From ccmacdon@rogers.com Wed Jun 08 06:45:40 2011
Subject:NUMA - Joey's influence was NUMA (or whatever) - should you wait to buy?

Martin,

I'm not so sure that these things "slipped" past JOEY.. I think that these things are designed to work as JOEY would want then to work, Joey being primarily a solo jazz organ player, rather than a gigging ensemble keyboard player (like myself).

With respect to your split/pedal issue.. Based on Joey's technique, I would expect that it doesn't matter whether he's using bass pedal sounds or kicking bass using the split point and the lower manual, in either case he's going to want 2 full octaves. I doubt that this was something that slipped by him but rather something that is this way because that's the way Joey wants it (BTW it's also pretty consistent with how other clones work.. I think both my NORD C1 and C2 have fixed 27 note pedal ranges)

Other examples of JOEY's influence are the sideways pitchbend and modwheels, which work fine as a leslie speed control (since the modwheel is oriented the same way as a real half moon switch), but it's entirely unusable for simultaneous pitch bend and modulation of an external synth. Any gigging keyboard player would have recognized that this doesn't work if you're trying to bend a note up, and add modulation, which is traditional synth technique. I exchanged an email with the engineer on this and he said Joey liked this design as did the focus group they used when they were developing and testing the product (I wish I was part of that focus group).

One other obvious example is the fact that when in midi transmit mode (flashing simultaneous organ/midi transmit mode) the sustain pedal continues to switch the leslie speeds internally rather than exclusively sending sustain. So when you're playing piano via midi on an external synth module while playing organ simultaneously, whenever you press the sustain pedal, the leslie speed switches. Did Joey play organ and piano simultaneously via midi..? I doubt it, if he did he would probably have noticed this. That said, I think this is an easy OS fix.

I think Joey's influence has been fantastic, in that this instruments sounds, plays, and feels outstanding, as good as any clone out there yet relatively inexpensive. However, it seems obvious to me that when Joey was testing the unit he wasn't using it the way a typical ensemble keyboard player might be using it. He was using it in his typical solo jazz organ role.

By the way, as much as I complain about the sideways pitchbend and modwheels, my NORD C2 doesn't even have them.. so sideways is better than nothing.

Craig