tommym

Wow, that's an imagination-bending demonstration of some of the unusually expressive things this instrument can do. Thanks, Jerry.

I really like my (StudioLogic) NumaCompact 2x. I layer a pad way behind their Stage Piano and it gets a lot of praise. Even so, I went back to my SK-1 (with Jim A's tonewheel set) for a particularly organ-heavy downtown gig, and folks loved that. For me, the weight is the thing; plus aftertouch, the convenience of speakers, mod and pb wheels.... If StudioLogic will make its overdrive more consistent over the keyrange, and bop the Leslie sim up a level, at 15lbs, even with a fantasy keyboard, it might catch on. At that price, I can't believe it hasn't already. Maybe it's the distribution. PS. the SKXPro demo had me pining for an incredible shrinking ray, sounded so good, and all the split and layering seems useful. Too heavy for me though. Never liked the Nord organ sound... Nice to hear Jim A. praise the Prophet X's piano. Like it too. Yamaha's CP-300 is another candidate for Incredible Shrinking Ray.

I'm still enjoying the Numa Compact 2 a whole lot - playing it every day. Just got the TalentCell YB120006-USB battery pack for it, and it seems to work. Is it perfect? Maybe not, but it's close - there's ALWAYS a way to make it sound great and inspiring - So as far as an all-in-one solution, it's still the champ.

Accessing your presets is a weakness of the board. You have to use the scroll knob. However, your presets should respond to MIDI Program Change, allowing you to also access your presets from, for example, a smartphone or maybe a second board in your rig. I wish they had supported alternately using the Sound Bank buttons as programmable buttons for calling up favorite user programs and/or some kind of numeric pad implementation. My hope is Gianni will implement a scheme like Ensoniq put on the SD-1 and TS-10 for naming patches: When in a certain mode (in the Numa's case, holding a button with the left hand) each of the 88 keys becomes a program selector. That would give nearly instantaneous access to 88 of the 100 Preset's - and easy to remember too: " ah, my Clav/Organ Splits are all in the lowest octave" for example...

I know it's insane to ask at a time like this, especially considering how hard Italy has been hit, but does anyone have a clue or hunch to when the firmware update might come out? Not that we'll be going out and gigging in the next few weeks anyway, right? Still there's enough time (too much time maybe) to think about these things now. Still loving my 2x.

I actually like the feel of the keyboard especially the aftertouch and the key width. Am used to the spongy-rubbery component by now. I agree with Star_Guy about more better Lesile, with a few parameters if possible, to edit like Ramp up and Low Rotor Speed, and yes the Drive - it's a crazy cool effect as is, but if it responded more evenly over the keyboard range, and maybe had a few varieties or a tone control... yeah! Maybe a Dirt component, akin to Leakage, but with some special GG sauce... A Rhodes with more bark? Why not! though I love the first one that comes up. And owning a Sledge II, it's hard to believe that the 'synth engine' in the 2x is even related to that editable PPG filter PPG wave 3 oscillator beast...but if the sliders could be dual-function with the press of a key, to allow for Envelope Amount, oscillator detune, filter key scaling, independent velocity mod of filter cutoff and amplitude envelope...maybe a cross mod parameter and an envelope mod of pitch per oscillator....

Still hoping for another firmware update, we could really use even cooler Rotary and Drive effects, and maybe a few new Instrument waveforms too! Having said that, the Numa Compact 2x killed it again at tonight's 2 man gig down in the Village.

The manual says the LSB can be ignored, but when I changed the LSB (in DP's event list window) it DID change the sound in the Numa. I'm wondering if the MIDI pages on the Numa are only for MIDI out, or if they are also affecting those 3rd and 4th "midi only" 'internal" Layers in the Numa?

Yes, I did that, even plugged its midi out into its midi In and accessed parts 3 and 4 for a 4-way split. But I thought I smelled something burning, and it wasn't playing to the Numa Compact 2x's main strength, which, IMHO is real quick and responsive live playing with great live sounds, so I never tried that again. As far as bank and program info in the manual, YES, i Tried that - it said Bank 5 Program 14 or something. But it didn't give drums. I'm going to go back and see if it's one of those 0=1 in the implementation things. They also said that either the LSB or MSB didn't matter, but I'm not sure I entered the command correctly in DP. Still loving the axe though. Don't need a sequencer, but I'd love a tweak to the Drive, without losing what it has, make it more even over the whole keyboard, instead of heavier on the low notes, and also I think they'll probably remove that dead zone in the Drive knob near the beginning...

I'm trying to get my DAW to play drums on Part 4 (or 3) of the Numa Compact 2x, but can't seem to send it the correct Bank and Program Change Number. I'm using DP. The only way I can get drums to play via external Midi is to send on MIDI Ch 16, and send Program Change 50 or something (I forget) but that plays one of the two INTERNAL parts, not the 3rd or 4th part. I CAN get parts 3 and 4 to play, (on channels 3 and 4) but can't make them select a Drum Patch. Thanks for any help. and Hi Another, long time no see.

