Coming up: Yamaha Montage standalone VST

[DrGonzo]

So if this ever does become a VSTi available to the masses I'd be in but I imagine the price and copy protection scheme might knock it off my to-buy list.

That and I can absolutely imagine it consuming enormous amounts of CPU.

[Bippo]

I have the New Roland Fantom as Vst (Zen Pro)...

No you don't.
There are TONS of patches in the fantom that are missing in zenology, especially in the acoustic sounds department which is imo the weakest point of zenology.

[D-Fusion]

I have the New Roland Fantom as Vst (Zen Pro)...

No you don't.
There are TONS of patches in the fantom that are missing in zenology, especially in the acoustic sounds department which is imo the weakest point of zenology.

What patches are missing outside of the Supernatural Accoustic and the Organ engine that the Zen Pro doesn't have?

If you have the Sound/Bin files for the Fantom you can import them into Zenology Pro and use them there Except for the supernatural ones.

Roland Fantom 6 Specs - Over 3,500 Tones, Over 90 Drum kits
Roland Fantom 06 Specs - 3,500 tones or greater, 90 Drum kits
Zenology Pro Specs - 4,106 Tones, 109 Drum kits

[JamminFool]

Copy protection would probably be the same thing Steinberg is using for their stuff...

which is?

[fmr]

Copy protection would probably be the same thing Steinberg is using for their stuff...

which is?

A separate app that's called "Authorization Manager". I'm not sure, but I think it works as a challenge/response "behind the curtain". It's a process similar to what's in use by Native Instruments (and affiliates Plugin Alliance and iZotope) as well as Arturia, for example.

[felis]

Yeah. I Guess i was a tiny bit to short on my wording there
I hope they do give us the option to buy it without the very expensive option but the answer they gave me makes me unsure if we will get it outside of buying a Montage M.

I have the New Roland Fantom as Vst (Zen Pro) + Korg Triton and would love to have a Motif + ANX or a Montage M in my vst folder too.

If you don't want to wait for a 'maybe', give Halion a try.
It's got FM, Spectral, Wavetable, Virtual Analog, and Granular synthesis.
It's also got a very comprehensive sampling system.
Halion also has features I use all the time, that appear to be missing in Montage after browsing the manual.

I know that some of the 35GB of content is from the Motif/Montage, but don't know how much as I don't have either one of those. It's got 3,700 presets and 15 instruments.
It's also got a 30 day trial version, to see if it does it for you. I'm a fan.
https://www.steinberg.net/vst-instruments/halion/

[JamminFool]

Copy protection would probably be the same thing Steinberg is using for their stuff...

which is?

A separate app that's called "Authorization Manager". I'm not sure, but I think it works as a challenge/response "behind the curtain". It's a process similar to what's in use by Native Instruments (and affiliates Plugin Alliance and iZotope) as well as Arturia, for example.

thanks for that reply. i don't use any steinberg products, so i wasn't sure what that meant...

[D-Fusion]

Yeah. I Guess i was a tiny bit to short on my wording there
I hope they do give us the option to buy it without the very expensive option but the answer they gave me makes me unsure if we will get it outside of buying a Montage M.

I have the New Roland Fantom as Vst (Zen Pro) + Korg Triton and would love to have a Motif + ANX or a Montage M in my vst folder too.

If you don't want to wait for a 'maybe', give Halion a try.
It's got FM, Spectral, Wavetable, Virtual Analog, and Granular synthesis.
It's also got a very comprehensive sampling system.
Halion also has features I use all the time, that appear to be missing in Montage after browsing the manual.

I know that some of the 35GB of content is from the Motif/Montage, but don't know how much as I don't have either one of those. It's got 3,700 presets and 15 instruments.
It's also got a 30 day trial version, to see if it does it for you. I'm a fan.
https://www.steinberg.net/vst-instruments/halion/

Already have it
Bought the Upgrade from Halion Sonic 3 to v7 as soon as it came out when i saw that it included the FM Engine

Used to own a Modx but I liked the Halion sounds more and it was easier to use in my daw and could do more because of it's different engines so i sold the modx.

