Needskeys

I think more and more people are connecting to computers rather than midi. I use this board mostly to control vsts but I did use the internal piano sound on a gig the other night...and it sounded quite good. I do have to adjust to the action a bit but its only on the occasional chord. If you get too far into the keybed it just doesnt feel quite right. The solution seems to be to move your hand closer to the front of the keys on these chords. Its pretty minor for me but it might be a bigger issue for some.

Yes, I meant the number of buttons/knobs that send midi, referring to using it connected directly to a computer. I did notice that the Numa drawbars did not respond to midi learn from my computer the way other controllers do...although Im no midi expert so maybe I did something wrong. I was trying to make the point that the Numa compares pretty well overall to the nord electro 3, which is a more fair comparison than comparing it to a much more expensive electro 5 or 6. I was saying this because of several comments like, well, its a decent keyboard just dont expect a nord. If you just compare internal sounds then the nord probably wins on organ, and has a slight edge on Rhodes and piano. I think the Numa Wurli is better and the Rhodes and piano arent really too far off. But as you said, comparing as a controller the Numa wins in so many ways.

Rhodes54, yes, you can plug in your Mac and it will output through the left and right outs, and/or the internal speakers. I havent tried it but the phone jack can be used as an auxiliary out. For what its worth, I sold a waterfall 73 key electro 3 to get this and Im happier with this (as a controller). The nord is better at some things, better drawbars and more programmable midi. Hopefully Numa will add more midi control with a firmware update, but theres no guarantee. But the electros in general (waterfall) are just not very good at controlling software acoustic pianos, and their internal pianos are notoriously difficult to amplify, although they seem to excell through larger house systems. But as a controller, the Numa has a bunch of advantages. The keybed is pretty similar to the electro, although I think slightly lighter and less springy which I prefer. I also recommend the 12v battery back mentioned a few pages back. $33 and it will power the 2x for a long time (at least 15-20 hrs).

Thanks! Getting mine on Thursday.

Im aware that you can run a computer vst through the onboard speakers. Im still wondering if the computer signal is also (or can be) routed through the audio outs, or through the phone jack? Or do you still need a separate audio interface?

Yeah but can you send the audio out to external speakers? I feel like I read that the phone jack could be assigned to do that, but Im not sure.

For those using this to control computer vsts, are you able to use the onboard audio interface or are you still using an external audio interface? Are you able to control vst volume from the keyboard?

You influenced me first!

Wow the keyscape Rhodes are outstanding! Not sure why they put that super wide tremelo effect on so many of the top presets but its easy enough to change. Im looking forward to trying the acoustic piano on a gig tomorrow but its going to be hard to stay off of the Rhodes patches. The Wing upright is really cool too. Also the clavs and Roland eps are very nice. Great collection!

If you are recording and like to tinker with mics Garritan might be a good choice. I have it, but I havent really connected with it yet in a gig setting. Right now, Pianoteq Bechstein is my #1 for live playing. I have Keyscape coming tomorrow, so Im hoping it will compete. Based on the demos I would definitely like to try Noire, but will try to hold off for a deal. I like that its a smaller file size. The Garritan CFX is a little slow to load. I like to load up several vst combinations on a gig, preferably all loading in around a minute or so. I only have the iOS version of Ravenscroft but Im not sure that demo does it justice. It needs a few tweaks.

I was using a single K8.2. I had the internal sound on briefly while I was loading up computer stuff. The internal sound is nice but the pianoteq sounded better. Normally I probably would have tried it on a couple of tunes but I was playing with some new people including a vocalist (It Might As Well Be Spring In B?!) so I never got around to it.

I played a jazz gig tonight with the Casio s1000 & pianoteq Bechstein. A very enjoyable combination.

Does CinePiano include any 'extended techniques', Felt versions, Una Corda...etc? or it's just a straight forward traditional piano library? Cinepiano (piano in blue) has a tape setting that simulates a recording technique used on jazz recordings from the blue note era. Piano In Blue is a beautiful soulful vst. I enjoy it mostly at home in a quiet environment. For live gigs its not quite as good to me (in cutting through) as some others. Another issue is that it gets rather noisy if you spend much time sustaining around C5 and above. Still its fun to have the piano from Kind Of Blue.

Any chance you might post some audio examples of how the Rhodes and organ sounds after tweaking?

Just ordered Keyscape from MF. You have to call but it is 20% off right now.

Im impressed that you made it 6 minutes into that clip. There are 4 levels of string resonance and 4 levels of damper resonance if you want more sustain. It definitely makes a difference.

I dont hear plunkiness in the Casio piano sound. Its a very alive sounding piano and the notes sustain nicely. Are you guys judging based on the onboard speaker sound in a large noisy music store or what? I took my own headphones to GC but didnt have the 1/8 adapter so I ended up with a crappy pair from the store. Not ideal. Ive also seen keyboards at GC many times hooked up to those terrible sounding Roland keyboard amps. If you prefer the Roland piano sound, thats fine. However, it is sometimes easy when you already own one brand to look for a quick reason to dismiss another brand when it doesnt immediately reach some magical, non-existent standard. Ive been down the piano vst rabbit hole. Right now, I like the pianoteq Bechstein quite a bit but to be perfectly honest its only slightly better than many digital pianos.

Im thrilled again with this board now that David set me straight on the usb issue. Thanks again!! I hear the digital thing you guys are talking about in the middle but I think overall the sound is plenty good and can be worked with, certainly for live situations. I mainly wanted this for a good feeling light weight controller for piano vsts etc. For me the Casio piano is just an excellent back up for situations where I dont want to use the computer or in case I have an issue. Also I think the action is versatile enough (not too heavy) if I wanted to play a jazz organ gig or whatever. Id still be interested to upgrade if they make a 5s successor.

The audio interface is to process the sound from the computer. Plus you board directly into your computer with the USB B to A cable. Your computer then plugs into your Audio interface. If your keyboard was older and didn't have USB Midi, that is when you'd use the audio interface to connect your board to the computer i.e. Keyboard>MIDI DIN in/out>AUdio Interface MIDI DIN in/out >computer USB in. For now your easiest and cheapest is to just get the USB cable. Connect your keyboard to the computer. Are you using PC or Mac? If you want your audio from the computer to go thru an Interface there are plenty of interfaces that are USB powered for $100 and less. Don't overthink the issue Ok I think you solved my problem. I thought I had to go through the audio interface. I am using a surface pro which only has one usb...so I just need a cheap usb hub instead of a usb-b midi din thing. I knew I was missing something obvious...thanks!

is there an audio interface that incorporates this (usb-a female input)?

Yes I want to go through an audio interface instead of directly into the computer. And yes having to add a power supply is what makes it seem clunky. I can use battery power for keyboard, computer, audio interface, and even external amp. So having to plug in a usb b to midi interface seems crazy...Im sure theres a work around usb battery or something. I guess maybe I should re-evaluate the idea of going directly to the computer. Ive always heard that the audio interface is the better route though.

Thanks. Now Im reminded of why I wish this board had midi.

Can anyone recommend low cost solutions (cable or midi box) to get from the Casio (usb b) to midi (midi interface)? Most things Im finding are usb type a.

Thanks for the clarification.

For instance the GC where I bought mine now says limited stock. They only had 2 (one black and one white) when I got mine on Friday. The white one is not for sale yet so they really dont have any.