Osmose keyboard

[Nathanael_I]

My ETA is Feb. If you log into your Expressive-E account and look at your profile, they added it.  Very much looking forward now that the videos are coming out.

[GovernorSilver]

Same for me.

 

Whenever I start to tire of practicing ii-V-I chord voicings in 12 keys and stuff on keyboard I remind myself I'm doing it to enhance my Osmose experience.

[mate stubb]

May for me.

[David Emm]

I'm buying four, so I can stand in the middle of a circle of them and look like a right wanker. 

 

I get the feeling that as the Osmose becomes more common, we'll see a few players who could be favorably contrasted with Clara Rockmore, the Theremin virtuoso. Its bound to draw some great performances from those who are seriously illuminated by it from Day 1.

 

My main issue with a lot of electronic instruments has been the disconnect between the triggering action taken and the sound proper. That's been fairly constant with MPE controllers. With an Osmose, you're back in the world of serious playing, in that people won't wonder WHAT's happening for a minute, but they'll stare and wonder HOW. So, who d'ya think is gonna be the first Stevie Ray Vaughn of the Osmose?

[RABid]

Looking at the preorder on Sweetwater I am totally shocked at the price. Was expecting it to be twice that much.

[GovernorSilver]

I'd love to see a Kingfish Ingram of the Osmose. 

[uhoh7]

 

and....

 

As hardware controller:

 

[uhoh7]

Nice summary of "gestures". EE has dropped a bunch of vids in last 24 hours next to this one. 

 

 

[Lady Gaia]

4 hours ago, RABid said:

Looking at the preorder on Sweetwater I am totally shocked at the price. Was expecting it to be twice that much.

That's much where I was a little over three years ago when pre-ordering.  I was half convinced I'd order it even before I started reading about Eagan Matrix.  I initially expected it was just a controller!  I placed my preorder the instant I got home, about eight hours after orders went live, because at 40% off the current retail price it was an absolute steal.  The wait has been seemingly endless, but I am also slated for February delivery and could not be happier.

[GovernorSilver]

When the Osmose was announced in 2019, having the Eagan Matrix onboard was a selling point for me.  I'd tried another Eagan Matrix synth - the Haken Continuum - at Discovery World before so I knew what to expect sound-wise.

[uhoh7]

20 minutes ago, GovernorSilver said:

When the Osmose was announced in 2019, having the Eagan Matrix onboard was a selling point for me.  I'd tried another Eagan Matrix synth - the Haken Continuum - at Discovery World before so I knew what to expect sound-wise.

 

I've decided to forget trying to make my own sounds from scratch at first, because I don't want to devote the time needed to learn the interface...which in my case means practice time. Having watched the board in use now as we will get it, 500 presets each with unique options and characteristics. That's plenty. The first thing I'll learn after how to get those going is how to hook it up to control other stuff, hardware and software. 

 

The Eagan matrix is impressive and over time I do want to learn it. But the mechanical advancement of the keyboard and the increased complexity of expression it can send from fingers is the big news really. Those advancements will expose the Eagan Matrix as never before....if these guys can keep going. 

 

Somebody over at GS was nice enough to post this playlist for noobs like me to learn it: 

 

It's a very coherent presentation.

[GovernorSilver]

I don't anticipate spending much time, if any, on the Eagan Matrix editor.

 

All the presets I've heard so far sound usable to me as-is.  Reverb wet-dry can be quickly adjusted from the front panel, per Cuckoo's vid - that's one of the few things I think I may want to tweak.

[Lady Gaia]

I was very happy to see that you have control over more than just macro values from the Osmose front panel.  Being able to adjust effects, sensitivity curves, and the compressor makes it possible to do a lot of fine-tuning.  You just can't create anything from scratch or try your hand at fundamental alteration of existing sounds without the full editor.

 

I do intend to roll up my sleeves and dive into the editor at some point, and I've also reached out to both Expressive E and Edmund Eagan to see if there's any interest in supporting alternative editors.  I enjoy having programming projects on the side and the challenge of making Eagan Matrix more approachable would be an interesting one (if rather ambitious!)

[Mighty Motif Max]

I've wanted to be able to do finger vibrato on keys since I was a little kid. Being that it looks like you can translate that over midi as a controller as well, that about seals the deal. But I don't see much point in jumping in on the pre-order at this time, seeing as there isn't a discount from the retail price anymore and I can definitely wait.

[uhoh7]

On 1/6/2023 at 3:21 PM, GovernorSilver said:

Same for me.

 

Whenever I start to tire of practicing ii-V-I chord voicings in 12 keys and stuff on keyboard I remind myself I'm doing it to enhance my Osmose experience.

 

It's interesting the ii-V-I is the old cadence which weathered the "music theory" storms of the 19th century and is now considered so fundamental. But it was one of many, and since 2007 much has been learned about the others. 

