[quotePost id=123541][quotePost id=123539]Anybody read my post about SEQTRAK? 😮
[/quotePost]
I've been waiting for some time to see what comes out of that trademark and your post resonates with my own speculations.
With the new Montage M launched in October, one wonders when would the rest of the launches (Seqtrak, Genos 2) happen, if they're supposed to be this year?
[/quotePost]

Hi --

Gonna reply to Jason, too.

I'm reasonably active on the PSR Tutorial Forum. Genos mark 2 is a lock for Fall 2023. Quite a few folks are looking to November for the announcement given some scheduled meetings/presentations. I don't think Yamaha would launch two flagships at once. Violates standard marketing procedure -- don't mix your messages. A few Euro-folken 😀 have made pre-orders.

Yeah, that version stuff is a pain when searching and sorting out the grain from the chaff. The Genos updates took the software up to V2.1. Makes it difficult to uniquely tag your new product! "GENOS2" and "GENOS II" have been bandied about. No pictures of the actual tin have escaped. (Yet.)

SEQTRAK is due, too. This one is genuinely off everyone's radar screen, but it's loitering somewhere in the air-space. I don't think a big, old Montage M will float all boats, especially the MPC community. A control surface,/groovebox integrated with some studio software? Maybe, maybe.

Fun times. I can't believe the amount of new product Yamaha is pushing out. Just saw the new low-latency YH-WL500 headphones. Does Yamaha think we are all made of money? Wait and spend wisely, friends. 😮 😉

-- pj

Yeah, that version stuff is a pain when searching and sorting out the grain from the chaff.

Hmmm - Could that be why the Montage M8x is so heavy? So the wind won't blow it away?

Still not clear to me what that X is for.

[quotePost id=123561]

Yeah, that version stuff is a pain when searching and sorting out the grain from the chaff.

Still not clear to me what that X is for.[/quotePost]

Could also be said of Elon Musk. 😀

I initially proposed "escapement" which is a feature of grand piano key actions. Could be related to the rumored GEX action which "provides enhanced key repetition behaviour that is typically found on grand pianos." Je ne sais pas.

Anything with "X" is just better -- we all know that. 😀

I waiting to see official info. A kind chap sent me a snapshot of the leak and I still think it is a not so good transcription of the official specs.

Enjoy the weekend. Gig, God and football tomorrow; grandson's B-day party, too -- pj

A couple of things borrowed from the other board:

First, Genos hasn't been renamed from Genos 2 to Genos EX just because we mentioned at the 11th hour that the naming scheme is inherently ambiguous or confusing. The warranty list is one place where product names have "flags" appended. The flags start with // (which in C code and JavaScript and ... indicated a comment follows which is not part of the code) and what follows these slashes are letters that mean something to Yamaha and I haven't seen a decoder ring for these. I've seen //Y, //E, and probably a few more. Really, there's nothing to see here and certainly EX is not what you're going to see.

Second, the wish for a software version of the keyboard looks like it's coming true. There are some unknowns like the outright cost and payment model. Also, how it will be made available to Montage M owners (hardware locked, one time unlock with hardware, or license key shipped in the box) is unknown. I would think at the least Yamaha would ship a key with the box so you couldn't just go to the music store to unlock it like they even encouraged with FM Essentials.

Not having to get the keyboard out of the case is a huge deal for me. I mentioned before that such an option may soften the blow for the keybed story of the 7 and 6. There's already a few choices of MIDI controllers that could be paired and earn back the ability of the "X" part of M8X.

What I don't like about pairing a 3rd party board is the control surface doesn't match. Would love to see a dumb MIDI controller released by Yamaha designed specifically for the Montage M software version. That's not likely going to happen so it'll be a game of finding a MIDI controller that best matches. Probably with a large pinch of compromise.

Hi Jason --

Thank you. This is one of the most constructive posts that I've read in the last 48 hours.

Your observation about "// EX" is correct. My guess is "region code" because of the similarity to the region codes in Yamaha service manuals. I've seen people speculate about the internal item code numbers in the menu list -- ridiculous. They are likely produced by somebody's GUI generation tool!

Also, we should give credit to Saul at Yamaha Musicians Forum for info regarding the emulated Montage M. Steinberg announced a rent-to-own program in partnership with Splice (April 2023). That might give Yamaha (Steinberg) a ready distribution channel.

As to control surface, I have one word: SEQTRAK (TM Yamaha Corporation).

