Published
Thu, Oct 12, 2023, 11:40
- The Montage M features a new sound engine and up to 400-note polyphony.
Yamaha has upgraded its flagship Montage keyboard.
As a workstation, the new Montage M is designed to do everything at once. It offers up to 400-note polyphony from three sound engines, with patches that combine up to 128 different elements. It comes with around ten gigabytes of sounds, with space for 3.8 gigs of user-designed sound storage.
As well as the AWM2 and FM-X sound engines found on the original Montage, the new synth debuts a sound engine called AN-X, which was designed to recreate authentic analogue timbres and behaviour. Each AN-X part models up to three oscillators with two filters, analogue-style frequency modulation, ring modulation and a wave shaper.
Users can also dial-in voltage drive and ageing settings to simulate the behaviour of vintage audio gear. The name of the new sound engine seems to have been inspired by Yamaha's AN1x keyboard from the '90s, which was an early analogue-modelling synth.
Processor speeds have been improved over the original Montage range, and the UI has been redesigned, with a faster touchscreen and easier control over modulation and sound parameters.
Like the original Montage series, the M comes in three sizes: 61-key, 76-key and 88-key. All feature semi-weighted keyboards and the largest model, the 88-key Montage M8x, adds polyphonic aftertouch, which means each note can be articulated individually after it's pressed. Polyphonic aftertouch is a rare feature that's sometimes seen as the ultimate expressive feature on a synth. It has previously only appeared on three very high-end Yamaha synths from the '70s and '80s: the GX1, the CS-80 and the DX-1.
Watch a demo of the Montage M.
Yamaha's Montage M is out now, priced £3,219 / $3,500 (61-key), £3,629 / $4,000 (76-key) and £4,049 / $4,500 (88-key).