... how do I get someone's attention to give me some help? I'll take anyone's help, I'm not picky. LOL....

We can start by placing your post in the Soundmondo Forum heading. Your issue is with Soundmondo, nothing in the OS Update v3.51 has anything to do with Soundmondo connectivity.

You may have initialized your system settings or changed a critical setting, (perhaps not on purpose) when you updated, but a quick review should be able to restore working order.
You can log in to Soundmondo, you can connect — it sees your synth, seems every thing is working. Before you can Sync, you must select a MONTAGE or MODX listing (that could be a typo... if not, you must select an item to SYNC.
Check the very top line of your MONTAGE screen... is the USB icon flashing or is steady blue.

Let’s come back to this... and take your second question, as it maybe relevant.

Another quick question. Not too far back I updated to firmware 3.51 but did not re-initialize either the system or user settings. I was just powering off my Montage via the power connecter which also shuts off my monitors, etc. I had no troubles prior to firmware 3.51. After firmware 3.51 I started to lose my user sounds from "SoundMondo" and also the free libraries from Yamaha (Bosendorfer, Chick Corea, etc.) All of those free libraries were missing along with my user pre-sets. I went back in and initialized the system and user data and then reloaded my free Yamaha files again. I also started turning off the Montage from the Montage switch. Does the Montage need to be turned off by the off/on switch or is it ok to just pull the power from it? I never had problems before with earlier firmware. Let me know and thank you in advance as a new user for anyone's help.

There is no harm in powering up or powering down the MONTAGE by turning on or off a power strip.

No electrical product should be powered down by pulling the plug... the words “pull the power” should be purged from your electrical vocabulary. It is a safety issue. Switches are preferred.

Please check the following setting —

Press [UTILITY] > touch “Settings” > “Advanced” > make sure the box “Init on Boot” = Off
If you have inadvertently set this to “On” — the MONTAGE is instructed to clear your User settings on each power up.

The most serious problem is you are indicating that your installed Libraries have dis appeared. This can only be accomplished by
1) directly DELETING a Library
2) by executing “Initialize All Data”
3) by loading a .X7A (BACKUP FILE) thus overwriting everything.

You are saying you lost your Libraries (a serious fatal problem) my first question is how are you checking that they are truly gone.
Hopefully, NOT just because their “Live Set” screens don’t appear.

Here is how to check on your Bosendorfer, Chick Corea Mark V, etc. libraries:

Method 1
From the HOME screen
Press [CATEGORY SEARCH]
Tap the “Bank/Favorite” box to view a pop-in menu listing your currently available Banks, including all install Libraries.

Method 2
Press [UTILITY] > touch “Contents” > “Data Utility” > tap the “LIBRARY” folder to see and manage your currently installed Libraries.

Let us Know.

There is no “Steinberg driver”... we assume you mean the Yamaha Steinberg USB Driver that is for your specific computer type and computer operating system. Having the “latest driver” does not always guarantee you have the right driver, especially on the Macintosh side (now that Mac OS 11 requires a separate version) we realize you have a Windows situation. Presumably you are using Chrome as your browser...

Thanks very much Bad Mister for our comprehensive reply. First of all I see I can disconnect the power and not lose any library info on my montage. I'm not actually pulling the cable but have a surge protector with a switch connected to my audio interface, my monitors, the montage, etc. It was easier for me just to flip the switch of the surge protector to turn these all off than having to turn each one individually off. It just seemed to me that I started losing my user libraries after I upgraded to firmware 3.51. I would notice that after shutting off the surge protector off and then on again, the libraries would need to be reloaded each time. It wasn't until I went in and initialized settings under utilities/advanced settings that this problem went away.

Regarding the driver I was referring to the Steinberg Yamaha USB driver for Windows.

I also see that Yamaha has a SERIOUS problem with allowing more than one userid and password to multiple sites on their website. For instance I have one userid and password setup for their yamaha.com site and another for their yamahasynth.com site.

I now cannot get into their soundmondo site, (where I originally had downloaded a bunch of free user sound patches) No matter what I try, I cannot get the soundmondo site to work.

I needed to reload these after I initialized after the firmware update and lost the user settings. I believe there were two initializations I hit under the utilities. One was to initialize the hardware settings and one was to initialize the user settings.

