From ccmacdon@rogers.com Tue Feb 01 13:42:44 2011
Subject:Numa - quick review - maybe you've heard this all before?

I had the opportunity to try a NUMA organ for a day, and I have to say this thing sounds fantastic right out of the box. Absolutely outstanding keyboard, GREAT hammond sound, warm and rich yet ballsy, nice realistic percussion, GREAT Chorus/Vibrato, nice overdrive, and YES a really good leslie SIM.. no, not as good as the Ventilator, but probably the best leslie sim I've heard on any of the current clones.

The interface is pretty good as well.. the keyboard looks and feels outstanding..!! It has nice reverse coloured preset keys, percussion buttons in the right order, controls for reverb, key click, leakage EQ bass/treble, and a traditional Chorus/vibrato style knob! This thing only weighs 22 pounds, and the street price is likely to be under 2K.

It really is a killer organ.. at this price!!

Now a couple things I didn't like.. I don't like the fact that they have turned the pitchbend and modwheels sideways, and they're using the modwheel as the leslie switch.. but it is a pretty novel approach that I'm sure has provided some cost savings. Despite the fact that I don't like the orientation pitchbend/modwheel, at least it has them (my Nord C2 does not!!) I'm sure with a little effort I would get used to this setup.

As much as I like the 12 reverse preset keys that's all it has.. only 12 presents.. I would have liked some kind of bank arrangement, but I suppose Hammond players have been surviving with 12 presents per manual, why can't I?

Last but not least, in it's current form it's not particularly tweakable.. certain parameters that us clone users have come to expect, such as percussion strength, and leslie speed etc.. do not seem to be accessible. However, I have it on good authority that there are many hidden parameters that can be changed using various button combinations and I expect we'll see the Numa become a more tweakable organ in future AND the manual suggest that in the future new Operating Systems and new organ models can be downloaded via USB, so who knows where this thing will go!

I was getting kind of sick of all this talk about harmonic beating and flanging and phasing, and I saw someone reference the great Chorus/Vibrato on the Numa organ and I thought I would toss out a quick review..!! This may be old news, but I'm rather excited about this organ!!

Bottom line.. I fully understand why Joey is endorsing this organ.. (although just between us, I would prefer if it didn't have his signature on it).. It's fantastic.. right out of the box.. sounds great, great feeling keyboard, very close approximation to the traditional Hammond interface, lightweight and inexpensive.

Now we just need a 35 pound two manual version.. and a few extra parameters to play with..

Craig MacDonald