Category Archives: MOX

Patience is a virtue

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But, wait! There’s more!

mx49 posted this list of new product names extracted from a Yamaha warranty registration site:

    147641 - MODX6+ //E 
    147642 - MODX7+ //E 
    147643 - MODX8+ //E 
    147752 - P-125AB 
    147753 - P-125AWH 
    147970 - CK88 
    147971 - CK61 
    149017 - P-143B 
    149018 - P-145B 
    149019 - P-225B 
    149020 - P-225WH 
    149496 - GENOS2 //Y2 
    149720 - MONTAGE M6 //E 
    149721 - MONTAGE M7 //E 
    149722 - MONTAGE M8X //E 
    149729 - P-525B //Y2 
    149730 - P-525WH //Y2

Oh heck, might as well throw in the new STAGEPAS 100 BTR and STAGEPAS 200 BTR:

    STAGEPAS100 //B 
    STAGEPAS100BTR 
    STAGEPAS200 //B 
    STAGEPAS200BTR

Thank you, mx49, and the rest of the folks at Yamaha Musicians Forum.

The Montage M series leaked yesterday. Now we know that GENOS2 is on-the-way sometime in the near-term future, too. 🙂

Regular readers know that I’m trying out 88-key digital piano keyboards and developed a fondness for the Yamaha P-515. The P-515 was release in 2018 and it will be replaced by the P-525, again, sometime in the near-term future.

Wow, the new Montage MX8 and P-525 — both are worth waiting for and both potentially fill an actual need. Patience is a virtue. Keep repeating that. 🙂

I’ll have more thoughts about all of this tomorrow. Today is a typical Sunday — gig, God and football. Take a breather and start the new week fresh!

Copyright © 2023 Paul J. Drongowski

Arpeggio to style conversion

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Let’s get one out of the vault… 🙂

The Motif XS/XF (MOX/MOXF) and Montage (MODX) arpeggios and performances are a great source of inspiration. Unlike Yamaha’s arranger series, the built-in phrase library is rich in urban and chill patterns. For some odd reason, one of the classic XS/MOX performances — “Dresden At Night” — never made the leap to Motif XF. And, it’s missing from Montage/MODX, too.

A PSR Tutorial forum member sought help resurrecting Dresden At Night, albeit a recreation for the PSR-SX700 arranger. I thought I would help out since I wrote a series of articles about MOX performance to style conversion:

The end result of that work is a small collection of PSR (Tyros, Genos) styles based on MOX (Motif XS) performances.

If you would like to try Dresden At Night or experiment with a conversion of your own, download the free ZIP file.

MOX performances have four parts (voices). Each part has up to six musical phrases (arpeggios) associated with it. Six front-panel buttons select the currently playing set of arpeggios, i.e., button one selects the first arpeggio for each set and so forth. To get the basic MIDI data, I played each arpeggio (group) for four measures while recording in MOX performance quick record mode. I wrote out the MIDI data as a Standard MIDI File (SMF), transfered the SMF to PC, and imported the SMF into a DAW (Sonar).

Dresden At Night is a downtempo (91 BPM), urban-ish chill performance. It has four parts:

Part# Voice    Name              NoteLo NoteHi VelLo VelHi Level Pan
----- -------- ----------------  ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- ---
  1   PRE8:070 8Z Heavy Hearts     C-2    G8     1    127    81   C
  2   PRE3:053 Dark Bass           C-2    G8     1    127    51   C
  3   PRE7:110 Ibiza Groove        C-2    G8     1    127   127   C
  4   PRE5:121 Smooth BPF Sweep    C-2    G8     1    127    73   C

The first part is the rhythm voice and the second part is the bass voice. As we’ll see below, arpegiation is turned for these two parts. The third and fourth voices are a play-along pad layer and arpeggiation is disabled. Thus, the rhythm and bass parts provide a looped backing while the pad voices provide an atmospheric you-steer-it, right hand part.

