting and use the jog wheel (aka DATA DIAL).

Keep in mind the desired use case is to dynamically change the tempo of an arp at the end of a song - maybe between songs of a medley to manually match the next tune's tempo - primarily to just make an organic rit. at the end of a tune that isn't always going to be the same amount of slowdown (ending "velocity") or same amount of deceleration (speed of change of velocity for rit.).

Using the jog wheel as a workaround has a few issues:

1) The jog wheel outer diameter is bigger than a knob - so it takes more travel to make the center spin as fast
2) The number of revolutions for the jog wheel affecting tempo is 3-4x the number of revolutions for the knob which I have used in the past (other Yamaha w/dedicated tempo knob).

Therefore - in the live setting - it's difficult to "grab" the right control (since I have to get the keyboard in the right mode for that or those tunes and make sure the right box is selected) as well as difficult to control once the right association is made since the travel is several spins of a big wheel vs. one tilt of a smaller "wheel" (knob).

It may not be possible to assign tempo to an assignable knob or the super knob or fader - but any of these, if possible, would allow for those tunes to gain the control I'm after.

A couple corrections:

Getting the jog wheel to control tempo isn't horrible. SHIFT + [ENTER] = tempo menu shortcut avoids the touchscreen - and the default highlighted tap-for-tempo box allows for using the jogwheel to manually set the tempo already. So one two-button combination which gets reset every time a performance is loaded isn't half bad as far as the mode-change part goes.

Previously (using MO6), I had to remember to set the tempo knob to the middle so I had travel to increase or decrease the tempo (since the knob had hard stops at the far clockwise and counter clockwise positions). So this is roughly the same setup work involved.

However, just tested the jogwheel for full range of the tempo (5-300bpm). That's 12.3-12.5 revolutions of the jog wheel for full range. This travel is hard-coded since it is an interface control rather than a parameter control. The intended use is not for dynamic real-time performance.

Therefore, the DATA DIAL step resolution is what remains as the issue when using this method as a workaround for no assignable knob for tempo.

I only have one good foot - so I tend to stay away from placing too much of a burden on the feet.

I imagine there's a CC setting for tempo so FC1 or FC2 can be assigned to global tempo. I'm being pulled away right now - but this isn't going to get me there although it may end up being the only way to get the function presently beyond the unnatural use of the jog wheel.