As to other things I've read recently, logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead [JA] and are burning in the Internet dumpster. 🙂

Hey, hey, take care -- pj

[quotePost id=123572]As to control surface, I have one word: SEQTRAK (TM Yamaha Corporation).
[/quotePost]
That trademark reads like the description of a desktop sampler / sequencer to me.
Would be nice for it to be a piece in a "Montage ecosystem" puzzle, though...

The Hispadonic article has a lot of interesting detail including new pictures. I won't summarize here and tomorrow we'll get all of this and more from the horse's mouth.

My assumption about rules (that I didn't detail here) regarding the user and preset AWM2 polyphony was (probably) correct. It's not that any old user Performance will have a different pool than presets. It's all about where the waveforms are stored. That I'm aware you couldn't copy preset waveforms into the user area so you couldn't just save a preset into the user area and get more (user area) polyphony. The waveforms are still in the preset bank for this user Performance so I believe the pool is still the preset pool.

Reading about the specs and seeing a couple of videos (one on sweetwater a good example) I am impressed so far with the new Montage, but the prices are something that will probably stop my from getting one.

I realise how lucky I was to get my white Montage 6 just before the first covid lockdown for £1800 - the prices went up quite a bit after that.

Yes, I'm struggling too. I still can't quite justify moving up even though I recognize how close the keyboard is to my ideal of what I wanted the Montage classic to become. Given what I'd like to do gesture-wise with my pedal steel sound Country Dreamz ... or whatever it was called that NS demoed for Guitar center is good for that) -- I would have put the poly AT to good use. The weight is a killer and I can see that PolyAT itself doesn't add weight given the weight specs of classic vs. M 88 key versions. It's a big feat to produce a new keybed so I understand the rationale for keeping some things the same.

The white version of the board that typically happens after several years and doesn't change anything except the color may be a place where tradition is broken and the 6/7 finally get PolyAT. I'm not expecting this to happen (it's a trap many fall into) but I'll just wait and see and will probably upgrade if that does happen sometime later. Next year is Yamaha's 50th and I wonder if something will happen then to celebrate. It'd be crazy if poly AT was "turned on" but that would be a cool if unlikely thing. I doubt the plumbing is there in the keybed or even the upstream PCBs. I guess service manuals will tell if they become available.

Also I'm not holding lack of PolyAT on the 6/7 against Yamaha out of spite. I needed a lot to get a keyboard two generations in a row and that may have swayed me although I would still probably be on the fence even with that extra motivation.

The new keyboard is an absolute beast. It "bests" the previous model. I haven't listed all of the things I noticed that are improvements over the last gen. Can't wait to see one in the store and hopefully they use Yamaha studio speakers so the sound is representative.

I also got my previous Montage on a refurbished deal - so waiting helped me then I terms of cost too. Not "banking" on that to happen again.

Now that it's out, does anyone know what the M signifies?

Nothing in the docs as far as I can tell.

[quotePost id=123610]It's a big feat to produce a new keybed so I understand the rationale for keeping some things the same.
[/quotePost]
Some Music Production Guides are out:
https://www.musicproductionguide.eu/EKG/MONTAGEM_EKG_EN.pdf

https://www.musicproductionguide.eu/EKG/MONTAGEM_NFG_EN.pdf

There's this interesting bit about GEX:

"GEX keyboard does not use conventional key contacts, but electromagnetic induction. With this technology, each individual key position can be continuously scanned. In addition, the keyboard supports software updates, which enables the future development of further techniques and articulations beyond Polyphonic Aftertouch."

I’ll be very interested to see/hear what the chaps from Easysounds come up with for this synth. They produced some amazing sound packs (in my opinion) for the Montage and MODX in the past and I suspect they will have something to release in the not too distant future 🙂

Sadly though, if they do come out with some stuff that makes me salivate, I may well end up spending money that I haven’t got on a new synth that I don’t need 😀

Wasn't aware of those other two docs - thanks for posting.

Here is the link to the 2023_07 Music Production Guide that covers the Montage M.
https://www.musicproductionguide.eu/MPG/MusicProductionGuide_EN.pdf

[quotePost id=123722]Wasn't aware of those other two docs - thanks for posting.

Here is the link to the 2023_07 Music Production Guide that covers the Montage M.
https://www.musicproductionguide.eu/MPG/MusicProductionGuide_EN.pdf
[/quotePost]
Those other two are linked in that PDF.
The link you posted will always point to the latest issue, the more permanent is this one:
https://www.musicproductionguide.eu/MPG/MusicProductionGuide_2023_07_EN.pdf

The link you posted will always point to the latest issue, the more permanent is this one:

Thanks for the correction.