Yamaha Montage 7chat_bubble_outlineFrom real comments

Many reviewers, including experienced synth users, describe the menu structure, arpeggiator, file management, and overall UI as difficult and time-consuming to master, with the workflow feeling designed by engineers rather than musicians.

@wimvanseventer5924

I own a Montage M8x for a year now. It came with a lot of love for a minority of good to beautiful sounds and a lot of frustration regarding workflow even with 40 years of experience with synths. The learningcurve is steep escpecially for beginners.\nBut now? I love it\nA big nuance I'd like to add is the fact that the Yamaha Montage M8x has an analog circuit added to it which makes it sound more massive. It just sounds better than the M7 and M8 and also much better than the ModX boards(!) You cannot compare these shown in this video.\nMy cons:\n- lot of legacy sounds you dont use. You can use them as building blocks of course\n- the workflow is design as a workflow in a studio. It creates a lot of flexibility but when you never had this experience this is a pain.\n- the workflow is designed by developers not by musicians as with the keyboard department at Yamaha. There is a disconnect in layout and flow.\n- a lot of legacy effects which you dont use. A few reverbs are good enough but in a board for this price I would excpect a quality as Strymon or Meris. The Nord Wave 2 nailed this, why can't Yamaha do this?\n\nMy Pros:\n- I use it in a jazzrock/fusion band and for soul/disco stuff. So you need a lot of flexibility and this one is king! Multiple elements per part, multi parts per performance. \n- I like the piano sounds very much, also rhodes. They are more alive than Nord stage 4 in my opinion.\n- The brass sounds are very good. Also some strings sounds are very convincing and playable\n- The keybed is perfect!\n- The midi implementation has some learning curve but is very flexible. I control my whole rig with Sipario and MCCR, the M8x fits perfect.\n- You can import the DX7 sysex ;-)launch

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April 3, 2026

@jfcleanup

Well at least you can do simple things like advancing to the next scene in de performance using an attached switch pedal ….oh no ; you can’t …!! And the list goes on and on and on of totally stupid and frustrating (MIDI) limitations and ‘workflow’ stuff. Using all 16 parts as internal / external (or both ) zones ; not possible. And why the heck does the performance setting turn the whole program into ext MIDI routing mode when you only set one part to ext (and switch off local control)??? Man…shall I continue ? Another one ; delete a keyrange layer (using the stupid round trip method of first loading a whole lib into user memory and back). Afterward ALL parts in performances that used the library are fd up because the Yamaha doesn’t keep the ID’s of samples and key ranges as they were but shifts them all. My Kurzweil from the 90’s did a (much) better job in that and was also at more flexible midi and controller wise. The Yamaha is archaic is many respects. I won’t trade it in because it’s my workhorse , but please Yamaha ; get your act together. Furthermore 100% on AWM sounds ; quality over quantity - ditch most old stuff and up the sound of the rest.launch

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April 2, 2026

@Awestruckdriver

Bravo! All food for thought if we hadn’t felt it ourselves…. Especially about the supplied mess of instruments and a very difficult user interface, though much improved from before. I do think that there are hundreds the instruments are so beautiful they can bring you to tears (almost) and are worthy of our awe, but they are mixed in with such a huge mass of dreck and navigation through them is not fun. If only Yamaha had edited the selection of all the great ones from the others and just supplied us with those alone\n\nI love the new speed and responsiveness of the GEX keys, but I agree that, in the 21st century, we deserve exceptional expressiveness in the leading synthesizer workstation. The arpeggiator is really a puzzle and like many things, inaccessible to anyone who isn’t a sound designer. The file management is scary. The instrument sculpting is insanely difficult. And yet, we love it for all the stuff that works and sounds wonderful. Let’s hope that someone at Yamaha is listening.\n\nP.S: We know this great synth is the culmination of incredible efforts using myriad implements from cutting edge technology, but, when it comes to the amount of instruments that are given to the user to choose from, Henry David Thoreau’s quote may give us focus: \n“Our life is frittered away by detail...Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let our affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand...Simplify, simplify!”launch

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April 2, 2026

@axelmaldini4218

Good sound but nothing incredible. Let's say you can't easily and quickly create unique electronic sounds like you could from Bitwig or from FL Studio 21, nor is it a complete workstation where you could master and publish your sounds within it. It's a good synthesizer with some correct pianos and some 'old' sounds that smell like mothballs from the 80's. The display is difficult to read and not very sensitive to touch so you have to hit it a couple of times for it to react. The complexity of the editing menu and the number of knobs complicates everything. For my taste it sounds good but I returned it, since I have Spectrasonics plugins for pianos that sound much better than the Montage M. I have synths like the Avenger from Vengaence that is unmatched and you can't beat it with this Yamaha. Recommended for the live musician but it is a waste of money for the studio musician since the VST synths available on the market are far superior to the sound engine of this Motif/Montage.launch

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October 29, 2023

Several users call the Montage overpriced by 35-40%, note it costs far more than the nearly-as-capable MODX, and question value versus modern VST instruments or a good DAW controller setup.

