CyberGene

Yeah, I worry about that too. I've never researched how to use a laptop along with a keyboard in live situations. A very lame question but what's the "consensus" here? 😀 Are there any good additional laptop stands most people use? Or an extension/arm that can be attached to the existing keyboard stand?

has anyone tried to put a small laptop on top of the CP88? I have a MacBook Air M1 (it's a rather small 13" notebook) and wondering if it can be put in the right part of the CP88. I'm still waiting for the CP88 to arrive and wondered how big that empty space is. On pictures it seems like it could just fit a laptop.The Air has a 30x21cm footprint.

Pipe organ - Bach.

I was kidding of course 😀 This forum seems like a place where real musicians discuss practical gigging topics. And out of a sudden there’s a ridiculously priced OB reissue that’s often been considered specialized even in the synth world context… Hardly a gigging instrument, let alone a practical one. Just trying to make sense of it.

Indeed. When you think about what current expensive keyboards one can use as their only instrument, well, you can make an entire solo recital with a Steinway, you can probably fill up an entire hour of solo Rhodes or even better, a jazz trio or a fusion band. Ditto regarding a Hammond. But how long can you play only OB-brass swells (even in a band) without being booed 😀😛 (it’s a tongue in cheek comment!).

After I slept it over, I decided to return the Numa X Piano. Let me say it's a pretty good (maybe the best?) instrument for the price and I can't find any dealbreaker fault with it. The action is very good, the build quality is top-notch, the features are endless and well thought while the piano is very compact, lightweight and good looking. It's just that it could've been a bit more refined and I think most of my complaints might eventually be fixed through firmware upgrades. I can say I am a Yamaha fanboy to a degree which would explain why I ordered a CP88 instead (was in stock at Thomann!) 😉

So, is this a Nord Stage killer? 😛

I played again with the Numa X Piano 88 today. As already suggested, increasing the keyboard sensitivity in the global settings helps a bit with the overly dull pianissimos. I put it around +15% and it was better. Also, using slightly brighter headphones (the HD595 compared to the veiled HD650) also makes for slightly better sound. But ultimately all the pianos are somehow thin and hollow and the bass notes lack the proper pianissimo timbre, they all sound as though medium velocity timbres are used with lowered volume. Furthermore, I think I found some odd bugs with their modeled resonances. It's most apparent on the Blu Piano but is also present on the default German Grand. If you use the default preset after turning it on, just press (loudly) and hold some of the highest keys and listen carefully through headphones. There's some flutter in the sustain of the sound which disappears if I turn down the resonance and duplex knobs in the Zoom settings. Then switch to the Blu Piano, turn off any effects and test again: it sounds almost like the vibrations of an electric fan. Modeled electric piano are good, I like them and I think I may keep the board only for them since I mostly use Rhodes sounds with the band and not so much acoustic pianos. I'm hesitating whether I should keep the board or not but I see there's a CP88 available at Thomann (well, twice the price but also a pretty solid and proven board) and I think I will get it... I will sleep over the decision for a few more days.

From one of his previous videos I got that he sells Studiologic pianos. So, his praise should be taken with a pinch of salt 😉 When playing the Numa yesterday, I noticed that switching between presets would often result in clicks and noises for 1-2 seconds. Have you noticed it? I think it is due to the effects but can’t be sure. Another thing that bothered me a little was the rotating knob would rarely switch to the next preset and then switch back, like not being 100% mechanically reliable. But that was really only very rare.

$5000 is outrageous. I know this will find its crowd and I have the greatest respect for the great synth pioneers such as Dave Smith and Tom Oberheim and they deserve to make some money for the entire contribution their instruments made for the popular music of the last 40 years. But I find it hard to believe a bunch of electronic elements need to cost $5000 in 2022. I understand there's a strong pedigree and a noble tradition and the trendy synth nostalgia of nowadays is at its peak but still... +1

