When you wish to use the MONTAGE as a MIDI Master Keyboard, the Zone Master functions allows you to customize what is sent Out via MIDI on a per Performance basis. As you may know, each MONTAGE Performance can contain 16 Parts. Each Part can be designated to control an internal MONTAGE sound or can be designated to play an external device.

The MONTAGE keyboard can play eight Parts simultaneously. You do so by activating the KBD CTRL icon on any of the first eight Parts. You will notice the Factory Performances contain from 1-8 PARTS under KBD CTRL (green icon on the HOME screen).... that icon links that Part so that you can play it directly or control it via an Arpeggiator. You can assign an internal program to a Part and/or you can designate that Part slot to send MIDI on any of 16 MIDI channels OUT.

In practical use, if you have a five Part Performance, like "CFX + FM EP" which occupies Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5... you could touch the "+" in Part slot #6 and ADD a Part, then activate that Part to send data Out via MIDI (you do so by activating the Zone Switch on that Part and assigning a MIDI Out Channel) If you want the slot to only transmit Out via MIDI, you can turn the INT SW (Internal Switch) = Off.

If you want to play that sixth Part together with the "CFX +FM EP" you would activate the KBD CTRL icon - which links it for simultaneous control. If you do not turn On the KBD CTRL icon, then only when you directly select Part 6 will you be able to play the external device... and you can switch between playing "CFX + FM EP" and the external device seamlessly.

If you are playing 5 Parts internally, you can ADD three independent Parts with external Zone Settings making your eight simultaneous KBD CTRL Parts. All 16 Part slots can have settings for external devices... but as always, eight is maximum at once... the others (and by others we mean those not linked by the green KBD CTRL icon) when selected, are like selecting an individual Synth (single) to play...be it internal or external as set for that slot.

From the Part slot you can independently set the Note range, Velocity range, Octave and Transpose, send Bank Select/Program Change, Volume, Pan for the external device. Each Part on MONTAGE has its own set of eight Assignable Knobs... what an AssignKnob sends Out via MIDI can be different from what it does to an internal sound. You can activate and deactivate controllers for each Part/Zone.

So simply put, when you want to intelligently connect and control anything Out via MIDI, you want to use the Zone Master function. The global ZONE MASTER ON/OFF Switch is found on the UTILITY > "Settings" > "Advanced" along with the global MIDI I/O Mode setting...

The MIDI I/O Mode can be "Multi" or "Single", and applies to all Performances that do not have a custom ZONE setup. When a Performance is designated as a Zone Master it automatically becomes Multi, by definition.

The next question usually involves controlling the external devices via the Super Knob... if you additional connect the audio output of your external device to the A/D Input of the MONTAGE your external Synth now becomes part of the Motion Control Synthesis engine and you can assign the Super Knob to control it, you can morph between internal and external sounds same as you would sounds in the MONTAGE!

Great info I will need to study what you wrote to completely comprehend to put it into practice.

Thanks,