I'm holding on to mine too! It's 'love/hate" because it does so much, but that makes me wish it did everything the way we imagine it could.... We're waiting eagerly for the next software (firmware) update, which promises an improved DRIVE effect. I find that the lower notes on the keyboard Drive harder, and also what sounds great when you're playing one note, becomes unusable when you go to a chord. (Making a split with 2 organs and less Drive on the lower side is a workaround.) So the updated OS is going to make that better Since I own a Sledge, hearing them say that it's the Sledge Engine inside this multi-purpose Dream Keyboard makes me laugh. It's like calling Spaghetti-O's a fine Italian meal. I wonder if there's any room on their 'chip' to improve that Numa 2x engine? But for the price, and the weight, this thing is an amazing product, and a fun Instrument that is Soulful and inspiring. Thank you, Studiologic!

I am staying away from Catalina for now. Perhaps the "plug-and-play" driver(s)

I haven't tried this yet (afraid to, LOL!) but has anybody tried plugging the MIDI OUT from their 2x into its MIDI IN, in order to access the 3rd and 4th 'Layers' in a stand-alone manner? I'm sure there's a reason why this would not work, but don't know what that would be (midi-loop? - shouldn't be, as MIDI only access Parts 3 and 4...) I JUST DID IT, and IT WORKS. There's a Pipe Organ, a B3, Strings, and a Piano all playing from the keyboard. Not sure why someone would ever want to do that, but.... There does seem to be some limit to Polyphony this way, understandably. Actually, maybe for 4 Zones it would make sense, and not tax Polyphony that way either. Probably my imagination, but I just thought I smelled something burning, so I disconnected the MIDI OUT to the MIDI IN.

Just a tip to those who find the 2x's Leslie disappointing. In many situations, adding the Cho1 at the same time that you switch the Leslie from slow to fast with Stick 2 really helps. I've been accused of 'roller rink' or 'ball park' organ sounds in the past, but do have a B3 and 3 clone wheels, (4 counting MainStage which I use a lot) so take my suggestion with a grain of salt. I grew up on The Young Rascals, Traffic and Procol Harum, with Garth Hudson, Vanilla Fudge and Michael Ratledge looming further out but still extremely influential, just for context. I got my B3 in the Summer of '69, ironically, because that's me playing on the song. I've had the same one ever since, but a different B3's on that record.

As you probably know (since it's months since your post, sorry) the drawbars can all send midi, which is 9 new sources. But if you're controlling MainStage's cool b3 from the 2x, then they're already used up I guess. I couldn't find a way to try one out here in NYC without buying one either! So I've got mine here, still trying to decide whether to keep it, or not, because I couldn't make that decision in a store... every time I decide: 'eh, craigslist here i come!' - it makes this gorgeous sound, and I'm like. . . 'oh well...'

I traded an ancient 1/2-working Dimension D, dbx 166 and 286, and a Simmons 8:2 Mixer for a NUMA COMPACT 2x today. Well, I had to kick in some $ too...but here I am, back with Another Scott, whom I know and respect from the Juno DS board here. I like the feel of the keyboard, thought it isn't what I'd expected. I'm very happy that the keys are full-width. It reminds me a bit of the older Roland FP keybeds, but with aftertouch, which is so great to have! And so many. SO far what I like about it is the design and some of the combinations that it makes and its overall sonic texture, which is less splashy and more grounded or solid than the Juno DS(61.) I like the swishier organs, ("Gospel" and "Erroll Garner") but the jimmy smith one seems a bit leaden. Not sure why, and I'm sure I'll figure out a way to make em sound like the demos of the organs on the Compact 2 (which had no drawbars...) I think my playback system is suspect today too: gain structure, weird speakers, etc... As someone else here posted, I'm not sure what the Mastering knob does exactly, but yeah, some stereo, and some peaky mids around 600hz is what I noticed. I hope they change it so that turning on the Percussion turns off the 9th drawbar, like B3's do. Those are just my first reactions.

+1 I definitely see a lot of appeal in the VR-09, but I think it would be tough for me to switch if I already owned an SK1, as you do! Can't do an 80's gig, for instance, with the SK1.

WesG, I don't think 1.03 fixed this....

