Osmose CE 49 €999
Osmose CE 61 €1199
expressivee.com
To enhance upon the standard keyboard is not any small factor. For at the least 500 years, the precept behind these black and white keys has remained basically the identical: press all the way down to set off a sound.
So when Expressive E unleashed the Osmose synthesiser in 2023 they fairly rightly turned heads with their revolutionary keybed design. Andrew Huang gave it a rave overview, Hans Zimmer gushed that the instrument allowed him to “rework a sound fully” whereas engaged on his soundtrack to the second instalment of Dune. In the meantime, common musos checked the worth tag and shook their heads in dismay.
However now we have now the Osmose CE, an all-MIDI model that drops the onboard synth engine, lowers the entry price, and nonetheless provides a next-generation taking part in expertise.
With all that in thoughts, there’s actually just one place to begin when evaluating Osmose CE: the keybed. The corporate payments it as ‘a keyboard in contrast to every other’ and it’s arduous to disagree.
The essential factor right here is that, of their pursuit of most MPE expressivity, the designers haven’t strayed too removed from the stable basis of black and white keys. Compared to the ROLI Seaboard 2, which actually does require mastering a novel taking part in type, the keybed on the Osmose CE takes a well-recognized expertise and, fairly actually, deepens it.
Press down on a key and also you hit the standard stopping level – however you then preserve going, and going, and going. The quantity of house for aftertouch stress feels completely big, even when formally it’s solely seven millimetres of journey distance. In observe, this implies you can execute tremendous positive stress management over filter cutoffs, LFO depth, or actually any parameter your coronary heart needs. I discover an unreasonable quantity of pleasure in arpeggiating a held chord whereas step by step various stress depth for particular person notes, creating shifting accents and timbres.
Relating to the hands-on really feel, it’s a agency, springy, extremely tactile expertise – even if you happen to do kinda really feel such as you’re kneading bread dough. However don’t suppose that you just want lots of power to get sound out of this factor for the reason that keys have simply customisable delicate ranges. So delicate, in reality, that even an extremely mild faucet can produce sound if you want.
Up and down will not be the one axis in play right here, there’s additionally facet to facet. Keys might be vigorously ‘wiggled’ to supply vibrato simply as you may historically do on a stringed instrument. The left/proper journey of every key does introduce one problem: keys can often knock towards one another. It may simply be that I’m nonetheless getting used to the instrument, however after I play quick melody strains coupled with deep key presses, there are noticeable clicks as launched keys snap again into place. Personally, I didn’t discover this to be a dealbreaker, however for these trying to play virtuoso passages, it’s one thing to concentrate on.
Whereas Osmose CE could lack the onboard synth engine of its huge brother, it does add deep DAW integration. Examined throughout quite a lot of workstations —together with Cubase 15, Ableton 12, and Bitwig 6—implementation is stable.
Utilizing the 4.3-inch color LCD, a handful of push buttons, and 6 clickable rotary knobs, you possibly can navigate throughout tracks, activate loop areas, scrub by means of a session, open and shut instrument plugins, management plugin macros, and begin and cease recordings, all with out touching a mouse or laptop keyboard. In the event you’re utilizing the instrument’s companion software program, Ctrl-e, then the onboard display screen shows extra steering for navigating the totally different devices and choosing presets.
Ctrl-e is designed to take full benefit of Osmose CE’s expressive potential, however, for my cash, it’s really the weak hyperlink right here. To be clear, not one of the sound presets are unhealthy, however they don’t precisely encourage me both. Maybe that shortcoming is more durable to disregard when the {hardware} itself is such a standout.
This isn’t a lot of a priority because it’s easy sufficient to set Osmose CE as much as work with a favoured software program or {hardware} instrument. Utilizing the onboard menu, you possibly can change between preset MIDI modes, together with poly-aftertouch, multichannel, and basic keyboard, and to assign stress and aftertouch gestures to particular person steady controller (CC) messages. It’s value noting that, at current, side-to-side gestures are hardcoded to pitch bends and may’t be assigned to different management change messages – one thing I can solely hope will probably be remedied in future updates.
As well as, the unit comes with extremely nifty onboard features for arpeggiation and pitch glides. For instance, it’s doable to assign particular person arpeggio parameters to particular gestures – so, if you happen to’d like so as to add some octave jumps solely while you bend a be aware sideways, no drawback! For pitch glides, you possibly can set particular interval ranges inside which a glide will set off, after which management the portamento time by ‘seesawing’ between two notes. The interval vary might be prolonged to cowl the whole keyboard vary, which successfully provides you a ribbon-style controller for large pitch sweeps. I like the extent of management supplied right here, and the extent of specificity Expressive E provides provides you a clue as to who this instrument is meant for.
Osmose CE is a professional-level instrument by means of and thru. It could be extra reasonably priced than the unique synthesiser model, however at €999 for the 49-key model, and €1199 for bigger 61 iteration, it’s priced in an identical tier because the ROLI Seaboard 2, far past mere mortals just like the Arturia Keystep Professional or the Novation Launchkey MK4 61.
Nonetheless, for that ticket value you get one thing constructed like a bulldozer. The aluminium high case and steel under-panel are rock stable and roadworthy, the sliders and rotary knobs really feel premium, and the entire thing will look downright beautiful sitting on a desktop or a stage.
Extra to the purpose, so that you can even contemplate this instrument you need to already be at some extent the place you’ve exhausted what an ordinary MIDI keyboard can provide. For producers and performers Osmose CE genuinely elevates basic keyboard design in musically significant methods, all with out sacrificing playability. For composers, it’s a sound design machine that excels at shortly producing the type of nuanced fluctuations in timbre that may in any other case take painstaking parameter automation to realize.
For many who have the abilities, ambition, and financial institution stability, Osmose CE is the MIDI controller of the second.
Key options
- MPE-compatible controller keyboard with an revolutionary keybed
- Obtainable in 49-key and 61-key sizes
- A number of gesture inputs, together with faucet, press, pitch bend, vibrato, and shake
- Onboard arpeggiator and pitch glide performance
- Ctrl-e companion software program with 900+ sound presets
- DAW integration with Reside, Cubase, Bitwig and Logic Professional
- 4.3-inch color LCD display screen
- 9 buttons and seven knobs/encoders
- Pitch and modulation sliders
- MIDI in/out/via
- 2 assignable pedal inputs
- Weight: 10 kg (Osmose CE 49) / 11 kg (Osmose CE 61)
Clovis McEvoy is a author, researcher, and composer. His work has appeared in MusicTech, MusicRadar, Future Music, and the UN’s WIPO Journal. He’s presently an Affiliate Researcher on the College of Greenwich, investigating immersive music and media. He’s an award-winning sound artist and founding member of the multidisciplinary group Hire Collective.