Here are the arpeggio assignments:

Arp#1 Tempo:91              Arp#2 
-----                       ----- 
  1   MA_8Z HeavyHrt1         1   MA_8Z HeavyHrt3      ON 
  2   MB_WestCoastPop _XS     2   MA_WestCoastPop _XS  ON 
  3   MA_Space Arp            3   MA_Space Arp         OFF 
  4   MA_Up Oct1              4   MA_Up Oct2           OFF 
Arp#3                       Arp#4 
-----                       ----- 
  1   MA_8Z HeavyHrt4         1   MA_8Z GatedBt3       ON 
  2   BA_Jazz Pop _XS         2   FB_WestCoastPop _XS  ON 
  3   MA_Space Arp            3   MA_Space Arp         OFF 
  4   MA_Up Oct4              4   MA_Down Oct1         OFF 
Arp#5                       Arp#6 
-----                       ----- 
  1   MA_8Z ChillBrk4         1   BA_Sp SFX            ON 
  2   MB_WestCoastPop _XS     2   MA_WestCoastPop _XS  ON 
  3   MA_Space Arp            3   Off                  OFF 
  4   MA_Down Oct2            4   Off                  OFF

The Arpeggiator is turned ON for Parts 1 and 2 only.

A big factor is the “8Z Heavy Hearts” drum kit. The “8Z” in its name means “eight zone”. Eight zone (8Z) voices are a Motif innovation beginning with the XS (MOX) family. If you would like more information, check out these earlier posts about eight zone voices:

8Z voices aren’t drum kits. They are implemented as synth voices and are just a clever way of using the eight elements which make up a voice. The eight zones (8Z) are divided across specific note ranges. 8Z Heavy Hearts assigns waveforms (zone sounds) in the following way:

Element#  Note Low  Note High  Waveform 
--------  --------  ---------  -------------- 
    1         C0       F#0     Bd T9-1 
    2         G0        C1     Bd Hard Long 
    3        C#1        D1     Sd Elec12 
    4        D#1        F1     Sd HipHop6 
    5        F#1        A1     HH Closed D&B 
    6        A#1        C2     HH Open T9 
    7        C#2        C4     Clap AnSm 
    8        C#4        C6     Shaker Hip2

Yamaha messes with each of the zones in crazy ways and ties keyboard notes to voice parameters (AKA “key follow”). For 8Z Heavy Hearts, the most notable effect is how the Clap AnSm pitch follows the keyboard.

Arrangers (even Genos!) don’t have 8Z voices. They have standard drum kits where each MIDI note is a separate drum instrument. In order to make a PSR style using a DAW, one must translate the 8Z MIDI notes to standard drum kit notes. You need to assign appropriate drum kits (e.g., DrumMachine, Analog T9, House, Break or HipHop) to style parts 9 and 10 (MIDI channels 9 and 10) and copy the Heavy Hearts MIDI data to both Parts. Then, delete the notes that aren’t needed in a style part, compress each zone into a single drum instrument, and map the resulting “compressed” notes to the appropriate drum instrument(s). So, for example, all of the notes in C0 to F#0 might be compressed into the Kick T9 1 instrument (B0) in the Analog T9 Kit, which is one of the target drum kits.

I found two PSR drum parts to be enough. However, styles are flexible and you could assign a third (fourth, …) drum kit to one of the other style parts. There’s nothing in Yamaha styles that prevents this. It’s just that parts 9 and 10 (MIDI channels 9 and 10) are conventionally assigned to drum parts in a style.

I went with two PSR drum kits: Analog T9 kit and Drum Machine kit. Here is one possible assignment:

Note Low Note High Waveform       Instrument        Note#   Kit 
-------- --------- -------------  ----------------  ------  -----------
  C0 24   F#0 30   Bd T9-1        Kick T9 1         35 B0   AnalogT9Kit
  G0 31    C1 36   Bd Hard Long   BD Hard Long      24 C0   DrumMachine
 C#1 37    D1 38   Sd Elec12      Snare Analog CR   63 D#3  DrumMachine
 D#1 39    F1 41   Sd HipHop6     Snare Hip 1       86 F#3  DrumMachine
 F#1 42    A1 45   HH Closed D&B  Hi-Hat Closed Syn 91 A4   DrumMachine
 A#1 46    C2 48   HH Open T9     Hi-Hat Open T9    46 A#1  AnalogT9Kit
 C#2 49    C4 72   Clap AnSm      Clap Analog Sm    27 D#0  AnalogT9Kit
 C#4 73    C6 96   Shaker Hip2    Analog Shaker     57 A2   DrumMachine

A lot of detail, huh? Nobody said style conversion was easy. 🙂 In the end, I spread each zone across multiple drum instruments of the same type, i.e., assigning the Shaker Hip2 zone to a few different Analog Shaker sounds in the Drum Machine kit. Part of 8Z Heavy Hearts’ charm is the subtle sonic variation provided by each zone.