@steffenfriedle3254

Sorry - I don't see the demand so high. The biggest vendor in Germany even does not have it in stock since the beginning. Others too. So guess they did just not produce that much. AND. I guess with the high / overpriced model, and a video showed it sounds like the old Montage. So it's just the different User Interface and the AN-X. I tested it, and ok - nice. But sorry U-HE DIVA is WAYYYYY better. So I bought a NI Kontrol S61 MK 3 and have poly AT with my PowerMac as tone generator. And even much cheaper .. As I bought really good patches for the \"old\" Montage - which have plenty of LEAD sounds and Atmospheres .. I don't see what the new Montage should give me for a delta of 3000 EUR which I need to invest ..launch

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October 30, 2023

@sandwaves5642

If this one costed as much as the MODX - I and many, many others more, would have bought it. As its' price set by Yamaha today - NO thanks. \nThe MODX should have never been released, at least as a fully functional synth for the price Yamaha is asking... This - ( any ) Montage is overpriced by 35-40% at least ! \nA good controller with an after-touch and a decent DAW - far cheaper and better for making music.launch

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December 23, 2019

@halion9

Do the words Yamaha and Montage really have to be so huge on the front panel. They can drop a hundred on the price to compensate for the advertising. Plus I have a Motif ES6 and am not really convinced the new piano for example sounds better, 2gb it maybe, but the one on the ES6 is also multi velocity layered and sounds very good, same with guitars and so on. Strings I use EWQL. Newer is not necessarily better.launch

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June 3, 2016

@Mikeg73070

Korg has been doing this type of sound modeling for years! The Korg Karma did all of this stuff back in 2001. And NOW Yamaha wants to sell you on this (insert fancy adjective here) innovation? I'm not bashing as my first real synth was the Yamaha SY-77. I really like a lot of natural sounds in this video but it seems to me that they are really pushing the Karma style fx/bells & whistles and throwing a blue light on top. After considering all of its strengths and weaknesses, For $3999, I'll stick with my Kronos. Anyone else agree?launch

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March 30, 2016

Multiple commenters see the lack of a full sequencer and user sampling as a major omission for a flagship-priced workstation, especially compared to competitors like the Korg Kronos.

@jsmacks11

It's a great improvement over the original Montage. \n\nPros:\n\n1. Subtle sound improvement. The original Montage had a fierce high end. I guess this works great in a live situation getting stuff to cut through but sometimes things could be on the brittle side. This high end is still pretty sharp and clear but slightly toned down. I think this is to emphasize the warmer tones on the An1x engine but IMO it helps out all of the engines overboard. \n\n2. 2nd screen helps out alot. It is a bit easier to see what your knobs are doing. \n\n3. Redesigned GUI. Yamaha kept alot of the good things but made alot of things easier. Layering and splits are even easier to achieve to what I think was Yamaha Montage bread and butter. Also things like tap tempo buttons are a huge timesaver in Live situations. \n\n4. An1x. A much needed addition, a fairly easy synth that sounds warm and smooth and achieves things that were either impossible or difficult to achieve with FMX. PWM, SYNC, etc. This feels alot more complete as a Megasynth. \n\n5. AWM improvements. the almost unlimited element improvements, increased polyphony helps make this a layering monster. Also with the VCM Rotary effects, AWM provides a much better organ emulator without creating a dedicated engine. The Organs were a surprise. \n\n5. Better EP Samples. EPs are much smoother. This was something original Montage was already good at. Clavs are also nice. \n\nCons. \n\n1. No Sampler. I think they somewhat dropped the ball here as the audio inputs are already there with the Montage already being a great effect processor. \n\n2. No audio stem ability. Would be amazing for live use. \n\n3. No compatibility with original Montage patches using Soundmondo. There are a wealth of patches online for original Montage. would be nice to load those or at least download and convert. Hopefully they resolve this. \n\n4. Sequencer is still kind of Wonky to use.launch

