Erased by Bernd #2

I just want to say well done Yamaha!

Second the motion!

The Montage is a huge step up in ease-of-use and intuitive user interface from the Motif. And the sounds are so much better that it's amazing.

And it's pretty!

I hope no one takes anything I say serious.
I don't own a Montage and I just enjoy talking out of my ass.

I've had my Montage6 for about a month, and it's been a joy. I haven't owned a Yamaha synth since my DX7.

I'm a professional keyboardist, and have used a Kronos73 and an Electro3 for gigging with my classic rock band. I left that band at the start of the year in anticipation of a major surgery (that went well) and kind of fell into an R&B group about two months ago. I needed more zoning than the Electro was going to give me, so I was considering a Roland FA06 but was so unimpressed with the keyboard and interface that I took a Montage home instead. I have never regretted the decision.

I love my Kronos, which the Montage clearly borrowed some things from, such as the touchscreen, categorized searches, and the Set List idea. That said, it takes me an hour to put together a decent zoned/layered combination on the Korg, while it takes minutes on the Montage. The sounds tend to compliment each other well, too.

By far the most innovative thing the Montage does is remove the distinction between individual sounds (programs/parts) and performances (combinations). With the Krog, I have to go figure out what my programs will be, bring them over in a very specific way if I want to preserve their FX, and the screen makes everything so small I'm constantly recalibration get the touchscreen. The Yamaha brings everything at once, lets me audition sounds in place, and saving is easy and the interface is awesome.

This all said, there is no question that Yamaha needs to do more work in getting good practice info to its customers. The Performance User Guides are great, and I suspect the onsite tutorials will become more expansive over time. The manuals, however, are useless. I spent time with them in the store and was very concerned with my ability to incorporate the workflow easily, it was only with study and looking for unusual sources that I was able to get the workflow to a point where I can whip up a split in rehearsal quickly. I am not quite as versed in getting the poorly named Super Knob (which in American English can mean an idiot or your penis) to do what I want quickly, but I have used it to create morphs between sounds and as a volume control via the foot controller.

I've been a keyboardist in the professional sense since 1977, and I have so much horsepower between the Kronos and the Montage that it's silly. I have no need to "trust" a laptop onstage. The Montage was a very pleasant surprise for me and I'm delighted I bought one. It's a pro level keyboard, it's not for everyone, but I will use this bad boy for a good ten years.