Trying to keep this all straight in the DAW piano roll is cognitively challenging. Did I say, style conversion isn’t easy? 🙂

Fortunately, one can loop four bar sections and play the MIDI through the arranger (Genos, in this case) just like a MIDI song. Then, it’s the usual tweak, listen, rinse, repeat edit process. When the MIDI is tweezed to your liking, you need to add MIDI markers to delimit the style sections. (BTW, leave a one bar MIDI set-up measure at the beginning.) Style section markers are:

    Set-up measure 1: SFF1 
    Set-up measure 1: SInt 
    Main sections:    Main A, ... 
    Fill sections:    Fill In AA, ... 
    Break section:    Fill In BA, ... 
    Introduction:     Intro A, ... 
    Ending:           Ending A, ...

At a minimum, you need a few MIDI set-up System Exclusive (SysEx) messages at the beginning of the SMF (measure 1, beat 1):

    F0 7E 7F 09 01 F7                 GM Reset 
    F0 43 10 4C 00 00 7E 00 F7        XG System ON 
    F0 43 10 4C 02 01 00 01 16 F7     Reverb type 
    F0 43 10 4C 02 01 20 16 00 F7     Chorus type

Reverb is the “Light Hall” preset and chorus is the “Tempo Cross 1” preset. The tempo cross delay is an 8-beat echo.

Which brings me to a necessary ingredient: crunch. 8Z Heavy Hearts gets a lot of its appeal from the Lo-Fi effect:

#  Parameter                   Val  Hex   Meaning 
-- --------------------------  ---  ----  -------- 
 1 Sampling Frequency Control    4  0x04  8.82kHz 
 2 Word Length                  98  0x62 
 3 Output Gain                   7  0x07  0dB 
 4 LPF Cutoff Frequency         56  0x38  12kHz 
 5 Filter Type                   1  0x01  PowerBass 
 6 LPF Resonance                63  0x3F  6.3 
 7 Bit Assign                    4  0x04 
 8 Emphasis                      1  0x01  On 
10 Dry/Wet                      88  0x58  D<W24
15 Input Mode                    1  0x01  Stereo

Since we need Lo-Fi on both style parts 9 and 10, I configured the variation effect as an XG SYSTEM effect. Parts 9 and 10 also require variation send (MIDI CC#94) set to 127. Add a CC#94 message to parts 9 and 10 in the set-up measure. Here are the MIDI System Exclusive messages to add to the set-up measure:

F0 43 10 4C 02 01 40 5E 13 F7       Variation type 
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 5A 01 F7          Variation SYSTEM 
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 56 40 F7          Variation return 
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 58 10 F7          Variation send to reverb 
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 59 10 F7          Variation send to chorus 
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 42 00 04 F7       Variation parameter 1 
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 44 00 62 F7       Variation parameter 2 
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 46 00 07 F7       Variation parameter 3 
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 48 00 38 F7       Variation parameter 4 
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 4A 00 01 F7       Variation parameter 5 
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 4C 00 3F F7       Variation parameter 6 
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 4E 00 04 F7       Variation parameter 7 
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 50 00 01 F7       Variation parameter 8 
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 54 00 58 F7       Variation parameter 10 
F0 43 10 4C 02 01 75 01 F7          Variation parameter 15

At this point, you could save the MIDI to “DresdenAtNight.sty” and load it into your arranger as an SFF1 format style. The arranger should create the style CASM segment. As an alternative, you can add a CASM segment to the SMF with Jørgen Sørensen’s CASM editor. You might as well download his OTS editor, too, and use it to add OTS voice settings to the new style as well. Or, you can do this sort of work on your arranger itself. Mid- and high-end Yamaha arrangers save styles as SFF2 format, which is one way to convert from SFF1 to SFF2. I highly recommend Jørgen’s site, tools and style creation tutorial.

BTW, you can recreate Dresden At Night on MODX (Montage). Create a new MODX performance with 8Z Heavy Hearts and Dark Bass. 8Z Heavy Hearts has the appropriate arpeggios by default. You’ll need to assign different arpeggios to the Dark Bass part. Modify effects as needed. Choose and add pad or lead voices to give your right hand something to do. Done! Use the Scene buttons to switch arpeggio groups.

Copyright © 2021 Paul J. Drongowski


MODX after the first gig

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This weekend’s gig with MODX went reasonably well. Among the patches that I tried live, there were many hits and a few misses. Inevitably, there are misses. Some patches sound great at home, but just don’t quite cut it when playing with a painist and/or guitarist.

