How many of you are getting the Osmose?

[revvy]

Sideways wiggle isn’t widespread, of course, but it’s not original to Osmose.

[ThomasHelzle]

Am I wrong in the fact that the Osmose is only adding one actual thing to a traditional keyboard? Side to side wiggle? It would seem like everything else it does could be done via software on a keyboard with polyphonic aftertouch.

Yes you are, if you leave out how it's actually working and how it feels.

I don't think there ever was a keyboard with that much range in the pressure department. It starts with the slightest touch (much more sensitive to initial pressure than my seaboard block) and then you first have the easy half of the range that you can control very subtly.
That is one zone.
After that, there is a second zone, that needs more pressure with just as much range and it can control different things.
And human fingers need resistance for fine control.

So sure, as long as you never touched one you can dismiss it outright as just another keyboard with aftertouch, but like Steve said, I think you miss something in the process.

In my view, it's not about "supporting MPE". MPE as such is a rather limited standard that is very technical with it's X, Y, Z axes. Why only have three, why are most controllers so shallow in Y, why is moving in other directions not recognised...
For instance the Launchpad Pro MK3 has poly aftertouch, but it's pressure range is so limited and shallow, you can't really do much with it.

A piano has a single axis of control and no means to do anything to the tone after it's initiated other than stop it. It's still rather highly regarded for expressive playing.
Most acoustic instruments aren't "fully MPE compatible", but each in it's own right has more expression than any fully MPE compatible controller (although I personally would put the Osmose as the closest so far). Simply because they have more subtle nuances in tone on one hand but also are more adapted to the human body.

To me, the seaboard for instance is nice in theory, but in practice my fingers hated the sticky surface until I removed it and replaced it with something else. I just did not WANT to touch it. Now I like it much more (Neoprene with a cloth surface), but it still doesn't feel really right.
The Haaken Continuum has the same surface and is much more sensitive, but I still wouldn't call it the end to all musical controllers, simply because it isn't really adapted to the human body with it's surface that doesn't give your hands any clues.

And for me personally, my EWI USB is the most sensitive controller I have, not because it's MPE - it sure isn't, can only play one note at a time, has no aftertouch at all - but because there is something magic about controlling things with your breath. Because we are human and our breath is not just air coming out of a hole. It is deeply connected to our being, our soul.
The first thing an infant does when it enters the world is breathe - it never did it before!
And your last breath is on the other end.
But a real wind instrument has so much more expression...

The same with hands. They are not just some mechanical things with five levers to actuate something.
The keys of the Osmose are amazing to touch, even if you don't play anything.
You want to touch it.
It's not the 5 millionth cheap plastic controller that the industry spits out every year.
It's not Robert Lambs wet dream of some slimy rubber stuff.
Somebody really thought a lot about what "touch" actually means, how humans actually feel and what fingers actually want to do.

So yeah, if you leave all that out, you are right, it's just double aftertouch.

It's like our neighbours daughter talking about kissing in a movie when she was 10 or 11 - she found the idea pretty disgusting. Now she's a couple of years older and seems to have seen the light

Cheers,

Tom

[SLiC]

I agree with above, plus he touch response and sensitivity seems to be so fast and light its like playing an acoustic instrument (edit- that was my thought but I have just found a bit on the EM site that seems to reinforce this *!). For me 'double AT' is a better way of playing than sliding up and down on keys as my starting position on a key varies with chord shape and I often get a bit of unwanted AT when I am pressing to slide, but its obviously personal preference. Feeling the 'weight' and depth of a physical key movement is enough for me to want to play the Osmose over all others.

I wonder what the scan rate/latency is as a hardware MPE instrument?

*''In the EaganMatrix, this data is continuously analyzed, optimized, and transferred at a sub-millisecond rate to intimately control low-level synthesis parameters. The intricate design of the EaganMatrix allows for an “organic" connection between the player and the instrument that is reminiscent of a player’s interaction with an acoustic instrument.''

[SLiC]

New Firmware out- still says 1 on the web site, but if you download its new.

## IMPORTANT NOTE
**This firmware is only meant for customers who have just received a new Osmose from the warehouse and never performed an update on it before. If you already updated your Osmose once then we strongly advise you to skip this version of the firmware, unless our technical support instructed you to install it.

With the OsmoseUpdater 1.1.4 and below, an update might result in the loss of all user presets. We are currently working on a fix for this issue that will be integrated into the next version of OsmoseUpdater.**

## Osmose Firmware v1.0.3 12/01/2023

### GUI
- Improved: display of instructions during dsp update in order to avoid impression of a stuck process.
### Keys calibration
- Improved: calibration initialization
- Fixed: erratic behavior that occurs sometimes when keys are pressed very lightly and bent to one side
### Other fixes
- Fixed: Wrong behavior when activating freeze in playing menu with no playing option selected
- Fixed: Popups not appearing when Osmose was turned on for a longer time

## OsmoseUpdater v1.1.4 12/01/2023

### GUI
- Improved: better instructions during update to avoid confusion during the update process
### Compatibility
- Fixed: osmose connectivity issue due to MIDI outputs name changing depending of language
### Other fixes
- Improved: information saved in log files

[pdxindy]

Sideways wiggle isn’t widespread, of course, but it’s not original to Osmose.

Every keyboard player does it... even when it has no affect!

[SLiC]

Sideways wiggle isn’t widespread, of course, but it’s not original to Osmose.

