Yamahasynth recently caught up with Yamaha artist Greg Spero, a great jazz pianist and keyboardist currently on tour with singer-songwriter Halsey. Greg has been using MONTAGE on the Halsey tour and we had the opportunity to ask him a few questions about his keyboard set up, his background and other musical projects he's currently involved in.

"User Arpeggios can be made from 4 MIDI Tracks" - this is often a misunderstood statement. We receive many questions on creating your own Arpeggio patterns. In this article, we will shed some light on the nature of how some of the arpeggios are made with the MONTAGE.  

MONTAGE OS Version 1.51 has arrived! This update improves Sound, Control and Workflow - and will appeal to musicians of all types.

In addition to being some of the best performers and musicians in the world, what do Halsey, Sting, Herbie Hancock, Kendrick Lamar and Streisand have in common? MONTAGE is helping their tours hit just the right notes!

MONTAGE Connect is a convenient tool that allows the transfer of data between your computer and the MONTAGE. Learn more in this first article in a series from Blake about how the MONTAGE Connect helps you better integrate a MONTAGE Music Synthesizer with a computer based DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) like Cubase.

There are three separate types of SEARCH for sounds (PARTS): "Performance Category Search", "Performance Merge" and "Part Search" included in your MONTAGE - and the results can be in blue and/or green. Confusing? Let our own Bad Mister clarify for you. In this article he'll explain why and how Performance Category Search can help you "know" what you are looking at when you use this most powerful MONTAGE feature.

There was so much good to share from Bad Mister's last article on audio recording with your MONTAGE "CUBASE SETUP GUIDE WORKFLOW: AUDIO REC ON DAW", it has a second part!

This continues our mini-seres on MONTAGE Cubase and helping you get the best out of your MONTAGE. If you have not already, please read the first article in this series:"MONTAGE Cubase Setup Guide: Getting Started"

This next lesson in our mini-series on MONTAGE with Cubase continues with Bad Mister introducing an Arpeggio into your recording. 

Continuing the mini-series on working with your MONTAGE and Cubase with the latest installment focusing on high quality digital audio recording.

In the first installment we took a look at the Convert Types and how they dealt with musical phrases. This time we'll start with a look at how the Convert Types deal with chordal passages.

Creating arpeggios for general use is an art. This series of articles will prepare you for making your own arpeggio data with MONTAGE. Knowing the rules will allow you to bend them – fighting the rules only leads to frustration. Creating your own arpeggios can be fun and rewarding. So let's begin with Arpeggio Making 101 . . . 

The MONTAGE synthesizer is an amazing instrument from - producing EDM to designing specific sounds for a film – or as a creative outlet for your audio dreams. It is also a powerful piece of music technology which requires some practice and guidance to leverage fully its capabilities. To help you make the most of your MONTAGE, Yamaha's own Bad Mister has provided the deep diving "Mastering MONTAGE" series. If you have not had an opportunity to learn from this master musician and synthesizer guru, check out his recently completed 14-part series.

In the first installment of this series, we discussed several different configurations of PERFORMANCES for your MONTAGE. Here you will use what you learned (and created!) to take a closer look at putting together your own LIVE SETs. A Live Set is designed to give you access to your MONTAGE configurations when you are performing, thus the name, LIVE SET. Let's get started . . . 

We are kicking off this "Snorkel Level" series (for all MONTAGE users regardless of experience level) with the creative use of Performances and Live Sets.

There are some 2143 Preset Performances in MONTAGE. The USER area can store 640 of your own Performances. A set of 640 Performances can be placed in a Library. There can be eight Libraries - each containing as many as 640 Performances - resident on your MONTAGE. So let's get started!

Bad Mister wraps up this "deep dive" into the functionality of the MONTAGE with lucky lesson #13.

With an expressive touch, keen awareness of melody and remarkable technique, Greg Spero is a talented pianist and keyboardist. He has performed with a diverse range of musicians, including: Arturo Sandoval; Corey Wilkes; and, former Miles Davis collaborator and music director, Robert Irving III. Additionally, he has co-produced tracks with producer Ski Beatz (Jay Z), and, Shock G (Digital Underground) - and is currently the keyboardist and sound designer for Halsey. Greg recently had a chance to experience Montage and was very impressed.

This begins a new "how-to" mini-series from Bad Mister to help you get the most from your MONTAGE. Learn more here about MONTAGE and Cubase.

Just got your new MONTAGE? You're new to synthesizers? Or you're an old hand at synthesizers, even owned a Motif? Here are some quick suggestions on what to do first...

Motion Sequences are tempo-synchronized, completely customizable control sequences which can be assigned to virtually any synthesizer parameter - and provide incredibly creative new ways of programming sound. In this lesson from our own Bad Mister, learn more about how the Motion Sequence dedicated controls on the front panel make it easy to manipulate and change in real-time, providing incredible interactivity and expression.