I’ve been editing and A/B testing my own patches, comparing MODX versions versus the MOX6 versions that are tried and tested. For example, I spent 3 hours tweaking my bread and butter B-3 patch, eventually ditching the “Multi FX” distortion and replacing it with the VCM EQ 501 multi-band equalizer. The “Multi FX” distortion has several EQ options of its own and I just couldn’t find the one to make me happy.

Plus, the “Multi FX” follows the rotary speaker effect. Who the heck puts the distortion after the rotary speaker? (Yamaha, I guess.) The distortion block makes more sense before the rotary speaker (tube overdrive), not after.

I am hooked on MODX Scenes. It was easy to switch B-3 registrations through scenes when playing live — kind of like touching a genuine Hammond registration key. (For the uninitiated, those are the reverse color keys at the left of the lower Hammond keybed.) I intend to make further use of Scenes in order to change up the color of woodwind and brass blends.

The on-screen Live Set buttons are a little thin for my big and busy fingers. Montage has that enormous bank of physical buttons for selection and so forth. Not so MODX and this is one compromise that I’m not too happy about. I’m thinking about doubling up Live Set buttons effectively creating two rows of four buttons. The following image is notional. I have tried this yet. [Click image to enlarge.]

The redundant buttons make each virtual button roughly squarish and bigger at the cost of halving the number of available presets. With the ability to select different solo voices or blends via Scene buttons, I might build eight Performances that each encapsulate several options, like a “Solo Voice” Performance with Scenes for individual solo flute, solo oboe, solo violin and solo cello.

BTW, what’s with all of the PJs in the Performance names? One of the tutorial articles at YamahaSynth.com recommends renaming when you save a Performance, making it easier to discern the original preset from a user Performance. I blew off this advice at first, and sure enough, I had trouble distinguishing between the factory presets and my own user Performances. I decided to add my initials to my user Performances even though you can filter for user Performances in Category Search.

It’s easy enough to comp presets into new Performances. I’m building woodwind and brass blends this way. If you need to delete a Part from a Performance, hold the SHIFT button and touch the Part to be removed. MODX pops up a contextual menu. You cannot delete Part 1 directly. If you need to delete Part 1, swap it with Part 2 first.

You can work quite fast this way. However, you might want to go back and edit the Insert A and Insert B effects for each part. This gotcha snuck by me at first. I found Parts with Tempo Delay and other effects that create sonic muck when playing in a large hall, e.g., the church that I play in. The hall adds its own muck, so I replaced Tempo Delay, etc. with something innocuous like VCM EQ 501 set flat or even THRU.

There’s plenty of discussion about the Montage/MODX “All 9 Bars!” performance on YamahaSynth.com, in case you didn’t get enough in my previous post.

Copyright © 2018 Paul J. Drongowski

Relationship: Committed

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I went in to play the 88 and walked out with the 61.

It isn’t because I don’t like the Yamaha MODX8 — it comes down to repertoire, need and gamey heart rhythm. If I could schlep the Montage 6 (33 pounds), I would have bought the Montage ages ago. 🙂

I dropped by my local GC knowing that they had a MODX6 in stock. I was hoping to try the MODX6, but found an 88-key MODX8 set up and waiting. As it was with the Montage launch, Yamaha laid out a little extra promotional money and the MODX8 was driving a pair of Yamaha HS8 monitors. Nice. Extra nice, it was raining like crazy and nobody was in the store. GC took a little bit away from the experience by hooking up a truly beat-out sustain pedal and cheap-ass cables to the HS8s. Life is never perfect.

The MODX8 is a very nice instrument. I spent 20 or so minutes jamming and generally had a blast. The hand-to-sound connection of the multi-part CFX grand piano is excellent, IMHO. This is a good keyboard for piano. Organ, not so much. The keys cut my hands when doing palm swipes. I played long enough to verify that all of the Montage sound is in the MODX. Thank heavens I had wrung out the Montage quite heavily when comparing Montage versus Genos™ and knew what to listen for.

BTW, I stick by my earlier comment. It’s a long reach to the MODX8’s pitch bend wheel, MOD wheel and assignable function (AF) buttons. This is the only genuinely negative thing that I can say about the MODX8.

Stop arguing on-line about the action. (And DACS. And touch screens.) Go play one. If you like it, buy it. The MODX8 — or any other instrument — is what it is.

I hadn’t really planned to buy the MODX6 that day, but the trade-in offer was quite decent. The dealer also allowed the usual minus 10% off given during GC trade-in, trade-up promotions. I suppose I could have bargained harder…

My first reaction while unboxing — damn, this thing is small and light. The MODX6 is a pound lighter and several inches shorter than my beloved MOX6. Hurray, I can use my current gig bag! Moving the PB and MOD wheels back let Yamaha cut inches from the overall length. I’m surprised that the front-to-back depth was not increased to accommodate the color touch screen. Good industrial design.

