New Custom ANx Performances for Montage M

[ChrisN]

I thought I would post this since I have seen people in the past asking about new Performances for the M. They’re not free, but worth a listen and I may drop some $$.
https://manuelemontesanti.com/product/ ... p-plug-in/

[MontageUser]

These are really nice and thank you for posting.

I listened to them and to my ears there just isn't enough there over the multitudes of sounds available already. Tweaking them is a lot of fun and I can get similar sounds pretty easily from the presets and a little tweaking.

In my opinion there isn't enough there to justify $30+ US for these 20 performances but I'm glad to see somebody putting this out there and perhaps there will be one package that's more interesting to me personally.

[ChrisN]

These are really nice and thank you for posting.

I listened to them and to my ears there just isn't enough there over the multitudes of sounds available already. Tweaking them is a lot of fun and I can get similar sounds pretty easily from the presets and a little tweaking.

In my opinion there isn't enough there to justify $30+ US for these 20 performances but I'm glad to see somebody putting this out there and perhaps there will be one package that's more interesting to me personally.

I agree somewhat. I am nowhere as skilled at programming (or playing) as Manuele Montesanti but always felt using someone else’s creations is not completely fair when everything that is needed to create them is at your fingertips and imagination.

Then again dissecting patches can be a big learning exercise. I use guitar modeling and would never use pre made patches live, but have learned cool little tricks from others.

The Easy Sounds people (Hans-Peter Henkel) have some sound libraries that are dedicated to the Montage M and ANx if anyone is interested. More expensive, but packed with content.

Attn: @Saul
I hope posting this isn’t violating any commercial terms. I have nothing to do with either. Just wanting to be helpful. If they are let me know.

[Derek]

Posting links to publicise is not an issue. Thanks for sharing

[ChrisN]

Posting links to publicise is not an issue. Thanks for sharing

[MontageUser]

Thanks for the Easy Sounds link Chris! I had looked at them a few weeks ago to see if there were any Montage M specific sound sets and then kind of forgot about it. With your reminder I went in and saw they have a ton of different packages - and all are great!

$70 for roughly 300 performances and variations seems much more reasonable.

[ChrisN]

Thanks for the Easy Sounds link Chris! I had looked at them a few weeks ago to see if there were any Montage M specific sound sets and then kind of forgot about it. With your reminder I went in and saw they have a ton of different packages - and all are great!

$70 for roughly 300 performances and variations seems much more reasonable.

You’re very welcome. I have been listening to sound samples for the last couple nights. Some cool stuff. I like what was done with the “Spectral Move” sound set.
“Keep tickling those keys”

[vertig0spin]

I agree somewhat. I am nowhere as skilled at programming (or playing) as Manuele Montesanti but always felt using someone else’s creations is not completely fair when everything that is needed to create them is at your fingertips and imagination.

Then again dissecting patches can be a big learning exercise. I use guitar modeling and would never use pre made patches live, but have learned cool little tricks from others.

The Easy Sounds people (Hans-Peter Henkel) have some sound libraries that are dedicated to the Montage M and ANx if anyone is interested. More expensive, but packed with content.

I see nothing wrong with saving time and effort by purchasing patches/libraries or using ones that are free. I usually tweak them quite a bit anyway, so if nothing else they are a good starting point that gets me further ahead faster, thereby saving a lot of time to work on other Performances/Sounds...
I've shared several Performances on Soundmondo that I customized (some FM-X sounds that I created from scratch) and hope they are useful to others & save them some time.

[Derek]

I agree somewhat. I am nowhere as skilled at programming (or playing) as Manuele Montesanti but always felt using someone else’s creations is not completely fair when everything that is needed to create them is at your fingertips and imagination.

Then again dissecting patches can be a big learning exercise. I use guitar modeling and would never use pre made patches live, but have learned cool little tricks from others.

The Easy Sounds people (Hans-Peter Henkel) have some sound libraries that are dedicated to the Montage M and ANx if anyone is interested. More expensive, but packed with content.

I see nothing wrong with saving time and effort by purchasing patches/libraries or using ones that are free. I usually tweak them quite a bit anyway, so if nothing else they are a good starting point that gets me further ahead faster, thereby saving a lot of time to work on other Performances/Sounds...
I've shared several Performances on Soundmondo that I customized (some FM-X sounds that I created from scratch) and hope they are useful to others & save them some time.

I program and I purchase - nothing wrong with either route. Easy Sounds "Spectral Move" is stellar and I do not have the time right now to program that deeply.

[ChrisN]

I agree somewhat. I am nowhere as skilled at programming (or playing) as Manuele Montesanti but always felt using someone else’s creations is not completely fair when everything that is needed to create them is at your fingertips and imagination.

Then again dissecting patches can be a big learning exercise. I use guitar modeling and would never use pre made patches live, but have learned cool little tricks from others.

The Easy Sounds people (Hans-Peter Henkel) have some sound libraries that are dedicated to the Montage M and ANx if anyone is interested. More expensive, but packed with content.

I see nothing wrong with saving time and effort by purchasing patches/libraries or using ones that are free. I usually tweak them quite a bit anyway, so if nothing else they are a good starting point that gets me further ahead faster, thereby saving a lot of time to work on other Performances/Sounds...
I've shared several Performances on Soundmondo that I customized (some FM-X sounds that I created from scratch) and hope they are useful to others & save them some time.

I think I said pretty much the same thing and “agreed somewhat” to the person I quoted. Meaning I don’t entirely agree. The caveat I made to guitar patches is a bit different because there’s only so much you can do to develop an original style, sound, tone with guitar especially when it comes to digital modelers. It’s very possible to cop someone’s sound exactly. As guitarists some of us tend to be more intense about these things. Otherwise everything starts to sound the same.

