Expressive E Osmose

Hace mucho que no me compraba un sintetizador del tipo que fuere. La razón es muy sencilla y se debe a los refritos de unos y otros por sacar productos nuevos sin nada nuevo que ofrecer. Todo esto cambió cuando vi por primera vez la tecnología MPE. Los instrumentos electrónicos se iban a poder tocar como instrumentos acústicos, con leves desafinaciones en cada nota, variaciones en la envolvente, filtro, etc., en función de cómo se tocasen las teclas, como ocurre con una guitarra o una trompeta.

Pronto vi teclados MPE en el mercado, pero todos ellos pecaban de lo mismo: No eran teclas como las de un piano, un acordeón o un órgano, sino almohadillas, superficies táctiles en una pantalla… nada que me convenciese, hasta que apareció Expressive E Osmose, con tecnología MPE+ y teclado de aspecto tradicional. ¡Quiero algo así!, jajajaja.

Aunque sólo fuese por el modo controlador MPE, lo hubiese comprado. Mi sorpresa es que no sólo es un controlador, sino que lleva un estupendo sintetizador interno basado en DSP, el EaganMatrix de Haken, integrado al 100% con el teclado, con más de 500 ajustes cuidadosamente programados (me encantan los acústicos y los analógicos). Un simple sonido analógico con filtro, cambia completamente al tocarlo en Expressive E Osmose.

Expressive E Osmose necesita pulirse, como todo producto nuevo. Tiene carencias, como la ausencia de algo tan sencillo de programar e implementar como el “transpose” o algún tipo de grabador sencillo midi para guardar algunas ideas sin necesidad de conectarlo al PC. Carece de un editor dedicado y tendremos que recurrir a Haken Editor EaganMatrix, que aunque es muy potente, ni está pensado para músicos, ni su comunicación es bidireccional, ni es agradable a la vista, parece sacado de la época de Windows 95 (sí, la música también se mira y por ello todos queremos instrumentos hard o soft bonitos visualmente).

Tiene un error grave desde mi punto de vista (me dicen que lo arreglarán con la versión 2.0 del firmware) y es la incapacidad de grabar eventos MIDI complejos como acordes de varias notas pulsando hasta el final las teclas de forma repetida y rápida, así empezará la latencia.

Lo bueno es que dichas mejoras y correcciones de errores son todas subsanables con actualizaciones de su firmware (ojalá lo lean los de Expressive E, jajaja).

Finalizaré diciendo que estoy muy contento con Expressive E Osmose y lo volvería a comprar siempre, porque es un instrumento revolucionario con teclado tradicional. Estoy esperando ansiosamente el firmware 2.0, 3.0, 4.0… y que no paren de mejorarlo, con nuevas características para nosotros, los usuarios finales.

Love this keyboard!
It’ has a completely different action to the normal keyboard feel. But once you get used to it it’s extremely expressive.
The keys throw you at first because although it has a traditional look it’s not really a normal keyboard experience .
I love the overall sound. It’s organic but not brittle. Capable of sounding analog or real instruments but more interesting is somewhere in between.
The screen is extremely easy to navigate without a manual. The Macros give control over important elements in the sound.
Really well built with tight pots and keyboard action doesn’t feel it’s going to break anytime soon.
There is one thing to be taken into account at the moment.
I knew the software would be difficult to use but was shocked to find out there isn’t proper bidirectional communication between Osmose and editor.
When you change something in the editor it doesn’t update screen on Osmose.
When you turn Macros on Osmose they don’t turn in editor. This a major flaw at the moment. I’ve heard they’re aware of it but sync between editor and Osmose is an important feature.
Similar to the Nord Modular’s and every other editor I’ve used for 30 years.
But even with this problem I’d still highly recommend it.
Thomann as usual were extremely efficient and quick in shipping.
Number one selling synthesiser on Thomann!
Who would have thought.

My headline is taken from the product's description below, and indeed this is a synthesizer that offers a new way to play.!And, I think that the expressive technology is brilliant. Adjusting sounds with one key at a time is an immediate replacement for sound design and any menu diving. If that appeals to you, then this may be the perfect (addition) to your synthesizer collection... And, here's why I would put addition in exclamation points...

I own an excellent desktop keyless synth from Hydrasynth, and I have tirelessly been looking for a standalone keyboard synthesizer for my new home studio. Osmosis is immediate! Meaning that many beautiful sounds can be discovered by simply selecting one of the over 500 presets. An onboard Synthesizer menu adds options to do various tweaks which I found were quite affective. What I kept coming back to was that a good number of presets sounded too similar to others, and quite honestly my biggest dislike of this instrument was the fact that I became tired of its expressiveness. Yes, as weird as that probably sounds; for all of the Osmose expressiveness, the sound became unwelcome, and I longed for something quite different. Basically, there were more times than not when I wanted to turn pitch bending and native effects off, just to make it stop.

Regarding build quality, the Osmose felt excellent in general. However, the knobs are plastic, and the volume knob does feel particularly cheap. The volume knob reminded me of the odometer reset knob found on the dashboard of most cars.

In conclusion, I believe that the Osmose is a brilliantly designed synthesizer, and would probably be on the wishlist for many people as an addition to their collection. For me personally, I unfortunately discovered that the Osmose would not be my single studio workhorse synthesizer. Something that as a newbie to music, I could only realized after the fact.

The Osmose replacement will be the Novation Summit. After so much more research, I believe this is the instrument that will share the centerpiece of my studio. Thanks to Thomann for your service! Discovering my mistakes while putting this project together could not have been achieved shopping somewhere else, and believe me returning items is definitely no fun either.