The plastic chassis does not feel as robust as the MOX6. This is just about the only negative. The MOX6 has stood up to guitars clunking into it and relatively light travel abuse. I hope the MODX6 will prove to be robust, too. My main gripe is the fit of the plastic end cheeks (end panels). They seem a little flimsy compared to the single molded shape of the MOX6. On the other hand, I think of the 88-key MODX8 as rather sturdy.

Certain compromises are made by all manufacturers when producing a mid-range model and the MODX is no exception. The quarter inch jacks are mounted directly on a printed circuit board (PCB) and are a little wobbly when compared to an up-scale model like the Genos. All of the controls give a nice resistance. If you’re an MOX/MOXF player, you’ll be right at home.

The touch screen is the same size as the Montage, which is smaller than the Genos screen. I’ve been spoiled by the Genos! I made a few tentative experiments at performance editing and find that I need to tap the screen with more care and precision than Genos, simply because the danged on-screen widgets are smaller.

Speaking of editing, I was able to create some layers and splits without cracking the manual. One big “However”. I know the Yamaha voice architecture and approach to voice editing quite well already. A novice will need time to get up to speed. I suggest reading the first chapter or two in the MODX Reference Manual and skim the Owner’s Manual before doing anything.

About the MODX6 keybed. Yes, it’s different than the MOX. Phil Clendeninn, on the Yamaha Synth site, mentioned that the keybed is new, even with respect to the MOXF models. The black keys have a nice texture adding a little “warmth” to the touch. The keybed is similar to the keys belonging to mid-range Yamaha arrangers. Yes, these keys are light and they are not FSX like the Montage and Genos. I don’t think this is a deal-breaker. I can perform palm swipes with ease and found the similar feeling S950 keys to be robust enough.

I’m now in the process of porting over my voices and performances from the MOX6. There is a direct migration path from MOXF to MODX, but not MOX. Yamaha usually support direct migration from the previous generation (singular), not two or three generations back. The port shouldn’t be too bad as I have only ten or so splits/layers built from scratch. All other MOX6 voices are based on factory patches which are present on the MODX, too. Those edits will be simple tweaks like dialing back reverb, extending release times here and there, etc. I eventually want to exploit the shining beacon known as the “Super-Knob” and scenes. In the meantime, I’ll be happy to start small and build Live Sets equivalent to my MOX6 set-up.

So, there you have it — my first report from the field.

Before signing off for today, I’d like to say “Goodbye” to an old friend: the PSR-S950 that I traded in. I had a lot of quality time with that ‘board and some lucky customer is going to get a gently used instrument. So long!

Update. Literally. The MODX6 had version 1.00 installed. I decided to update to 1.10 before creating too many performances and the possibility of losing data. First, the download from Yamaha was extremely slow. The first two downloads failed. Next, the read me document recommends formatting the USB flash drive on the MODX. USB drive usage information is split between the Owner’s Manual and the Reference Manual. I had to search on “format” in order to find the relevant text in the Reference Manual. The Reference Manual doesn’t have an index! Finally, the formatting directions are minimal (2 sentences?) and are not easy to understand.

Actually, I need to ding Yamaha for the overall quality of the Owner’s and Reference Manuals. The grey-scale screenshots are so small as to be unreadable and unusable. Both documents read like a direct translation from Japanese and both documents need to be edited by a native English tech writer.

Copyright © 2018 Paul J. Drongowski

MODX aftermath

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After a veritable explosion of Yamaha MODX information on the Web, there isn’t too much new to say! One useful tidbit is MODX availability. Yamaha expect MODX to be available at retailers around September 27. Another tidbit is to download the MODX version 1.10 updater from the Yamaha support site, if you need it.

Folks shouldn’t forget the John Melas Montage/MODX tool set. Amidst all of the hoopla, John quietly released an updated tool set with MODX support. This is good news since it provides a MODX librarian, performance editor, Live Set editor and waveform editor — available separately or bundled. (Please see his Web site for details.)

I watched a little bit of the MODX launch live stream — enough to be duly impressed by DOMi. What a player! Her demo made a good background while I pulled together another donation to LIVING COMPUTERS: museum + labs. One take-away — it’s a long reach to the MODX8 PB/MOD wheels. The engineers needed the extra depth to accommodate the weighted keyboard action. Folks interested in the 88-key model should take this into account.