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October 29, 2023

@pev_

This video is not a review, as some idiots here are saying, this is an advertisement/demo by the manufacturer.\n\n Some of my observations about the Montage:\n1) I'm really disappointed that Yamaha chose to not include a full-fledged sequencer nor user sampling! And still they put this in the same high-price category with the best of workstations like the Korg Kronos! WTF?? \n2) AWM2 + FM(X)?? You mean the same sythesis technology and engines that were used in the SY77, 25 years ago, and ONLY those??? \n3) No HDD/SSD??\n4) Add one more knob with a fancy light, call it a super knob (how incredibly cheesy) and make it a major feature???\n5) The \"orchestral\" voices still sound very artificial!\n\nPutting all the previous points together, it really seems to me that Yamaha is somehow stuck in their \"golden years\" 25 or more years ago, and cannot break free of their limited thinking. Sure they have thankfully advanced somewhat (like the colour touch screen and some other improvements) but this just seems to be by the general technological advance available anywhere, but still I'm most astonished that they still stick to artificial limitations like a fixed polyphony ceiling or the lack of a hard drive (or SSD). \n\nI would like to point to the Alesis Fusion from 2005 that had: 1) unlimited modulation matrix, so almost every parameter was a modulation source/target, so you could achieve e.g. this \"super knob\" with one of the four available knobs 2) a HDD, so you could save your voices/songs/combinations/multisamples freely with no onboard RAM/ROM numeric slot limits. 3) HDD audio recording with 8 simultaneous inputs 4) four synthesis engines including a freely routable 8-operator FM (no \"algorithm\" limits) 5) A very intuitive user interface despite the 240x128 monochrome LCD. \n\nGranted the Fusion had some annoyancies and limitations, and some unfortunate events caused it to be retired way WAY ahead of its time, but in my mind it achieved a freedom and flexibility in a workstation that is still almost unparallelled, ten years after. Korg's Kronos comes very close though. But Yamaha: WTF, are you seriously stuck in a time loop or something??launch

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June 16, 2016

@VPXM2012

Yes... well, another great synth. *Long sip of coffee...* from a musician at heart, and his own small house studio experience, I can see where they went with this synth. No doubt this hoopla always prevails for a while with anything new, and no doubt this synth will be a great addition to any music studio, and specially for someone doing his live signature presentation.\n\nI have my own vision though, and hence this here two cents of mine:\nNo sequencer. That, to me, automatically puts it in a category of a slave unit. As someone else here put it, for the price being asked, no amount of dsp for effects power, substantiates actual creative power they could have made this synth have with sequencer included. Mine as well just buy the rack mount unit, and save money.\nWhich brings up question #2:\nThis unit is capable of 32 effects (apparently) available at the same time... Then why did they still had to \"sample\" every frikin' piano key?\n???\nMy Roland Fantom G has that, and the manual that came with it was printed in 2008. So either Yamaha is cheating with available resources on the synth power, by taking away sequencer and few other bells and whistles, and utilize that for effects and the knob (?...lol), or their R&D guys need less vacation time, and more schooling how to properly utilize today's dsp chips' power. Or... and this is here just to sound more complete, they still use the same dsp chips from their previous flag ship synth, and just tried to create something different with their existing hardware.\n\nSorry for making this kind'a long, and if you guys read this, thank you for that!\nFace it, today's synthesizers are really kick-ass computers, capable of producing sounds we love to use, with their powerful chips, so from a musician's point of view, I will just have to wait a little longer, until something else (from somebody else) comes out, being a \"complete\" flag ship. A synth I can put up in front of me, with a sequencer recorder, and being able to control everything else in my cave. Blinking lights and flashing buttons are a bonus.launch

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January 27, 2016

Multiple gigging musicians say the flagship models (especially M8x) are too heavy to carry to shows regularly, leading some to downsize to lighter MODX alternatives despite preferring the Montage sound.

@jimroseberry5608

Given the date released, obviously a spoof video. \nThat said, there is definitely room for improvement. \nThe M8x keybed is perhaps the best I’ve played.\nThe AWM2 section was expanded to allow using up to 128 different Elements (sample based oscillators)… with trigger conditions. \nThat’s as close as we currently have to Kontakt in a hardware keyboard. \nThe weak areas are B3. Montage M is the only flagship keyboard without proper tone-wheel modeling. \nYamaha already has/uses it in their Stage Piano keyboards. Add it to Montage M… and the B3 sounds would be great. \nAN-X is (for me) a major let down. 16-voices for polyphony… and worse, the digital Filter is milk-toast (no character). \nIf you’re trying to mimic classic Moog or OB type sounds, it’s not nearly authentic as it could be. \nBy comparison, Nord’s VA synth section has 56-voices of polyphony, and the digital Filter sounds far more convincingly analog. \nIf we’re talking for live use, Yamaha needs to trim the size and weight a bit. M8x is massive and 62-lbs without case.\nOriginally got M8x and M7 thinking they’d replace my pair of Stage 4s. For the reasons above, that didn’t happen. \nAddress the above and add disk-streaming for samples (like Kronos and new MPCs)… and it would be nigh on perfect.launch

