Osmose keyboard

[GovernorSilver]

Somebody on the Elektronauts forum received his Osmose.  His initial impressions have been positive.  He also installed the firmware, but did not respond to a question about why he did it - that is, did he do it because the Osmose did not have firmware installed at all?

 

From one of his posts:

 

Quote

 

it’s cool that you have this empty space in front of the keys : you can rest your wrest on it and use it as a lever. This way you’re more precise in bends.

I expected this, but black keys call more bends than white keys. White keys are less safe to bend. (maybe if they had been slightly excavated ?)

Globally, the presets sound awesome.

The pitch bend stick is a nice surprise. I like it very much.

Don’t know if it’s dependent to the way the sounds are programmed, but the PB (via the ‘cursor’ on the left) value is ‘sample and held’ for each note, so with a long release, you can play the pitch bend ‘polyphonically’, and it’s awesome.

Sometimes, things seem to happen a bit out of control, like loud spikes (usually because of release velocity of super light touch on adjacent notes ?). But I think it’s a matter of carefully crafting the presets, and of course, learn how to play them properly.

I didn’t try yet, but I really hope making your own presets is not too much complicated (I personally dislike using presets that I didn’t create)

It feels like a good preset can keep you busy for years. It’s gonna be a matter of discipline to keep focus.

 

 

[GovernorSilver]

Given the involvement of Haken Audio in the development of the Osmose, I wouldn't be surprised if this Peter Pringle Keyboard Extension was an ancestor of the Osmose

 

 

Screenshot of the MIDI channel selection screen from Osmose, from one of the lucky early recipients

 

[GovernorSilver]

Livestream just started by another new owner.  French speaker but at least you can see and hear some playing

 

 

[jazzpiano88]

On 12/27/2022 at 3:17 PM, GovernorSilver said:

Quoted a user:  "Sometimes, things seem to happen a bit out of control, like loud spikes (usually because of release velocity of super light touch on adjacent notes ?). But I think it’s a matter of carefully crafting the presets, and of course, learn how to play them properly."

 

This is what stood out to me.  Wonder if they are having robustness issues -- have they brought this issue up as a source of difficulty?

[GovernorSilver]

24 minutes ago, JazzPiano88 said:

 

This is what stood out to me.  Wonder if they are having robustness issues -- have they brought this issue up as a source of difficulty?

 

he left out a lot of details - like what kind of gain staging did he have set up between the Osmose and his speakers - and he doesn't answer all the questions thrown his way. 

 

We have to wait until another user reports a similar problem, hopefully in greater detail.

 

My Korg M3 is loud AF compared to my other synths.  I usually keep the master volume very low on that bad boy.  This is even with the M3 plugged into the regular line-ins of my Mackie mixer - so, no preamps.   But I haven't seen any reports of Osmose having hot output like the M3.

 

I did get an email from Expressive E advising to update the firmware upon receipt of the Osmose.

[GovernorSilver]

 

[GovernorSilver]

Nice variety of sounds in this one

 

 

[Mighty Motif Max]

Jordan Rudess just got one it looks like. "KEYBOARD INNOVATION ALERT. Osmose by @expressive is a game changer. This instrument is a perfect blend of engineering and musicality. It’s a dream come true for me. This brings the expressive possibilities of the keyboard to the next level."

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cmx7x0Ps5At/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

Here's another one he posted yesterday.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CmvE8H6N54G/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

This is in the category of "very interesting" right now - as is anything that tries to get more expression out of the traditional piano-style keybed. Here's hoping for longevity and great build quality - I'd love to see some of these features carry into other keyboards over time.

 

Edit: that DX/analog pad sound at 2:10 in the video in the post before this is really nice!

[Zalman Stern]

Kudos to Expressive E for building something really cool and getting the first instruments in the hands of the right folks to show it off properly.

 

-Z-

[Lady Gaia]

Jordan Rudess had a video on Facebook a few days back in which he repeatedly talked about how the Osmose would be launched on January 5th.  The video suddenly disappeared within 24 hours, suggesting that he may have confused a January 5th embargo for influencers provided with units as part of a promotional campaign with something else.  Another YouTube personality make cryptic remarks about the same date, so I suspect what we're seeing now are legitimate owners receiving the very first pre-orders, with a raft of reviews/previews due from the usual suspects on January 5th.

 

Just speculation based on available evidence, but I suspect we'll hear a whole lot more soon.  The Osmose web site is also being reworked, so it's reasonable to assume that it'll launch in time to catch the wave of influencer content driving traffic to the site, perhaps alongside opening orders for the first time since the two waves of pre-orders back in 2019.  Those of us with pre-orders would told that they should all be fulfilled by the end of Q1 2023, so it's not unreasonable to think that order for delivery in April and beyond would start before much longer.

