Expressive E Osmose 3D gesture keyboard

Not all MIDI keyboard controllers are made equal and the brand new Expressive E Osmose is a superb instance of this. Now accessible stateside, the brand new 3D gestural music instrument and controller is able to grace dwelling studios, reside performances, {and professional} sound levels all over the place. If it’s not the most effective MIDI keyboard controller on the market, it’s actually some of the fascinating, to not point out being an extremely compelling standalone instrument. Taking over the type of a conventional piano setup, it’s something however conventional in its execution. Head beneath for our hands-on impressions of the Expressive E Osmose 3D gesture-based music controller and instrument. 

Expressive E Osmose assessment

Expressive E Osmose is a multi-gesture keyboard and digital instrument with 49-full dimension keys, 24-voice polyphony, loads of I/O (detailed beneath) and a greater than common colour LCD show. You’ll discover a modulation slider (pre-assigned for every of the preset sound patches) and a type of spring-back pitch bend slider. 

• 49 full-size keys with three-dimensional management
• Standalone synthesizer, MPE MIDI Controller, and traditional MIDI controller
• EaganMatrix, a digital modular engine by Haken Audio
• as much as 24 voice polyphony
• colour LCD display, pitch and modulation sliders
• 2 steady pedal inputs, assignable to maintain or synth parameters
• DIN MIDI In, MIDI Out/Via, USB Kind B
• two 1/4″ TRS pseudo balanced line outputs, 1/4″ TRS headphone output

Onboard LCD show

The roughly 4-inch LCD show is de facto the guts of the operation, or a minimum of the place customers entry it. I discovered it, and the numerous features it supplies, to be a totally intuitive expertise – no annoying shift button secondary clicks right here of us. It’s surrounded with operate keys and rotary knobs, every of which intuitively positioned across the show – due to the location of the menus and features on the show at any given time, it’s instantly apparent which button to push or rotary knob to show to manage the system. You’ll see an inventory of preset sound classes, for instance, instantly above one knob to flip via them, which is able to in flip carry up an inventory of sounds inside that class above the knob to the appropriate, permitting you to shortly flick thru after which press the knob in to select. This UI design method carries via the whole system, whether or not you’re accessing deeper system settings, adjusting the arpeggiator, or tweaking results, and so forth.  

The bodily controls are general easy, comprehensible, and useable – I felt like I used to be in a position to rip via the menus, FX, sounds, and every little thing else instantly with out even taking a look at an instruction guide or YouTube tutorial. 

Semi-weighted 3D gestural keys

However clearly the star of the present right here is the very particular semi-weighted keybed. These, should you haven’t already guessed, aren’t your common keyboard keys, regardless of in any other case trying like them. Not solely do the keys react in wild and pure methods with particular glide and different programmable choices, however you can too press, bend, shake, wiggle, and strum them not like actually anything on the market to supply expressive sounds and performances in an extremely natural method. 

All the keybed is type of bodily raised above the bottom of the physique of the instrument, permitting for a protracted throw and to accomodate the wiggle of every particular person key – simply so we’re fully clear right here, every key will be pushed down like normal but additionally really bodily transfer left to proper as effectively, offering the feeling of shaking or including vibrato much like a stringed instrument, for instance.

It’s greater than only a easy up and down and left to proper sensation right here although. There’s an intense quantity of after strain – you may play the keys like regular or dig your fingers in even deeper to create and incrementally extra intense sound. There’s a strum gesture that may set off cascading notes robotically on a single key based mostly on taking part in velocity. The Strain Glide gesture permits the participant to swing between two notes organically with the pitch sliding up or down based mostly on the strain utilized to the keys. 

The built-in sound engine reacts to all of those bodily actions in an natural manner, creating new tones and motion in pitch with each shake, rattle, and roll from the participant. Every preset sound does one thing just a little bit totally different on this regard relying on the settings, nevertheless it’s all very intuitive and pure sounding with loads of customizable choices accessible to the participant from that time. It’s ummm….fairly wonderful. 

