12 How To Assign Knobs

We can program Assignable Knobs to make them control parameters that we can choose from a list. In this video we’ll start simple, with a Performance that has just one Part.

Our goal is to assign the Part 1 volume to Common Knob 1 and to assign Part 1 Reverb to Common Knob 4.

Why assign volume while that can already be controlled by the slider? Because in one of the next videos we are going to make the Super Knobs morph the volume of two Parts, one becomes louder while the pother becomes softer.

Why assign Reverb to knob 4 while it already is available as a parameter under knob 4? This is for ease of use. To tune Part 1 Reverb we would first have to press the Parameter Tune Button, then select Part 1 in the Performance screen and then rotate the knob … far too much work when in a live performance. By assigning it to Common Knob 4 the Reverb for Part 1 is readily available from the moment we activated the Performance.

Let’s open the ‘Init Normal (AWM2)’ Performance. This can be found via a press on the CATEGORY button and tapping the ‘Init’ category.

This is a one Past basic piano sound without any knobs assignmed and with only a Reverb effect.

This is the goal we set ourselves to accomplish:
– Assign Common Knob 1 to Part 1 Volume.
– Assign Common Knob 4 to Part 1 Reverb Send.

Press the EDIT button to enter Performance Edit Mode and tap Control > Control Assign.

Tap the Auto Select field and rotate Knob 1.

It’ll be automatically selected and it now is the knob that we can edit.

Bottom left it shows we’re in the Common section. Tap this field and select Part 1. It should look like the picture now.

Now tap the + to create a new assignment for Knob 1. We can now selects a parameter to be controlled by Part 1 AsgnKnob1, which is called the source.

By default parameter InsA Param 1 is shown. This is called the Destination.

We want to change this to Part 1 Volume.

Tap Destination 1.

We can now select a parameter from the left side menu.

Volume can be found under Part Param.

In the screen that opens we can set the details of this source / destination couple to our liking.

One of these settingsis Polarity. By default Uni is selected. The graph shows what it does … when we rotate Knob 1 the parameter will increase. Notice how the graph does not start at zero. The value at Knob = 0 will be the volume the Performance was stored with … with this Uni curve this is the minimum value. The Uni curve will increase this value from its minimum to max 127.

The minimum volume can be set in the Mixer screen.

If we set the default volume to zero this does not mean the Performance has to start with Part 1 volume zero … we can set Knob 1 at any position we like, say 73, and then store the Performance. Both the Mixer value of zero as well as the Knob value of 73 are stored, and now at startup the volume will be 73.

We could also set the Polarity to Bi … this makes the knob can both add to (turn right) or subtract from (turn left) from the default value.

If for example the default Mixer volume was set at 40, we can increase the volume by turning right, or decrease the volume by turning left. With the Uni curve we can only increase and 40 would be the minimum volume.

Volume on Knob 1 is done. Let’s now make Knob 4 control the Reverb.

Rotate Knob 4 … with Auto Select turned on it’ll automatically become selected.

Take care Part 1 is still selected in the blue field bottom left.

Press the ‘+‘ to add a destination and select Part Param > Rev Send.

Select Uni or Bi as to your liking. Personally I use Uni most of the time because to me it’s easy to understand:

1. Give the parameter the desired minimum value.
2. Set the Knob at the desired startup value.
3. Store the Performance with these values.
4. Done. From here the knob varies the parameter between the stored minimum and the maximum of 127.

Knob 4 now controls Reverb Send of Part 1. We can only hear the effect when the value of Reverb Return on the Mixer Master channel is larger than zero.

Got to the Mixer screen. Set the minimum Reverb Send to your liking (zero means you can go to a completely dry sound). Set the Reverb Return, it controls the maximum amount of reverb we’ll hear in the sound mix.

Set Knob 1 to the desired volume and Knob 4 to the desired Reverb level and press the STORE button to save the Performance. These Knob values will now be the default after startup.

OK, looks we’re ready, let’s try it out.