[David Emm]

I'm not a candidate for an Osmose due to overly creaky hands (sigh), but I agree in hoping that the approach will become a standard some day. C'mon, this is as close to playing a violin as a keyboardist can get. The field will keep growing, sure, but I'm too dazzled to nitpick and so are most of you. Its electrifying. The demos are making me feel weak in the knees.

 

Some may desire a longer "keyboard," but I think the right choice was made. Side note: I jacked up the poly AT on my 3-octave XKey so as to fully milk what the GX-80 will do. Its Cherry Audio's Yamaha GX-1 melded with a CS-80. Wow, did I not expect to have it breathe so well, but I was able to lean into it and feel the Vangelis.

[GovernorSilver]

I think there are 2 possible reasons the customers that got their Osmose units before me, got theirs first.

 

One is they are shipping out of two warehouses - one in Europe and one the US.  The European one started shipping first, for whatever reasons.  So just about all the new owners are in Europe.

 

The other is customers who got their Osmoses ahead of me simply placed their preorders before I did.

 

It's interesting this first batch of new owners is a mix of a handful of Youtuber and more lower profile people, as in people who don't do social media outside of music/gear forums.  Quite a few new owners from that 2nd group who I guess are just too busy unboxing and jamming to record videos to show off on Tiktok/Insta/YT and those platforms are not contributing income stream(s) or play any role in personal branding for them.   😎 

[Lady Gaia]

6 hours ago, GovernorSilver said:

One is they are shipping out of two warehouses - one in Europe and one the US.  The European one started shipping first, for whatever reasons.  So just about all the new owners are in Europe.

That's the reason.  Logistically, it simply doesn't make any sense to ship less than a full container from the factory - and the first container went to Europe.  The second container will take a little more than a month to fill, and then customers in North America will get the same payment / shipping experience, likely around early February.  So we have a bit of a wait ahead of us, but it sounds like it'll be well worth it!

[Ed A.]

I'll buy one when they're available to the general public. I didn't get in on the discounted early order back a few years ago.

[GovernorSilver]

Another first impressions post, again by someone other than myself

Quote

 

First impressions:

its a beautiful, welllbuilt instrument, bigger than I expected (especially wider and higher). 

 

the keybed is very sturdy, and a bit more resistance/heavy when pressing the keys than i expected

 

I don’t know if its just me: but the output volume seems relatively low compared to my other synths

 

The menu when scrolliing through it is sometimes a bit laggy, and I don’t really like the feel of the 4 continuous rotary knobs below the screen, sometimes I select something and due to the lag it move 2 steps instead of one. Do you guys recognize this? (the 2 stepped rotary knobs on the left side of the screen feel better).

 

I’m going to need more time to get used to the instrument. At first glance it seems that there are almost too many presets, only a minority gave the ‘blow me away’ feel, most of them were meh. But this might be the first impression and should spend more time with it first.

 

Its a bit higher (the keybed) than I expected, I planned to put it on my desk (which I did yesterday), but the ergonomics of this are not ideal, probably better if I put it on a (lower) keyboard stand.

 

 

[Zalman Stern]

Per there being too many presents, I can imagine one wants a preset system where one selects one or more sounds and then separately selects a way of modulating the sound or between the sounds using the expression mechanisms. In general, more good innovation in the user experience for rich keyboards is needed.

 

-Z-

 

[GovernorSilver]

I'm glad I didn't get too many Christmas presents.  They would have presented me with extra chores, in the sense of donating the unwanted ones.

 

That person's complaint about too many presets that do not excite him is not unique to the Osmose, imo.   He probably spent more time scrolling through presets than playing, and just got burned out.  I plan to explore just one group of presets at a time, each day, when I receive my Osmose.  

 

I am hardly a genius at sound design/preset programming, so my usual approach is to make a spreadsheet of any factory presets I like, make copies of the chosen presets, then play with the copies.   

[Zalman Stern]

Yes, preset overload is a thing, but I was thinking maybe some of the presets are there to just demonstrate different ways to map the expression features. Modulation is hardly a new thing in synths, but the Osmose should take it to a new level.

 

I also find a fair number of digital synths make it harder than it ought to be to get a good clean slate starting point for designing one's own sounds.

 

-Z-

 

[GovernorSilver]

I wonder how many new owners watched this yet, or are putting it off like I've been?  Some have complained about no Y-position sensing like on Contiuum - all i can say if my hat's off to anyone who has conscious control or where to place each and every finger on the vertical axis, on each and every key being played.

