I totally agree with you.

Come on Yamaha... Please... No more excuses ...Bring out the Montage Video Tutorials (Please) !

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Hello John - getting lost and confused is my trade-mark! Michael's videos are helpful if a bit rapid-fire (I've worn out the 'Pause' button) and things don't always go like wot 'e sed - but a lot better than nothing! The patience and knowledge available here is Biblical, but you do have to ask the right question, and I find that a bit of a challenge occasionally! Persevere - things slowly straighten out - I'm writing my own Manual as I go along, and that helps a lot!

Tutorial videos would be so super helpful.

There is no excuse for not having these videos available at this stage of the Montage’s release considering we live in the digital age and camera equipment is so affordable. Michael (Yamaha affiliate) videos are definitely welcomed and needed but are short and sweet for a reason which I will discuss below.

I think there are other issues that are holding up the video tutorials. Honestly this is a very complicated (not user friendly) synth so much so that a recent gear review on YouTube by none other than the Gospel Guy reported that he found the synth incredibly difficult to program. I think his admission is particularly important because he is a very experienced synth programmer and professional keyboard player and is well versed in using the Motif. He did mention as well that he had the board for only 3 days but i think the message is clear that there is a very steep learning curve as we have all realised.

The Montage is very pragmatic in its approach to everything and for my tastes not very intuitive.

A tutorial series would in effect blow the game wide open in terms of what the Montage is capable of. Currently the marketing campaign is based upon a script of unrivalled synthesis power and the potential of what is possible in the ‘right’ (see experienced) hands as well as deep computer integration. Yamaha are (and not very cleverly I might add) sneakily attempting to project the lack of programming creativity on the customer i.e. they are waiting to see how Montage users harness the tools they have so gracefully provided. The big problem with this approach is that the synth is not very easy to program for and as a consequence there is a substantial lack of real world examples of Montage synthesis. Because of this and other factors such as difficulty in accessing functionality because of programming current customers will raise concerns and questions regarding tutorial videos.

Can you imagine the marketing team nightmare and how even they would struggle to put a positive spin on the sound design functionality when the menu diving would be highlighted during the tutorial. Think about how you need to assign individual part outputs when building performances in your DAW etc and the repetitive nature of the touch screen jog wheel combination that is in no way quantified when marketed as 16 channels of audio / midi in your DAW.

The Montage is connected to the DAW via USB but pretty much ALL OF the functionality is still accessed through the touch screen as there is no VST controller as yet (actually outrageous). Such work flows do not sell units. For these reasons and many others I think there is a delay in the Montage tutorial videos as it is currently not in the interest of future sales to highlight the boards short comings (default programming etc) in a tutorial video for the world and synth community to see. Can you imagine the Korg trolls??? I think I read in the list of requests that someone had put a request in for a ‘white noise source’ if true (I’ve turned my board off for a while so haven’t checked) and this is a feature that’s lacking I guess it sums up contempt for synthesis and accessible sound design in this board.
Come on Yamaha – You have acquired Steinberg who know a thing or two about software and could support in the boards development so there really is no excuse for this current incarnation of the Montage integration and lack of in-depth tutorial videos.