Hm, it looks like as long as Part 1 is selected in the Performance screen all is working well, but if Common is selected (tap the Performance name), which will be the case after opening the Performance via Live Set or via Category Search, the knobs control Common but nothing seems to be assigned to them!?

That’s because Knobs (can) do different things on Common level as on Part level, which they are on when a Part is selected / active on the Performance screen.

To make them work for a Part while we are in Common, we need to assign the Knob on the Common level to control the Part level.

1. Select Common in the blue field, bottom left
2. With Auto Select on, rotate knob 1.
3. Tap the ‘+‘ to add a destination.
4. Select Part 1 > Part 1 Assign 1 as destination.

Rotate Knob 4 to auto select it. This time select Part 1 > Part 1 Assign 4.

The result now is that on Common level Knobs 1 and 4 control Knobs 1 and 4 of Part 1.

Let’s give the knobs a useful name. Tap the Display Name field and enter a name. Let’s rename Knob 1 to ‘Volume 1’ and knob 4 to ‘Reverb 1’.

Now the Performance screen looks like this. We can see what each knob does. If you prefer an even cleaner screen you could also rename the other knobs so Assign# does not show there.

Don’t forget to now press the STORE button and save our hard work. As soon as we (accidentally) select another Performance not having saved this one first it has all been in vain.

It has happened to me that I touched the Dial Wheel while the Performance name was the active field, which made the next Performance become active … and all work was lost!

The next step is control the knobs via the Super Knob. The Super Knob can operate the 8 Assignable Knobs simultaneously. What we just did is transfer Common control to Part control, this makes it possible to control Part 1 volume via the Super Knob. Now imagine we add another Part, with reversed volume control, then we have created a Morph between two Parts. This is what we’ll do in the next video.

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09 The Performance Screen

When the PERFORMANCE (HOME) button is dimly lit we can press it and the Performance screen will open. This video is about how we can use the Performance screen to control several aspects of the sound. Scroll down for text and images. Click the images to enlarge.

The top of the screen shows the Performance name. When this name is highlighted (tap on it) we can use the Dial Wheel or the (SHIFT) INC/DEC buttons to step to the next / previous Performance as they appear on the Category Search screen or as shown in the downloadable pdf User Manual called ‘Lists’.

The colored flags at the right show some features of this Performance:
AWM2 Advanced Wave Memory 2 sound engine
FM-X FM synthesis sound engine
MC Motion Control
SSS Seamless Sound Switching

The tiny blue flag means we’ve made edits that are not yet saved. The yellow star means this Performance is added to the Favorites Bank.

The knobs area shows which knobs have a function / parameter assigned to them in this Performance. There will be a future video on how to assign parameters to the knobs. The assigned parameters can be tuned live by turning the knobs, or tap the field and use the Dial Wheel or the (SHIFT) INC / DEC button as shown in the previous video.

With most presets, on the ‘Common’ level the text shown is ‘Assigned’, which is not exactly helpful. On Part level (activate a Part by tapping it) the knobs often do have more useful names.

The names can be changed. This can be done in the Edit > Common / Audio > Control Assign screen, which will also be shown in the future ‘parameter assign’ video. It’ll be more useful to give the knobs the name of the parameter they operate.

If the Assign button is pressed and is lit, knobs 1-4 are active. If we press again the knob will be flashing and the knobs control parameters 5-8. If the top button is pressed and lit, the knobs control the parameters shown in the white texts above them. Successive presses move the green LED and change the controlled parameters accordingly.

The bottom half of the screen shows the Parts, starting with their name. The ‘Type / Name’ field on the left can be tapped to show the instrument types rather then their names.

Below the names we find the Arpeggio and Motion Control on/off toggle switches.

Arpeggio can be switched to “Arp On” or to ‘Arp Hold On’, which means it’ll play also after having let go the keys. This hold function can be activated by tapping the Arp field while keeping the SHIFT button pressed.

Next are the note range display and switches.

To create a keyboard split, tap the left field to set the lower note or the right field to set the higher note. This opens the key range select screen.

