Great conversation with Scott. It's interesting that he mentions how modern synths/software (Montage included) has the needle-in-the-haystack problem. And although exploring single-PART Performances is one "fix" for this, he also mentions not necessarily knowing that turning this knob or another knob will realize the programmer's intent. Something about that "he" (Scott - or Blake) knows this, but no one else necessarily will.

Now what I love about Scott's work (Chick's Mark V set as an example) is that he has a great text file that describes the "secrets" to control the various programmed goodness in each Performance. What superknob does - what different knobs and controllers do. And, to me, the needles would be extracted from the haystack and more apparent if all of the presets had this level of performance notes from the programmers themselves. I've said the same thing before - and I wouldn't be surprised if I got the same feedback as before - but I still hold that having programming notes from the original sound designers for every Performance in a book (PDF these days I guess) or even something like holding down the Audition button or SHIFT + audition or something else (in-instrument documentation) would be interesting. I know audition can "show off" things a Performance can do - but you can't "see" the ribbon controller or modwheel moving or aftertouch because they're not "lit". You can't see if assignable knobs turned are common and PART level (only one or the other depending on the mode) and can't see all the PARTs' knobs at once along side common. Just saying that audition is a good start - but can't give you as good of a directed overview as performance notes from the author and there are simply things the audition cannot convey because the instrument doesn't "show" you everything.

My wish is for every Performance to use Scott's notes on Chick's Mark V as a model and somehow publish (document, inside instrument, online) these notes. I think during content creation it would be best to "enforce" the creators to write-up these notes and go from there. The ship probably sailed for Montage - but this sort of approach would be both a useful reference and also great advertisement for what you can do, musically, with the instrument in the pre-sale space.