Kentkeys

I’ve been very happy with Philips Fidelio X2HR phones - not specifically designed as studio phones but work well with the Numa X, and loud enough for me. I don’t know where you are based, but in the UK Amazon has a good deal on the Philips headphones at the moment. May be similar deals in other countries. They also have Sennheiser HD 599 Special Edition phones at a similar price - another option for you which gets good reviews.

He certainly is still going stong. He recently released an album of songs supposedly written by a long-forgotten music hall entertainer called Max Champion. He is touring the US in June and July, performing his own songs solo in the first half, followed by some Champion songs with a 9-piece band in the second half. Additional dates “to be confirmed, including Europe”.

A recent update to the firmware allows you to adjust the sensitivity of each note individually. I haven’t tried it. https://www.studiologic-music.com/blog/2023-10-04_numaxpiano22/ BTW, If you have a lot of time to spare there is a recent extremely long review of the Numa X GT here: https://azpianonews.blogspot.com/2023/07/studiologic-numa-x-piano-gt-review-digital-piano.html The author’s main criticism seems to be about the keys being noisy, but this doesn’t bother me and probably wouldn’t bother you either if you will mainly be using headphones.

Has anyone who has installed the 2.2 update had any problems? I have the GT model but haven’t updated it yet, partly because of a comment on a Studiologic YouTube video that suggests that the update introduces several bugs including (if I have understood the comment correctly): (1) A bug in the setup menu display that shows a Pedal 1 type the same as Pedal 3 (2) a worse low-end balance for for the Mk 1 EP which makes the softest layer disappear (3) a random unnatural noise in lower range notes The commenter also says they have monitored the velocity (on the 88-note version) and found that the lowest note-off velocity for white notes is 14 and for the black notes it is 11, no matter how gently you play the keys. (I’m not sure whether this would have much of an effect, in practice.) If you want to see the full comment, it’s with this video:

Dr Mix (Claudio Passavanti) has done a demo YouTube video of the Numa X Piano GT. It’s not a review, but has some interesting comments on settings and he is offering a couuple of his presets to download. There is also an interesting demonstration of using a vocoder with the Numa X. Unfortunately the camera makes the Numa display looked washed-out in some shots - unless his example is like that in reality.

There’s an interesting recent YouTube video about the Numa X Piano 88 which is highly critical of some aspects of the instrument, including some of its samples and the use of a knob to select sounds rather than buttons. The YouTuber, Fausto Ferreira, also finds the keys on that Numa model too noisy. With my cloth ears, I can hardly notice some of the things he is complaining about. He also has positive things to say, including the ease of playing glissandos, and some of the internal sounds including the Vintage Grand which he describes as a “gem” and suggests some settings to bring out its best. He admits that he is picky, but adds that he enjoys playing the keyboard, especially on stage. And (spoiler alert) in the end he decides that, because of its low weight, built-in mixer and other characteristics (including the ease of plugging in an iPad) is “probably the best stage MIDI controller”. Worth a watch.

I think you’ll find that Thomann ships worldwide. It won’t necessarily be cheap, though. (If you bought both the music stand and the computer plate, it might qualify for free shipping, but that may only apply in Europe.)

Studiologic have just released four new brass ensemble sounds for the Numa X. Three of them are also suitable for the Numa Compact 2 and Compact 2X. As usual, they are free.

Just to clarify: the SLP3-D triple pedal comes as standard with the Numa X Piano GT model. It is an option for the other versions, which come with the VFP1/10 sustain pedal as standard. The product page and specs for the SLP3-D can be found here.

… and he doesn’t appear in the video of Yamaha Artists promoting the new keyboards. So, there may still be something Montage-related in the pipeline (possibly to be launched at NAMM).