How many of you are getting the Osmose?

[pdxindy]

[pdxindy]

[SLiC]

One arrived today (UK) = only had an hour on it as I have family over but it looks and sounds beautiful, it’s every bit as good as I hoped it would be, very easy to play and truly something new…I have tried all the MPE controllers…lin, rolli sensel etc…this is a different league, it will be a smash hit!

[aMUSEd]

So tempted

[ThomasHelzle]

One arrived today (UK) = only had an hour on it as I have family over but it looks and sounds beautiful, it’s every bit as good as I hoped it would be, very easy to play and truly something new…I have tried all the MPE controllers…lin, rolli sensel etc…this is a different league, it will be a smash hit!

Ha, great to hear that!
When we tried it on Superbooth 2021 we also were instantly blown away and it felt even better than expected. Just totally natural.
Same here with other controllers. Other than my modified Seaboard Block (removed the silly slime-wave stuff and replaced it with neoprene for a Continuum-like feel), I wasn't really convinced by any of them other than the Continuum itself, which is out of my league.
Hopefully this will also spawn more interesting MPE alternatives that go outside the "squares on a plane" paradigm.
I also hope we'll see more interesting controllers from ExpressiveE themselves, once they digested the "everything that can go wrong, did" situation with the Osmose!
They have great ideas and quite a knack for design too.

Cheers,

Tom

[SLiC]

I think the first thing that strikes you about an Osmose when you play it it is how great the key bed feels, it feels expensive with a nice resistance, even the key material feels nice. You can play so quietly, the slightest slow downward movement can start to pick up a sound, like using a bow on a piano string say, but the hit the key and get a percussive sound up and down actions can create lovely variations, then pressing harder to get that aftertouch with further range, wiggle the key to get pitch bend or use portamento glide to get slides......really nice.

The Egan Matrix engine sounds great and is obviously 'designed' for making MPE sounds...lots of physical modelling types sounds but it can do a surprisingly good VA...I haven't tried the editor yet for pro9graming but you have a lot of physical controls on the Osmose for variations (sometimes quite drastic)

Great to see a synth with an internal engine designed from the ground up to also be a midi controller for VSTs etc, nice feature being able to switch from piano mode to full MPE to just poly AT etc.

[ThomasHelzle]

Ok, ours arrived early today...

1.) If you never touched one, there is simply nothing you should say. This has to be touched to be believed/understood.

2.) This is the most innovative instrument of any kind in the last couple of decades. Period.

3.) The bandwidth of sounds is awesome. From physical modelling to buttersmooth synth basses, from piercing to ultrasoft...
And the depth of sound design is breathtaking in some sounds, you could do a whole album just with the different play-styles of one sound.
4.) I tried pretty much every MPE controller out there - the sensitivity is unmatched by several magnitudes in my book.
And it's not just sensitive, but these people understand the human body and mind. After about 2 seconds your fingers have understood how it works and then you are just amazed what you can do with the first really sensitive keyboard ever.
You can touch the keys with a feather and get a response. You can hit them hard and get power.
You can frigging fade out what you play slowly if you want. You are the envelope.
The first keyboard with aftertouch where it's not more or less a gimmick for me.
It's so sensitive but with perfect resistance, that you can slowly and smoothly move the pitch 3 octaves up over a minute with aftertouch via pitch interpolation.
5.) The sideways key-bend for pitch is how god intended it. After 1 second you grok it and use it intuitively from then on. Like in the Ondes Martenot, but per key. And yes, some training is needed for the fine details when playing chords.
6.) Did I mention that the (demo) presets are amazing.
7.) I'm a designer by trade. This is high art.
It's extremely well made and designed. Totally it's own thing and at the same time totally familiar.
Rolis stuff was a nice try, but design isn't just making it look slick, the whole package has to make sense to your eyes, your mind, your fingers, your ears and of course technically.
This is it.
The keys even feel good to your touch. It's the perfect surface.
They thought about every tiny detail.
8.) The screen is gorgeous, the UI super intuitive.

So, after about 2 hours with it, I think they could sell this actually for 4 times the price.
There is nothing else out there to rival it AFAIK.
The combination of one of the deepest sound engines with the perfect controller is just mindblowing.

