teashea

I really like my Numa Organ 2. I also have a Legend and a Mojo and the Numa holds it own. The build quality is great and the layout is excellent. I wanted dual manuals so I ordered another one, which I will receive Tuesday. Should be fun.

Yep, that´s strange because the Legend SOLO already comes w/ 4 (four) presert memory locations plus 1 set of drawbars for each manual in "dual mode"! ("Dual mode" means, you play "upper" on the local action and "lower" on an external keyboard connected via MIDI). The "only 2 presets per manual" issue, for me is a dealbreaker also for the Crumar MOJO61. Yesterday I listened to the NUMA Organ 2 demos and watched the KRAFT vids w/ Chris M.. Seems it´s the only single manual clone for about EUR 1K coming w/ 11 presets plus the set of drawbars for each manual. I found the version 2 to be improved over the version 1 and had the impression it could be a good compromize also because the action is reported to be closer to the real deal than any other Fatar TP-O61 in other clones seems to be. Leslie sim and C/V sounded good to my ears too. To work around the not so satisfying overdrive, I wondered if there might be some cable-adapter to connect p.ex. a Vent to the 11-pin Leslie connector and operate rotor speeds and stop/run form NUMA Organ 2 local controls. Does that exist ? A.C. I posted a review in this group a few days ago. I think that the Numa Organ 2 is great.

New Vox Continental. Some thoughts. This is a an unusual instrument. While Korg/Vox markets this as a Vox Continental, that is misleading. True, it does have an excellent Vox Continental sound, but that is a small part of what it does. This is a multi dimensional stage keyboard that is focused on a very specific target market. I don't think that is is going to appeal to the mainstream market, but to rather to a certain narrow group. First, the build quality. Excellent. It is solid and well constructed. The knobs and switches have a good feel, with no wobble. I personally don't like hard plastic knobs so I replaced mine with Chroma Cap knobs (as I have done with dozen of my synths). I also removed the chrome "Vox" logo and the "British" logo. I think they put these on to add to the retro look, which is not quite my cup of tea. Other than that the aesthetics are something that I like very much. By the way the color is red, with some orange in it. It is not the orange color that it appears to be under the lighting of some of the videos and photos. There are four main sound sections, two of which can be layered or split. Organ, Piano, Electric Piano and Key/Layer. There are four buttons that are used to turn these on and off. Very simple and very clear. Each of the four main sound sections has a selection of instruments. For example, the organ sound section has three instruments - Vox (of course), CX3 (B3 family) and Compact (Farfisa). For each instrument you can select any of several variations. This is done by simply pushing a button to select the main sound section, another button to select the instrument and turning a dial to select the variation of the instrument. It is very easy and fast to use. Layering requires nothing more than pushing the two main sound section buttons that you want. Selecting a split is done by pushing a button. Simple. Each of the four main sound sections has a separate volume knob so you can adjust the relative balance between sections. There is also an effects section that is easy to use. There are insert effects and master effects. The layout is thoughtful and clear. There is also a 9 band equalizer. Instead of drawbars there is a section of led touch sensors. These control the organ section instruments, as you would expect. They can also be used to control the nine band EQ and the Key/Layer sound parameters. I had never used led touch sensors before. They are quite easy to use and they do have the advantage of always showing the position of what is actually being played. Of course, they don't have the tactile feel of drawbars. There is also a Leslie simulation, which Is good but not a Vent. There is no need for a half moon switch because the Leslie simulation is controlled by a bend lever (which also controls tremelo and pitch). The sounds across the spectrum are clean and rich. These are Korg sounds, so you know if you like them or not. In fact the basic innerds are from the Korg Grandstage. There is also a drive which uses a Nutube vacuum tube. Nicer than a digital drive. I will add some more specific comments on specific issues. Overall I really like it but it is only going to appeal, I think, to a specific group of players. It does not have the deep adjustments that other clones have. In fact it does not have a screen - Just some led readouts to show the selection numbers for the instrument variations. No menu diving here.

Very interesting comments on these two great clones. I have had a Legend and Legend Live for a while and just received a Mojo. Actually t was my second Mojo. First one was DOA and it took me a few weeks to decide to try again. This new Mojo is excellent. The build quality is very good - about as good as a Legend. The sounds seem very close to me. A little different but I cannot say one is better than another. I do not hear any latency in the Mojo, which was an issue mentioned by Jim A in his comments. The Leslie simulations are very comparable. I cannot really tell a difference between them. I can tell a difference between these digital simulations and my 3300. However I think that much of this difference has to do with the interaction with room acoustics and the actual rotational swirling of the sounds. The quality of the drawbars on the Mojo is very good. They seem even more substantial than other clones, including the Legend and XK5.