[MusicTlk] question about Yamaha montage keyboard

[Chris Gilland]

I have a couple of questions. I don't post here hardly ever, as I am mainly a lerker, so forgive me.

I know that a lot of professional musicians in the blind community really really seem to like the Yamaha motif lineup of products. I know that Komplete Kontrol is becoming extremely accessible more and more, however, hear me out on this.

I know that the motif is no longer being manufactured. you might could find them used, but who knows. I am in no position to purchase such a keyboard at this time, as it would take me at least half a decade to save up that much money. however, getting back to the montage, I do have a question. before the pandemic, are used to sometimes visit my local music store, and I have seen both the motif, as well as the montage, although the sales people there at this particular music store, even though it is an extremely reputable store do not seem to know jack crap when it comes to how to operate the thing, what can and cannot do, etc.

my question is, two things. First of all, has anyone on this list from a blind perspective had any experience whatsoever with using the montage? The salesman told me that it is actually quite similar as far as the menu structure/layout interface to the motif, however, when I called Sweetwater to get a second opinion, they told me it is nowhere even near similar. they told me that the physical button layout on the montage is somewhat similar, but as far as the actual menu structure interface, that is completely different. also, I have heard that the montage has a touchscreen, where as the motive does not. all of that said, do you have to use the touchscreen in order to operate most functions of the montage, or is that just one option, but that is not to say that you could not use the physical buttons on the unit to scroll through things.

I said that there were two questions, that is my first concern. My second question which is really more to questions in one is, are there any online podcast/resources which specifically cover from ground one of knowing absolutely nothing how to go about operating either the motif or the montage from a blind perspective? Secondly in this question, I'm curious. I heard somewhere a while back Yamaha Yamaha had actually released a firmware that you could flash onto the motif, not sure about the montage, which basically would give you a built-in screen reader for navigating all the different menus. How accurate/true is this? I hear that it did not come with the keyboard, however, if you needed the firmware, you could contact Yamaha and request that they send it to you free of charge.

Chris.