I can't even imagine what some sounddesigners and musicians will do with this.

In my book, this is the first electronic instrument that rivals traditional instruments for depth and nuance.

Consider me not only impressed but deeply in awe on every level.

This also shows, how the same-same crap controllers of the last couple of decades actively destroyed something precious in music. Like a mouse is the most unsensitive thing one can imagine and totally cripples our abilities to feel and create.

A new era begins.

Wow.

Cheers,

Tom

[SLiC]

So we both like the key surface

We could use an Osmose Forum (maybe Expressive will set one up) as there are threads on so many different forums- guess not too many people have them yet, but as word gets out that this is the real deal I think it will be big news.

There are a lot of pre-sets (not complaining!) but they could do with a favourite option- I have just been saving my top 10 to user (with a few tweaks to FX, playability) - my go to is currently 'classicana lead 1'

Also I would like an option to mute the synth sounds automatically when switching to controller mode, but really I am nit-picking here- for V1 firmware its amazing!

[ThomasHelzle]

Okay, so after my initial two hours of bliss, I had another session and I now can add some other things:
1.) Our unit seems to have a shaky power connection, even a slight touch to the cable can un-power or restart it. Investigating. Solved - it's a locking connector and I didn't set it up myself, so missed that...
2.) So far none of the expression pedals I tried was recognised in Pedal input 2, no matter what setting I put the pedals in. Pedal input 1 for sustain works though.
3.) My first two hours were spent in the "Demo" category of presets. These are magic indeed. But there are other presets that didn't see as much love and don't react as fully to the keys as they could. So hopefully the Eagan Matrix isn't as intimidating as it seems and we can do our own sounds too...
Will also be interesting how it interacts with VSTs (didn't try that yet).
4.) I am sure the faders instead of wheels will be a controversial thing. I guess wheels would have made the unit thicker. I definitely would have preferred wheels although the faders are serviceable enough.
5.) The sound engine will not be for everybody. For us, it tickles exactly the most interesting area of semi-real and hybrid sounds and physical modelling. If you are mainly after analogue synth sounds, it may not be for you, although there are some presets that are REALLY good in that realm.

So it is not perfect after all

But I still want one for myself. It's the first keyboard in a long times that tickles all the right spots for me.

Cheers,

Tom

[SLiC]

1.) Our unit seems to have a shaky power connection, even a slight touch to the cable can un-power or restart it. Investigating.

Did you miss that its a 'locking' power connector? See the instruction sheet- the power connectors has to bits that stick out- align them with the 'holes', push in and twist- not loose- locking! All synths should have locking power connectors!

PS- the headphone volume control also pushes in so its out of the way!

Nothing is perfect- but this thing is close. Most of the things I have found that could be improved would just be firmware updates...its 'very' early days but even if nothing ever improved I would still be more than happy

[SLiC]

PS- See (1), but don't forget item (10)

[ThomasHelzle]

Ha! My GF set it up and so I didn't investigate further! Solved, Awesome
Thanks a ton, this was too silly an oversight to fit the overall picture.

Now let's see if my third pedal will work or off to read the manual to find out what it needs
EDIT: Third expression pedal also not to Osmoses liking. Hm, weird, they all work with any other synth/interface we have. So the manual it is...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH - I missed item 10
We don't have a cat, but I could talk to my toad. He's a bit old (going on 30 years now!) but maybe he will enjoy some Osmose anyway... In general he loves sounds and often joins us when we play...

Cheers and have a good new years eve!

Tom

[TobyB]

I am very impressed so far. Build quality and feel top notch. Very simple set-up and go.
My normal setup is a Linnstrument and a Keystep... I am a very rudimentary keyboard player.
Early impressions are that it's a lovely improvement on how I play keyboards ... typically a melodic line one-handed. Nice feel to after-touch and vibrato.
The Linnstrument is great under my fingers for chordal stuff, I primarily play stringed things and repeating patterns wherever I go using 4ths or 5ths tuning is what I am used to. I don't have the skills for two-handed bass'n'treble piano playing... and don't think the Osmose is going to lead me to learn.
Only played with the presets so far ... "interesting" ... mixture of nice stuff, fine but not my thing, and gimmicks. Solo string and woodwind options very impressive.
Next test will be SWAM instruments and Equator 2, Cypher 2 & Strobe... those are good instruments, shame the Roli keyboards and pads aren't much under my fingers.