My Numa X Piano 88 arrived, luckily at lunchtime, so I could dedicate about 30-40 minutes to play. To be perfectly frank, I have mixed feelings and I'm rather underwhelmed by it at the moment 😕 Here are my scattered thoughts: The keyboard feels like an improvement of the TP/100LR. I can't say if it's a massive improvement or a slight one though because I sold my SL73 months ago. I think It's slightly less sluggish, has harder bottoming (which I like). But somehow it still feels heavy to play and a bit tiring. The only piano I can compare it against is my Yamaha AvantGrand N1X and that's a very unfair comparison because the Yamaha has a real grand piano action. That being said, the Numa feels like a typical digital piano action: the keys constantly push back against your fingers but they all do that to a certain degree. Something that I don't like though is, my pianissimo touches near the rear side of the keys failed to even press the keys or produce tones. I had to adjust my touch. I don't remember having that problem with the YC73 (returned recently due to a faulty encoder). Ultimately, the keyboard action made me feel kind of OK for the price. Could be better, could be worse. Next, the piano sounds. The biggest disappointment. They sound kind of thin and dull. I tested with all my available headphones (Sennheiser HD650 and HD595 + Beoplay H6 2nd gen) but it's always the same. The quiet velocities sound very synthetic, almost like I'm playing a digital grand, almost like the CP80 or something. Besides, those quiet velocities always had some harshness to them, not that velvety piano tone you hear when playing softly, instead it sounds almost like you got medium velocity samples and turned the volume down. I played with the tone settings in the zoom controls but it didn't make change, actually increasing tone makes for an artificially bright rock-piano sound and turning it down makes for even duller and unrealistic sound. I went through all the possible types of grand pianos but didn't like any of them. I remember how I went through every piano preset in the YC73 and all of them were great and made me anxious about which one I should choose because there was not a single one that was "worse" than the rest. Here I feel I have to choose among equally subpar pianos 😕 There was also something very odd about the default touch response: it seemed like there was some gap between the softest pianissimo and medium velocities. I couldn't make a fine gradation between these two. Haven't tested tweaking the touch response. Electric pianos. I think I like some of them, although there's something exaggeratedly clanky/noisy in them but I think they can be tweaked. I could live with them after all, although I still think the ones in the YC73 were slightly better. Synth sounds: no mono sounds with portamento... Some polysynth brass sounds are good. Turning the cutoff zoom knob is very lame. I expected that I could use it as a creative filter control while playing but it responds in a non-linear and steppy way. I decided to assign aftertouch to filter cut-off and well... couldn't find how to do it! I'm pretty sure that must be possible but for the moment it isn't. Seems like if I enable aftertouch for a part, there's no way to say what aftertouch controls. By default it controls modulation. I think it's OK, much better than SL73 which required that you break your hands pushing the keys down to finally activate aftertouch as a switch. Here it's much better and there is gradation. Other sounds: I'm not familiar with organs but some of them sound good and usable, others not so much. Interface: it's both intuitive and also awkward. There was one thing that drove me mad though! So, I wanted to test all the sounds. I opened an init program with a piano in part 1, switched all the effects off and then started changing the sound for that part: you press a sound category (e.g. piano) and are presented with a list of piano sounds which you can scroll through by turning the main knob. However that list will auto-close after a while and will return to the home screen with the parts. On that screen if you turn the knob you will change the preset. And so, I'm on a part, I'm changing the sounds for that part, I play a little to hear them, then go to turn the knob to change to the next sound, however in that exact moment it auto-closes and I'm on the home screen but I'm already turning the knob and the entire preset changes... This is ridiculous, I think they should reconsider that auto-close behavior because it has the potential to make you lose you entire program settings for all parts. Furthermore, I found myself intuitively expecting to have to select something through pushing on the knob itself which works for some settings but not for others, so I push and it does nothing and I have to press on the OK button instead. Or there are lists where I can move through pressing the knob up/down but then I go to some other list where that doesn't work and I have to turn it instead... I think they may improve it although it's very intuitive. Finally, this is a personal note, but I am color-blind. I'm not pretty bad at that, I have driver license after they examined in details my color blindness and they told me I am within the allowed degree of color blindness. Yet, I had some slight difficulties with the color-coded system of the Numa. The build quality is great! The form factor and the weight are also great for such a low price. Anyway, to be honest, I'm thinking of packing it and sending it back 😕 But I will give it another chance later.

I was wondering if it is more comfortable to play a tilted keyboard when one is standing up, since the wrists will be more relaxed. It's a more general question, not related to the Vox but then it's only the Vox and its dedicated stand that allow it 😀 BTW, I've been salivating over the Vox for quite some time, it's only not exactly fitting my music styles but I love the concept and I'm considering more rock-oriented band, so who knows...

