Ok. I just signed up for this forum and have no idea if any actual Yamaha product reps participate or not. But, I wasn't sure where else to post this suggestion:

I'd love to be able to optionally assign a secondary/alternate "QuickSwitch" patch that I could temporarily activate only while the foot pedal is held down.

Let me give an example. Let's say I have a layered piano patch (20-1) that uses both Keys1 (Piano) and Keys2 (E.Piano). I have another layered horns patch (20-2) that uses both Keys1 and Keys2 layered together as well. In my 20-1 piano patch I set the new proposed QuickSwitch parameter to 20-2 (horns). Then, as I'm playing, I can trigger this switch instantly by simply holding the foot pedal down to get horn shots (20-2) and release it to get my original piano (20-1).

Said another way, when the foot pedal is held down, 20-1 plays 20-2 instead just as if you'd quickly pressed the patch change button. And, when you release the pedal, 20-1 goes back to playing 20-1 as before. It's just a really fast way of temporarily switching to an alternate patch.

Importantly, if nothing is assigned to this QuickSwitch parameter in the settings, nothing happens when you activate the foot pedal. This would of course be the default behaviour.

It's also particularly useful when using keyboard splits too:

Let's take my first example but split the keyboard so the is a bass patch (20-3) for the left hand and piano (20-1) in the right hand. However, I have not assigned a QuickSwitch to the bass (20-3) patch. Now, when I activate the QuickSwitch with the foot pedal, only the piano switches to it's alternate (20-2 horns) but the bass stays the same as it doesn't have an alternate.

Now we'd have a way to between layered sounds very quickly. I've seen videos where people suggest doing something similar by (for example) using the mod lever or expression pedal to adjust the volume of Keys2. Then assigning piano to Keys1, horns to Keys2, and mixing in the horns with the controller. For my use case, this has several disadvantages: The patches cannot be layered (i.e. use both Keys1 AND Keys2) as I have to reserve Keys2 for the alternate sound. Also, all I can do is mix the sounds, not switch between them. I may not want my piano playing WITH the horns.

I hope the feature description is clear. Whether it gets implemented or not, I'd love to know if this message a least gets to someone for consideration rather than just falling into the void. If anyone knows how to best submit a suggestion and/or feedback aimed at Yamaha product specialists rather than just the user community, please let me know. I'd love to know the best spot to post this.

Thanks for the consideration! Cheers.