[quotePost id=122286][quotePost id=122285]

Are there enough links for you ? Or, do you want some more ?

I just checked with 3 of those and they do NOT have any Montage 8 or 8+ units 'in stock'.
Perhaps you missed that OP is interested in Montage 8?
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Andrew read the original post slowly and carefully. The OP gave a link to a Montage 8, did not say was interested in one. The post was about unavailability of all Montage's. Quote 'As it stands now, you can't find a Montage online or in stores if your life depended on it.'
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Yeah all of them appear to have Montage stock. I suspect they are all trying to sell off what they have.
Though Yamaha have not officially announced that the Montage is discontinued, they may be delaying the announcement to allow stores to sell off any inventory they have without having to reduce the price significantly at this point..!?

The fact is that Bonners in the UK receive their info direct from Yamaha UK and they have said that the Montage is discontinued & have completely removed the Montage from their website.

So the question is what's Yamaha's next move for a flagship synth?
Do they go the route of the MODX+ and release a Montage+ using the same hardware, but with new features, increased polyphony, increased user memory, etc.?
Or do they wait and design/release a newly engineered hardware synth for their replacement flagship (Yamaha Mosaic ?)..?

Time will tell, unless someone plants a bug in one of the Yamaha boardrooms 😮 :p

By "Identical Montage" I meant the same Montage we have now without the "+". Meaning that a parts shortage have the Montage stalled out and it will be back on shelves eventually. In that nobody will care but I seriously doubt it's coming back to life unless it's a "+". After I got my Fantom I sold my Montage but also anticipated a new Montage of some sort and by now certainly. If it's a "+" I doubt I'll get it because it's just a supercharged Montage. It would have to be so powerful that it must "one-up" the Fantom which is a tall order. Like going from 16 voices at once to 32. Montage can typically not handle 6 while Fantom does an internal 16. If Yamaha only matches Fantom that's still better than nothing but it's not beating it. Lots of bells and whistles on Fantom also and mostly all free. Sure Yamaha will sound better in some categories but Fantom is like a Genos it has super articulation & specialty sounds without any upcharges. Yamaha makes you pay a fortune on the Genos for Genos type voice expansions. I seriously doubt Montage II will have a bunch of Genos level super voices because I don't think they have enough power to run their technology at an affordable or competitive price. Perhaps offer less but have double the quality of Fantom. I'm not sure when you have 150 guitar patches it improves anything if they all sound similar. I feel they simply try to get 100 more in the data list to say we beat you! Yamaha can add fillers that nobody wants and then leave out all kinds of stuff we do want like pedal steel or barely any super arts. I do get frustrated because their synth will have thousands but their stage board will have a few hundred but that's just me. Too many useless voices is just as annoying as too few great ones. Whatever it is I'll read about it and watch the reviews. I did purchase two Osmoses (layered) and the Waldorf Iridium for a good variety of sounds so probably won't need the MII unless it turns out to be revolutionary. Only time will tell. I guessing totally new synth because "groundbreaking" isn't more of the same old thing. I think they milked the Montage for every penny and for many, many years and still going with MODX+. I don't think they can beat Roland with a "+" machine. Roland could drop prices significantly on day one of MII release and kill them again on the price tag. It's got to be a cannon of a flagship or a totally different direction in technology.

[quotePost id=122292]If it's a "+" I doubt I'll get it because it's just a supercharged Montage. It would have to be so powerful that it must "one-up" the Fantom which is a tall order. Like going from 16 voices at once to 32. Montage can typically not handle 6 while Fantom does an internal 16. If Yamaha only matches Fantom that's still better than nothing but it's not beating it.[/quotePost]
IMO the current Montage is a Supercharged Monster Synth that already "one-up"'s the Fantom. A Montage+ would just be a Super-supercharged Monster Synth, and depending on what new features and enhancements they add, it would either "one-up+" the Fantom or "two-up" it... :p

Not sure what you mean by voices. If you mean voices=PARTs on the Montage, well I run all 8 PARTs (1-8) under KBD CTRL quite often with numerous Elements/Operators of each PART at the same time, plus I have the other 8 PARTs (9-16) sequenced and at times hitting all 8, therefore at various times throughout a song I'm utilizing all 16 PARTs at once.
So I'm not sure why your Montage could only handle 6 PARTs.