 

 

 

[mate stubb]

So far, none of the new owner vids I've seen show an ability to give a good demo.

[David Emm]

1 hour ago, mate stubb said:

So far, none of the new owner vids I've seen show an ability to give a good demo.

 

 Well, maybe. Eric Mouquet of Deep Forest has left the best mark on it so far, in my view. Its hard not to Get It once you hear him. I'm looking at it this way: remember that pre-teen growth spurt where suddenly, you felt a foot taller, staggering around like Frankenstein's monster, trying to find your footing? I think the Osmose is so new, its feeling like that to many of the first-liners. Its still alien territory.

 

Also, its not just an Osmose, its an EaganMatrix synthesizer. Cracking its basics won't come in just a week or two. I'm going to watch the units roll in domestically and in perhaps 6-9 months, we'll begin hearing the next level of playing.

[mate stubb]

I haven't watched the Deep Forest ones yet. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Nathanael_I]

I think its just that it is a new instrument and it will take a minute to feel comfortable on it.  We are all excited because it is "piano like keys" and not a rubber surface like a Seaboard.  It promises some finger connection that we already have.  But none of us have played its version of continuous aftertouch - there will be some adaptation.  I think what I'm interested in, I'll know quickly - "Is it worth putting time into learning deeply?".  For me this will be how controllable the expression is.  The Seaboard had real limits and it was not worth the complete retraining in my opinion, despite being more expressive than a standard action.  The cons outweighed the pros for me.  I am hopeful on this one, but expecting a curve to really make it sing.

 

@David Emmis also right about the Eagen Matrix I think.  At one level, its just another synth.  But one designed by an actual genius to meet his needs on the most expressive MPE instrument created to date: the Haken Continuum.  Good playable expressive timbres are not common.  I am not surprised that the presets are not full of them.  Its hard to make them.  All the ones we like took dozens or hundreds of years to coalesce (piano, violin, guitars, etc).  If there's a handful of truly excellent playable sounds in there its enough to get started.  Think how many records had stock DX-7 patches on them...  It's all solvable, but the world is filled with many more amateurs with money than working professionals who need this in their rig to earn a living. 

[Lady Gaia]

All of the videos we've seen to date are just enthusiasts who were among the first to receive pre-orders.  In many cases they'd had the instrument for a few hours or a couple of days at most, so it's not surprising that these aren't polished demos.

 

The established influencers who were chosen to receive units for more professional video productions were apparently given an embargo date of January 5th.  So tomorrow we should see quite a few more informative, carefully produced and edited videos.  They will likely still be more geared toward first impressions than full reviews but they will still help answer questions and put a more professional spin on things.  Who knows?  Some may have had the instrument even longer as part of the first palette delivered to Expressive E and be ready with more in-depth content than I'm expecting.

[GovernorSilver]

La Voix du Luthier has been making acoustic resonator/amps for the Haken Continuum crowd for a while now.  This will be their most affordable model yet:

 

https://www.la-voix-du-luthier.com/produit/voile/

[GovernorSilver]

Just started streaming live

 

 

[GovernorSilver]

Osmose in a band context.  J3PO delivers as usual

 

 

[mate stubb]

Just got an email saying preorders for Osmose have reopened - limited quantity available.

[David Emm]

7 hours ago, GovernorSilver said:

Just started streaming live

 

 

 

You beat me to it. If this doesn't convince you, get thee to a nunnery. MPE has mainly been a curiousity for me, but I'm getting a very sober tingle here, born of many years devoted to traditional keyboard synthing. Osmose could easily become a verb denoting the pinnacle of keyboard expressiveness, as in "That sounds too stiff, I'm gonna Osmose it." Whew!   

 

[uhoh7]

Pretty  nice demo:

 

My eta is Feb.....I bought a WX5 and VL-70m turbo to hold me over after somebody put this up in the Osmose thread on GS:

 

start at 8:05

 

How do I feel after years of Osmose anticipation?

 

 

Our last serious keyboard upgrade was in 1705 with the forte action. It's a pretty blunt axe, but the polyphony has made up for dismal single note expression. Asuming electricity remains available...Osmose and the boards it inspires are going to change the conception of keyboards going forward, every bit as much as the forte action...or black keys did in their day. Listen close....maybe you agree. It won't kill the piano...afterall, the harpsichord has a serious comeback at the moment, but it's a new species with new powers of exponential order, I believe. Who knows, maybe we'll get something acoustic informed by the Osmose. That would be nice.

 

Maybe somebody in Recanati is paying attention....