We can use the Dial Wheel to select the key where we want the key range to start or to end, or we can first tap the Keyboard field, it’ll turn green, and then we can simply press the desired key on the keyboard.

Tapping the Kbd Ctrl field toggles between the keyboard being active for this Part, or be switched off, in which case the Part can be controlled only via Midi or via an Arpeggio.

The Mute and Solo toggles do exactly what their names suggest. Tap Solo and all other Parts will be Muted. Tap Mute and the Part will silence.

The PART SELECT MUTE SOLO button can also be used.

It shows an overlay where we can select a Part, or we can deselect the active Part by tapping Common.

Parts can also be Muted or be made to Solo from here.

Parts 9-16 can be shown by tapping the 9-16 field.

Then there is the volume control and output meter per Part. The sliders can be used to change the volume, or, after a tap to activate the Part, the volume can also be changed with the Dial Wheel, or the (SHIFT) INC / DEC buttons.

The blue arrow shows where the slider currently is. If we move the slider at first nothing happens. Only if we first move it to the current value, the white dot, the dot will be glued to the slider and the volume will change from that point. This is to avoid unwanted abrupt volume changes.

The View field can be tapped to show other screens that have some more details. This screen shows the nite ranges of parts 1-8.

We also have velocity ranges in view now, via which we can decide if a Part is audible depending on how soft or hard a key is struck.

To select a velocity range, follow the same procedure as with modifying the keyboard range shown above.

We can also show volume sliders for the Elements a Part is made up of. To show these, we first have to change a setting on the Motion Control > Overview screen. Set the Slider Function to Elem/Op Control and we’ll be able to show the following Performance screens.

Elements view for a Part with the FM-X sound engine.

Elements view for a Part with the AWM2 sound engine.

Elements view for a Drum Part.

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07 Anatomy of a Performance

In video 5 we saw how we can use Category Search to find a sound, called a Performance, in the vast collection of over 2700 that are available.

In video 6 we saw how we can quickly select Performances via the Live Set screens, either from one of the Presets Pages or from a User Page that we created ourselves.

In this video we’ll see that a Performance contains a lot more than just sounds. There’s a multitude of parameters and effects and arpeggios and ‘motion’, and there are 8 scenes which are variations of the Performance that can be recalled by the push of a button. Performances are incredibly versatile. Scroll down for the text with images. Click the images to enlarge.

After we activated a Performance, either via a Live Set screen or via Category Search, we can open the Performance screen by pressing the Performance (Home) button.

In the Performance screen we can see that for example the ‘Pearly Gates’ Performance does not contain just one sound, it contains three Parts.

A Performance can have a maximum of 16 Parts, 8 of which can be controlled via the keyboard.

If we zoom further in on a Part (tap one of the part names and tap Edit or press the Edit button … more on this in a later video) we’ll see that also a Part is not one single sound, it’s a collection of up to 8 sounds, called Elements.

In this example an acoustic piano Part is made up of multiple samples that each play in a different velocity range.

So, a Performance can have up to 16 Parts, and each Part can contain up to 8 Elements.

But that’s only the sounds. There’s a whole lot more … there are parameters that can be altered live and there are effects like reverb and phasing and more.

The knobs and buttons and wheels can be used to alter the sound. What these do in a particular Performance is programmable.

What follows is a quick overview of what can be programmed and saved with a Performance. Future videos will be on how to do it.

The Motion Control > Overview screen shows which buttons and knobs do have a function in this Performance. This screen just gives a visual clue, it doesn’t show what is being controlled and we can’t actually control anything from here.

The Super Knob can control the 8 (Montage) or 4×2 (MODX) rotary knobs, which each can change one or more parameters. How, and to what extent, the 8 parameter knobs are controlled via the Super Knob is managed in the Motion Control > Super Knob screen.

The Super Knob can also turn fully automatic. This automation is programmed in the Motion Control > Knob Auto screen.

The 8 knobs can be used to tune the parameters that are written above them, while the button and LED on the left are used to scroll through the four rows of parameters.

The same and even some more parameters are found on the Motion Control > Quick Edit screen. We can operate them from there too.

