Coming up: Yamaha Montage standalone VST

[gentleclockdivider]

It's free if you buy the £3000+ keyboard!!!!! Yamaha are cute.

Good luck trying to get Roland zenology pro for free when you have a Fantom .
I can only applaud this gesture from yamaha .

[egbert101]

Well, I have a Yamaha MODX, I'll happily take my free plugin gesture then.

[protools]

Playing the NEW Montage M DAW Plugin

[kritikon]

This actually seems like a really good deal for the hw owners. Compare to Korg who have now released 3 plugins of existing hw and as a hw owner you PAY for the plugins (although initially at least at a reduced price). Yamaha have improved their reputation with this and come out of it shining. Only genZ, who think they are owed everything, could possibly be offended by Yamaha. And they are unlikely to be purchasers of an expensive hw synth so are irrelevant anyway. Well done Yamaha , I wish other manufacturers were as good as this (I can think, of one other who released and gave out plugins of their hw synths, but they've gone bust already). As already mentioned...does anyone expect any freebies from the likes of Roland?

Ultimately, if anyone wants a Montage, then buy one. You're not going to get a cheap sw one, so tough tits.

[protools]

This actually seems like a really good deal for the hw owners. Compare to Korg who have now released 3 plugins of existing hw and as a hw owner you PAY for the plugins (although initially at least at a reduced price). Yamaha have improved their reputation with this and come out of it shining. Only genZ, who think they are owed everything, could possibly be offended by Yamaha. And they are unlikely to be purchasers of an expensive hw synth so are irrelevant anyway. Well done Yamaha , I wish other manufacturers were as good as this (I can think, of one other who released and gave out plugins of their hw synths, but they've gone bust already). As already mentioned...does anyone expect any freebies from the likes of Roland?

Don’t be so optimistic, i think Yamaha released this light version to use the new montage owners as a beta testers, checking for bugs. Otherwise why do they postponded the full version of this plugin. They will after all sell it as a plugin. Hopfully

[Funky40]

Did you watch the whole Video or did you just take something out of context to suit what you want?
Listen Closely from 7:16 in the Video

ok, thanks for pointing this specific "passage" out.
No ! i did not take anything out of context.

I was also pointing to a specific passage, there he sayed ...it´s".....exactly as i have quoted/repeated it.
In your passage he says a ....explicite..."No !" / true.
And there is no ..."it´s" ...in the passage you point towards / true.
So, that makes at least two passages, him saying +- same. Just with different wordings.
( no, i don´t go back watching videos i allready watched,....just to have a explicit time stamp to throw into a pointless battle / i´m not here to battle)

But that phrase you pointed out is still just pointing to the present, and nothing in this wording is pointing towards the future either.


Please take my appologies ! My post was not meant "towards" you !
=> I just wanted to point out that nothing of what has been sayed was giving any clues "for us", => towards the future "behave" from Yamaha on that matter.

The guy seems in fact to be well trained to NOT say any wrong word.
Probably much likely aware -if trained on it, or aware by himself- that if you´d say one wrong word, people would hang you up on it.

It´s in fact a clever move from Yamaha to just deliver to fresh Montage M owners, ....*for now.*
But it would be an absolutely unclever move from them, to never unlosen "on that". imho
and: ymmv

[Bippo]

...Only genZ, who think they are owed everything, could possibly be offended by Yamaha...

This has nothing to do about being part of gen x/y/z or being "offended"...

It's simply doesn't make any sense to invest time and money in the creation of a software that has ZERO dependency in any extra hardware to function properly, and limit its availability only to people who purchase some specific redundant hardware that is utterly unnecessary for those same customers and for the usage of the software.

Seriously, it's not even a matter of price, no sane person will purchase a piece of hardware that requires a noticeable amount of psychical space in any studio/home setup, just to throw it in a garage and use a separate, unrelated piece of code in a daw.

Yamaha just lost extra source of income, customers who need the hardware Montage will buy it anyway, customers who are only interested in software will just use whatever kontakt libray/omnipshere/arturia/etc plugin they have, instead of adding an extra tool into their vst arsenal.

Plus, everybody knows that it's only a matter of time until the pirates will put their hands on this software, customers who are interested in software ONLY will have no other choice

It's like going to an Apple store to buy an Apple Watch, but being told its' only available to customers who bought an iPhone.
Sure, the Apple Watch can sync with iPhone, but is it necessary to own an iPhone in order to use an Apple Watch?

[beely]

It's simply doesn't make any sense to invest time and money in the creation of a software that has ZERO dependency in any extra hardware to function properly, and limit its availability only to people who purchase some specific redundant hardware that is utterly unnecessary for those same customers and for the usage of the software.