I'm sure I'm more that 50 percent at fault to causing these errors, but Yamaha is also at fault for creating such a difficult to use, convoluted website and set of applications that I, as a user can get lost in like this.

So far I have reached out to account@yamaha.com four times with no response at all. Is no one at Yamaha aware of these account issuses or helping a user get these problems sorted out?

If not, I will be selling my keyboard used and will nevere buy a Yamaha product again.

Don't go out and buy an iPad - but if you have one available that may help using the iPad app vs. Windows + Chrome. Chrome has recently made some security-related changes which may have affected the Soundmondo experience. But more likely may be the old issue where Windows can easily create a 2nd instance of your Montage driver and I am not aware that the bug handling this situation is fixed yet. The resolution is to uninstall the Yamaha Steinberg USB Driver - I would say then reboot - then reinstall the drivers. This "resets" the instance of Montage back to the default. I think you can tell the "bad" state if you have a number in front of your Montage driver name. Like when you hover over the speaker (lower-right) in Windows and see the default audio interface is "MONTAGE". It shouldn't have any numbers before "Montage" or these trip up Soundmondo.

There's more to read here:

https://www.yamahasynth.com/ask-a-question/soundmondo-not-working-anymore/latest
EDIT 4/2022 - corrected link:
https://www.yamahasynth.com/forum/soundmondo-not-working-anymore/latest

I think your feedback about Yamaha is fair. I believe I'm part of the "elite" group Yamaha is most focused on. Someone with the technical/syth/engineering/computer skills to bridge the gap between what the interface/software does and the desired outcome (or someone who can pay such a person to take care of setup). Sometimes you'll even see Yamaha support detail steps that aren't in the manual and that are not intuitive. Enough so that probably the "average" user would not figure out the "once you know" part. The documentation is actually pretty good for what it does describe. Some things are "gotchas" not spelled out. Certainly attention to detail would either walk the average user through these or - better yet - avoid having non-intuitive "gotchas" that require a background story and explanation to use properly.

The equipment is really good. I love it. But there is a rather high expectation barring complete entry. The other way to say this - and maybe Yamaha's perspective - is that learning an instrument takes work. This work is an investment "expected" the end-user will do in order to learn and utilize the instrument. I just wish some of the design choices were a bit more friendly and not seemingly intentionally more difficult. I don't think there's intent - I just think the design philosophy is not keeping pace with technology. The technology is doing fine keeping up OK. In the past if you had to use a computer - it was hard to use. Cryptic commands and lots of "hand cranking" to get anything done. Setting jumpers, taking care of interrupt (IRQ) conflicts, all sorts of stuff. Software had crazy commands with control sequences just to do simple things. Lots of a learning curve. I think some of the design philosophy is stuck a bit in that era. Slowly pieces are updated - but some are left behind.

If the juice is worth the squeeze - hang in there. You have allies here.

Yamaha is a fully vertical company, for sound creation and management, across all major platforms (Mac, iOS and Windows), and integrates with most of its musical instruments in some way.

Part of this vertical integration is SoundMondo, websites and Cubase and Cubasis and their ASIO drivers.

Yet they're not really integrated, and they're not nearly stable enough, and users can lose their most valued possessions, their creative productions, with all together too much ease.

This happens at the smallest level, to the biggest level. From accidentally changing a part and not being able to UNDO it on the Montage/MODX, to curation efforts of user created sounds failing in all sorts of ways, all too often, to huge issues with MIDI that are just utterly ridiculous in this era.

How is a small recurring nightmare like stuck notes still a thing in an entirely Yamaha centric setup?

What you're seeing, in david's frustrations and determination to sell out of Yamaha and move on with his life to other products is the result of this general lack of care and consideration for the entire user experience from a company that sells across and too the entire user experience, which is one of the reasons people like david buy in... hoping that it all "just works™"

Do better, Yamaha.

Stop hiding behind things like the suggestions box of IdeaScale and get infront of users that spend hard earned money and their incredibly valuable time working on getting better at using stuff that doesn't get better at helping them with their most precious creations.

Thank you for all the information. I have tried all of the suggestions to no avail. I even uninstalled the Steinberg/Yamaha USB driver and reinstalled it again to no avail.