[Teksonik]

So if this ever does become a VSTi available to the masses I'd be in but I imagine the price and copy protection scheme might knock it off my to-buy list.

That and I can absolutely imagine it consuming enormous amounts of CPU.

Quite possibly so. I wonder what the CPU in the Montage hardware is? Of course it doesn't have to run a bloated OS like Winblows or Crap OS so will give more bang for the buck.

[Bippo]

I have the New Roland Fantom as Vst (Zen Pro)...

No you don't.
There are TONS of patches in the fantom that are missing in zenology, especially in the acoustic sounds department which is imo the weakest point of zenology.

What patches are missing outside of the Supernatural Accoustic and the Organ engine that the Zen Pro doesn't have?
...

Right there.
Supernatural Acoustic and VTW Organ, plus the V-Piano are missing.
If you care mostly about synth sounds, then really, the zenology vst can replace the fantom easily.
But, if you are looking for acoustic sounds - you are in big problem if you rely only on zenology

For instance, Goodluck on finding one decent electric guitar sound in zenology.
You have mainly 20+ years old XV/SRX patches that sounds toyish in 2023 or some general-midi like sounds in the factory/essential banks.
Same goes for clean guitars, harps, saxophones, drum kits and basically almost every category.
Until roland will add the supernatural acoustic sounds to zenology, it will be very pale compared to the real fantom.

[felis]

Already have it
Bought the Upgrade from Halion Sonic 3 to v7 as soon as it came out when i saw that it included the FM Engine

Used to own a Modx but I liked the Halion sounds more and it was easier to use in my daw and could do more because of it's different engines so i sold the modx.

Then you know.
I got a little excited at first about the ESP, but after researching some docs, I know I would end up not using it.
What I have is doing what I want already.

[Bippo]

Yeah. I Guess i was a tiny bit to short on my wording there
I hope they do give us the option to buy it without the very expensive option but the answer they gave me makes me unsure if we will get it outside of buying a Montage M.

I have the New Roland Fantom as Vst (Zen Pro) + Korg Triton and would love to have a Motif + ANX or a Montage M in my vst folder too.

If you don't want to wait for a 'maybe', give Halion a try.
It's got FM, Spectral, Wavetable, Virtual Analog, and Granular synthesis.
It's also got a very comprehensive sampling system.
Halion also has features I use all the time, that appear to be missing in Montage after browsing the manual.

I know that some of the 35GB of content is from the Motif/Montage, but don't know how much as I don't have either one of those. It's got 3,700 presets and 15 instruments.
It's also got a 30 day trial version, to see if it does it for you. I'm a fan.
https://www.steinberg.net/vst-instruments/halion/

Already have it
Bought the Upgrade from Halion Sonic 3 to v7 as soon as it came out when i saw that it included the FM Engine

Used to own a Modx but I liked the Halion sounds more and it was easier to use in my daw and could do more because of it's different engines so i sold the modx.

That's really odd for me.
I own both halion 7 and modx, and while I agree that halion is way easier to use in a daw, the modx has way, wayyy better sounds than halion, at least in the acoustic sounds.
I mean, I just wrote something similar about the zenology vst vs fantom, but its also true for halion in this case. The acoustic sounds in the modx has way more depth and character than those in halion.

For instance, I don't think there's any strings or guitars preset in Halion that sounds as good as those in the following videos:




Theres some sort of edge,depth and mix-ready quality in the modx acoustic sounds, that honestly I can never feel in Halion.
I guess that what makes the difference, is that the modx sounds come ready with certain fxs and accurate eq, that is absent in halion.
If I could have all these modx sounds in one vst...that would be a total game changer for me.

[digitallysane]

That's really odd for me.
I own both halion 7 and modx, and while I agree that halion is way easier to use in a daw, the modx has way, wayyy better sounds than halion, at least in the acoustic sounds.

MODX also has more and better effects than HALion, and better modulation, even for the FM-X engine.
You can't modulate effects' parameters in HALion.

[D-Fusion]

I have the New Roland Fantom as Vst (Zen Pro)...

No you don't.
There are TONS of patches in the fantom that are missing in zenology, especially in the acoustic sounds department which is imo the weakest point of zenology.

