Yamaha Montage Succesor Speculations

The Lounge Other Gear
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Me and my MOXF6 could care less.

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Yamaha is a company that has been making loud statements and advertising its synthesizers in recent years and often deceives users. I listened to Montage M (I have a modified and improved sounding real Yamaha AN1X) and I can say that the AN engine in Montage M is another attempt by Yamaha to deceive people or convince them that Montage M has a real AN1X. The AN engine in Montage M is a waste of space. And I will never sell my AN1X because I adore its capabilities and sound.

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I like how it sounds.

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Hey all, I read here and there that the ‘engine’ of the Yamaha VL1 / VL7 / VL7m is somewhere in some Yamaha Workstations included. Whatever that means. And whatever they are!

Anyone got a clue? :wink:

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Neither the MONTAGE or the MONTAGE M feature VA (Virtual Acoustic) synthesis in them.

Possible terms contributing to the confusion:

  • VA (Virtual Analog)
  • VCM (Virtual Circuit Modeling)

I don’t think Yamaha is going to add anything related to physical modeling synthesis to the M. Maybe FDSP, but I doubt that’ll come back.

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Thanks! For example, in a german article from 2023, there was written:

“This variant [Vl70-m] has also been integrated into several plug-ins of newer synthesizers”,

What I tried to read from that is, that if it is like that, it must be a Workstation (not necessary Montage since it says just “synthesizer”.

However, either that’s just nonsensical written and gives only the most vague information, or just nonsensical and gives only wrong information …

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Considering the age of the VL-series of synthesizers, that article might be referring to the PLG100-VL and PLG150-VL cards available for certain later Yamaha products. PLG cards of course are not supported by the MONTAGE-series of instruments.

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The EX5 / EX5r has a limited version of the VL engine built in.

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Thank you, I think that’s it. It’s like a Preset Player where one can change how much a selection of paramteres react to modulation sources (Breath Controller, Wheels) as far as I see.

Manual: https://ca.yamaha.com/files/download/other_assets/4/317964/EX7E1.PDF

Edit:

For those else interested :smiley:

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Some more guides from the EX5 forum:

https://ex5tech.co.uk/guides.html

I had a Korg Z1 and the EX5 at the same time. The Z1 was a far better tool for creating strange, experimental sounds. The EX5 is very much a straight-ahead workstation that is focused on creating very realistic sounds. For me, the most impressive thing about the VL models in the EX5 was trumpet valve articulation. You may be able to get the same results with modern sample libraries, but it was impressive for its time. The AN and FM models were a little disappointing, but if you’ve been looking for a CS6x and all the PLG cards, then the EX5 does pretty much the same thing but there are no PLG cards to worry about chasing down. I also had a TG77 at the same time.

A few notes on buying:

  • The EX5r is by far the smallest of the EXes and also commands the highest prices. Ebay prices look to be above USD$1000. :sob:
  • The EX5 is large, but largely made of plastic so it isn’t as hard to move around a studio as some of Yamaha’s more recent flagship sequencers. It has an excellent keybed. Ebay prices are typically under USD$700 and local prices can be a few hundred dollars down to free when someone is desperate to reclaim studio space
  • The EX7 is smaller, but has even less processing power than the underpowered EX5 so should probably be avoided if you want to use it as anything other than a ROMpler
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Thanks for the infos! Actually according to the manual, only the EX5 and EX5 Rack are the ones with VL inside.

I’ll look into the Korg Z1 (never have), because what I’m going for are, of course, sounds from another dimension :wink:

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Thanks for the correction, it’s been a while. :joy:

My guess is that Yamaha put enough compute in the EX5 to run the VL models, but scaled it back and dropped VL for the EX7.

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I guess that’s what the article was refering to, one of the comments says:

“[… ]until 2005 as Plugin-Cards for CS6/S80/MOTIF […]”

The manual for the card says:
“The Professional Series PLG150 boards are intended for use in the S80, S30, CS6x, and CS6R, - referred to in this article as S/CS. (The boards are also compatible with the SW1000XG/p PCI audio/MIDI card, and the MU128 and above series of XG modules)”

… and a used market listing mentions additionally Motif 6/7/8. I looked into the manuals, ES seems to be the last Yamaha Synth with a plug-in card slot. Neither the later XS or XF have it.

Thanks everyone!

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I’m mildly fascinated by these, but the cool ones were JP-market only, which only adds to the intrigue.

Fortunately, Floyd did a great in-depth review / analysis which confirms that while I like the idea of an MU2000, I probably wouldn’t enjoy using one enough to actually do anything with it.

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