Rumors: Yamaha Montage successor

[ImproKeys]

From Facebook

[Jose EB5AGV]

Seems pretty credible...

 

Evolution or revolution?

[Bobby Simons]

Well. . . don't know about you, but I've seen enough - take my money! 💰💰💰

[Sergievsky]

Waterfall keys w/ polyphonic aftertouch for the M7x would make it perfect for me, but chances of that are slim to none. Really cool though when they roll out new gear.

[confidence]

29 minutes ago, Bobby Simons said:

Well. . . don't know about you, but I've seen enough - take my money! 💰💰💰

Wow, is that all it takes? That's some bad GAS you got there. 😀

 

Hold on for a minute while I do a quick photoshop mock-up of my latest invention, and get your credit card ready . . .

[CHarrell]

The texture on those black keys is lookin suspiciously NWGH....

[Radagast]

1 hour ago, CHarrell said:

The texture on those black keys is lookin suspiciously NWGH....

Translation please.

[ElmerJFudd]

19 minutes ago, Radagast said:

Translation please.

New Wood Graded Hammer - their better action.  Rather than GHS or Standard.  

[ElmerJFudd]

2 hours ago, Jose EB5AGV said:

Seems pretty credible...

 

Evolution or revolution?

Looks real to me as well.  I'd expect it to have the ANX engine in addition to the FMX.  

What else were Montage owners asking for?

[nadroj]

YC rotary I think. If it’s 8 sliders instead of 9 my hopes aren’t that high that they’ve made organ a focus. 

12 minutes ago, ElmerJFudd said:

Looks real to me as well.  I'd expect it to have the ANX engine in addition to the FMX.  

What else were Montage owners asking for?

 

[stoken6]

2 hours ago, ElmerJFudd said:

I'd expect it to have the ANX engine in addition to the FMX.  

Would score highly on the cool-o-meter.

 

2 hours ago, ElmerJFudd said:

What else were Montage owners asking for?

YC's organ model is the obvious deficiency in the current Montage line-up.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Konnector]

Definitely only 8 faders if that photo is legit. Adding a 9th fader would cost them $$$ to make all the physical changes required just to add one more.

 

Really curious about the ANX engine. Will it be the same as the AN1x engine, or an updated version?....and will this new Montage beast actually include it under the hood?

 

Who knows, maybe all they did was upgrade the keys and add 200 accordion patches. 

[CHarrell]

1 hour ago, Konnector said:

 

 

Who knows, maybe all they did was upgrade the keys and add 200 accordion patches. 

 

What do you think the A in ANX stands for?

[Keyboardplayer]

It looks legit to me. What the pics don't show is whether there are mod/pitch wheels or a Joystick controller and/or a ribbon controller. Also, Part Select, Part Mute, Motion Sequence Select, Arp Select, Mute/Solo Parts, Direct Access for Sound Design/FM Design located on the original Montage are >> absent, poof! GONE!  A big disappointment in my opinion if there isn't an alternative solution to the missing panel of buttons found on the right side of the original Montage. Que Sera, Sera. Also, the new Key texture might not thrill some people, according to reports. Although, if the key action is better, the texture of the keys might not matter as much, perhaps. Yamaha is seemingly also not serious about accommodating Organ aficionados, since the photo shows there are still only eight sliders instead of nine (drawbars) which are present on Hammond and other Organs. I'm assuming the reason for the missed opportunity is that the Yamaha YC-series is more of a dedicated Organ solution, therefore for marketing purposes Yamaha wanted to distinguish the Montage MX "synthesizer" from the YC Organ Stage Keyboard line. Hopefully more photos will be leaked soon. In the meantime, as the old saying goes, take it or leave it. We are at the mercy of Yamaha's design and sound production team. We think we know best. They think they know best. So far, I'm a little disappointed if in fact those photos are real, which they appear to be. Photos of the rest of the keyboard and the back panel would be nice. Who leaked the photos anyway? Was it the Yamaha Facebook account? I no longer have a Facebook account and Mark Zuckerberg prevents prying eyes from seeing what's going on. Whoever it was, I assume Yamaha approved the leak.       

[ElmerJFudd]

Not much more than we can see for ourselves…

 

https://yamahamusicians.com/the-new-yamaha-montage-m8x-montage-m7x-and-montage-m6x/

[CHarrell]

 

1 hour ago, ElmerJFudd said:

Not much more than we can see for ourselves…

 

https://yamahamusicians.com/the-new-yamaha-montage-m8x-montage-m7x-and-montage-m6x/

 

I dunno, looks illuminating to me. My suspicion is that those controls on the left are going to be very context sensitive, with the screen to display the parameters you'd be controlling. There'd be buttons to swap out what set of parameters you'd be controlling, maybe even the option to customize. I also suspect they'd be going hard on ANX, to where FMX would be lesser, or even more dramatically, either completely absent or like the YC, with a chip to play FM but very limited control. (maybe to support backwards compatibility in Montage patches)

[Bobby Simons]

9 hours ago, confidence said:

Wow, is that all it takes? That's some bad GAS you got there. 😀

 

Hold on for a minute while I do a quick photoshop mock-up of my latest invention, and get your credit card ready . . .

Just illustrating the knee-jerk level of GAS I live with. 

[Chummy]

yeah, I also spotted those 8 sliders that's something I had hoped they'd fix! I guess that means the chance of the Montage getting the YC organ engine is... lower?

I used a 3rd party Organ library with my previously owned Montage 8 and using the last slider to macro trigger two sliders was annoying. I think any keyboard that has both organ patches AND drawbar sliders, should have 9. The Fantom has 9 sliders and a bigger, more responsive screen. One of the reasons I sold the Montage.