On Saturday, I spent an hour or so watching demo videos. For my purposes, the video by Blake Angelos (Yamaha) for Guitar Center is the best. He showed how to pull together an orchestral layer with Super Knob control. This is information that I can use. Thanks, Blake! Yamaha have really kept him running with the MODX launch.

Even though emphasis is on EDM and other pop — which pays the bills at Yamaha — there are very fine orchestral instruments hiding in plain sight on the Montage and MODX. In this regard, the Montage/MODX and Genos™ share sonic DNA by way of the underlying waveforms (AKA “the samples”). The separate product lines employ the waveforms in different ways (Extended Articulation versus Super Articulation), but the sound quality is amazing overall. Having worked with Genos over several months, it’s like an orchestral VST in a box, completed with scripted, articulated voices. Quite pleased.

I have such regard for the Montage acoustic instruments that I very seriously considered buying a Montage for my church gig. I passed mainly due to the weight and schlep factor. The MODX6 is a slender 14.6 pounds, a bit less than the MOX6 that I now transport and play. The MODX is a contender.

While evaluating Montage, I listed the new waveforms added to Motif XF and the new waveforms added to Montage. I was trying to decide if it made sense to upgrade to Motif XF on close-out or to go for Montage. [I decided to wait.] I’ll be using these tables, again, to compare MODX versus MOX because the MODX has the same waveforms and performances (voices) as Montage. Frankly, I don’t think there’s much question about “if”, so much as “when” to upgrade from MOX.

These are highly technical instruments. As a user, the Genos user interface (UI) is similar enough to the Tyros/PSR UI that I didn’t much too trouble making the transition from S950 to Genos. The transition from MOX to MODX is going to be a much bigger task, especially since I want to take advantage of scenes and macro control (AKA “the Super Knob”). Fortunately, the MODX UI is essentially the same as the Montage v2.5 UI and Yamaha have provided a fair number of “Mastering MODX” videos and resources on Day 1.

Copyright © 2018 Paul J. Drongowski

Yamaha MODX announcement

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I’m going to update this page as information rolls out.

The Yamaha MODX Owner’s Manual is now available in the Yamaha manual library. No Data List PDF (yet). Once we have the Data List, we’ll be able to do a better comparison of effect types versus the Montage. Yamaha added a number of effect algorithms through updates and, of course, we’re hoping that the MODX will have the same arsenal.

After taking a quick side-by-side pass through the MODX Owner’s Manual, it’s clear that the MODX has much of the on-screen Montage user interface. The MODX and Montage code base is now the same and this should help Yamaha to swat bugs on both platforms and to reduce internal software development costs.

New to the MODX user interface are Rhythm Patterns. Quoting the MODX Owner’s Manual:

The [Rhythm Pattern] button provides a simple way to add a rhythm part to the current Performance. By combining rhythm patterns and the Envelope Follower, you can modify the patterns even further.

Use this button to call up the Rhythm Pattern display. You select the Rhythm Pattern you want to use, and then press [PERFORMANCE (HOME)] button or [EXIT] button to set the selection.

Seems to be a way to get a beat going quickly and is an enhancement of the existing arpeggio mechanism. [Click image to enlarge.]

Rest assured. There is a performance recorder/sequencer which is the (nearly) the same as Montage (MODX: 128 songs, Montage: 64 songs). Lack of a full sequencer (a la Motif/MOX) will disappoint some. I intend to keep my MOX6 and trusty QY-70.

The on-screen Live Set operation is identical to Montage. As noted before, the MODX drops the extensive bank of front panel buttons on the Montage. The Montage’s physical buttons mirrored the operation of the Live Set on-screen buttons, etc. I’ll have to try switching patches on-the-fly using the touch screen alone to determine if this is an acceptable compromise for me. I rely on quick changes when I play and I don’t always know in advance what voice I’ll be using. I’m an improvisational orchestrator.

Also as noted earlier, there are four sliders instead of eight. Front panel buttons select between part group 1 to 4 and group 5 to 8 in order to control part volume via the sliders. Again, some operational compromises due to cost saving as there are fewer direct access controls on the MODX. The MODX also has fewer SHIFT functions due to the elimination of the Montage’s front panel button matrix.

On-line retailers are beginning to offer the MODX on pre-order. Yamaha is going to sell a lot of these!