Every keyboard player does it... even when it has no affect!

I thought it was just us guitarists when we play keys

[pdxindy]

Sideways wiggle isn’t widespread, of course, but it’s not original to Osmose.

Every keyboard player does it... even when it has no affect!

I thought it was just us guitarists when we play keys

Nope

This is a case where the guitarists and keyboard players are in the same boat!

[vurt]

that's because all keyboard players wish they were guitarists.

[ThomasHelzle]

Hahahaha

I always found one of the worst things in synths the sine-wave-vibrato. That is the most unnatural thing ever to my ears.
So I would say to dismiss the most intuitive and natural way to get a meaningful and alive vibrato as "just a wiggle" is missing the point.

Again, if you look how nuanced a cello player uses his vibrato or even more so a singer, it can make or break a performance. And if that is more easy and natural to do on a keyboard finally, it's huge to me personally.

But of course it depends on what music means to each individual.
For me it's all about subtleties.

So yeah, I really look forward to what people will do with the Osmose.
It's not the one controller to end all controllers, but I'd still say that it's the biggest milestone in expressive controllers in many years.

Cheers,

Tom

[ThomasHelzle]

*''In the EaganMatrix, this data is continuously analyzed, optimized, and transferred at a sub-millisecond rate to intimately control low-level synthesis parameters. The intricate design of the EaganMatrix allows for an “organic" connection between the player and the instrument that is reminiscent of a player’s interaction with an acoustic instrument.''

Yeah, another good point. Midi just isn't there yet for real human feel.
128 levels and slow scanrates are "good enough" to get the basics conveyed, but that doesn't make it good.
Of course it doesn't bother people who quantise everything anyway, but if you are after feel, it's crucial.

Are there any serious Midi 2.0 devices out yet?

Cheers,

Tom

[SteveElbows]

No, and although an initial MIDI 2.0 spec was released some time ago the MIDI 2.0 spec is still being messed with behind closed doors.

MPE+ in the Osmose uses additional CC87 messages to enable the other messages to be interpreted at 14 bit resolution.

I still think there is plenty of mileage in the normal MPE that is also available from Osmose though, 127 numbers still allows more expression than some people tend to estimate. When I get more time to make Osmose-specific patches on other MPE synths I hope to be able to demonstrate this.

[Funky40]

heya,
i could need some advice and created a own thread for it.
I need to know which DAW to use for creating MPE compatible patches,
to be played by the Osmose. ( i have new several DAWs at disposal)

in case you´d have some advice, please look and respond here
viewtopic.php?p=8596798#p8596798

[revvy]

Sideways wiggle isn’t widespread, of course, but it’s not original to Osmose.

Every keyboard player does it... even when it has no affect!

I thought it was just us guitarists when we play keys

Nope

This is a case where the guitarists and keyboard players are in the same boat!

[ThomasHelzle]

After the initial high, then a low, we yesterday found back on track.
We basically played one sound: "Balloon from Hanoi" for several hours. It is so rich and deep and perfectly integrated with the Osmose, it's magic. You can play it in a lot of different ways and there are so many nuances in it, that one sound is it's own complete instrument.

So I'd renew my initial statement that with the right sound, there is hardly anything as expressive as the Osmose that integrates as well with the tactile sensation and gives the feel of REALLY playing an instrument, not just triggering sounds.

As for MPE:
MIDI 1.0 served us well enough, but I would definitely say that there is something in higher resolution both in the values as well as in timing that brings you closer together with what you are doing. It's like high resolution music has subtly more depth and space than the "good enough" mp3, an HDRI image has more to offer than an 8 bit JPG, a retina screen somehow feels different than a full HD one, even if it relates the same stuff. I'm working in 3D and the new OCIO / ACES colour spaces allow one to do so much better work and images than the old Gamma 2.2...

IMO, technology was on the "good enough" level for a long time, my AMIGA 500 was amazing at the time with it's integrated 8bit sound and up to 4096 colours, the first desktop videos at 320x240 on windows, CompuServe. All good and well as steps.
But now the technology is there to create things that are REALLY good, smooth, high resolution and closer to our senses abilities, so I wouldn't want to cling to the old stuff just because it worked "well enough" for so long.
Just let's move on.

IMO we also lost a ton of good things because of this primitive technology, especially in music.
Instead of subtlety and nuance, we often get a blunt beat deadening everything and quantising every last bit of feeling out of things.
The music a drum machine, an MPC or a 303 can make is interesting in a way, like a 320x240 pixel video, but it definitely isn't human.

The Osmose is the first electronic instrument that gives me back that feeling of depths to explore, of range and unfathomed possibilities.

A game changer as Urs wrote indeed.

Cheers,

Tom

[SteveElbows]

Yeah Im not clinging to old MIDI and resisting the new, I'm just reflecting the current realities - there isnt any MIDI 2.0 ecosystem for me to use yet, and Expressive e havent committed to it at this stage either.

And my comments about MPE in contrast to MPE+ only stem from the fact that there are a whole bunch of MPE synths I can control from the Osmose, and no MPE+ ones from other people for me to try. So I have to try to look on the bright side of what can still be achieved with lower resolution MIDI messages at this stage of the game. I love the internal engine ont he Osmose but I want to use the Osmose to control other synths too, so I have no choice but to make use of traditional MIDI and normal MPE for that at this stage.