I accept there’s no “word” on weather this will happen or not, only anyone’s guess. I’m not ready to give up the balanced hammer action of my S70XS to go for the MOXF yet but I’m ready to make a purchase this fall. With no word on a new flagship seems like Yamaha could buy some (even more!) time with a new S90XF release without stealing too much sales from the MOXF now that it has been out a few years. Might even get some MOXF upgraders interested. Timing seems right to me. Anyone got a good working crystal ball out there?

Now that the Montage is out there seems to be a nice gap between the MOXF and Montage that a mid-tier performance orientated board could fill. Couldn’t get myself to pull the trigger last fall on a MOXF. Still waiting…

The S series is due for an upgrade.  The S90 ES - which I still use regularly, came out in 2005. That line was upgraded to the XS in 2009. That was a five year upgrade timeframe, which seems reasonable.

But now, the XS hasn’t been upgraded in over six years.

I wonder if Yamaha is rethinking the interface? While the S series is a great board with a lot of capability, it’s a bit difficult to navigate the interface to get to all of that power.

For example, Nord keyboards have really become quite popular. Not only do they sound great, but the interface is very interesting; it’s kind of a hybrid of digital and analog in terms of navigating the interface.

But in terms of capability and sounds, and reliability, the S series is great.  I love my S90 ES.  The only problem is, as I get older, it seems to get heavier.  :) . .  It is a very heavy board, but that is primarily because of the hammer action keybed. Truthfully, any keyboard that has an 88-key hammer action bed is going to be pretty heavy.

I make use of the breath controller and the associated plug-in board that uses the modeling technology for synthesizing wind instruments (I forget the specific name for it off the top of my head) that Yamaha had developed many years ago. It’s too bad support for that technology was discontinued in the XS. I haven’t heard a saxophone patch from any keyboard that is as good as the one that is produced from a combination of the breath controller and that plug-in board.

I would be very surprised if an S90XF arrived at this point. After all Montage is not a workstation like Motif, that makes it more like the S90.

It appears that Yamaha sees the Montage as the be-all/end-all, a replacement for the entire Motif line, something for live play and/or to be interfaced to Cubase, a “Jack of all trades”.

So far, I see it as a “master of none”.

In their words: “The Beginning of a New Era” has been a tag line associated with the Montage. I’d be surprised if we didn’t see several new models released in the near future in some shape or form. They’ve put a lot of coin into the Montage development that may possibly be utilized in other models. Strictly a guess, of course. Hopefully one of my better ones.

stoneb3 - 23 March 2016 06:25 PM

In their words: “The Beginning of a New Era” has been a tag line associated with the Montage. I’d be surprised if we didn’t see several new models released in the near future in some shape or form.[...]

I suspect you’ll prove to be correct - if the Montage 6/7/8 are successful.

S-series were always too expensive unreasonably and the MO or MOX models were much more and cheaper. This point is the same as the blind Motif Rack modules. No sense.

In Yamaha position, I much prefer to think about combining the MOXF line capability (wave ROM, editing, arps, seq, AND sampler!, rewritable full voice banks...) with keys and premium sounds and appearance of CP5 model, and spice them a wonderfull big color display from PSR-S970! All in the price of CP5!

Finally have the answer and it’s NO! Not waiting any longer and picked up a MOXF8 used locally for a g-note with a soft case and its awesome. Can’t wait to get it ready to take over gig duties from my S70XS. If Yammy comes out with a S90XF tomorrow I’ll still be happy I didn’t wait.

Well - Finally played my first two gigs with the MOXF8 and they were smashing successes! I was able to recreate all my S70XS patches exactly and even spread out one of my 3-way splits with more range on the highest and lowest parts. The larger screen is an upgrade in every possible way. I even noticed it taking one less step to create the same patch in the MOXF8 as it did in the S70XS. Balance VS Graded action turned out to be a non issue for me. In the end, even with in ear monitors - all I want to do is keep the snare and cymbals out of my skull. No change there. Wish I had taken the plunge sooner.

5pinDIN - 23 March 2016 01:50 PM

It appears that Yamaha sees the Montage as the be-all/end-all, a replacement for the entire Motif line, something for live play and/or to be interfaced to Cubase, a “Jack of all trades”.

So far, I see it as a “master of none”.

Exactly. It is a good synth in its own regard, but is NOT a decent replacement for the Motif line.

I’d rather just have my XF8, combined with a SY99, and maybe an EX5, than a Montage.

-Max

I don’t need any more features than what my S90XS has, at least not at my intermediate skill level.
I did last year pick up for very cheap a used Motif XS 6, that was like new.  I can program arps on it that load into the S90XS.  I bought the S90XS new back in 2013, it lives in my home studio room, a year later I got a used S70XS that lives in my mini van .. Ready to jam.  I can’t see myself not having two identical boards.. I surely can’t justify the cost.. Having two Montages, Though surely I’d loved to have two Montages.