USA pricing table:

MODX6 MODX7 MODX8
MSRP (list) $1,649 USD $1,899 USD $2,399 USD
MAP (street) $1,299 USD $1,499 USD $1,899 USD
Weight 14.6 pounds 16.3 pounds 30.4 pounds

Yamaha MODX vs. Montage table:

Feature MODX Montage
Display 7″ WVGA color TFT 7″ WVGA color TFT
AWM2 poly 128 128
FM-X poly 64 128
SSS 4 parts 8 parts
Faders 4 8
Encoders 4 8
Buttons 4 8
Ribbon No Yes
USB audio in 4 channels (2 stereo) 6 channels (3 stereo)
USB audio out 10 channels (5 stereo) 16 channels
Sampling frequency 44.1kHz Up to 192kHz
ADC inputs 2 2
Dual insert effects 12 parts+A/D 16 parts+A/D
Waveforms 6,347 6,347
Waveform ROM 5.67GB 5.67GB
Flash ROM 1.00GB 1.75GB
User Performances 640 640
Library Performances 5,120 5,120
Scenes 8 per Perf
Arpeggios 10,239 10,000+
Simultaneous Arps 8 8
Perf Rec Songs 128 64
MIDI IN,OUT IN,OUT,THRU
Output Unbalanced Balanced
Keyboard Synth FSX
Aftertouch No Yes
Weight 61-key 14.6 pounds 33.1 pounds

Copyright © 2018 Paul J. Drongowski

Yamaha MODX audio demos

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The folks at AudioFanzine.com have posted 40 audio snippets demonstrating the new Yamaha MODX synthesizer. Merci beaucoup, AudioFanzine.com!

Pretty much sounds like a Montage! Strings, horns, brass, organ — I can’t hear much difference from the Montage.

I love the woodwind demo. Nicely played with a contemporary cinematic flair. Très bon!

Having spent a lot of time with Genos™, I feel that the Montage — and now Yamaha MODX — electric pianos have more guts. I can’t wait to dive into the programming of these voices and hope to beef up the Genos EPs. Ditto the B3 organ and clavs.

Owning both a Yamaha synth and a Yamaha arranger has proven to be a good practical strategy for voice and style development. I can explore voice programming on the synth and then translate the same programming (modulo limitations in Yamaha Expansion Manager) to the Genos. It works in the reverse direction, too. Some of the arranger programming is inspirational and I can translate it back to the synth. Always steal from the best!

If you’re considering an upgrade from MOX or MOXF, you should check out my analysis of the new waveforms in Montage. The Yamaha MODX has the same factory waveforms as the Montage and this analysis should help you to decide. Whether it’s Yamaha, Roland, Korg, etc., the waveforms are the basis for current and future sounds.

Copyright © 2018 Paul J. Drongowski

Yamaha MODX: A few more details

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A few more pre-announcement details are coming out about the new Yamaha MODX synthesizer. Official prices will be announced tomorrow.

MODX6 MODX7 MODX8
Price 1,399€ 1,599€ 1,799€
Weight 6.6kg 7.4kg 13.8kg

For ‘mercans, that’s:

MODX6 MODX7 MODX8
MSRP (list) $1,649 USD $1,899 USD $2,399 USD
MAP (street) $1,299 USD $1,499 USD $1,899 USD
Weight 14.6 pounds 16.3 pounds 30.4 pounds

The current MOXF6 and MOXF8 weigh 15.6 pounds and 32.8 pounds, respectively. Nice to see a weight reduction.

The current MSRPs for the MOXF6 and MOXF8 are $1,499 and $1,999. So, we’re probably lookin’ at a slight price increase. At least we won’t have to purchase add-on flash memory boards.

Speaking of which, the Yamaha flash expansion boards are now totally dead end. If you’re negotiating for a MOXF, be sure to get your retailer to kick in a flash expansion board or two. Just sayin’.

The MODX Owner’s Manual is now available in the Yamaha manual library. Check your regional site.

Yamaha MODX vs. Montage

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I’m pretty well convinced that the Yamaha MODX leak is legitimate.

BTW, I think Yamaha will pronounce the name “MO D X” to reflect a continuation of the MO heritage and to emphasize the FM-X technology by recalling the DX synth line.

Here’s a quick table comparing MODX versus Montage. There are still a few blanks in the table which need to be filled out.