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April 9, 2026

@danielcolfer4671

Bought the montage m8X when it first released but it was just too heavy to take to gigs. Ended up selling it I now have the modx 8m after trading in the modx8+ for a huge loss. I’ll keep this and set up my programs (live sets) that I need for the cover gigs I do. I notice a difference in sound quality compared to the montage m8x but trying to move it to a gig was just too much effort. At 64 I finally feel my strength diminished. Honestly for the type of gigs I do and playing in church, the moxf8 (especially with the much better sequencing) at a street price of $800 used like new suits most of my needs. I guess we all get tempted by the new shiny penny.launch

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October 25, 2025

@reservenotes

I don't understand why Yamaha never has built in Digital Audio Inputs/Outputs like S/PDIF or ADAT for digital tracking and archiving. KORG and Roland almost always have digital inputs/outputs on there synth workstations for more robust integration with computers and DAW recording/mixing applications.\n\nThey claim that the USB port transfers audio and MIDI data but I would rather have S/PDIF or ADAT ports for my digital audio and that's a big selling point for me. So no thanks, I'll pass! \n\nA fast computer + MIDI controller + Native Instruments, EAST WEST and other Virtual Instruments and virtual plug-ins/synths is the better way to go in the long run and will save you money :)\n\nHardware synths are dying off in my opinion and the top Producers, Sound Designers, DJ's, Remixers and Audio Engineers now prefer to do everything digitally inside of the computer. They literally sound indistinguishable from older analog hardware and it's easier to organize all of your DAW files, mixes, samples etc. when it's all inside one machine. Plus you can be more mobile and don't have to carry around a big heavy 50 lb. keyboard everywhere!launch

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March 22, 2016

Owners note that many onboard reverbs and legacy effects fall short of boutique units like Strymon or Meris, and that a large chunk of factory sounds are dated filler that dilute the good ones.

@wimvanseventer5924

I own a Montage M8x for a year now. It came with a lot of love for a minority of good to beautiful sounds and a lot of frustration regarding workflow even with 40 years of experience with synths. The learningcurve is steep escpecially for beginners.\nBut now? I love it\nA big nuance I'd like to add is the fact that the Yamaha Montage M8x has an analog circuit added to it which makes it sound more massive. It just sounds better than the M7 and M8 and also much better than the ModX boards(!) You cannot compare these shown in this video.\nMy cons:\n- lot of legacy sounds you dont use. You can use them as building blocks of course\n- the workflow is design as a workflow in a studio. It creates a lot of flexibility but when you never had this experience this is a pain.\n- the workflow is designed by developers not by musicians as with the keyboard department at Yamaha. There is a disconnect in layout and flow.\n- a lot of legacy effects which you dont use. A few reverbs are good enough but in a board for this price I would excpect a quality as Strymon or Meris. The Nord Wave 2 nailed this, why can't Yamaha do this?\n\nMy Pros:\n- I use it in a jazzrock/fusion band and for soul/disco stuff. So you need a lot of flexibility and this one is king! Multiple elements per part, multi parts per performance. \n- I like the piano sounds very much, also rhodes. They are more alive than Nord stage 4 in my opinion.\n- The brass sounds are very good. Also some strings sounds are very convincing and playable\n- The keybed is perfect!\n- The midi implementation has some learning curve but is very flexible. I control my whole rig with Sipario and MCCR, the M8x fits perfect.\n- You can import the DX7 sysex ;-)launch

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April 3, 2026

@jfcleanup

Well at least you can do simple things like advancing to the next scene in de performance using an attached switch pedal ….oh no ; you can’t …!! And the list goes on and on and on of totally stupid and frustrating (MIDI) limitations and ‘workflow’ stuff. Using all 16 parts as internal / external (or both ) zones ; not possible. And why the heck does the performance setting turn the whole program into ext MIDI routing mode when you only set one part to ext (and switch off local control)??? Man…shall I continue ? Another one ; delete a keyrange layer (using the stupid round trip method of first loading a whole lib into user memory and back). Afterward ALL parts in performances that used the library are fd up because the Yamaha doesn’t keep the ID’s of samples and key ranges as they were but shifts them all. My Kurzweil from the 90’s did a (much) better job in that and was also at more flexible midi and controller wise. The Yamaha is archaic is many respects. I won’t trade it in because it’s my workhorse , but please Yamaha ; get your act together. Furthermore 100% on AWM sounds ; quality over quantity - ditch most old stuff and up the sound of the rest.launch

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April 2, 2026

Users express frustration that the synth lacks S/PDIF or ADAT digital audio connections and that some models eliminated assignable outputs, complicating integration with external gear and DAWs.