[SteveElbows]

I love mine very much indeed, everything I hoped and anticipated it would be, and a bit more.

Also from some chat I've been involved with elsewhere on the internet its become clear to me that some people dont know the order reference code is clickable on the expressive e website. And so some people whose Osmose has shipped are unaware that the shipping tracking number can be found there. So I'm going to post this info in case it helps someone not to have their Osmose arrive suddenly without warning: You have to go to 'order history and details' and then click on the order reference code, which will then show you a page which includes a 'carrier' section which will include the tracking number. The tracking number is also clickable.

Also FedEx can be a bit conservative with their estimated delivery dates, so best to keep a regular eye on the tracking to make sure yours doesnt go out for delivery earlier than originally stated.

[ThomasHelzle]

So today we tried some external things:

The Eagan Matrix editor is a Max device.
So it's superslow to start and you also need to go into specific settings on the Osmose to make it work. On Windows, you need to close all other Midi hosts, otherwise you can't connect. There is no multi-client-driver.
The automatic recognition didn't work here, it selected the wrong input and nothing for the output. One needs to select the second Midi in/output of the Osmose in both slots, they are for the Eagan Matrix communication.
You need to have updated the firmware already to use the editor.
It then wanted to upload a second firmware update file, which took close to 10 minutes. Hm.
And it is indeed not a very inviting or intuitive environment.
We decided to look into it another day...
(probably a week away from the world in a cottage in the woods with nothing else to do... )

We then tried out the Osmose as a controller - with very mixed results:

In MPE mode, Osmose sends the first half of the key down movement as channel pressure and the second half as timbre/CC74.

The winner was Vital.
We were able to modify some nice presets from Yuli Yolo to use with Osmose, usually pressure for volume/intensity, and timbre for giving the sound some bite or move the filter etc.
The downside of the Osmose layout is, that you can't have timbre independent of pressure, so it's always "serial", one after another. Works great for some sounds but limits what one can do quite a bit.
In Vital we had to assign pitchbend to each oscillator and make it biderectional, otherwise the per key left-right bend didn't work. Pressure and Timbre/Slide worked great right away (Bitwig, MPE mode in both BWS and Vital, Track Midi set to All/Same).

What we didn't get to work was the inter-key-pitch-slide. That doesn't seem to be sent via MPE/Multichannel...

Very strange was, that Bitwig itself didn't recognise the Timbre. A midi monitor showed it being there just fine, Vital saw it just fine, but the BWS MPE expression modulator didn't react.
Not sure what that is about, I expected all BWS devices to work perfectly with the Osmose...
We'll investigate further.

Some instruments where we thought it would be all roses were strange to play, like for instance Respiro in MPE mode.
The upper Pressure range somehow isn't so easy to play slow and nuanced since it's rather soft. One would probably have to construct one long CC from Pressure + Timbre, so the fingers have more range.
But I'll stick with my EWI USB for winds I think.
We didn't try the SWAM instruments yet, but it may be the same issue.

Another letdown were the expressivee arche cello, viola and violin. They have hardly any settings and are mainly made for the touche - with which they work pretty good. But with the Osmoses, binding the pressure to the bow wasn't feeling right somehow... Would be cool if they updated the instruments with an Osmose-mode.

We ended with playing some good factory sounds to get out of a bit of a frustrated mood. And yes, there are some really good ones.

But my initial enthusiasm has cooled quite a lot. It's way more specific than I expected.
So it will need a rather big amount of learning both for playing but especially for sound design - it's not easy to get those keys to play as natural as with the better factory presets.
We hope we'll grow into it though, it still is a piece of beauty and feels fantastic with the right sounds!
And I still want one too

Oh and BTW: My pedal problem is also solved:
One needs to go to the global settings and calibrate the pedal manually, otherwise it just does nothing.
Basically it's great that you CAN calibrate the pedal, but it doing absolutely nothing if you didn't was unexpected...
So all pedals work just fine now, it doesn't need any special expression pedal after all.

Cheers and a happy new year!

Tom