Indeed, having a monophonic sound with portamento and a high-vs-low not priority (when you press two keys) can be used for creative effects. For instance, one of my favorite local (Bulgarian) progressive-rock bands from the past have used a Minimoog with a specific playing technique of pressing simultaneously two keys with a slight time difference between them (with low note priority) in one of their famous songs, to imitate ethnic flute/ocarina sound (starts at 0:15): BTW, the band name is FSB which is a coincidence with the Russian security Federal Security Service 🤣 The band name comes form Formation Studio Balkanton, because they were the resident band in the state-owned (and only) music studio back then. Besides, playing legato or staccato might produce different sound with monophonic synths depending on whether the envelopes are configure to re-trigger on legato.

That is odd, since the Rhodes in the Numa X is physically modeled, i.e. it doesn't use any samples at all. Maybe the transition you heard was an intentionally modeled behavior or is just a bug in the implementation? Thank you for your review! It's good to hear the Numa feels lighter than the CP88 since I find the Yamaha NWX and NW-GH actions kind of heavy for my taste, but then I found the Fatar TP/100LR even heavier and unpleasant. I was worried its successor the TP110 in the new Numa X pianos might not have improved upon that but a few people already express the opinion it feels right. My Numa X Piano 88 is already in Sofia (where I live), so I am expecting it any time now, hopefully today or tomorrow and I am super excited

I just realized the Vox stand allows for tilting the keyboard towards the audience and that looks super cool if one will be using it as the only keyboard 😎 Has anyone tested it? I think I’ve only seen Derek Sherinian play that way and I thought it’s probably the most comfortable position playing in a standing position and without using a ridiculously high stand to allow for horizontal forearms.

I believe that is correct. The Stagebag NP-76 has the following internal dimensions: 1270 x 320 x 120 mm And the Numa X Piano 88 has the following dimensions: 1265 x 310 x 123 mm Seems like a perfect fit. BTW, the price is almost the same as the Studiologic Bag 2, which is an even more perfect fit and is a branded one 😀 I ordered it and maybe this week hopefully I will have both my 88 and the bag and will let you know how good they are.

I use the following app on my iPhone and iPad: https://apps.apple.com/app/mood/id1218198148 It’s a Minimoog on steroids: additional mods, effects, etc.

It’s funny how what Pianoman Chuck could’ve said in 8 seconds took him 8 minutes 😀

Makes you appreciate Arturia V collection 😛

Apologies, English is not my native language, started learning it too late in my life and still struggling to express all my thoughts, my wife is an English teacher and she often laughs at my bad attempts 🤣 So, I tried to make a veiled parallel to the Woke but for some reason whenever I post something about the Woke on US forums I get my posts deleted… Apparently it’s a hot topic, so I stop. Maybe my experience is biased by my numerous problems and struggles finding a proper bassist (the way I understand it) for years. Haven’t had problems with other musicians. But maybe that was just bad luck. Apologies to any bassists offended by my words. I tend to speak my mind without thinking first and then I often got criticized in return that I am narrow minded. If we suppose people are not saying it to return the insult (I haven’t said it to insult them but perhaps they felt that way), then maybe I’m just narrow minded after all 😕

I would love to have the GT model and I believe it has a better action but a travel weight of 22kg is way too much for my liking and besides it touches on the price point of Yamaha already and if I’m going to spend too much on a heavy stage piano, I’d stick to the big and proven brand.

Although I plan on using this keyboard for a pop/rock/jazz jams, I am predominantly a classical pianist and there’s always this slight feeling of being limited with less than 88 keys, so even though it’s a bit longer for a portable keyboard, I’m glad I went with 88 since I can still play my favorite Scriabin without missing keys in those rare cases when I am not around my AvantGrand 😀

An Italian guy on the Facebook group made them for me from pear wood. He sold a few on the group but it was a rather one-off initiative, not a business. They really thicken the sound and make it warmer 😀 JK. But somehow mentally it makes me feel better when I see them, compared to the stock aluminum panels that are too cold in look and feel.

Not sure if this has been discussed but in one of the YouTube videos where they present the acoustic piano (semi) modeled engine, there are comments in Italian under the video where it is confirmed some of the engineers (including the presenter) and the know-how come from GEM. Remember ProMega 3?

I don't know how it is on the DX7. On the Hydrasynth sound is triggered around the middle of the key travel, definitely not shallow triggering. This is the original Hydrasynth though, not the newer Deluxe.