Yamaha today announced that they are retiring the Montage, their flagship workstation synthesizer.
But they also had good news to share about the Montage line today – releasing three new free acoustic piano sounds for Montage owners and teasing an updated version, to be introduced in the fall:
“Today we are discontinuing the MONTAGE music synthesizer.
Since its launch in 2016, MONTAGE has provided musicians with new ways to express themselves. As much as we would have liked to, we cannot develop the current MONTAGE any further.
As a thank you we are providing a final set of content free of charge for all MONTAGE owners. This pack contains three acoustic pianos: a Yamaha U1 upright piano, a Yamaha C3 grand piano (AKA “Nashville Grand”) and a Felt Yamaha U1 upright piano. MONTAGE owners can download this content free of charge right here.
We appreciate the music you made as well as the passion you show for Yamaha Synthesizers. Thank you for your support!
And one more thing…the next generation MONTAGE synthesizer is coming in October.”
What features would you want to see in an updated Yamaha Montage? Share your thoughts in the comments!
(A serious linear sequencer (like in Motif XF/MOXF).
My wish list:
• An Osmose Expressive E type of keyboard
• A USB/Thunderbolt connection with 16-channel, USB Audio
• 16 stereo analog audio outs
• Additional synth engines including a robust VA, wavetable, and granular synths
• Enough RAM (16gig at least) to run plenty of plugins simultaneously
• A full-featured MIDI sequencer for both the onboard engines and external gear (this would make it a self-contained music creation workstation)
• A much larger, tilt up (10″ – 12″ glass touch display (think iPad)
• 1TB SSD storage for samples, MIDI, and additional synth engines
• An SD card slot (for very obvious reasons)
• Able to host third-party synth plugins using the VST standard including emulations of other synths, individual synth modules, and FX plugins (perhaps Arturia’s CS80v for example?)
• A VST/AU/AAX plugin that acts as a remote control for all of the synth functions plus the ability to save and load patches to and from the synth automatically on a per track basis in a DAW project (the same way it is done with other VST plugin instruments)
• Importing and exporting MIDI files between it and a computer via USB/Thunderbolt, Wifi, Bluetooth, and an SD card
• Importing and exporting audio/sample data between it and a computer via USB/Thunderbolt, Wifi, Bluetooth, and an SD card
• And finally, a fast and powerful enough CPU and GPU to power all of this without breaking a sweat.
^ when not even the Korg OASYS is enough
24 audio tracks
Everything you said is a solid wishlist for a flagship. Except for that tilt-up display. I have never seen one that looks decent. Bigger screen real-estate is cool, but the tilt-up is just plain ugly…
Coffee dispenser.
The King is dead, long live the king
I personally find this concept boring; Roland is milking the same concept with their Fantom and Korg with their Nautilus. I guess that we will probably just follow the trend of “Lets add an aftertouch-something” with this new Yamaha series. [Same device, new packing and a few features added here and there]
Yamaha has the technology of making unique instruments, they have proven this with their legacy products. What happens with taking real risks and put real effort into something unique and innovative, which people actually want to keep? Example using their “Virtual Circuitry Modeling (VCM)” technology to make something we wouldn’t expect?
Heb altijd een motif xs / xf gespeeld ,en al 6 jaar montage gebruiker .en nu alstublieft weer een patern / lineaire sequencer (zoals in Motif XF/MOXF) !!!!!!
Montage heeft nu wel patern/liniere sequencer , maar minder makkelijk.!!
Staying with my Nord. Free content and support for a looong time.
Yamaha these days are boring in the synth world.
Let’s see if Yamaha disappoints again. Currently have the MoDX and have had the Motif ES and XF. They should have never gave up on their PLG cards. Their MLAN option was quite nice as well (period piece I know). That EX 5/7 line was sexy indeed. I always kick myself for not getting that.
i want a new rs 7000 witth 32 midi track, probabilty, step roller, direct jump, montage sound engine + 4 poly analog part , indipendent arpeggiator
Taking a page from rival Korg…it’ll be the Montage Krome X: two 2 super knobs (each with variable led flashing speeds and user selectable colors)
It’ll be issued in oil rubbed bronze as a tribute to stupid boutique sensibities. It’ll reintroduce SCSI. And it’ll contain the coveted German Grand piano which, in a flip of a virtual switch, will transform into a coveted Japanese upright!!!! Serious players will be able to activate a backing band powered by AI with the Cyber Button (patent pending). The backing band will provide Bruce Hornsby and the Range-esque generic adult contemporary rhythm sets so serious ivory ticklers won’t need to compromise they’re heated played…btw, a propriety foot switch is needed even though it’s a Cyber Button
Totally stoked
Support for multiple synthesizer engines, like the Fantom 8 and Yamaha EX5: ROMpler, DX-8op, acoustic modeling, karplus-strong + granular synthesis, vector synthesis. Yamaha own a ton of patents. Surely they could design something that’s interesting and mind-bending.
Yes if it could be as interesting as the EX5 that would be great.
