Wondering if any Montage M owners have had the chance to try this plugin with Cantabile? Might be a good option for “bread and butter” sounds (and a bit more) when it’s available to everyone later in the year.
As far as I’ve read, Yamaha are restricting availability of the plugin to owners of the physical Montage M - no plans to sell it on its own. Do you have any concrete information that this position has changed?
Overall, the plugin looks very promising, but based on Yamaha’s statements so far, I’m not holding my breath…
I have tried the ESP, mainly to get it downloaded and registered before I lost the piece of paper with the registration key!
I think Yamaha have done a great job, finally embracing the VST market, but I would say it is very much a work in progress with a lot of limitations that need to be worked through.
On the plus sounds it plays my Montage M sounds and I cannot hear the difference. On the downside, editing is limited and there are some sync bugs, but I think they have been resolved with the latest Montage M OS update, but I am in gig configuration lockdown mode, until I am past my next gig.
So I will wait until later in the year before revisiting.
@Torsten, Yamaha is restricting availability for now, but I have read/viewed in a few places that they do intend doing a retail version. In a a way that is no different to what Korg have been doing with Synths like Wavestate and MODWAVE. the VST version has lagged the hardware by quite a period. E.g. If WAVESTATE VST had been released a tthe same time as the hardware version, I never would have brought the hardware version
The following is a general article on the ESP
That would really be amazing - so far all information I’ve found in NAMM reports and other Yamaha communication is that there are no plans to release it stand-alone.
Anyhow, it would only really be useful stand-alone once the full editing capability is added - otherwise it’ll just be a preset machine without a physical Montage M to edit your sounds.
But if it ever becomes available stand-alone for a reasonable price, this has definite game-changer potential - currently, the most “modern” plugin workstation is the Korg Triton / Extreme plugin - and that’s definitely a bit long in the tooth by now (but still works for most categories, except maybe piano and organ). Having a state-of-the-art workstation engine as a plugin would definitely be super-attractive for all us software players…
One Mans Opinion.
As a long-time Yamaha fan, I would love it if they had it but understand that they are a hardware company (Cubase not withstanding) and that’s their bread and butter.
Having the VST at all is a great thing for those of us who use VST’s live - think about how many backline companies are still putting Motif 8’s out there - you could have your Montage M sounds AND leave it to the backline company to carry that thing around.
Regarding the Montage M, I played one at Guitar Center when it came out, and was very impressed. Unfortunately the poly aftertouch is only availabe on the 88 key model, and that’s approaching $5k USD and 61 pounds. If the 61 key version had poly aftertouch, I was tempted to get it, but may make other tradeoffs instead (the Behringer UB).
Note: I’m currently using a MOXF and have been moving away from ANY internal keyboard sounds over the last year (fly dates, portability for rehearsals, etc.), so I haven’t even gotten to the MODX generation.
Nothing much to add, it was my understanding that would be available to all later in the year. I also use Triton Extreme for this purpose right now, and with the “phone home” position from Roland, not many other options.
This is the latest news I found:
From the site admin of Yamahamusicians - typically well informed.
I guess realistically nothing happening this year - maybe once the market is sufficiently saturated with the hardware version, Yamaha could reconsider.
And I’m definitely not paying > €4000 for a hardware dongle 
I am a mod on that forum as well, so know Saul quite well, and whilst he is well connected with Yamaha they do not tell him everything, and the nuance might be more “not yet”
As I said, I have heard/seen in a few places that Yamaha to intend to release it standalone at some point, but I am struggling to find them again right now. If I do find them again I will post them here.
I am with you in that whilst I have downloaded and registered the ESP VST, I have little use for it when I have a Montage M sitting in front of me.
One would think that Yamaha are turning down a marketing opportunity here. There has been a huge growth in the soft-synth market, and if people are like me they aren’t going to keep shelling out £4 - 5000 a pop for the latest hardware whether a vst becomes available or not. Or is it just me who has pennies to watch?