I certainly hope no one is so sensitive and easily influenced that they would take anything I said as law and run with it. I pretty much at this point use non original Performances with the M8x and probably will be that way except for minor tweaks.

I remember an interview with RicK Wakeman saying he has other people “take care of the technical bits”. This was when he was using a bunch of digital keyboards in Yes and AWBH.

Why would I even post this stuff if I had strong feelings otherwise?

[ChrisN]

I program and I purchase - nothing wrong with either route. Easy Sounds "Spectral Move" is stellar and I do not have the time right now to program that deeply.

The “Spectral Move” library is the one that grabbed my attention immediately.

RE: “Time”…when I mentioned “at your fingertips and imagination” I was going to go back a couple times and add “time” in there too. For me the time is probably the biggest issue.

However I do want to finally explore making FM sounds and of course use the AN engine. I had access to a Mini Moog for a little while years ago and got to understand the basics on real analog then. A friend invested in an ARP Avatar for guitar at that same time. That would have been very cool if it ever was able to get a proper CV from the guitar or whatever was its issue.

[vertig0spin]

I think I said pretty much the same thing and “agreed somewhat” to the person I quoted. Meaning I don’t entirely agree. The caveat I made to guitar patches is a bit different because there’s only so much you can do to develop an original style, sound, tone with guitar especially when it comes to digital modelers. It’s very possible to cop someone’s sound exactly. As guitarists some of us tend to be more intense about these things. Otherwise everything starts to sound the same.

I certainly hope no one is so sensitive and easily influenced that they would take anything I said as law and run with it. I pretty much at this point use non original Performances with the M8x and probably will be that way except for minor tweaks.

It's all good!

Same as Derek and many others, I program and I purchase. Anything goes really. Finding a way to get the sound you are looking for no matter how you get there. It's the finding time to program is many times the issue for me, as I'm sure it is with many others.
I always prefer to program it myself & if I had the time I would do more programming than buying libraries, but sometimes it's better to save time & like you said, dissecting patches can be a big learning exercise. I often find it quite interesting, fun and even inspiring sometimes.
But anything I buy I tweak to varying degrees. There isn't a single sound I use that I've purchased or presets or ones I created myself that I don't end up tweaking a few times or sometimes up to 100 times til hell is out of them

I've found with the Montage I can develop more original styles on guitar (to some degree) using custom DAW based multi-track 'Arps'. Here's one I played around with and created for an acoustic guitar:
https://soundcloud.com/dclowe/montage-a ... sticguitar

As long as your getting your money's worth out of it, enjoying the process & learning, and having fun in the time that you have to put into it, that's what matters.
Everyone will have different varying degrees of what those mean to them individually...some people like to tweak a little, I generally tweak sounds way too much

I love to create an FM-X (DX7) sound from scratch sometimes, but I find it equally as enjoyable to create a new sound from 2 or 3 stacks from different sounds (if I can find an algorith to fit), then tweak it into something that is even better.
Here's one that I created 30+ years ago using operator stacks from 3 different DX7 sounds, then tweaked it like crazy to get the sound I was looking for (it's the 3rd sound you hear in the sound clip):
https://soundcloud.com/dclowe/yamaha-mo ... nds-analog
That's one thing I really love about additive synthesis like FM-X. You can take several sounds and layer them within a single algorithm/Part (if there's one that fits).

[Derek]

I finally had the time to listen today, and I purchased it. It has some great patches in it and really shows off the power of the AN-X engine, like the Easy Sounds Library we were talking about does.

We are truly blessed to have all of this great technology at our hands. And with the nights drawing in now in the UK, I need to knuckle down and make use of it and get my Spectral Streams songs (mainly only played live so far) using all of this great tech committed to recordings.

I was really pleased when Yamaha increased the library count from 8 to 16 in the Montage M, but I have already nearly filled those extra ones, so I need to hurry up and get montage.factory updated for the Montage M so I can consolidate the libraries. That update is taking a long time, as Yamaha have made a significant update to the file structure - although to be fair to them, it is now a lot more logical compared to the old classic Montage format, which looked to be the Motif XF format with the Montage differences bodged on top.

[ChrisDuncan]

I need to hurry up and get montage.factory updated for the Montage M so I can consolidate the libraries.

I think some of the best software gets created because the programmer says, "I really need this," and then it turns out everyone else does as well. I know I've had a few moments like that myself.

That said, my programming life is immensely easier than yours as I write systems that I design from the ground up. You're having to reverse engineer someone's equipment to figure out how to talk to it, which is a much, much bigger pain in the posterior to do.

Here's wishing you many caffeine filled and productive nights!

[Derek]

I need to hurry up and get montage.factory updated for the Montage M so I can consolidate the libraries.

I think some of the best software gets created because the programmer says, "I really need this," and then it turns out everyone else does as well. I know I've had a few moments like that myself.

That said, my programming life is immensely easier than yours as I write systems that I design from the ground up. You're having to reverse engineer someone's equipment to figure out how to talk to it, which is a much, much bigger pain in the posterior to do.

Here's wishing you many caffeine filled and productive nights!

Hi,

Well the librarian is designed from the ground up, as that is all my own work, but I am course constrained to the arcane world of Yamaha file formats, where the only logic to them is that often there is no logic. Some, like the AN1x, are a doddle, as it basically follows the SYSEX dumps. Then you have the EX5, Motif and Montage…. With the EX5, for example, the representation of patterns in an S1A file format is different to what is in the S1P file format!

But it gives me a mental challenge In the way that some people like cross words and sudoku as a mental challenge, the sleuthing of file formats can be quite satisfying when you crack it! The one I have completely failed on so far is the ASM Hydrasynth. But I will get back to that once I have montage.factory back on the streets!