THANK YOU BRENNER - this has been plaguing me to the point where I stopped using the iPad app. Actually, the iPad was my gf's, and we broke up today, so I guess it's a non-issue for me now. The iPad editor can sync your editing to all three PARTIALS by pressing the three SELECT buttons at the same time. If you do any deep editing with the iPad, it is highly recommended that you save your current registrations on a thumb drive and use a different thumb drive to save your deep edits. Also, one should keep a journal of which presets have been altered in a registration, because when you bring up a preset to edit, it reverts to factory settings and there is no way to tell if it has been altered and saved to a registration. I've lost many hours of programming and several killer patches because I did not realize I was overwriting previous work. You have to use different thumb drives because each preset will default to the most recent alterations and change all registrations that use that preset. Same goes for when you download the Axial sounds. It might be best to get several small capacity USB's (1GB or less) and figure out a way to file them, listing the presets that have been altered on each one. Now for another wish list item...Wouldn't it be neat if you could save patch settings in the iPad editor and have a LOAD button to instantly change all the parameters of a registration in the VR09? This might be a great way to share patches through the cloud, too.

OOPS, I just saw that I repeated your very good advice, chiclet. So sorry, I didn't see yours first. Well, great minds work alike I guess! There are a lot of Hammond enthusiasts on this forum, so I hope I'm not wrong in my suggestions for this song. I would use the first two drawbars as you mentioned, but only have them partway out to a value of, say, 3. The reason for this is that Rod Argent used the percussion at such a high level that I think he had his drawbars pushed in. I would use: - percussion Volume "Normal", - Harmonic type set to "3rd", - and I think the decay is "Fast", but you can try both fast and slow and see what you think. The real trick to that song is to use very low-level drawbars so that the percussion stands out. I don't think he is using C/V either, so disable that.

I think the trick to Time of the Season, is that the PERCUSSION is louder than the drawbar tones - so much so, that during the solo, it sounds like he is playing in a weird mode, but it's really what Hammond and Roland call "the 3rd harmonic" (an octave and a fifth above the root) that is giving us the sense of the pitches of his notes - in other words, if Argent is playing a C3, for example, we hear it as a G4, because the percussion feature is louder, and it's functioning almost like a guitar harmonic. Try Percussion = 3rd Harmonic, turn "Soft" OFF (maybe that's called NORMAL), and experiment with the Fast/Slow control. (Not the Rotary Fast/Slow - I meant the Percussion Decay control.) You might have to make the 880 000 000 drawbar settings more like 660 000 000 or even 600 000 000 or 060 000 000 or 006 000 000 - try each of these. Actually try just using one drawbar (at level 6 or 8, experiment) at a time - with that Percussion setting i mentioned above - why not try ALL the drawbars, but only one at a time - and see which one sounds the closest to you. And Reverb. Compression too? As much as I've said about that tune, I confess it still mystifies me. (Maybe that's why I've thought about it so much.)

I'm in a similar situation, Den - got an SK-1 pretty early on, because it sounded best on youtube videos, and I'd rarely had peak experiences on any Nords I'd run into; So I really liked the SK-1, as did my clients. Got a Korg Kross because I needed a more comprehensive light-weight synth, but also because although I liked the SK-1's other voices, especially piano and clav, I wasn't sold on the electric pianos. Then recently saw a VR-09 really cheap (or so i thought, haha) and got it 'for a friend' - who ended up wanting to pick up his own new in a store to get the warranty,etc. After trying to sell my VR-09 (who needed it? I had an SK, right?) - I realized the price I paid was not as great a deal as I'd thought - I couldn't sell it for that price. And then I got into programming the VR-09's Registrations. It's REALLY FUN! But as with you, every time I go back to A-B it with the SK-1, the SK-1 comes out on top. I've now come to the conclusion that they are both tools, each with its own sound, each valid in its own usage. I'd hate to sell either one of them (or the Kross.) Hopefully, business will stay good and I won't have to. This way the hardest decision is which one works best on each individual gig. And I'm not breaking my back or bank account. I do have some questions about the VR-09 - will it ever be able to edit delay return levels for example. Hoping for a 1.04 update so that the organ and other part can be separately routed through the Rotary and not through the Rotary respectively. The usual stuff. But I think it rocks as a synth!

The VR-09 seems only to receive (its main part) on Midi Channel 4. Can anyone else help us with this - is this a fact? Thanks in advance.

Craig - it's months later, but I just got a VR-09 and, in using the iPad to edit, I went too deep, and changed the JPBrass sound, so that whenever I edit and save a Registration with it in it, it sounds right (brassy, in this case) but when I recall the edit, the sound reflects my earlier ill-advised iPad edit. I've reinitialized and the problem persists. Do I have to go back into an iPad edit and somehow un-edit JPBrass? I'm not sure how I actually 'saved' JPBrass on a deep level, so deep that even a Factory Reset won't restore it. As you said, if I unselect JPBrass in a Registration and then reselect it, it comes back to normal, probably fetched from the ROM location that you mentioned. But it kind of makes saving Registrations useless at this point.

I have been experiencing that issue since way before v.8 - whenever I crank the Master EQ up too loud and combine it with Overdrive. I think you're right that it's from Just Too Much Signal Level. I too am hoping for better Overdrive Algo's.