If you meant voices=Elements on the Montage, I have to be smart about it and not blow out the polyphony, but I have for more than 16 Elements playing at the same time on just PARTs 1-8 alone, not to mention how many additional Elements I have running on PARTs 9-16 at the same time.
I've yet to have a note drop and hit the polyphony wall...

And I basically turn those 8 PARTs under KBD CTRL essentially into more than 16, by utilizing different velocity ranges, aftertouch, Asign1 & 2 buttons, AsignKnobs/parameters/Superknob, to divide up/change which Elements are played on any of the 8 PARTs. I'll break a single PART up into 2 or 3 different PARTs essentially, each with multiple Elements layered. I basically paint with almost all available 64 Elements on all 8 PARTs layered on my Montage canvas, except that I many times I will have 2 to 4 of the PARTs FM-X and only 4 to 6 PARTs as AWM2.

Sure Yamaha will sound better in some categories but Fantom is like a Genos it has super articulation & specialty sounds without any upcharges.

For me, there is no 'but' after saying that the Montage sounds better in some categories, because sound & quality is everything.
I've watched numerous Fantom videos and many comparing the Fantom and Montage.
The Montage has better sounding acoustic instruments IMHO, especially the pianos.
And when it comes to "synth" sounds, the Montage is equally as good sounding, and when layering the AWM2 and FM-X engine sounds together, the Montage "One-up"'s the Fantom even on Synth sound quality overall, but that's just my opinion, so for the sake of argument, lets say they are the same/equal on synth sounds...
Having seen just about every Fantom demo/review/comparison video out there, there is nothing with Fantom's "synth" sounds that I can't do as good or better on the Montage. If anything, for me the Montage can do a few things with sounds that the Fantom can't, such as extra-ordinary FM-X based sounds (& I'm not talking about the standard Fulltines, Pads, etc. that the DX-7 is known for from the 80's).
One of the recent videos of the Fantom starts out showing how fast the LFO vibrato can go on the Fantom, and although they did a great job of showing what the Fantom can do with sequencing & especially "synth" sounds, I was left thinking "is that it?" with regard to the LFO based intro, because one of many favorite new features of the Montage is the Extended LFO that blows other synths like the Fantom's LFO capabilities out of the water in that area of synthesis. You can't fake or imitate the unique squelch-like sound that the Montage's Extended LFO can do when passing the speed of light... 😉

Regarding super articulation & specialty sounds, if I need any of that on the Montage, I just use Pro Tools &/or SampleRobot to add those as required. It actually adds a bit of fun and challenge for me with regard to programming new sounds on the Montage. 😉

I don't think they can beat Roland with a "+" machine ... It's got to be a cannon of a flagship or a totally different direction in technology.

I'm not that stuck on having the bells and whistles of a better UI and Pads on a synth, but that's just my preference. I prefer a synth with the best and most unique ability for quality sounds, and don't care if the lights or UI aren't as pretty as the Fantom or another synth might be. Overall I think the current Montage still beats the Roland, a Montage+ is going to beat it even more so IMHO
If they do release a Montage+ within the next 3-6 months, I would choose it to buy as a second synth over the Fantom any day of the week without question.
Who knows, they might release the new Montage+ like the MODX+ with the same exact hardware, except maybe an extra chip or two internally, and add the AN-X, a step-sequencer, a sampler, numerous new quality effects, enhanced FM-X, increased polyphony, additional User memory, etc. I would think all of that combined would go a long way for some people looking for a new flagship synth, but Yamaha would need to provide all of it out of the gate so that the reviews and demos blow prospective buyers out of the water, because they are not going to redo comparison based reviews against other synths after they do the initial review. If Yamaha decide to release some of the best new features later in OS updates, it will be lost on many who will see the original comparison reviews instead.
A perfect example is what Yamaha did with the YC, whereby they didn't get the single most important feature/functionality right until the second v1.2 update whereby they added the more realistic organ rotary swell options that should have been there on day one. It was too late, they had their chance to compete just a bit more with the Nords, but when you go online to check reviews & demos of the YC (especially ones comparing it to the Nord and others), the videos are almost all from the original release, and videos that compare the latest YC OS version against the Nord are slim to none...those top reviewers are not going to do a re-comparison of the YC with its latest OS against the Nords and other synths. Maybe if they re-release the YC as a YC+, then we might see some new comparison reviews of it against the new Nord Stage 4 and other stage keyboards..!?

