Hot News! On Wednesday, March 25, 2015, a U.S. federal trademark registration number 86575603 was filed for PROVISIONAIRE TOUCH by YAMAHA CORPORATION with the description Smartphones; apparatus for recording, transmission or reproduction of sound and images; microphones; loudspeakers; woofers; public address systems; headphones, earphones; portable music players, namely, music players for audio files; audio memory players, namely, memory players for audio files; audio amplifiers; recorders and players of optical discs; audio mixers; audio signal processors; audio-video receivers; graphic equalizers; remote controllers for audio or video apparatus; tablet computers; computer software for generating, reproducing, effecting, and recording sound; computer software for controlling audio apparatus; computer software featuring acoustic simulation for designing sound space.

Provisionaire Touch could be Yamaha's new touch interface technology for electronic devices including LCD screens for keyboards?? Korg has had touch enabled devices for quite a while and so Yamaha could be finally jumping on the bandwagon. My advice is to take this with a grain of salt and in fact you should take everything in this post with a grain of salt because nothing has been verified at the moment. There have been no leaks from Yamaha about a new keyboard so we'll just have to wait and see. My apologies if this information has been posted previously on synthzone.

MONTAGE
By: YAMAHA CORPORATION

Say goodbye to Motif and say hello to Montage? More than likely it will be the new flagship workstation from Yammie called Montage but of course it's just speculation at this point. The Motif XF has been on the market 5 years so it makes sense to release something new and it appears that Yamaha has decided to go with a different name? Maybe the Tyros will also have a different name the next time around too. We'll see. We have about two more years before a Tyros 5 successor appears on the scene.. hopefully with 256 note polyphony. Could it be the Montage might also have 256 note polyphony? They'll sell like hotcakes if it does. Remember though it's just speculation at this point.

On Monday, December 22, 2014, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for MONTAGE by YAMAHA CORPORATION, Shizuoka prefecture. The USPTO has given the MONTAGE trademark serial number of 86487549. The MONTAGE trademark is filed in the category of Musical Instrument Products. The description provided to the USPTO for MONTAGE is Musical instruments, namely, music synthesizers and electronic keyboard instruments.

Status Update! On Monday, March 23, 2015, status on the MONTAGE trademark changed to APPROVED FOR PUBLICATION!

Musikmesse is right around the corner so we'll see. What we do know is that Yamaha has their own specific timeline and therefore we shouldn't get too excited just yet. If it is showcased at Musikmesse or at summer NAMM then it will likely create quite a stir. If it blows the Kronos 2 out of the water it will perk things up even more. If the Montage has many new and exciting features and technologies then we can also expect the Tyros 5 successor (whatever they decide to call it) to also have many of those same new features and technologies. Or so the theory goes anyway.

REFACE
By: YAMAHA CORPORATION
Musical instruments, namely, music synthesizers and electronic keyboard instruments; structural parts and structural fittings for all the aforesaid goods.

On Thursday, June 05, 2014, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for REFACE by YAMAHA CORPORATION, Shizuoka. The USPTO has given the REFACE trademark serial number of 86301202. There has been no recent update though as to the status of the REFACE development.

Reface could be a new interface for keyboards used for expandability purposes and perhaps for data transfer used in conjunction with SSD (solid-state drives)? As we know the Korg Kronos/2 uses solid-state drives with streaming capability. Yamaha eliminated the mLAN16E Firewire audio interface for the Motif series a few years ago so Reface could be the new replacement technology and it possibly utilizes USB 3.0/3.1. Thunderbolt/2 is also a possibility but it's more expensive to implement and there is hardly any compatible devices currently on the market but again we'll have to wait and see what Yamaha has to offer. I hear Korg is about to release the Pa4X/PRO but there's been no reliable confirmation as to when exactly they'll do so. Musikmesse would be nice but we might have to wait until summer NAMM or possibly winter NAMM 2016. In the meantime the Tyros 5 is still drawing accolades and continues to do well in the marketplace. Competition is good and the more the merrier in my opinion. Cheers.

All the best,

Mike

I have been telling this for months....its been on gearslutz and several other forums a few times...

I think we will see a new "Montage" at the Musikmesse which includes the reface technollogy.... the reface will be the UI that changes with every different sound and synth (including diffenrent forms of synthesis) you choose....

The only new fact is the aproval of the Montage name by 25th of March, hench why the Montage wasnt shown at NAMM...



And there will probably not be a PA4x this year, chances are bigger we will see an 88 key Pro version of Tyros 5...