Long live Yamaha Tyros
From the very first day of the release of the Montage, I have said that it is a not so innovative, but nevertheless interesting instrument, which is incomplete, and has room for improvement. I even likened it to an advanced unfinished EX5, and that in the process and in a short space of time between them it could be developed by developing the already existing synthesis methods from simple AN and VL to AN-X and VL-X. Which unfortunately did not happen. Now Yamaha is looking to find something new in an already tired project. It is good that he thinks about it very seriously, because it is already too late to enter the race of developments as he did in the era of FM synthesis.
Let’s leave the already terminated field of sample playback to the arrangers and produce a purebred synth that will be based on new methods of sound synthesis and not so much on perfect samples. It needs to be bold and find a new competitor like it did last century with DX.
Rack Mount who cares about keyboards anymore.
I do. A lot of people do. And speaking of Roland, I do hope they either produce a more powerful workstation with a more RAM / larger screen + compartment for separate SSD or simply provide a new type of unit with these characteristics and a linear sequencer – or at least provide a massive update to Fantom.
With all of the DAWs, trackers and iPad options, I think its asking a bit much for an onboard sequencer to compete. I loved my Triton, but it was a great day when I took on a DAW and everything was suddenly right in front of me. Leave onboard linear sequencers to smaller, starter instruments that intro players to the vital next step.
Today, a workstation “should” have something close to the wild connectivity of a Roland Xm, so you can leave the heavy lifting to a more friendly/capable outside sequencer. Its nice to have some things all-in-one, but its not a necessity now. My 2 cents.
BTW, a rack mount workstation is like smearing honey on your own butt and blowing the Bear Whistle! ;D
I like the FM synthesis in the montage(for the 80’s tracks), but it could be more like the Yamaha FS1R, but with more direct controls/better understandable interface, if people want super realistic grand piano’s they should just buy a stage piano instead, and keep the montage purely in the synthesis realm, as for different synthesis methods, additive synthesis like the KW5000s, and have a custom waveforms hand drawable, like on the Fairchild samplers, that would be a cool feature set, and retain the polyphony numbers of course.
Oh and b.t.w. Yamaha, please invest in a better reliable touch screen, the one in the (my montage at least) only properly responds after i leave the unit on for about 30 minutes(re-calibration does not help)…had it send for repair, but made only things worse…i mean they can borrow the tech from some manufacturer (Samsung?) that has a proven track record with touch screen tech, instead of inventing the wheel all over yourselves again.
Why using hardware if a DAW offers everything you
can think of, and it is always just a couple of mouse clicks away ?
A couple of mouse clicks is too slow for performing or composing.
Dicking around on a computer is the opposite of making music.
There are many methods to music making, all correct if you’re getting what you want out of it. Some of us prefer hardware synths for their immediacy, and sometimes, as in the case of the Yamaha Motif and Montage sound engines, for their realism and expressiveness. Others wouldn’t dream of using anything less than a seven foot Steinway grand for piano tracking. Whatever gets your brain into people’s ears is the way to go.
How about a non-workstation keyboard and/or module offering access to Yamaha’s exquisite sounds without the quasi-DAW or the light show? Yamaha’s acoustic instrument multisamples are tops in the hardware world, in my opinion and experience anyway. It’s a shame that ever since the last iteration of the Motif Rack those highly realistic and expressive sounds have only been available in premium form as part of a keyboard-shaped disco circus.
Cheaper than Montage.. way over priced.. even though I could afford.. it.. keep it simple to get from Point A to Point B.. like Roland… even.. Korg..
Just bigger polyphony … like 256 … that’s all I need
If they’re doing a 76 key version, similar to the Montage 7, can we have full size plastic keys instead of the slimline ones you put on the Montage please??
A TRUE SEQUENCER WITH “EVENT EDITION”!
so if a guy has 3 chords that sound perfect to him & he wants
to change the name of the recorded note that comes after or
slightly change that note’s volume, or lentgh, it’s impossible
because you dont have an event edition window.
100% live records without a way to replace notes isn’t serious when you wanna
add a loop of (for example percussions) 3 To more measures if necessary,
because the tempo of measure’s not always respected from the beginning
to the end of the song.
Wish:
-Ability to change time signatures, change tempo (several, through edition window),
edit single measures/notes By an (“Event Editing” window)…. This will show everything recorded:
ctrls, volume of each notes, lentgh of each note & exact position, to change whenever necessary….
-Ability to move or “copy” tracks or measures To other tracks or measure positions
Or “insert” measures (doesn’t delete already recorded content)
with a “X times” option too.
-Step recording
-Quantize, Shift note, Modify velocity (all from specific measures to measure)
(Quantize should offer various Quantizations (human piano with auto volume control of each note,
etc etc, this can be added in last resort) (a range of notes can be shifted up or down by a number.
ex: +2 or -5) in a specific range of measures, too. & Modify velocity: different
curves (including fade in or fade out) could be offered to select for a range of measures too.
Please add this, it will give the new yamaha synth a monstrous versatility
in terms of “creation”. & Mainly, Please, “event editing”, please don’t limit people
to replay a measure or 3 or 4 just to slightly change some parts……. .
It’s such a sad downgrade we had in previous montages ((