It has backlit buttons, the pulsating Super Knob allowing for a wide range of dynamic sound changes, rotary encoders with LED position indicator collars, LED ‘ladders’ for the faders, plus a 17cm (7”) colour touchscreen. The front panel is like a spaceship – this ‘futuristic’ synth would be easy to navigate in a dark room/stage. It works, it’s really intuitive (I didn’t need to read the manual to find my way around), and it responds quickly to touch. One of the surprising things about this synth is that it has a touch screen menu that’s actually good. This did frustrate me, but if you’re a geek for creating arpeggios, then this would likely be your synth. With more than 10,000 Arpeggio types the Montage 6 sells itself on its arpeggio function – but I found it too complex, so much so that it was difficult to get a simple arpeggio. I was also pleased to discover you can upload your own sounds/samples.Īs noted above, I’m a big Korg Polysix fan. The digital console offers even deeper possibilities, if you want to do more. The signal processing options are the most thorough I’ve come across in a synth. The best place for me was the well-articulated parameter area on the left hand side of the keyboard where there are physical knobs to manipulate Tone, EQ/FX and ARP/MS. The Montage offers so many ways to manipulate sounds that it was hard to know where to start. The console is nicely satisfying – I was very quickly able to access the different sound banks. It covers all genres and the sounds (with large-volume waveform data) are better than anything I’ve heard in a synthesiser. The performance/sound bank is incredible. It gives you a bank of sounds to manipulate. It does not have an oscillator that generates a simple sine/sawtooth waveforms. This is an FM synthesiser – it’s not an analogue synth. Did they use this for the Stranger Things soundtrack? (I think the timing is wrong – but you get my drift.) Getting into it The sound bank at first listen is incredible. It reminded me of my Korg Polysix, which weighs around 12kg and has the most amazing arpeggiator I’ve ever played. It usually means the circuitry is top notch, there’s lots of it AND that the casing of the synth is robust. It’s heavy, and when synthesisers are heavy I get excited. The ‘Motion Control’ matrix provides for the creation of new sounds not possible on previous hardware synths. The two can be zoned or layered across eight parts. The Montage ‘Motion Control Synthesis Engine’ combines two sound engines – AWM2 (high-quality waveform and subtractive synthesis) and FM-X (pure Frequency Modulation synthesis). 128-note stereo polyphony, customisable control sequences, 1.75GB of integrated flash memory and a ‘Super Knob’ feature across the range. Along with the 76-key Montage 7 model it has a semi-weighted action with aftertouch called FSX. A further development of Yamaha’s game-changing DX and the later Motif synth range, Montages come in three models, 88-, 76- and 61-key versions – the latter being the one I was provided for this review.īiggest of the range is the Montage 8 which boasts fully-weighted balanced hammer key action and will set you back seven grand, while the Montage 6 comes at the more widely affordable rrp of $5,099. Released this year, Yamaha’s new Montage is billed a synthesiser from the future and a flagship product for the brand.
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