What patches are missing outside of the Supernatural Accoustic and the Organ engine that the Zen Pro doesn't have?
...

Right there.
Supernatural Acoustic and VTW Organ, plus the V-Piano are missing.
If you care mostly about synth sounds, then really, the zenology vst can replace the fantom easily.
But, if you are looking for acoustic sounds - you are in big problem if you rely only on zenology

For instance, Goodluck on finding one decent electric guitar sound in zenology.
You have mainly 20+ years old XV/SRX patches that sounds toyish in 2023 or some general-midi like sounds in the factory/essential banks.
Same goes for clean guitars, harps, saxophones, drum kits and basically almost every category.
Until roland will add the supernatural acoustic sounds to zenology, it will be very pale compared to the real fantom.

I agree if the Supernatural Accoustic and the Organ Engine + N/Zyme is important to you then Zenology is not for you and you need a Fantom.

But if you are looking for a Standard Oldschool Fantom without these Features then Zenology Pro is good enough

Yeah. I Guess i was a tiny bit to short on my wording there
I hope they do give us the option to buy it without the very expensive option but the answer they gave me makes me unsure if we will get it outside of buying a Montage M.

I have the New Roland Fantom as Vst (Zen Pro) + Korg Triton and would love to have a Motif + ANX or a Montage M in my vst folder too.

If you don't want to wait for a 'maybe', give Halion a try.
It's got FM, Spectral, Wavetable, Virtual Analog, and Granular synthesis.
It's also got a very comprehensive sampling system.
Halion also has features I use all the time, that appear to be missing in Montage after browsing the manual.

I know that some of the 35GB of content is from the Motif/Montage, but don't know how much as I don't have either one of those. It's got 3,700 presets and 15 instruments.
It's also got a 30 day trial version, to see if it does it for you. I'm a fan.
https://www.steinberg.net/vst-instruments/halion/

Already have it
Bought the Upgrade from Halion Sonic 3 to v7 as soon as it came out when i saw that it included the FM Engine

Used to own a Modx but I liked the Halion sounds more and it was easier to use in my daw and could do more because of it's different engines so i sold the modx.

That's really odd for me.
I own both halion 7 and modx, and while I agree that halion is way easier to use in a daw, the modx has way, wayyy better sounds than halion, at least in the acoustic sounds.
I mean, I just wrote something similar about the zenology vst vs fantom, but its also true for halion in this case. The acoustic sounds in the modx has way more depth and character than those in halion.

For instance, I don't think there's any strings or guitars preset in Halion that sounds as good as those in the following videos:




Theres some sort of edge,depth and mix-ready quality in the modx acoustic sounds, that honestly I can never feel in Halion.
I guess that what makes the difference, is that the modx sounds come ready with certain fxs and accurate eq, that is absent in halion.
If I could have all these modx sounds in one vst...that would be a total game changer for me.

I agree that the Halion 7 is not a replacement for a ModX or Montage and if we get it in Vst form i would get it instantly.

I am also not a huge fan of Halions Accoustic sounds but it was the synth sounds that i was more interested in since i have better accoustic sound on my hw's

The sound between them is also different where Halion is loud and in your face and need some work to fit in a mix compared to the modx that seems more polished and ready to go so I agree on that one too

I guess it was the ease of use + the loud and proud Halion that sold me on it.

[kritikon]

Spoke to Yamaha and they said it will only be given to Montage M Owners for free

Totally understandable.
How would Yamaha ever sell $2000 hardware by releasing couple hundred or even 500 dollar plug-in available to all…

Actually it makes alot of sense.
How Korg goes about opsix, Modwave, Wavestate?
Roland with Zenology including ALL of their model expansions and zen-cores.
Software is a highly profitable market nowadays and as FMX was included recently with Halion it will not seem out of the blue if next year or even 2025 such Montage M software will be licensable to the general public.

Let me ask you a simple question…
What would you buy? $200 VST or $2000 dollar equivalent hardware keyboard?

$2000 keyboard.
It depends on the synth, so not 100% of the time, but mostly I prefer hw over sw any day. That was an easy question...NEXT!