 

You might like this:

 

And he has an invaluable free "Compendium" which is pretty cool.

https://derekremes.com/wp-content/uploads/compendium_english.pdf

 

On the full interviews playlist of that channel you'll find many long interviews with those leading the revival of historically informed improvisation...not to replace Jazz or Popular techniques, but to show how those virtuosos back in the day learned and played. Improvisation was fundamental. 

 

What was the equivalent of learning the ii-V-I voicings in 1800? EVERYONE learned the "Rule of the Octave", a silly name for a fundamental series of chords over each scale tone. In Remes Compendium you see it broken down. 

 

I can now play it in 24 keys, but not very fast LOL The minors are a bit tricky. 

 

The name "Rule of the Octave" was coined long after the progression developed. It was shared, master to master to pupils, across Europe and the New World. It's actually reference of ways to change keys and/or figure out which key you are in! Half the chords are very familiar. The other half are not, which makes it interesting. The figured-bass terminology is pretty simple once you get used to it. 

 

What passes for Music Theory today really nobody used before late 1900s except to sell books. Learning how Bach thought about chords is pretty interesting. You get a very good idea in the interview above. 

 

 

[GovernorSilver]

7 hours ago, uhoh7 said:

 

It's interesting the ii-V-I is the old cadence which weathered the "music theory" storms of the 19th century and is now considered so fundamental.

 

😆

 

Some of us soon to be Osmose owners are not keyboard players at the professional level, or anywhere close to that.

 

This exercise that I mentioned that go you all excited,  is just one example of the work that we non-pro level players have to do, so that we may effectively employ keyboard instruments, including Osmose, in our music-making... while wasting less time hunting for the notes that our ears want, but our fingers can't find... due to lack of practice....

 

So I'm in the "shore up fundamentals" world.   Not in the same world you're in at all.  😁

[David Emm]

2 hours ago, GovernorSilver said:

Some of us soon to be Osmose owners are not keyboard players at the professional level, or anywhere close to that.

 

These exercise that I mentioned that go you all excited,  is just one example of the work that we have to do, so that we may effectively employ keyboard instruments, including Osmose, in our music-making... while wasting less time hunting for the notes that our ears want, but our fingers can't find... due to lack of practice....

 

So I'm in the "shore up fundamentals" world.   Not in the same world you're in at all.  😁

 

This isn't just a call to a new way of playing. Its a call to listen in a new way as well. My ears have been on the synth bandwagon for several decades and I'm still having to think Osmose's way to follow all of the active parameters.

 

The first time I played a Seaboard, I quickly turned off the side-to-side sensing. That's for people in the very advanced class. After that, the rest came easier. Please pardon me as I re-train my ears.      

[GovernorSilver]

4 hours ago, David Emm said:

 

This isn't just a call to a new way of playing. Its a call to listen in a new way as well. My ears have been on the synth bandwagon for several decades and I'm still having to think Osmose's way to follow all of the active parameters.

 

The first time I played a Seaboard, I quickly turned off the side-to-side sensing. That's for people in the very advanced class. After that, the rest came easier. Please pardon me as I re-train my ears.      

 

I'm still working on my playing with a regular keyboard, personally, but I did notice some of the Youtubers demonstrated less than ideal intonation in their pitch bends.   Definitely fixable the same way pedal steel players, guitarists, fiddlers, etc. learned how to do their pitch bends, glissandos, etc. with good intonation - lots of listening and imitation.

 

I was on a guitar forum which occasionally had jam threads.   Somebody would post a backing track for "Cissy Strut", "Kid Charlemagne", "Donna Lee", "Crosscut Saw" or whatever and invite other people to submit video/audio clips of themselves jamming to the tune.    Guess what the most common criticisms were?  It wasn't "your solo is boring" or "you're not being virtuosic enough".  No, the #1 criticism was "your time was off".  #2 was "when you bend notes/vibrato your intonation is off".

 

[mate stubb]

It feels like we are seeing the vanguard of a new movement. Imagine how skilled someone like Cuckoo will be a year from now.

[David R]

In watching J3PO’s video, the most intriguing use for the music I make would be to possibly achieve those multi-layered Tonto/ARP orchestrations in Stevie Wonder’s music (“They Won’t Go When I Go”) live. This wasn’t on my GAS list before but now it is.

[bjosko]

New and exciting.
I need to hear back from “real” peoples experience before I jump on that wagon again.

My expectations compared to my experiences from a seasick Seaboard prevent me from building up GAS so far.

Besides that, what I have heard so far is typical film music and classical compositions. 

[uhoh7]

another nice demo: the crashing issue turned out to be a loose power supply, see comments.

