Oh BM - what would I do without you! I do have the full set of John Melas tools, which I bought for a project I was then working on, but discovered I could do what I was planning on doing faster on Montage than using the JM tools! Forgotten what it was now, too ... however, I decided I would not use the computer any more with the Montage in that I am not doing complicated things like making music - just making sounds. Your comprehensive overview made many good points and rang several bells ... leading me to question my work practices. I am a creature of habit, and tend to run on rails rather than look at it from another angle. Which I have now done - of course you're right that I would need to convert the Favorites to User Pfs before creating a new Library - but do I need to convert to User Pfs in the first place? Found I don't. I can use the Favorites as a source file directly for initial audition (with a pre-selected Part 1). For some reason I had not considered that - habit again. So I created my own problem out of nothing. Which you, in your inimitable manner, made me see. I know that the JM tools and the computer may make things quicker - but I'm an old dog, and like to try and keep it all 'in house' so to speak. Thanks again!
Incidentally, some time ago I half-remembered being able to add Pfs to an existing Library, which you said isn't possible. Well, you were right! I found that my half-remembered method was simply clicking on the existing Library on the USB instead of 'Save as new file' and the User Bank over-wrote what was in that Library. It was of course necessary to load that Library and 'Import to User' to begin with - then add the new Pfs and save the lot again. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing ...
Each person must find their own workflow. Even if you are “not doing complicated things like making music - just making sounds”, I think you will find that computer’s principal strength is
organization. That’s been a difficult sell, as you can see from those protesting that the elegant manipulation of data should all be magically included in the product.
And they are right... but it’s simply not practical to do this. It simply adds cost, and the product quickly becomes unaffordable by the target audience... and that being the case, removing redundant services or features that are so commonplace among the target audience to where putting them in the product is redundant. (Serious sampling folks sample on a computer). Because the majority of the audience doing an activity uses a dedicated tool for that activity.
Once your custom Waveforms are in permanent place, Bulk Dumping (MONTAGE CONNECT, Media Bay) becomes an easy, affordable, wholly practical way to manage individual Performances. For the vast majority of users, those with just one MONTAGE or one MODX, who have less Library data than the 1.75 or 1.0GB space provided, who don’t and who never create their own sample data... (because they simply don’t have the hundreds of thousands of dollars of gear/logistics to sample their own orchestra, properly), it’s for those folks that the sampler was eliminated from this new series of products.
If you have lived in a cave, you may still believe that lots of people still sample in a hardware device (but you would be deluding yourself, I’m afraid). Similar thing with traditional sequencing functions in hardware. We’ve heard all the arguments concerning the hassle of having to connect to and configure a computer every time you get a musical idea. And have dealt with that via the “Performance Recorder” (whose purpose is to quickly capture that inspiration as either MIDI or Audio). Your musical idea can be programmed (create the Performance) in the synth engine, then immediately documented as MIDI (drag n drop-able to your favorite DAW directly through the USB connection) or documented as 44.1kHz/24-bit wav that can be shuttled over to your DAW via a thumb drive.
Once the data is in the DAW you can add tracks to it.
True this doesn’t serve everyone, but it does land closer to the target customer goal (an affordable but no compromise Synthesizer).
If we put EVERYTHING in it would be certainly over $10,000 _ at Yamaha we do that, when necessary (lol).
The CS80 or should I say, the legendary CS80? It was actually the “cost down”, “portable” version of the Yamaha GX1 synthesizer.
“Cost down”, yet it was $6900 in 1976 dollars.... yikes (that’s like over $30,000 today)
Portable, yet it was 220lbs... double yikes!
The real deal was the Yamaha GX1, it sold for $60,000 back in 1973 (that’s well over $340,000 in today’s economy)
It weighed over 850lbs without its
four 300lbs speakers. Total rig was over 2000lbs. and that’s still pretty heavy in today’s economy!
In reality, these products landed just ever so slightly above that volume zone median price point/practicality point (ya think!?!)
But I shutter to think where Synthesis would be if Yamaha hadn’t attempted these products. Changed the world in their own way. Let’s just say we wouldn’t be sitting here having this conversation.
You (as a manufacturer) can put ‘everything’ in a product, but then you must remember the price point/practicality point for the target audience.
Fact is that the computer is an option for the majority (not all) but the majority of the target MONTAGE/MODX audience... and in many cases it has become the
preferred option for certain tasks.
Definitely/certainly for organizing sounds... if you ever get hip to doing your organizing on the computer, I think you’ll find new, more efficient ways to get at your sounds. I understand getting set into how you always worked... it’s a comfort zone.
But if you accumulate massive amounts of sounds, you’ll want to have an elegant way to audition them when you need to hunt down that one “right sound”.
Suggestion: look into the Media Bay feature of Cubase (doesn’t matter if you use nothing else in Cubase... the Media Bay is the thing).
A separate engine for organizing all media on your computer... this includes videos, wav, mp3, loops, audio clips, synth sounds, etc., etc., etc. MONTAGE CONNECT is the portal through which you can create VST PRESETS from your MONTAGE data to the Media Bay’s Sound Browser.
It’s a tool that, once apart of your workflow, becomes one of those things you wonder how you ever worked without it. Yes, you can organize the data with just the tools you purchased included with the Synthesizer... this doesn’t mean that an external program dedicated to the task of organizing, ranking, and recalling will not be useful. It will. You can look at data in ways that serve your needs. You can even setup Audition capabilities — makes the task of finding “that specific bass sound” that much easier.
If you’re in a studio situation where you want to have access to tons of sounds...all your sounds... be they hardware synths, software synths, whatever. You can just move through them without having to know *where* it comes from. (In working with clients, I often remove the burden of telling them what synth or what technology is making the sound before they hear it, I’ve found they pre-judge sounds when you tell them its source. I want them to choose solely on the appropriateness of the sound itself, not whether it’s FM-X or a VSTi
You should also expect to get more when you add utilities to your basic setup. That is why they exist, after all. To enhance the experience. Yes you can “import” data on the product. Expect to do it quicker when you add your (expensive) computer with its ability to cut/copy/paste and organize. This is still ‘news’ to many who feel this same elegance found in software should be built in... I know it could be (who doesn’t) but I have a little closer perspective on how much that might impact the end price of the product — and what that means to the ultimate success of the product.
GX-1’s are necessary — and if only a handful of musicians can afford it, so be it. It was proof of concept
That was not the goal here with the current synths.
Have you tried the Media Bay yet?
