Studiologic releases Numa Player, a FREE virtual instrument for macOS, Windows, and iOS.
Numa Player comes with four sound categories, each containing multiple variations. The categories include Acoustic Pianos, Electric Pianos, Keys, and Strings & Pads.
The Acoustic Pianos offer something vintage, something a little more modern, an upright, and an electric grand if you want to get your D’Angelo vibe going.
Electric Pianos features the usual suspects, Rhodes, Wurly, FM. If you fancy a slightly different approach to the electric piano, you could try the free Wavesynth EP Glow (full version of Kontakt required).
The Keys section provides a funky Clav, Harpsi, great Vibes, and accordions.
Strings & Pads offers some nice ensemble sounds and some pretty cool synth pads.
Each category or Part as Studiologic calls it has up to four dedicated sound controls. For example, Acoustic Pianos has Tone, String Resonance, Duplex, and Damper Noise. Each part also offers custom keyboard ranges and various settings.
The Numa Player can combine up to four sounds in a single program that you can save for the stage or studio. You also get up to nine integrated insert effects per part.
Insert Effects
- 3-Band EQ
- Stereo Chorus
- Phaser
- Flanger
- Tremolo
- Ping Pong Delay
- Wha Wha
- Compressor/Limiter
- Distortion
In addition to the insert effects, you get a Master Effects section featuring Delay, Reverb, a 3-Band EQ, and MB Compressor.
Numa Player functions as a standalone application and a plugin inside your DAW. Numa Player could be great if you like the sounds and need a straightforward live setup without a DAW.
I’m pretty excited to be writing about this freebie because I have a bit of a soft spot for Studiologic. They were the first manufacturer I spent time with on my first-ever trip to Musikmesse, and they were such a great team of people.
I also owned the first version of the Numa Compact years ago, until a leak in the roof, perfectly placed above the keyboard, put it out of commission and beyond repair. Before waking up to a water-damaged keyboard, it had served me very well!
I think the sound quality and features you get from the Numa Compact 2 and 2X are ridiculously good for the money.
Numa Player is available in VST3, AU2, and AU3 formats for macOS, iOS, and Windows.
Download: Numa Player
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12 Comments
Mario Stefx
onWow, really nice sounding basic instruments (with good fx chain). Thanks! :)
Neytcev
onMany thanks!
MRG
onA modern-sounding rompler with flexible layering and keyzoning, preset management, enough integrated fx to get by. Just like a hardware digital piano, with a nice GUI. Not a huge sample set, perhaps, but covering a decent palette of sounds. Now the sounds, I kinda like ’em but maybe for the synth pads, who might be a little too full? The celeste has some heavy thumping on some octaves but that’s maybe fixable with the fx section. And at the risk of repeating myself, that Cassotto F# tho… o_O;
For a first release, it’s a pretty damn near perfect one. 4.999 out of 5.
Tip: You can actually layer categories, go to a sound list and look for the (< Library) on top.
Rox Roll
onNice freebies,but with some bugs（eg the distortion doesn’t work）,hope they will fix it with latter version.
Numanoid
onReminds me of the Key Rig Sound Module Plugin that used to be included with M-Audio MIDI keyboards.
Numanoid
onEasy download and installation. Low memory footprint, and pretty decent sounds. I reckon there are a possibility of 1792 different variations, based on the 27 included patches. A great freebie :-)
Kobraji
oninteresting opinion, especially because it seems to include some physical modeling, I think the company is famous for that, and all in less than 300 megabytes, I expected something like this a long time ago…
Numanoid
onI have discovered a drawback. I can’t easily midi learn the controls in FL Studio, The plug probably functions best on a pad/touch screen, where controls can be dialed with a finger
Kobraji
onArdour on this side, I don’t have the same problem, the only drawback is that it sucks a lot of Ram, in CPU it is light,
It is the first version in Vst3 so they will probably correct errors in the future… cheers…
MRG
onAlo! Salut! Sunt eu, un update! v1.0.3 fixes a lot of things. RAM use, distortion, or at least pretends to do so. Release notes on the download page. Not gonna lie, gonna miss that Cassotto F# bug. We had a brief but deep story together.
Neytcev
onDoesn’t pass validation tool in Logic Pro x 10.1, Mac OSX 10.10,
we shared that with the developer, waiting for the answer with hope
au child
onwill surely check this out thanks