Sure it does, as a value add to Montage users, and an as extra incentive for people to *buy* a Montage because you now also get a plugin version, which is a significantly nice extra option. It's a feature/benefit that makes the Montage product/range more attractive to people who are considering products from Yamaha, or similarly from Roland, Korg etc. Yamaha have actually a long track record of giving software alongside hardware.

Seriously, it's not even a matter of price, no sane person will purchase a piece of hardware that requires a noticeable amount of psychical space in any studio/home setup, just to throw it in a garage and use a separate, unrelated piece of code in a daw.

Of course, but this is not the point of the plugin. You wouldn't buy a four grand keyboard you don't want just to get the plugin.

Yamaha just lost extra source of income, customers who need the hardware Montage will buy it anyway, customers who are only interested in software will just use whatever kontakt libray/omnipshere/arturia/etc plugin they have, instead of adding an extra tool into their vst arsenal.

We don't know what Yamaha's future plans with the plugin are. *Currently*, as already said, there's a light version that's available free to Montage owners, and Yamaha are presumably still working on the full version, which is expected to come later on in the year - probably also free to Montage owners.

Whether Yamaha *also* make the plugin for sale at some point in the future remains to be seen. Certainly for now, Yamaha will be no doubt concerned that making the plugin for general sale could cannibalise hardware sales (which really would be losing income, as anyone who gets the plugin instead of the hardware because they want access to the Montage sounds/engine would be giving less money to Yamaha for it).

Concensus seems to be from people I've heard talking about it that Yamaha probably will end up selling the plugin (or perhaps a Montage range of plugins) as an individual product at some point later on, but that's not a given. I think it's probably going to happen too, as developing the plugin would seem to be a pretty hefty undertaking, just to be a freebie Montage purchase incentive.

If they do end up selling it, I'm would expect it will be more expensive than most would like it to be - think Omnisphere territory for a ballpark...

Sure, the Apple Watch can sync with iPhone, but is it necessary to own an iPhone in order to use an Apple Watch?

Now - no. But for the first few years of the Apple Watch, that was indeed absolutely true, as you needed an iPhone to activate it, and the Watch really acted as a front end that was powered by iPhone. You couldn't use it without one.

[Bippo]

It's simply doesn't make any sense to invest time and money in the creation of a software that has ZERO dependency in any extra hardware to function properly, and limit its availability only to people who purchase some specific redundant hardware that is utterly unnecessary for those same customers and for the usage of the software.

Sure it does, as a value add to Montage users, and an as extra incentive for people to *buy* a Montage because you now also get a plugin version, which is a significantly nice extra option. It's a feature/benefit that makes the Montage product/range more attractive to people who are considering products from Yamaha, or similarly from Roland, Korg etc. Yamaha have actually a long track record of giving software alongside hardware.

Seriously, it's not even a matter of price, no sane person will purchase a piece of hardware that requires a noticeable amount of psychical space in any studio/home setup, just to throw it in a garage and use a separate, unrelated piece of code in a daw.

Of course, but this is not the point of the plugin. You wouldn't buy a four grand keyboard you don't want just to get the plugin.

Yamaha just lost extra source of income, customers who need the hardware Montage will buy it anyway, customers who are only interested in software will just use whatever kontakt libray/omnipshere/arturia/etc plugin they have, instead of adding an extra tool into their vst arsenal.

We don't know what Yamaha's future plans with the plugin are. *Currently*, as already said, there's a light version that's available free to Montage owners, and Yamaha are presumably still working on the full version, which is expected to come later on in the year - probably also free to Montage owners.

Whether Yamaha *also* make the plugin for sale at some point in the future remains to be seen. Certainly for now, Yamaha will be no doubt concerned that making the plugin for general sale could cannibalise hardware sales (which really would be losing income, as anyone who gets the plugin instead of the hardware because they want access to the Montage sounds/engine would be giving less money to Yamaha for it).

Concensus seems to be from people I've heard talking about it that Yamaha probably will end up selling the plugin (or perhaps a Montage range of plugins) as an individual product at some point later on, but that's not a given. I think it's probably going to happen too, as developing the plugin would seem to be a pretty hefty undertaking, just to be a freebie Montage purchase incentive.

If they do end up selling it, I'm would expect it will be more expensive than most would like it to be - think Omnisphere territory for a ballpark...

Sure, the Apple Watch can sync with iPhone, but is it necessary to own an iPhone in order to use an Apple Watch?

Now - no. But for the first few years of the Apple Watch, that was indeed absolutely true, as you needed an iPhone to activate it, and the Watch really acted as a front end that was powered by iPhone. You couldn't use it without one.