Sound Engine 

The EaganMatrix sound engine is about as unintuitive because the macros Expressive E supplies are straightforward to make use of. The sound engine the Osmose runs on is known as the EaganMatrix – it is extremely sophisticated and would doubtless take years of fixed use to grasp. Nonetheless, you don’t actually ever have to. 

Every of the five hundred preset sounds the Osmose ships with are comprised of the EaganMatrix someplace buried effectively below the hood – assume every little thing from the sound of bodily modeled artificial devices that sound very natural to straight up analog subtractive-sounding synth sounds and FM tones. However there are macro controls accessible for every of them to customise the sound with out ever going anyplace close to the for music programming savants-only EaganMatrix. Every of the presets function contextual tonal and sound controls that permit every of them to be custom-made in about as easy and intuitive a manner as these kinds of controls could possibly be. For a violin or bowed preset, for instance, you’ll discover macro controls for the bow noise, timbre, tone, vibrato ranges, and extra. 

The macros aren’t groundbreaking and neither are the bottom presets right here at first hear, however wow do they get particular after you’ve had a while to actually play with them.

One factor value declaring right here is that should you do end up actually digging in and loving the instrument over time, the EaganMatrix is the reward that retains on giving. Sure, it’ll take a while to seek out your manner round it, however should you do, even just a little bit, the quantity of sounds the Osmose is able to with the 3D gesture management in tow is actually countless. I imply I might in all probability design new sounds from now till the of the top of time and nonetheless by no means get uninterested in it. 

A lot of the identical setup carries over the to world FX, EQ, and compression choices. You’ll discover numerous echo and delay choices, excessive and low cross echoes, and reverb on the FX facet of issues alongside a low and high-pass type EQ in addition to a compressor with acquire settings should you’re searching for some severe distortion motion. There’s nothing overly loopy or particular on this entrance, nevertheless it all sounds fairly good to me and could be very straightforward to make use of. 

Controlling different MPE devices

One additional bonus right here with the Osmose is that not solely is it a standalone instrument however it could additionally double as each a customary MIDI keyboard controller and as a controller for different MPE software program devices. There’s a little bit of technical know-how alongside some trial and error right here in my expertise, however it could positively do the job. You’ll should tweak the inner strain and sensitivity settings inside the Osmose to play good with different MPE software program, in addition to configure the software program on the opposite finish. It, understandably, doesn’t work as seamlessly with different software program because it does with the inner engine at first, nevertheless it does work. 

On this observe, you should use the Osmose like a standalone instrument – plug it in like a guitar or one thing into your audio interface and file away. However you can too load it up like an exterior MIDI instrument inside your DAW as effectively. This may be helpful while you wish to quantize and edit your passages inside the DAW and have them play again off the inner engine contained in the Osmose earlier than you file audio variations of the passages into your mission. I, admittedly, have solely used these options inside Logic Professional, as a result of that’s the DAW I exploit, and the setup course of its comparatively easy, however it is possible for you to to get this getting into Professional Instruments and different comparable apps a lot the identical – Osmose has some easy tutorials to comply with to set all of it up. 

Expressive E Osmose assessment – Closing ideas

The Expressive E Osmose is a wild beast of an instrument – however not so loopy that it falls into a totally area of interest class. Certain, it’s not for everybody – learners actually don’t want a $1,799 multi-gesture digital synthesizer/controller – however it’s clearly a beautiful machine for nearly some other music maker, sound designer, or dwelling producer. 

It’s a nice choice for music makers of every kind, however I’d recommend of us into the extra soundtrack or movie rating facet of issues take a protracted exhausting have a look at Osmose. It’s merely improbable for horror and thriller-style items, in addition to these wild, sickly, and emotional Trent Reznor-esque pads and thrives you could be acquainted with – you understand the sound of that film The Social Community…that. Every part from lengthy, winding passages and delicate responsive plucks to bizarre and wild reactive noise and clicks, its built-in sound talents are fairly versatile, even earlier than you try to program some for your self. Add in some FX out of your DAW or outboard gear, and also you’re cooking with magic should you ask me.