Investigating the Electronic Piano that Current High School Student Singer-Songwriter, tuki. Plays!

2025-02-13

Have you heard of the popular high school girl singer-songwriter, tuki. (pronounced tsuki)? She posted a video of herself playing guitar on TikTok during Covid in 2023, which gradually became a sensation. In January 2024, she is the youngest, at the age of 15, to have reached No. 1 on the Billboard Japan chart and she also participated in last year's Kohaku Uta Gassen. Recently, I watched a video of tuki. playing and singing on an electronic piano. “I want to play the same piano as tuki.!” Well, I have super good news for you! This time, I will thoroughly investigate the electronic piano that I think tuki. is actually using!
* The result of this investigation is based on the video clips that have been uploaded so far.

First, let's check out her actual video.

Her singing is so emotional! It's a song that overwhelms you and touches your heart.

Looking at the electronic piano…Oh my! Check out the distinctive orange knob! This is... the Numa Compact 2 by Studiologic! There are two models of the Numa Compact 2, one with an x at the end and one without, but since there are no buttons on the left side panel of the top panel, we can assume that the Numa Compact 2 without the x is used. This model is unfortunately already out of production, but don't worry! A newer model with more advanced features is now available.

Studiologic / Numa Compact SE Stage Piano

While maintaining the compact and lightweight body of the previous Numa Compact 2, the new Numa Compact 2 is equipped with four powerful sound engines, which are the same as those on the higher-end Numa X Piano model. The new Numa Compact 2 features a more realistic and higher quality sound, including an acoustic piano sound source with adjustable hammer and damper noises. The number of simultaneous sounds and the number of built-in tones have also been greatly increased.

Main Features

88-key semi-weighted box-key stage piano
Newly adopted ivory-colored keybed and body color reminiscent of vintage keyboards
Lightest weight in its class (7.1 kg) / Compact body (depth: 23 cm)
Built-in stereo speakers (10 W + 10 W)
USB audio functionality (play sound from a PC or iOS device through Numa Compact SE speakers, or record sound from Numa Compact SE to a PC or iOS device)
Original “TrS (True Sound)” technology for realistic tone recording
Power-up sound engine: New modeling engine from the high-end Numa X Piano model (Acoustic Engine / Electric Engine / Organ Engine / Synth Engine)
High-quality extended sound library provided by the manufacturer can be added
Maximum number of simultaneous sounds (200), built-in preset sounds (148), and user programs (120), have significantly increased from the previous model
USB bus-powered operation

The piano in her latest video playing piano is different!

This is her Mrs. GREEN APPLE “Dancehall” cover video. Even though it's a cover, you can't help but fall in love with listening to her singing as she makes it her own!

Wait a minute…that's not the orange knob piano I mentioned earlier! Apparently, she’s playing on a new piano. Let's guess what this model is from the appearance of this one as well!

There's a silver switch that can be moved up and down. Also, after getting a good look at the keyboard and judging from the wooden sides of the keyboard: ...... I’m going to say that this is a YAMAHA CP88, a classic stage piano that is very popular at Sound House!

YAMAHA / CP88 Stage Piano 88 keys wooden keyboard

This stage piano is the culmination of Yamaha's technology as a piano manufacturer. It’s equipped with Yamaha's famous grand piano tones (CFX, S700, Bösendorfer 290 Imperial), as well as many other standard tones. The keyboard is equipped with a wooden graded hammer keyboard (NW-GH keyboard) that can reproduce the original mechanism of a grand piano. This allows the player to play with a touch that feels like the real thing.

Main Features

88-key wooden graded hammer 3-keyboard stage piano
Equipped with Yamaha's original “damper sensor,” which detects each keystroke on the keyboard that enables tremolo without losing notes.
Equipped with carefully selected grand, upright, and electric piano tones
Intuitive operability for sound creation
Expandability for a variety of performance environments, from home practice to stage performances
Equipped with “One-to-One” style UI for intuitive sound creation
Quick and direct control of the parameters you want to control in any situation, from practice to the stage
Compact size and 18.6 kg weight, while still maintaining robustness to withstand the rigors of tour use

The above is a detailed explanation of the electronic piano used by tuki. As I mentioned earlier, these are only educated guesses on my part, so please forgive me if I’m wrong. It is motivating to be able to play on the same equipment as your favorite artist, right? I hope this blog will be of help to you when you go to find your perfect instrument.