When the Assign button is pressed and lit, the knobs have their alternative use, to tune a parameter that we assigned to it ourselves.

The 8 (Montage) or 4×2 (MODX) sliders can be used to change the volume of the Parts.

This can also be done via the Mixing screen, where we can also control Effect Send and -Return values and Pan.

The 8 (Montage) or 4×2 (MODX) SCENE buttons allow to quickly recall one of the max eight sets of parameter settings that may be programmed and stored in the Performance.

Every Part can have its own arpeggio, which can make for immensely complex sound structures. Arpeggios can be chosen and switched on the Motion Control > Arpeggio screen.

Every Part can also have its own Motion Sequencer that automatically changes a parameter over time, thus crating ‘moving’ sounds, sounds with ‘life’ in them. We can control this via the Motion Control > Motion Sequencer screen.

The Modulation Wheel and the two Assign buttons can also be used to change parameters.

Which parameters are influenced by which knobs or buttons or wheels is defined in the Control > Control Assign screen that’s available in Edit > Common/Audio mode.

And this still is not all … the synths have over 70 effects on board, from phasing, chorus, reverb, delay to amps, equalizers and compressors.

There are three levels of effects:
– Master MFX. Choose one effect from amps, EQ, compression and some modern sound effects.
– Performance. Here we have several types of Reverb available plus a Variation effect that can be chosen from a list with chorus, phaser, delay, wah and more.
– Part. Every Part can have two Insert effects that can be chosen from a long list.

All and all the above involves an incredible amount of data, all of which is stored in a Performance.

It may already take a lifetime to figure out all the tweaking possibilities of the Preset sounds, but that’s not where it ends, it’s only the start … just imagine the fun of creating our own sounds with these synthesizers.

The options and screens described above will all be subject of future videos.

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06 Quick Sound Change: Live Set

In the Performance Category Search post we saw how we can find a sound, a Performance. This search method is not very useful when in a hurry. Say we’re doing a gig, then we want to be able to quickly change to other sounds / Performances.

To accommodate for this, the Yamaha Montage and MODX synths have Live Set screens. A Live Set screen contains sixteen shortcuts that can be tapped to activate another Performance.

There’s not just one Live Set, there are multiple Banks and each bank has multiple Pages. The bank called ‘Preset’ contains Pages that are fixed, they can not be modified. But there also are eight ‘User’ banks, each containing sixteen Pages with room for sixteen presets that we can define ourselves. This way we can create Live Sets for our favorites, or that hold a playlist for a gig.

The video shows working with the Live Sets and how to populate User Bank Pages with shortcuts to Performances. Scroll down for the text with images.

This is the Live Set screen the synth starts up with (unless we changed it to start up with the Performance screen). It contains sixteen shortcuts. We can select a Performance by tapping it. The active one shows in orange.

A larger font can be chosen via the Utility > Settings > System screen, see this video for that.

Multiple Banks and Pages are available. We can scroll through the Banks and Pages by tapping the arrow keys left and right of the name.

Right now we’re in the Bank called ‘Preset’. The Pages in this bank are fixed and can not be changed.

But there also are ‘User’ Banks, eight of them, and each of the User Banks contains sixteen Pages.

Initially User Bank Pages are empty. We can add our own shortcuts here.

With the User Bank Page open, we can add a shortcut to the currently active Performance. Tap Edit in the upper right corner or press the Edit button.

We now see + signs in the empty slots. Tap the one where you like to create the shortcut.

The new shortcut is now added. It shows in orange, because this already was the active Performance.

Now that we are in Edit Live Set mode, we can as well give the User Bank and Page a name that makes more sense than ‘User 2’ or ‘Page 5’.

Tap the Bank or the Page field and a screen opens where we can type a name and then tap Done.

We can make more changes to Live Sets. At the bottom there are options to Delete, Swap and Copy Shortcuts. A copy can be useful if you have a gig and you organized your shortcuts in sequence and you need the same Performance more than once.