So I think Yamaha have One Shot to get the Montage+ right and make some decent sales, but it has to be an all out, full feature package monster on steroids!! 😮

Now if they end up waiting longer and releasing a new re-engineered "Yamaha Mosaic"? full hardware Flagship replacement that "one-up"'s the Montage, then that's another story all together... 😀

True about the Nord and YC because my old boss bought a Nord without asking my opinion and he wasn't aware of the YC improvements or the Osmose, I assume he always wanted a Nord and got it without doing his homework. Probably caught an old outdated video and bought it. It was a 6D but I'll bet the YC73 beats that for less money too. Nord is way overpriced IMO for what you can have otherwise.

Yamaha has started this interesting game concerning expandability. With OS releases you get improvements and additional voices and add-ons etc. however we'll never actually know how far that will go until the expandability is all used up. They aren't going to tell you either or signal it's the end of the line. Everything they do is hidden.

It's a hopeful enticement but like was pointed out on the YC it took two years to fix the rotary which had it been available on day one of the YC release they might have sold double the units and sunk the competition. With this new philosophy of really long delayed promises of significant improvements only serves their current owners. Other prospective buyers aren't going to invest "in hopes" they fix the system one day and/or make it significantly greater in two to three year from now. That's pretty dumb and Yamaha is really slow at delivering such offerings. It's definitely better than nothing for current owners but it's a really poor reason to buy it hoping that it gets better.

OR let's assume this trend continuous into the future. Since we all know that at release the board is only going to be 60% of the final result after several years I should probably just wait several years until they get it fully fixed and fully expanded. This is a blade that cuts both ways. Lesson learned is don't buy gear now unless you are willing to accept it for only what it is at the time of purchase and fully understand it might take years to get fixed or improved. Also by waiting years think of all the other gear that comes available that is already better at release. You then have to decide are you willing to wait years on Yamaha or keep your options open for something that comes available within that time frame?

Because Yamaha stays silent now we have all these Montage and MODX+ owners waiting around for an update or significant improvement that might never happen. On one hand it is nice to get improvements but then Yamaha has created that expectation and now must deliver or piss everyone off. Their silence is annoying on three levels, 1) never knowing when something is coming 2) never knowing what is coming 3)never knowing when we will be cut off

I suggest that if Yamaha is going to continue this MO that they develop a PR campaign to clearly explain when, what and the end of it. Same as is happening now no one knows anything concerning the next flagship and so we're off buying other gear because Yamaha is too unconcerned or detached to inform their customers and potential customers of what is going on. Maybe it's cool to stick it to the competition but sticking it to customers is bad business practice.

Someone might say all companies do this same thing but I say maybe all companies are doing it wrong. How does one beat its competition but to reach out and communicate with buyers/investors and then maybe everyone will defect over to your side. I might be going out on a limb but I think I prefer to know what they are intending to do so I too can make a financial decision whether buy their gear or another's.

Once a trend is established I suppose you have a "crystal ball" of when something might be coming but we still never know what that entails. The importance of the YC rotary went out over all forms or media and communication and they still put it off for years. That's not a true commitment to customers but to their credit they did fix it. Better late than never but as pointed out the damaged had already been done. No UTube videos and head to head battles are going to undo the original damages and buyers don't even look at those dates or read forums for the latest news.

Yamaha should have released a "new release update" almost as if YC was a new YC+ product to get more attention otherwise no one knows and they no longer care. It's like you missed the winning shot of the NCAA title game but then two years later sink it in the summer league when no one is watching. By then and at that level nobody cares even if your product turns out to be better in the end. Your product needs to absolutely dominate at the time of release which is a great point. Timing is everything. So perhaps Yamaha figured this out and is holding off on the flagship because it's subpar at the moment. Who knows when we're kept in the dark all of the time?