 

[Lady Gaia]

Nice.  It's great to hear Tim's unvarnished impressions.  I'll be very curious whether others chime in with similar crashing issues or if it's something that went uniquely wrong with his firmware update.  The expressiveness and sound of the instrument continue to impress.

 

The one thing he did seem to misrepresent is the idea that "pressure glide" always gives you a note halfway between the two that are being held.  This isn't the case, as was made clearer when the feature was originally introduced as "pressure weighted portamento."  You'll get a note halfway between keys within the specified range only so long as the pressure applied to both keys is the same, otherwise it's a weighted average that can be used to glide back and forth over the entire range between the two.  The thing he never tried in the demo was holding a note then pressing a nearby note within the specified range, where the speed at which you depress it allows you to slowly control the glide, and then releasing the original key which is what completes the glide to the target note, again at a rate determined by how fast you let off the original key.

[GovernorSilver]

Posted on another forum by a non-influencer

 

"Osmose is almost as large as my Kronos 61"

 

 

[GovernorSilver]

Oh and regarding the Tim Shoebridge video,  one reaction post on the other forum.

 

Quote

Osmose has a locking power barrel connector that isn’t that obvious until you read the quick start guide. It is very loose and will cause dropouts unless you lock it as designed and then it is very secure.

 

[pjd]

I like the video by Tim Shoebridge; it should be essential viewing before one shells out $1800USB (or whatever).

 

Red flags to me are beta-quality software, connection issues, robustness of the keybed. Nice observations all around. I would really like to use Osmose at a gig, not a studio queen.

 

It also sounds like the Osmose and its software will be a bit of a closed system (i.e., not a GP MPE controller). I tried playing SWAM Flute on KMI QuNexus and quickly discovered that one cannot just plug-and-play. If parameters/senstivies aren't carefully dialed in, the controller+synth combo is unplayable.  ROLI's Equator (presets) are fine-tuned for Seaboard and same will be true for Osmose. 

 

-- pj

 

http://sandsoftwaresound.net/review-kmi-qunexus/

 

[GovernorSilver]

8 minutes ago, pjd said:

I like the video by Tim Shoebridge; it should be essential viewing before one shells out $1800USB (or whatever).

 

Red flags to me are beta-quality software, connection issues, robustness of the keybed. Nice observations all around. I would really like to use Osmose at a gig, not a studio queen.

 

http://sandsoftwaresound.net/review-kmi-qunexus/

 

 

As noted above, he did not notice there is a locking power barrel connector, let alone lock the thing so that power doesn't cut out on him.   Perhaps he was in a rush to make his video.

[pjd]

10 minutes ago, GovernorSilver said:

 

As noted above, he did not notice there is a locking power barrel connector, let alone lock the thing so that power doesn't cut out on him.   Perhaps he was in a rush to make his video.

 

Yep, I did catch that. By "connection issues," I meant "software editor to firmware" connection issues. Tim did seem concerned about that, given that it's early days.

 

[GovernorSilver]

1 hour ago, pjd said:

 

Yep, I did catch that. By "connection issues," I meant "software editor to firmware" connection issues. Tim did seem concerned about that, given that it's early days.

 

 

Do you plan to run the software editor onstage, along with the Osmose?  😉

 

On a more serious note, I have heard that the Eagan Matrix editor, which is also the Osmose editor, is not user friendly and that complaint has being ongoing from Continuum users for years.  

 

That may however be a separate issue from the hardware to editor issue.  I have also heard the onboard display can lag, from multiple users who are not Influencers.

 

Time will tell how responsive Expressive E is with regard to addressing these issues via communication, firmware updates, etc.

 

There are risks involved in investing in any first-generation product, including this one.  There could be manufacturing defects, software defects, etc.  I was aware of the risks when I put in my preorder in 2019.   This is not like the Roland Fantom which has gone through so many iterations of design, manufacture, reports from the field, re-design, changes to manufacture, etc.

 

[pjd]

4 hours ago, GovernorSilver said:

 

Do you plan to run the software editor onstage, along with the Osmose?  😉

 

There are risks involved in investing in any first-generation product, including this one.  There could be manufacturing defects, software defects, etc.  I was aware of the risks when I put in my preorder in 2019.  

 

Can't wait for a drunk to spill beer into one... 😄 Thank goodness I don't play bars anymore.

 

Totally agree with all points. The more I delve into MPE products, the more I realize the "boutique" nature of this market segment.

 

I had a friend -- a successful software guy -- start a business that ventured into hardware. He was honest enough to admit how naive he was and how many different ways a hardware product can sink a business. A team can build a working prototype, but its the "mundane" stuff like supply chain, inventory, manufacturing, QA, warranty, returns, service/repair that can kill you.

 

Hey, hey, I certainly wish you and early adopters the best.

 

-- pj