We can also change the Name and the Color (of the stripe in the middle) of the shortcut, and the Volume the Performance starts with.

When we’re done with our edits we can tap Done at the top right or press the Exit button.

OK, so we’ve added the active Performance as a shortcut, but what if we like to create a shortcut to another Performance?

We can find a Performance via the Category Search function. Tap Category Search in the lower left corner or press the Category button.

We can use the filters at the top half of the screen to zoom in on specific Performances. More info on Category Search in this article plus video.

Performances that meet the filter criteria are listed on the bottom half of the screen. Tap a Performance to activate it.

When we found the Performance that we want to add to a Live Set, press the Shift + Live Set buttons simultaneously.

This opens the last Live Set screen we used, with the first free slot highlighted. We can choose another slot by tapping one. Tap again and a shortcut to the Performance will be created.

It’s possible to first select another Live Set using the Bank and Page selectors at the top of the screen.

It’s possible to use a foot switch to step through the Performances, which is handy if we’ve created a Live Set for a gig with the Performances we need in sequence.

Press the Utility button and tap Settings > Midi I/O. Find the FS Assign field. This field is only active if a foot switch is connected and is detected (a normally on / break switch).

Tapping the screen doesn’t work, the options list is too long to show on screen. In stead, use the Dial Wheel to select ‘Live Set + / -‘.

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05 Find a Sound: Category Search

The Yamaha Montage and MODX synthesizers contain over 2700 sounds, and even more can be downloaded. How do we find the sound we want to play in this vast collection?

The Performance Category Search function comes to the rescue. We can select filters to zoom in on instrument categories or on specific sound attributes to list only s small collection. Via the Audition option we can hear a demo of the sound, with the effects it has programmed under the Super Knob and the Scene- and Assign buttons.

What’s listed on the page, and what we hear when we select one by tapping on it, is not called a ‘sound’ … it’s called a Performance. It’s a collection of up to16 sounds, called Parts, that can be layered and / or separated via keyboard- or velocity splits. Each Part can have filters, envelopes, LFOs, arpeggios and can have multiple effects like delay, phaser, reverb. On top of that there also are common parameters and effects that can be modified live. All this is contained in a ‘Performance’.

The video shows how we can use Category Search to find a Performance to play. Scroll down for the text with images.

This is the Live Set screen the synth starts up with (unless we changed System Settings to start up with the Performance screen). There’s a separate article plus video on Live Sets.

Tap Category Search in the lower left corner or press the Category button. This Category button always works, no matter what screen is currently shown.

The Performance Category Search screen now opens. The bottom half shows the available Performances. We can click one to make it active, like shown here: All 9 Bars!

The top part of the screen contains filters to narrow down our search. The main and sub categories allow us to select specific types of instruments.

The Bank / Favorite filter limits our search to banks like Presets only, or User banks only. It also shows Libraries we may have imported into the synth, like here the MOTIF XF library.

The main and sub instrument filters can subsequently still be applied.

The Attribute filter allows us to only show for example FM-X performances.

The main and sub instrument filters can subsequently still be applied.

There’s also the option to enter a search text. When we tap the search field, a new screen opens where we can enter a search word and tap done. Only Performances that contain this word in their name are now selected.

Once we created our filters, the bottom part of the screen only shows the Performances that meet our selection criteria.

If there still are more Performances than fit the screen, we can use the Page arrows, bottom right, to scroll up and down.

The blue bar at the right shows where we are.

We can also use the Cursor buttons or the Dial Wheel to navigate through the Performances.

The Sort function can further help us find a certain Performance more easily.

Tapping a Performance activates it.

To hear what it sounds like, besides playing something ourselves, we can tap the Audition field or press the Audition button.

This plays a demo song that gives us a good idea of the sound and it also demonstrates what sound changes and/or effects are hidden under the Scene– and Assign buttons and the Super Knob.

If we found a Performance that we like to remember, we can tap the Favorite Set field. This automatically creates a shortcut in the Favorites Live Set.

Favorites can be undone via the Clear field. All Clear undoes all favorites with one tap.

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