 

The move to include the wooden keyboard on the 8 is obviously a reaction to Roland using their PHA-4 wooden hybrid action on their flagship. It's a decent action, much better than a current Montage 8's version which is the same as a CP73 but with addded aftertouch.

 

IDK... for a keyboard that claims to be "Performance Oriented", no drawbars engine (assuming), 8 sliders only etc. seems like a bad move. Organ is pretty common to use in a live context and Yamaha's "stock" non-modeling tonewheel organs were always bad sounding.  The competition recognizes its importance and Kronos/Fantom etc. have decent organ emulations that work well live. If they are looking for a sound to omit from a performance synth a trombone emulation sounds like a better idea, nobody will miss those and I tested them on the Montage vanilla.

 

Lastly, if the screen is the exact same like the current Montage it's gonna be lights out... Here's to hoping the new screen has improved response and allows for multi touch etc.

[CHarrell]

16 minutes ago, Chummy said:

yeah, I also spotted those 8 sliders that's something I had hoped they'd fix! I guess that means the chance of the Montage getting the YC organ engine is... lower?

I used a 3rd party Organ library with my previously owned Montage 8 and using the last slider to macro trigger two sliders was annoying. I think any keyboard that has both organ patches AND drawbar sliders, should have 9. The Fantom has 9 sliders and a bigger, more responsive screen. One of the reasons I sold the Montage.

 

The move to include the wooden keyboard on the 8 is obviously a reaction to Roland using their PHA-4 wooden hybrid action on their flagship. It's a decent action, much better than a current Montage 8's version which is the same as a CP73 but with addded aftertouch.

 

I think the No. 1 variable here is that the YC probably wasn't even in RnD when the Montage came out...this new pup is probably gonna be 3,000+ dollars...and if that new keybed is the NWGH after all, that'd be a LOT of overlap with the YC88 if they made this one more organ friendly. 

 

I wouldn't be surprised though if they've mostly abandoned the CP and channelled a lot of desired upgrades into whatever they'll have going on here.

[D. Gauss]

9 drawbars and built in speakers please.

[ElmerJFudd]

It’s definitely going to be offered in 76 and 61k versions.  

[Mighty Motif Max]

C'mon Yamaha - at least have 9 faders - that's part of what makes the Fantom so nice to use live (and makes it a much better controller). And fix the midi implementation so individual parts can be reassigned to different midi channels! There's still have the possibility of this pushing me away from a Stage 4 for now...but not without those changes. The icing on the cake would be a weight reduction as well - the Montage 8 kept the same weight as my Motif XF8, which really requires two people once inside a hardshell case. Not one for solo giggers anymore.

 

Worst case scenario, hopefully we can assign one of the knobs or encoders to be the 9th drawbar - with the knobs below the touchscreen, that might be a possibility. Nowhere near as useful as an actual fader though.

[stoken6]

14 hours ago, Mighty Motif Max said:

Worst case scenario, hopefully we can assign one of the knobs or encoders to be the 9th drawbar - with the knobs below the touchscreen, that might be a possibility. Nowhere near as useful as an actual fader though.

Earlier Kurzweils assigned mod wheel to the 9th fader when running their organ model. I would tolerate this as a compromise, rather than being ideal.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[HammondDave]

14 hours ago, Mighty Motif Max said:

C'mon Yamaha - at least have 9 faders - that's part of what makes the Fantom so nice to use live (and makes it a much better controller). And fix the midi implementation so individual parts can be reassigned to different midi channels! There's still have the possibility of this pushing me away from a Stage 4 for now...but not without those changes. The icing on the cake would be a weight reduction as well - the Montage 8 kept the same weight as my Motif XF8, which really requires two people once inside a hardshell case. Not one for solo giggers anymore.

 

Worst case scenario, hopefully we can assign one of the knobs or encoders to be the 9th drawbar - with the knobs below the touchscreen, that might be a possibility. Nowhere near as useful as an actual fader though.

yamaha…OY!  When will you learn?  Same crappy screen? Ignoring organ control by only having 8 faders?  Removing all the part select buttons so that you force the musician into more non-userfriendly menu searching? And I bet it weighs a ton!  

[konaboy]

gotta realise that keyboard players wishing to play hammond organ emulations on a synth workstations is a tiny minority group, and those wishing to perform actual physical drawbar manipulation is a tiny subset of that group.

and this new montage might not even have a clonewheel engine, we don't know that yet.

if it does, there will be capability to adjust drawbards and organ settings on the touch screen, that's how they do it on their top-of-the-range arrangers. that'll be more than adequate for the vast majority of the target market.

 

[ElmerJFudd]

You need to spend $4999.99 for the Genos to get a 9 fader kitchen sink sound set including an organ engine from Yamaha.  
 

 

 

Staple sounds for keyboard players are acoustic and electric pianos and organs.  Flagship workstations from Yamaha should have had 9 faders standard a long time ago.  It took Nord grabbing a significant % of their market with the Stage to get them to do the YC.  They were fairly quick to push out Slim P series digital pianos when they saw Casio grabbing a piece of the pie.  It would be wise of them to also consider all the little reasons people may not choose Motif/Montage at the dealer.   

[CEB]

I'd rather have a new boat or maybe a new lawn tractor.

[CHarrell]

21 minutes ago, CEB said:

I'd rather have a new boat or maybe a new lawn tractor.

 

Maybe we could ask Woody to start testing keyboards for buoyancy in his videos. 

[D. Gauss]

1 hour ago, konaboy said:

  there will be capability to adjust drawbards and organ settings on the touch screen, that's how they do it on their top-of-the-range arrangers. that'll be more than adequate for the vast majority of the target market.

 

um, no.

[konaboy]

1 hour ago, D. Gauss said:

um, no.

no to what?

that's how it's done on Korg's flagship workstation synth.