Seems you can have 8 arps in a single scene.. and 8 scenes (each with its own arps) in a performance..

If you converted a style to arps .. you could for example have a style with 1 intro, 1 ending 4 variations and 2 fills (and have 8 keyboard parts on otp of that)...

Because an ARP can be as advanced as any arranger track... i.e. Arranger varriation 3 the bass part is nothing but a very specific arp..


In the end, the Montage is much much more then just an arranger.. but it seems this can be done.. (tough it will be much easier to buy Varranger and use that on a tablet for styles on the Montage) but it seems the Montage is finally versatile enough to use as an arranger...

Its just ain't the same in a Live stage performance day after day using a synth like Montage or Motif etc, unless you want to just play on top of custom backing tracks which could work. ......an arranger Kb on stage is unique and hard to beat in so many ways..
in a band or studio work is where a workstation/synth shines..but we all know that right? We'll have to wait and see how many features of the Montage leak into the next Yamaha TOTL arranger down the road....

If you can convert Style FROM Midi on the Pa4x now, Can you reverse it a Style TO midi and then convert it to an ARP , to use on the Montage or any Synth?

Maybe I am looking at this wrong, but if you can use midi to covert the file (with adjustments) you can eventually built a better keyboard that uses both styles and arps out of the same data. I could be simplifying too much. Or better still, has anyone used current software to try to convert style to arps or arps to styles?

A style can be regarded as a whole system of several arps organized into different stages of density (variations 1-4), chord categories (major, minor, 7th) and phases within a song (intro, fill-in and ending). So there are lots of different arpeggios making up all those different components of a style. I don't think it is easy to convert them. A style could be decomposed into its many different arps automatically, but there can't be an automatic conversion of arps to a style, because you have to decide which arps belong where (variations, chord types, intro/main/ending).

That's why when they play an arp they sound so mundane by themselves, fair enough. I never did get into the techno style beat lol.
But , if you could even get some software to "split" the style into digital segments, it could work. Of well I don't know enough.......

Allan

From what I have seen and being a long time Motif XS owner, the Montage is way more capable of being usable in an arranger situation than the previous Motif line...

The Motif XS and XF has full song and pattern sequencing. I am assuming the Montage has a pattern sequencer (Arp sequencer)which will allow you to create drum tracks, baselines and other "style parts"... with thew Motif XS/XF you were only limited to layering 4 realtime arp tracks..

the problem with the 4 realtime arp tracks on the XS/XF - you still need at least 1 track for the your playing in the right hand.. so then u only have 3 tracks remaining... (1 for drums, 1 for bass and 1 for sometime else... very limited.. not enough)...

having 8 on the montage changes things and gives alot more flexibility but still not the same as an arranger which has 8 dedicated tracks for the accompaniment and then up to 3 layered tracks for the right hand + 1 for the lower/left hand and then not to mention 4 more tracks for the multi-pads...

So is solo accompaniment playing with a montage possible?? YES... but can it be done wayyy more efficiently with an an arranger? YES

Big downfall for the Montage... You can only load 256 user arps in your registry...

And you can not create your own arps on the Montage, only load them from external sources..

It looks like Yamaha is wandering the same road as with the tyros, taking functions away from the board and creating pc apps to replace that...


All in all, i have learned a bit more about the montage, because while a performance consist of 16 parts, you can only access 8 of them from the keyboard ( arps are keyboard parts too). You can however access the other 8 parts from the sequencer, or from external sources like Varranger, the Karma app or your DAW...

Yes, I've posted the last part of what you say in our new synthesizer discussion section outside the arranger forum, here:
http://www.synthzone.com/forum/ubbthread..._by_#Post416041

Even if the Montage had unlimited arpeggios, it's not the same as a style, as you would have to switch on and off different arps actively yourself, switch on and off fill-in arpeggios, very different from just hitting variation buttons with automatic fill-ins. And I think you can't make the Montage react differently to major, minor and 7th chords.

Just buythem both if thats what you need to create your music....
an arranger & a synth like montage etc,...they will always be two different camps....thats how they make money to merge them is financial suicide.

Thats what i did, kronos/tyros..
88key piano action, 76 key synth action..
Quite happy with that..

But i am always interested to find uses for new instruments, more out of the book..

You can switch all arpegio's at once on the montage using scene memmory

I think you can use the montage as a very basic arranger, witouth intro and ending and auto variations... but if you like me often prefer a simple arrangement of drum, bass, guitar... it can be done...

- tough the arpegiator is a much much more broader tool then doing a static arrangement

- offcourse you could allways add an arranger module or Varranger to Montage for the best results..