Feature MODX Montage
Display 7″ WVGA color TFT 7″ WVGA color TFT
AWM2 poly 128 128
FM-X poly 64 128
SSS 4 parts 8 parts
Faders 4 8
Encoders 4 8
Buttons 4 8
Ribbon No Yes
USB audio in 4 channels (2 stereo) 6 channels (3 stereo)
USB audio out 10 channels (5 stereo) 16 channels
Sampling frequency 44.1kHz Up to 192kHz
ADC inputs 2 2
Dual insert effects 12 parts+A/D 16 parts+A/D
Waveforms 6,347 6,347
Waveform ROM 5.67GB 5.67GB
Flash ROM 1.00GB 1.75GB
User Performances 640 640
Library Performances 5,120 5,120
Scenes 8 per Perf
Arpeggios 10,239 10,000+
Simult Arp 8
MIDI IN,OUT IN,OUT,THRU
Output Unbalanced Balanced
Keyboard Synth FSX
Aftertouch No Yes
Weight 61-key 14.6 pounds 33.1 pounds

Of course, the important question is, “How much of the Montage did Yamaha leave out?”

First, let me say, you do get a lot. The MODX has full fat waveforms, arpeggios and performances (including voices in the flat Yamaha user interface world). Having heard and played the Full Monty, I will definitely be looking at the MODX to replace my MOX6, especially if the MODX6 weighs in at roughly the same weight.

There have always been differences between the top-of-the-line (TOTL) synth and its mid-range brother. The Montage has a metal chassis, balanced outputs, internal power supply (AKA “AC power”) and an FSX keybed with aftertouch. Therefore, I expected a plastic chassis, unbalanced outputs, external power supply and a synth action (61-key model) without aftertouch. Given the history of the MO product line, one could also expect fewer sliders, knobs and buttons. I’m glad to see the return of sliders, by the way. The plastic case of the MOX6 has held up rather well and usually guitars walk away worse for wear when they collide with the MOX6!

At this price point, I wouldn’t expect Pure Analog Circuit (PAC) audio either. I’m still a little surprised that the Genos offers TOSlink in place of PAC, BTW.

Thankfully, Yamaha did not skimp on the display. It’s the same 7″ wide VGA color TFT. I suspect that the Montage and MOXD share the same software code base, which was not true of the Motif XS/XF and the MOX/MOXF. The MODX has the same number of user and library performances. All of this parity is great news for the end user.

The MODX audio spec is cut down from the Montage. I expected this, too, knowing about the internal architecture of the Montage. The Montage has a dedicated SSP2 integrated circuit (IC) for audio routing and USB interface. This is like having a Steinberg UR44+ in the guts of your studio synthesizer. Thus, the MODX (probably without the SSP2) has fewer USB audio input and output channels. Although the leak doesn’t reveal the sampling rate, I doubt if the MODX will do 192kHz. [I wouldn’t mind being wrong about this doubt.]

The leaked write-up suggests that the MODX has the same effect algorithms as the Montage. The number of dual insert effects is lower in the MODX: 12 parts plus A/D input versus the Montage’s 16 parts plus A/D input.

I suspect that the number of parts per performance has been reduced from sixteen to eight. The front panel buttons provide access to eight elements (as expected with AWM2) or eight parts. Seamless Sound Switching (SSS) is supported for performances with up to 4 parts (versus 8 Montage parts). Take this speculation with a grain of salt as it’s trying to read between the lines of the write-up.

It is true, however, that the four sliders, encoder knobs and buttons are shared across eight parts or elements. Each control type has a button to select between group 1 to 4 and group 5 to 8.

  • With four sliders, don’t expect to go all “Hammond” with drawbars.
  • With four immediately accessible scenes (i.e., without making two button presses under live fire), don’t expect to jump across more than four voices on the fly.

The second concern is a serious one because Yamaha ditched a whole raft of buttons from the right hand side of the front panel (cost saving!) I currently rely on the MOX buttons to select among sixteen voices on the fly. This is important to me because I’m holding down bass and melody lines with our trio. I must make fast patch changes or something gets dropped musically.

The only place where I feel like Yamaha gratuitously tiered the Montage over the MODX is expansion flash memory. The expansion flash memory is the left over flash ROM capacity beyond the factory sound set. Trust me, Yamaha is not saving money by cutting this spec — it is a marketing decision.

There is so much yet to learn about the MODX. I’m hoping that Yamaha retained the deep performance (voice) editing from the Montage. The leaked write-up does not mention a “performance recorder,” so this is a total blank spot, too. Pricing for all models is yet known. Yamaha may sell the MODX at a premium versus the MOXF until the old MOXF stock is sold.

At this stage, I’m quite pleased. My MOX is going strong and makes it to the gig every Sunday. However, I have tasted the future with Genos™ and look forward to trying the Yamaha MODX.

Copyright © 2018 Paul J. Drongowski