I really hope Yamaha will sell it seperately from the hardware.
Yes. I saw the video and it seems good enough, also in this preliminary release.
Let’s see…
I completed the MontageM E.S.P installation yesterday on Macbook Pro and Mac Studio. The VST3 and AU registered in GP without issue. An authorization pop-up occurs once you add the VST into a Rackspace and open the plugin. I could successfully import a small number of custom presets from my MontageM8x. These worked perfectly. The gain level in the plugin is a little lower than I would like; however, this can easily be adjusted with an extra gain level.
The patches do not sound as rich out of the gate; however, a little extra Fab Filter Pro-Q will fix that.
At under 8 GBs, the footprint is surprisingly small. The performance is snappy, with the plug-ins loading quickly. I’ll be putting this through the paces today.
No hiccups with GP whatsoever. Thank you, GP, for making such a rock-solid platform!
That’s huge
About 13GBs uncompressed. Still Small compared to many of Kontakt Libraries!
I had strange same feeling when I compared MontageM with Nord Stage4 and YC88. It could be a full 24 bit sample library without bit compression. I need to make a comparison in a controlled environment.
8 GB is not huge. It is a full workstation copy. There are a lot of samples. In high resolution probably
Depends how much of it has to get loaded into RAM and/or whether that plugin can stream samples from disk (so as not to use a lot of RAM) the way Kontakt and Decent Sampler can do.
I asked on the Montage forum whether the plugin streams samples and was told no. So it’s probably a bit of a CPU hog. I still would be curious how well that plugin works in GP
The plugin today plays 100% of MontageM presets.
Editing is in some way limited. Since a lot of presets are rompler type sounds, plugin can reproduce everything made this way. Or FM, or ANX.
Maybe it cannot play samples that are loaded by user.
But in this community no one would use a MontageM plugin for sampling. We have better sources for that.
According to a user on a Montage forum the plugin does read programs with user samples. Of course the main question is how well does this plugin work in Gig Performer. So I would be interested in any observations from anyone that has both the plugin and Gig Performer.
I agree. Nice news would be “I tested plugin in GP and it works fast and in a reliable way”. Meaning that all presets are usable, CPU and ram use are acceptable.
But it’s not easy. Guys here are used to work with VST libraries, few of them are still with a workstation. Very few are interested to buy a new one.
If Yamaha will sell the plugin at a reasonable price then the landscape could change
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For me it would be exactly the same, I would buy such a plugin from Yamaha immediately. But I don’t need a whole workstation at the moment.
I’m a new Gig Performer registered user currently at a very early point on the learning curve. I’m coming to this thread well after it originated and have a somewhat related question. Up until now I have been using my venerable Korg M3 workstation as my primary keyboard both as a standalone device as well as for interfacing with an M1-based MacBook Pro running Logic Pro and a bunch of great VSTs. The M3 has served me well for several reasons: great onboard sounds, good keyboard split and layering functionality for both internal and external sounds, and fantastic keybed action (Korg’s 73 key semi-weighted model). For several reasons (including the M3’s touchscreen finally acting up and its now obsolete Firewire audio interface), I am now seeking a replacement. My initial thought was to replace it with something like a Yamaha Montage M or Roland Fantom workstation but like others here have expressed, I’m thinking that might be overkill. On the flip side, I don’t want simply a MIDI controller keyboard. Basically I’m seeking to duplicate the same functionality as the M3, namely by meeting the following criteria: (a) really good onboard sounds, primarily piano and strings; (b) an excellent keybed; (c):excellent MIDI-controller functionality for mixing and controlling both onboard and VST-based sounds; (d) ideally something that would be particularly well suited to work with Gig Performer.
I can to a large extent evaluate the first two criteria above myself by (hopefully) demoing some keyboards locally. But it’s the third and fourth criteria (MIDI controller functionality, interoperability with GP) where I’d like to defer to others with far more insight than what I might gain through Web-based descriptions and YouTube videos.
For the record, I’m wondering if something like a Yamaha YC73 (semi-weighted keybed) or YC88 (graded hammer) might be a good choice. But I’m open to suggestions on anything that might meet the above requirements, whether lower or higher priced.
Privia PX-5S ?
Interesting. Hadn’t even considered Casio. I’ll check it out.
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I am using an YC73 and I love it. But…
It has a weighted keybed which is quite soft, perfect for me because I am not a piano guy. YC88 is a real piano thing but much heavier.
It can be the perfect choice as “backup” in case your computer fails. Excellent piano and e-piano, good string but not a huge library of them like big workstations. Extremely good Hammond and Leslie.
It is not perfect as midi command control. Some devices on the top are midi mapped, some aren’t. So it is a nice tool, but not the perfect one.
Thanks Furio. This is the kind of feedback I am looking for and is very helpful - namely both pro’s and con’s of a candidate keyboard. I assume when you say that some devices are not midi mapped, you mean not all of the controls are assignable? Frankly, for me I’m more interested in how flexible are its layering and splitting capabilities, so I’ll try to read up more on that aspect as well as its assignable surface controls. Last, I didn’t realize until you mentioned it that technically the YC73 is not a semi-weighted keyboard but soft hammer action. That sounds about perfect for what I’m looking for as well. It would be great to get a hands-on evaluation of it, but regrettably I have found that any of the YC keyboards are not easy to find in a local store here in northern New Jersey, particularly since the Sam Ash chain of stores went out of business this summer (they were much better than any Guitar Center in their selection of demoable keyboards).
Splitting and layering on YC73 with internal sounds is easy and works perfectly well. I was complaining about sliders and buttons. Not all of them are producing MIDI messages. If I remember well sliders like the organ drawbars work well with MIDI. But you cannot have pushbuttons sending some MIDI message.
Since I play live with a full GigPerformer setup this is not as I should like.
I use my second keyboard, a NI Control S 61 mkII as my command center.
If YC73 had pushbuttons as MIDI mapping, I could use it for little gigs where one keyboard is enough
Thanks Furio. This is helpful.