Clonewheel Controller Setup

Hardware
21

@David-san and all…

The Numa Organ 2 arrived! I’ve been playing with it for a few days now. On it’s own, it’s a very solidly built and fantastic sounding clonewheel organ with some very smart design.

If I have any complaints, it’s that I don’t care for the speed that the fast-leslie setting is set to or how fast it accelerates and decelerates from that speed. I also don’t enjoy the feel (or the sound) of the round buttons when pressed on it’s control surface. That is all… everything else is very impressive. Well laid out clone wheel, love the CV knob, the drawbars (despite no ‘detents’) and the effects controls. Mod wheel as leslie controller works well. The brake position could use a detent but it’s fine without it.

The keybed is fantastic! Waterfall keys, feel great, palm-slides no issues. Inspiring to play.

As a MIDI controller, while it also has some very smart features, it’s a mixed bag.
There is a button to toggle between local, midi (remote sounds only) and local+midi so you can do very fast and intuitive switching between modes with just one button which instantly shows you what mode you are in.

The keybed notes, the reversed keys (as preset change and as notes depending on the VST), volume knob, pitch and mod wheels, all the drawbars, keyboard split mode, octave up, pedal to lower and transpose buttons all work over midi. It passes through the expression pedal and ‘hold’ (sustain) pedals too.

edit: this next paragraph is not true provided you use a MIDI DIN cable.

However… the chorus/vibrato knob, the percussion buttons and the effects knobs do not transmit any midi CC. This is disappointing, especially the simple percussion buttons. It’s a “high-definition keyboard controller”… whatever that means exactly… and not all of it’s encoders send midi. Nor do they send SysEx according to Studiologic support.

Another issue is the Split and Transpose buttons send an “All notes off ch 1-3” command when pressed, so if you were holding a chord with your right hand and with your left hit the split key for instance to access a lower manual preset on the left half of the keyboard, the notes you are holding will go mute, until you play another note.

Midi thru is only on the DIN plug, not sent via the USB, so if you use a second keyboard controller for lower manual but also want that keyboard to send (say on ch.4) to a VST only, you have to use the thru plug or patch a second midi out from the second keyboard.

It only uses the USB 1 port for MIDI and that is the older 2.0 ‘B’ female port. USB 2 (mini usb female) is for firmware only.

It’s a keeper all the same but I really wish it could control all the aspects of the B-3 X VST, which I think sounds a little ‘softer/warmer’ and has a better leslie with a lot of amp options.

@David-san since you have one, am I over-looking anything regarding my assessment of it’s midi-controller capabilities? Any secrets to get the non-MIDI buttons working in GigPerformer?

22

In which MIDI mode and for which knobs or buttons did you noticed that no MIDI messages were sent ? Could it be that I don’t use all of them ? Because I am pretty sure that I could MIDI assign almost everything I need. :thinking:

1 Like
23

@David-san

So, I just got done solving this and was going to follow up here with the update.

The issue is that when you connect via USB for your midi connection, the Numa doesn’t transmit all of the CC info. I don’t know why, i have an email into SL support about that. It sends notes, drawbars, expression, modulation and volume. It doesn’t send anything else.

If you connect with regular MIDI DIN style connector thought a midi interface, all the buttons and encoders transmit CC data.

I discovered this by first realizing that the Numa would receive one of the CC numbers I wasn’t getting it to transmit. I made a widget knob and mapped it to CC 9 and it did affect the reverb on the internal sound generator of the numa… so I figured either they left the outgoing encoder info out of midi completely or… try a different interface connection… which worked.

Strange but solved.

bk

2 Likes
24

Crazy thing you discovered here! Indeed I am using only the DIN MIDI of the NO2.

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25

I discovered some similar anomalies using the USB connection on the Numa Compact 2X. No problems found using MIDI ports.

1 Like
26

Do you also have incoming MIDI messsages merged to the MIDI OUT DIN in the NC2X ? (like having a MIDI THRU + MIDI OUT rather than only a MIDI OUT)

27

No. Just MIDI in and out

28

I know from testing that the USB midi connection will not pass along midi in data from a second keyboard plugged into the numaO2. I can’t test the DIN connection because I currently only have 2 midi cables but I suspect thru works via DIN.

This is from Studiologic support:

The difference between MIDI out and USB comes from the concept (very common) that a controller would probably be connected to an Hardware device, rather than via USB.

As a matter of fact, other products of the NUMA Line (designed years ago) do not receive notes via USB but only via MIDI in (made by the same engineer).

29

I know that there are A MIDI in and a MIDI out, but are the MIDI messages received byt the MIDI in merged into MIDI out with the MIDI messages produced when playing on the keyboard? But, perhaps you don’t use the MIDI in as the NC2X has no sound engine?

30

Is this translated from italian?

31

Well… it’s from Gianni Giudici so… probably translated in his head as he types!

32

I was kidding, but this definition of MIDI out vs USB is a joke.

33

The NC2X does have internal sounds, but I’m not using them. I’m using the keyboard as a controller via the 5-pin MIDI in and out. MIDI in is not merged to MIDI out.

34

OK thanks. This is correct unlike the NO2.