You kind of missed my point:
If Yamaha has already invested time and resources in developing this Montage VST, why not sell it?
They have nothing to lose and only money to gain.
Customers who are willing to purchase a 5000$ keyboard will purchase it anyway with or without the vst, nobody buys a 5000$ keyboard these days JUST for the sounds
It won't hurt the sales of the Montage because its a different type of product for a different market.

In my opinion they will eventually do what Akai did, they have their "MPC key" keyboard available for sale for all those who need a good keyboard for gigging/music creation in one station, but they will sell all its sound sources separately in vsts.
If Yamaha won't follow the same path it will be a very stupid business decision, because they already have a product ready for the vst market, not making it available is just pointless and will prevent more profits for them.

[beely]

You kind of missed my point:
If Yamaha has already invested time and resources in developing this Montage VST, why not sell it?
They have nothing to lose and only money to gain.

No I didn't miss it, I already made that exact point - that I think they are likely to end up selling the plugin because it's a lot of development effort to go to otherwise (perhaps you missed that). And yes, there is money to lose (hence the cannibalisation part, if you missed that), and it would depend if they think that a plugin product would make more than they would lose by potentially cannibalising Montage sales. It's possible that this is indeed a measure to help increase hardware sales, and that that is their main focus at this point, as these companies are mostly all about hardware - especially Yamaha.

Customers who are willing to purchase a 5000$ keyboard will purchase it anyway with or without the vst, nobody buys a 5000$ keyboard these days JUST for the sounds

See the part where I talk about purchase incentives... if I'm thinking about getting one of these high end keyboards, and I'm considering the available products from different manufacturers, I would indeed consider the Montage more if it came with the plugin - it's a good additional extra. So in that regard, it's doing it's job.

If the (full) plugin was released next month, and it was $399, or $499 - would you be buying it, out of interest? (It's not going to be $150, that's for sure.) What's the price point you think it should be at? (given it's Yamaha's flagship engine and sounds that are only available in their pricey hardware.)

[PAK]

If the (full) plugin was released next month, and it was $399, or $499 - would you be buying it, out of interest? (It's not going to be $150, that's for sure.) What's the price point you think it should be at? (given it's Yamaha's flagship engine and sounds that are only available in their pricey hardware.)

Yep. To offer some more context: Roland's Zenology Pro Collection (with its model expansions) costs $599. This doesn’t include the 20 wave expansions (which adds all the classic JV/XV presets to Zenology - or, at least, it would if it wasn’t minus all of their reverb settings), which is an extra $300. Then there’s the preset packs (Model Expansions: $300, 9 Zenology Specific Packs: $90, SDZ1-100: $249 bundle, SDZ101-135: = $350).

That’s a grand total of US $1,888 and climbing - most of the way towards the price of a new Fantom keyboard. That's also US pricing - If you’re elsewhere in the world count on paying more. In that context, perhaps a sub $500 Montage M plugin might not appear so expensive after all?

[beely]

Sure, if you add all the options, extra synth models and sound packs, it adds up. (The same is true if you bought Omnisphere, with all the optional expansions, or Kontakt, with all NIs optional libraries etc.)

Part of that is they really want you on subscription. Zenology Pro itself is $229, so you can at least add options you want over time.

[Funky40]

also:
a Montage plugin would allow for additional sample lybrary pack sales.

RAM size in Montage M ?
SSD Size in the PC ?

could be a win-win situation.

I´m now quite convinced that the montage plugin will land on my SSD. Just a question of time.


edit: not taking an overlap with Halion into account

[PAK]

Part of that is they really want you on subscription. Zenology Pro itself is $229, so you can at least add options you want over time.

That’s true. The subscription justification is real But even the current version, of the Montage M plugin, appears to include all of the base Montage M sounds.

Zenology Pro only includes a part of the base Fantom sounds. To be more comparable (to the hardware) you have to include the first 4 model expansions and the $300 Wave packs, which puts the starting price of Zenology up to a minimum of $899. For spending all of this money, Roland will still give you something which lacks many of the Fantom’s features and sounds (VPiano, Supernatural, N/zyme Model etc) and forces 30 day logins on top of it all.

So, I’d say, at least versus Roland, Yamaha will have to work pretty hard to provide worse value for money. Though (and not to give Yamaha any ideas.. We want permanent licenses Yamaha!!), Steinberg licensing also opens the door to a rental model, for the Montage M plugin, too..

[OrionAlpha101]

It is disappointing that they wasted their potential.
They should finally take the right step into the DAW for everybody.

By the way, an-x really doesn't sound like an an1x at all.