@PLAZALOT58

NO ASSIGNABLE OUTPUTS is a huge problem for me. I was planning on replacing my aging OG Montage 6 with the modx M8 mainly for the Full Size weighted keybed and light weight portability. Presently I run my Moog sub37 into to the A/D input to use the FX and then output the sub37 thru an assignable output. I also use another assign. Output to send a click track that is synced to an ARP to the drummer. I can’t understand why Yamaha would choose to eliminate such a simple thing as a couple of assignable outputs!!!launch

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October 19, 2025

@reservenotes

I don't understand why Yamaha never has built in Digital Audio Inputs/Outputs like S/PDIF or ADAT for digital tracking and archiving. KORG and Roland almost always have digital inputs/outputs on there synth workstations for more robust integration with computers and DAW recording/mixing applications.\n\nThey claim that the USB port transfers audio and MIDI data but I would rather have S/PDIF or ADAT ports for my digital audio and that's a big selling point for me. So no thanks, I'll pass! \n\nA fast computer + MIDI controller + Native Instruments, EAST WEST and other Virtual Instruments and virtual plug-ins/synths is the better way to go in the long run and will save you money :)\n\nHardware synths are dying off in my opinion and the top Producers, Sound Designers, DJ's, Remixers and Audio Engineers now prefer to do everything digitally inside of the computer. They literally sound indistinguishable from older analog hardware and it's easier to organize all of your DAW files, mixes, samples etc. when it's all inside one machine. Plus you can be more mobile and don't have to carry around a big heavy 50 lb. keyboard everywhere!launch

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March 22, 2016

A few detailed reviews criticize the AN-X virtual analog engine's limited unison voice count and filter character compared to rivals like Nord's VA section or classic supersaw synths.

@jimroseberry5608

Given the date released, obviously a spoof video. \nThat said, there is definitely room for improvement. \nThe M8x keybed is perhaps the best I’ve played.\nThe AWM2 section was expanded to allow using up to 128 different Elements (sample based oscillators)… with trigger conditions. \nThat’s as close as we currently have to Kontakt in a hardware keyboard. \nThe weak areas are B3. Montage M is the only flagship keyboard without proper tone-wheel modeling. \nYamaha already has/uses it in their Stage Piano keyboards. Add it to Montage M… and the B3 sounds would be great. \nAN-X is (for me) a major let down. 16-voices for polyphony… and worse, the digital Filter is milk-toast (no character). \nIf you’re trying to mimic classic Moog or OB type sounds, it’s not nearly authentic as it could be. \nBy comparison, Nord’s VA synth section has 56-voices of polyphony, and the digital Filter sounds far more convincingly analog. \nIf we’re talking for live use, Yamaha needs to trim the size and weight a bit. M8x is massive and 62-lbs without case.\nOriginally got M8x and M7 thinking they’d replace my pair of Stage 4s. For the reasons above, that didn’t happen. \nAddress the above and add disk-streaming for samples (like Kronos and new MPCs)… and it would be nigh on perfect.launch

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April 9, 2026

@Sophie-AI-Inc

The AN/X is very good. I do wish it had more polyphony in unison mode. Most VAs when you engage unison or say the jp8000 when you set osc A to supersaw you get a sort of expanded voice , where your hearing many saws stacked up . (8 times in the case of the jp8k) \nThe jp8k has 8 voices but you can still make huge supersaws. \nThe ANx is a 16 voice VA but you can only do unison x 4 and then you can add two additional oscillators. I’ve been able ti get some big wonderful supersaws , but nowhere near as big and wide as other hardware VAs . \nI initially tried having two parts of anx, that was WORSE and caused bad voice stealing. In the end a single part anx with chorus and reverb gave me a great supersaw. \nI did also make some massive supersaws by using some custom awm sound as one layer then two layers of FM , panned left and right , then one layer ANx . \nWhat I love most though is the amount of control, it’s just as good as hardware synths , the second screen is just such a leap forward.launch

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October 30, 2023