When I first saw photos and videos of Expressive E's Osmose in 2019 via Kickstarter, my cynical side was imagining extremely over-eager expression-hungry synthesists practicing their polyphonic finger wiggling techniques. But Osmose has made me a believer, and it started within the first ten seconds of playing it a few Superbooths ago. Even though a wait was involved, to think that early supporters of their Kickstarter campaign grabbed them for a little over $1,000 USD just a few years ago seems nearly unbelievable. And the wait? Worth it, of course. Osmose is a one-of-a-kind, a unicorn, an actual Kickstarter success story.
When talking about Osmose, you're really talking about four things: the expressivity and feel of its 49-key keybed; the sounds of the integrated Haken Audio EaganMatrix Module and its 500 presets; Osmose's ability to control/be controlled by other devices/DAWS; and finally, its construction and appearance.
On the first and most important count, the keyboard, Expressive E nailed it. And what "it" is, is possibly (probably) the most expressionistic, somewhat experimental, 24-voice polyphonic keyboard controller available. You can tap, press and—most importantly—wiggle the keys to glide, add vibrato, pitch bend, enter aftertouchland and more. With every key. At the same time. That's a lot of simultaneous hand and finger movement, and Osmose is up for the task. The keyboard is really remarkable; the feel is perfect, loose on the top end with more resistance when pushing down, entering aftertouch. The two stages of pressure on the downward stroke are quite distinct; there's a feel envelope there that is consistent across the keybed, and you will always know where you are in relation to the pressure. Add to this the ability to tweak the responsiveness, the sensitivity, and Osmose becomes extremely versatile and easy to tailor on a patch by patch basis to your liking. It's really interesting to play, say a chord, and slowly push into aftertouch while moving your hand in a way that moves the keys side to side, "bending" the notes. It's a new feeling, and though not totally foreign, going from Osmose to a synth with a conventional keyboard (or a piano) felt a little bit like a step down, like they're lacking. If every synth had this type of expression? I'm starting to think they should. Even if you want less expression, Osmose acts more as a traditional mono or polysynth you can always turn off or down whatever expressive element you want. I really enjoy Osmose the keyboard, and am perpetually impressed by its capabilities, feel, and customizableness. This leads us to Haken Audio's EaganMatrix, the brain in the machine.
Even though there are a lot of factory presets to check out (500 of them, with up to 2048 preset slots for more), that doesn't mean I didn't scroll and scrutinize, play and ponder—I most certainly did. Granted, it was a lot of scrolling, but I put the time in to hear every last preset (I think?!), even if some were just for a few notes or chords before moving on. Navigating through presets is easy enough, as is tweaking and customizing, and Expressive E and Haken have done a nice job with the visuals for this, with an attractive screen and menus, as well as giving control over the most important parts of each patch. With the ability to EQ, compress, drive, and add effects (reverb, mod delay, and various types of echo) to each preset, you'd be hard pressed not to be able to get what you're looking for with a preset, at least for a decent starting point. I did find a lot of the sounds to be a little on the new-agey side with a somewhat strident sound, and with 500, it's no surprise that some of the presets spoke to me more than others, but overall I was able to corral a handful of factory presets to fit most of my needs. The simulation of a lot of the acoustic instruments needed a bit of tweaking to get them into usable territory, and I realized that in my music making I hardly—basically, never—try to emulate "real" instruments in a "real" way, preferring instead to futz around with sound creation until something hits or I find something to fill in a particular frequency range, for more utilitarian duties. The onboard effects are pretty good as well, though if I were recording with Osmose (and using a Haken preset instead of a soft synth) I would probably opt for a more robust feature laden reverb and/or delay via a pedal or software program. For headphone exploration though—loads of fun. Overall, there were plenty of presets to suit my tastes, and other than a few bumps in the road (more on that in a second), nothing stopped me from losing track of time playing Osmose: It's really such a treat. And this is coming from somebody who isn't—and never has been—on the hunt for the holy grail of expressive capability in controllers/synths. I'm excited to see what the future brings on the preset/sound front.