This is really frustrating. I'm going to forget about soundmondo for now and will hope someone will come up with a solution to this.

I'm not sure what the e-mail account.yamaha.com is or who is supposed to check it, but i have sent 6 requests now for someone to reset my userids, (if that is even possible) and no one even responds to me.

it appears that this is a widespread problem and why Yamaha won't step up and fix it is really a shame.

Thanks once again for all who have replied. I hope my anger is understood as frustration and not at anyone in particular answering these forums.

Best Regards,

Dave

Then there may be something to the new Chrome changes. I'll have to "USB up" my keyboard here to test. And have to install stock Chrome since I've made changes to Chrome to work with this forum -- which may also apply to Soundmondo.

I was able to get it to work - but saw lots of ways it would not work.

Tips:

1) Don't use Chrome Incognito mode. I think this is in the previous suggestions - but I use this mode so much instead of clearing cache for testing business software that requires cache cleared all the time. My normal is to have a lot of incognito browsers open. Double-check that.

2) Check to see your chrome settings. I didn't test with this OFF - but it's something required to login to the forum - and Soundmondo seems to work similarly.

Type this in chrome's address bar (and return):

chrome://flags/#same-site-by-default-cookies

Select Disabled.

3) Make sure you login. You need to see this:

And by "this" I mean the "Sign Out" button (which indicates you're signed in) labeled as "1" with an arrow.

4) Make sure you've navigated to a sound such as the one I picked that supports my Montage (CFX Concert X - designed on a MODX). Shown as an arrow labeled "5"

5) Make sure MIDI access is enabled for the site. You will see a keyboard icon labeled as "2" with an arrow

Let me know which of these you do not see matching.

1, 2, 3, or 4. And if you are navigating to a sound or not (5).

Jason:
Thanks for the suggestions:
I will check on these settings later this week or over the weekend. I'm glad you were able to make it work. I was going to try to hook up my laptop, (Non DAW) to try to make this work.
I know I had the green light lit but I did not have the "sign out" button on the screen. I instead had the "Login" button in blue on the right hand side of the screen. This is were things started to get screwed up. If I hit the button "sync" all I would get was the red warning circle when I hovered over it.

Another thing I am finding is each time I try to log back into this forum I have to jump through hoops of fire to get logged back in again. Sometimes the program tells me it is sending me a link in my gmail account which never comes. Am I going crazy here or what?

I'm glad I have figured out how to get back into the forum to communicate. I'll see if there is a setting on the forum to keep me logged back in..

The problem I seem to have is when I try to log in to the Soundmondo site. No matter what I put for a userid or password will not work.

I'll try your suggestions first, but if that doesn't work I was going to uninstall chrome, re-install it again, delete the Steinberg Yamaha USB drivers again and of course, re-install it again and see if I can isolate the problem down.

I'm not a NOOB in IT, I worked for IBM as an software engineer for most of my career, owned Computer Stores for 5 years, etc. I know that two weeks ago, when I first started working on SoundMondo, it just worked. Now I can't get it to work no matter what I try.

A Corporation the size of Yamaha should never code a site like this. It just shouldn't be this difficult. I've now been working on this on and off for over 3 days now. Sure, it's free, but even building a free site like this should be an embarrassment for Yamaha.

I also have a friend who owns and IPOD with IOS on it and also an IPHONE. I was going to ask him if he could bring it by and at least I could get the sounds I had on before loaded back into my Montage. It doesn't solve the longer term issue of making it work with Chrome and Windows, but it would get me back to my original state when I started losing libraries, etc. Things seem to be stable on that front, at least for now. I have another 18 months of warranty through Sweetwater, so if it is an intermittent hardware issue it will surely crop up again.

I appreciate your attempts to help me but Yamaha should not be making me be their software tester.

I'll do some more work on this over the next couple of days and let you know what I find out. I will start with your suggestions first as I now have something to go by to get started.

this forum and their software would be an embarrassment to Yamaha... if they cared about such things.

They don't. It's that simple.

This is often hard for those of us that suffer from a tendency towards conspiracies of optimism and/or wrongly conflate our own sympathies and concerns with our perceptions of the motivations and intents of others.

