Yamaha has unveiled the Montage M, a virtual analogue synth and workstation set to follow up 2016’s Montage and be reminiscent of the brand’s 1977-launched CS-80.

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Aimed at professionals, the Yamaha Montage M most notably includes the brand’s new AN-X engine. This creates warm analogue-style synth sounds, providing three oscillators with five waveforms (Saw 1, Saw 2, Triangle, Square, and Sine), a noise generator, two filters with ten types, and a cool ageing feature to simulate vintage sounds.

This engine is featured alongside an improved AWM2 engine, built for playing realistic sounds such as piano or strings accurately. Yamaha’s FM-X engine is also built-in, which apparently “rekindles the Yamaha legacy of expressive and dynamic FM Synthesis”. Altogether, you’re offered up to 400-note polyphony. This is a vast upgrade from the original Montage’s 256 notes.

It comes in the form of three models: the 61-key Montage M6, the 76-key Montage M7 and the 88-key M8x.

The Montage M8x is presumably aimed at professional pianists, as it’s the only model in the series use GEX Action, a technology that allows for Polyphonic Aftertouch – the same found in Yamaha’s revered CS-80 and DX1 synths. This allows for individual modulation of held notes with pressure. It also offers key repetition behaviour you’d find in grand pianos.

With USB audio and MIDI connectivity, the Montage M also features 9.97GB of preset WaveROM, 16 libraries, 3.8GB of user flash memory, and a VCM rotary speaker emulation.

The Montage M is available for pre-order now. The M6 costs $3,500/£3,219, the M7 costs $4,000/£3,629 and the M8x costs $4,500/£4.049.

MusicTech is not yet aware of a set shipping date, but you can head to Yamaha to find out more and pre-order yours.

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