As for the programming of the presets, once you leave the confines of Osmose and enter the EaganMatrix world it becomes much less friendly. The EaganMatrix might be deep and tweakable, but to dive into the finer points of a patch in it is a chore. The EaganMatrix is not a fun place to be, and certainly, it doesn't much resemble or foster a creative music making environment. As well, I did encounter some software hiccups to where I'd have to power cycle Osmose off and on—as there were times where the effects couldn't be activated or tweaked, or where polyphony just wouldn't be working. With software-based instruments this is bound to happen from time to time, but it still feels like the software is on the path and not quite at the destination. One time I found it best to just reupdate/reload the most current firmware (the easiest and most obvious fix, right?), and once Osmose was in full swing again, everything was as right as rain; I found the Viollagio patch that I like, tweaked it so it was a bit muted and with reverb, and I was back in business. This really highlighted my feelings about the EaganMatrix as it relates to Osmose, in that it feels like the sky's the limit, or at least how much time, energy, and resources are put into the firmware is the limit. There's definitely room to grow here and I have a feeling as Osmose gains teeth so too will its software, and when I get a patch the way I like, Osmose makes me wish there were more hours in the day in which to play it. The arpeggiated vocal patches with the mod slider 2 controlling the "vowel" parameter amount cost me some years, for sure.
As a MIDI/MPE keyboard controller, is there anything more expressive than Osmose? Especially for those raised on a piano or keyboard-based synth, the feel is almost automatic, and the ability to pair Osmose with your favorite MPE-enabled soft synth is reason enough to dig in. Hooking it up to use with Ableton couldn't be any easier, with nothing more needed than changing from "Sound Engine" mode to "Ext MIDI" mode on Osmose and loading up a MIDI instrument. Of course, Expressive E's own Noisy 2 is a great pairing with Osmose, and the MPE capabilities work seamlessly, with just a click of a box to unleash the full expressive capabilities. Something I found that I also liked, however, was not using so much expression—switching from MPE to traditional MIDI and turning Osmose into a grand piano with no X and Y axis expression for a more traditional song I was working on. It's interesting as it feels the same no matter what, and it's hard to not want to test the expressive capabilities, no matter the instrument. I also used Arturia's Pigments with Osmose, and syncing the two also couldn't have been easier. With any MIDI/MPE synth at your fingertips, the excitement of Osmose's possibilities is palpable. You can go places, get sounds that weren't…well, maybe "not possible" isn't quite correct, but definitely not as seamlessly accessible. Playing around with Osmose and these soft synths has really made me rethink my tight stance on trying to stay away from using the computer as an instrument (in a myriad of ways) to make music.
As for Osmose's physical attributes, it is a rather attractive piece of equipment. The open keybed is certainly a bold statement, though I wish there were a removable cover for the unplayable top portion of the keybed to place pedals, small drum machines/synths, and maybe a lava lamp or swinging kinetic ball desktop toy upon. The colorful navigation screen is pretty intuitive to grasp, is great looking and fun (I love the kitchen mixer icon for "mix," as well as the log icon for "timbre") and is easy to read. The addition of the modulation sliders and two inputs for expression controllers on the rear of the unit add even more potential and real world playability to this already absurdly expressive instrument. With USB, MIDI DIN In and Out, and ¼" outputs interfacing with almost anything (you can use a MIDI to CV converter for modular fun) is easy enough. Even the headphone output's latching hideaway volume control, so as not to protrude unnecessarily, is an impressive detail. As such, nothing is too small for consideration, this is just another of a long line of details that demonstrate the love, care, and thought paid to Osmose.
Expressive E has been teasing a ‘resynthesis’ engine for a future release, which they say will let users sample and manipulate samples in real time, and that would take care of my biggest wish for Osmose. The idea of importing and playing/manipulating any sound with Osmose is a tantalizing, drool-worthy prospect.
What's really so impressive about the Osmose is how playable it is. With even simple melodic playing, it can be so immersive. Part of it has to do with the dramatic panache of the presets via the EaganMatrix, but with the ability to wiggle a key (or keys), to push to get some aftertouch, putting some hesitation or extra oomph into the pressure of your playing, even a ho hum C Major chord triad can become a gravy train of emotion, anticipation, and backdrops to other worlds.
Expressive E has truly delivered with Osmose, and given it room to grow as well. As a standalone synth, it's very impressive, and as a controller even more so. I can't wait to see/hear where it's headed. Osmose is something special, indeed.

Price: $1799

expressivee.com