Once you realise that the greatest trick the devil ever pulled is really the greatest trick he ever pulled, it's much easier to realise that there's a quantum gulf from caring to just not, and that not caring immediately creates a void into which goes the unspoken.

I appreciate your attempts to help me but Yamaha should not be making me be their software tester.

I'm not sure if you're aware, but I'm not affiliated with Yamaha at all except as a user, like you, of their products.

So whatever I'm asking for is just my attempt to figure out what step is the problem. Maybe Yamaha would do this differently - but I don't have the same resources at my disposal.

Seems like it's the login. Which may be helped by making the browser "flag" modification (and not using incognito). I kept getting kicked out from the login - no error no message - just returned back to the same initial screen and no indication that I was logged in. It wasn't until I realized I was using incognito that using a standard browser fixed it. I would imagine not having the flag set (which is the only way the forum login seems to work now) - would also mess up Soundmondo the same way.

Hi Jason:
Well I got ambitious and decided to work on SoundMondo and Chrome again.
First, I uninstalled Chrome and then the Yamaha/Steinberg drivers again.
I then installed the drivers to get a clean install, then installed Chrome again without resyncing any of my old tabs/etc.
I then checked to to see if I was blocking the MIDI capability in the site - I turned all of the MIDI blocking off on the SoundMondo tab.
I then checked to see if I was somehow using Incognito mode. I never use it, so unless if I were stuck in some kind of auto incognito mode, I don't see how that could be the issue.

At the top of the SoundMondo screen I get the green dot showing I have communications with my Montage and the blue sync button, but I don't have the blue sign out button

When I first started up SoundMondo and signed in, it allowed me to sign in, but I never got the blue sign out message again indicating I'm not really signed in.

I put in your url - I assume in the url bar when I'm in SoundMondo? I then turned as many to disabled as possible. This seemed to do nothing.

In short, I just seem to be going around in circles on this and getting no where.

I had it working the very first time I used it, but ever since putting in the 3.51 firmware, I get nowhere.

If you have anything else I can try, let me know.

Again, nothing should be this difficult.

Thank you again for your efforts in trying to help me. I understand you are not affiliated with Yamaha in anyway. Isn't there some support person I can tap into at Yamaha that can help me with this? Does no one care at Yamaha that some of their loyal customers can't use their applications they created?

What's top on my list in buying any product is support and service over anything else including price. Right now Yamaha is letting me know they have no intentions of fixing this!

A BIG FAT UGH!!! Yamaha. . I love your products and have purchased many including a Yamaha U7 upright Grand piano which is now almost 40 years old and more other products than I can count, but I won't be buying anymore unless Yamaha can help me with these kind of support issues.

In a general sense, Yamaha is aware of login problems. At least they're aware of the problems logging into the forum. The problem with logging into Soundmondo may be related. If they are - there's a "under construction" acknowledgement about the login issue. It's on the "learn more" banner of the forum:

https://yamahasynth.com/learn/news/yamahasynth-com-login

None of this really helps you, I understand. It's frustrating when you make such a huge time investment and end up still with something that doesn't work. That I can make it work here is of no use to you. The system has so many trap doors and requirements that it's difficult for even me to sometimes get Soundmondo to work. And even when I do - it's after a lot of doing. I'm not able to fix all of the poor design decisions that made the system so hard to use. However, hopefully I can help somehow. I really don't think a reinstall of Chrome is needed. Not unless you're using the "Dev" or "Canary" or other pre-release versions of Chrome. I doubt that's the case.

I guess it's possible you have a problem logging in because there's something wrong with the account. I sort of doubt that - but who knows. Maybe you've already done it 5 times - don't do it again if that didn't help before.

https://soundmondo.yamahasynth.com/sign-in
... and "sign up now". At least you won't have to wait for someone to reset if you create a new one from scratch. There should be a way to find an email host that will allow for you to create a fresh email account if you've used up your only email for the purposes of creating a new account.

As of June 7, 2021 still cannot get SYNC to work with SOUNDMONDO.

3 different browsers, uninstalled/reinstalled driver, rebooted, checked MIDI settings = NO SYNC

WTF Yamaha?

if you're not going to fix SOUNDMONDO, at least give us the ability to share files manually.