Yeah, you are right. Two spdif cables as an alternative to two analog jacks wouldn’t introduce more cabling, either…
I like gear with class compliant usb audio/midi. Not for sound quality reasons, but convenience. So a different use case, I guess. I can imagine I would have appreciated the ability to record an instrument like Osmose directly to, say, Cubasis on iphone/ipad without having to use an audio interface.
Yes, I guess that USB audio along with MIDI may be another option for the team. Anything, to avoid sending the signal to analog, only to require re-conversion to digital in order to record!
Continuum has aes3 , but continuum mini does not.
So I perhaps some possibility of aes3,
But don’t think osmose spec mentioned digital outputs , so I’d assume it won’t have it.
It’s odd that digital outputs are so rare on digital synthesizers. What’s the point in converting to analog and back to digital when you’re going from a digital synth to a DAW?
Robert, I fully agree. There is no point, other than to save a few dollars (surely very little these days), or to save space, which is understandable on Continuumini.
AES on the larger Continuums uses XLR connectors, which are rather bulky. Hence my suggestion of S/PDIF. The little optical ADAT-style connectors that Korg uses are very compact, and have worked extremely well for me and many others for many years.
I guess timing issues make it impractical to use USB to send digital output to a DAW?
Answer from Expressive E:
thanks for your interest in Osmose.
It is not defined yet whether the 1/4" jacks on Osmose will be balanced audio jacks or not.
Digital outputs won’t be onboard.
I am sorry that I don’t have better or more precise info for you.
Best regards,
Christopher Hans
Most people don’t understand this but USB audio is tricky and difficult. Look at Elektron and their past struggles with Overbridge. If I was Expressive E, I would do the same thing, and avoid it.
Besides, what if the DAC adds a little flavor to the output? You aren’t going to get that if the audio stays digital.
That’s exactly why I’d like a digital output.
Sorry I was being sarcastic. Although I’m sure there are some DACs out there that add some nice things to a signal it isn’t usually anybody’s favorite part of the signal chain.
I was just saying USB audio is very difficult.
the easiest and cheapest way to make an instrument record pristinely “digitally” today is to port the engine to vst so that it can be hosted within the DAW.
having had some instruments and effects with digital IO over the years i can attest it is not easy to get everything working because of how to set things up with clock. it is not simply a matter of plugging it in and often digital io will result in sync issues that ruin recordings.
Furthermore, it is no fact that the digital signal ist the ‘original’ or the best sound. Since we cannot hear digital music without a DAC, pulling digital signals from all devices just says that we listen everything exclusively through the same DAC, which is our audio interface.
I am not very experienced with hardware synths but I can imagine that equipping a synth with a good preamp and drive it hot or less hot can result in different and quite pleasant sound. With electronical gear like Lexicon, Eventide and similar boxes I prefer to have both, digital and analog outputs. Sometimes digital is better, sometimes analog. Most times I use the analog option and sometimes I even go through an additional preamp to get what I want.
Actually I don’t like musical gear with only digital connections. For me this just says that the maker wants to cut costs and/or is not sure about the D/A technology or the sound he delivers. But I come from natural instruments and like it very much that every individual instrument has it’s own character and every musician plays differently with this character.
However, if I hadn’t a Roli RISE and still struggle to get used to it, I would go for the Osmose 
Stumbled across an interesting instrument that seems to use a similar “horizontal wiggle” approach as the Osmose - the Electone. Never heard of it, but that might just be me 
https://my.yamaha.com/en/products/musical_instruments/keyboards/electone/els-02c/index.html
Here some girl playing Star Wars on it. She doesn’t seem to use the wiggling much as far as I can tell. And some rhythmic stuff seems to be sequenced? (Edit: On second look: Perhaps it’s really only the preset switching sequence that is programmed and all the percussion is played with the feet? Ugh…) Still impressive, organ builders from 100 years ago would certainly have been excited!
Edit: The model used in the two Youtbube videos is actually 1.7 million yen (about 15000 Euro). So going into the piano / entry level grand piano range…
Edit: Found a demo where somebody uses the x-wiggle feature for vibrato:
i was thinking about this the other day, and started to think the movement is actually quite similar to the eigenharp X (pitch) is obvious, due to both returning to centre. but Y (2nd press) is also, though its to be a unipolar rather than bipolar. both eigenharp and osmose have axis that you ‘bend away’ from neutral values, and then they return.
at first this seems a little more limiting than continuous non-returning forms, like the Continuum and Soundplane - and for sure, things like continuous pitch glides are not possible - but i actually really enjoy it on the Eigenharp - and think it will suit a keyboard format really well.
made me think of an interesting gesture/feature perhaps for @Anckorage
perhaps if you deviated X whilst playing a note, this could initiate glide for the next note played?
i.e. if you play the note straight, then next note has no glide - play a note then push left, and play a note to the left (lower) , then it glides to it.
seems like this could be a fairly natural gesture, and an interesting alternative to vibrato for X… and a way to get a kind of ‘faux’ continuous pitch.
(perhaps I should try to prototype it on the eigenharp see how it feels, though its grid nature makes it perhaps less natural?!)
Even on Continuum you can do this… in the end kind of clever portamento? You can specify how much interval it will respond, say if you, put a 5th it glides but if you play an octave not (home work, not sure anymore…)
Yeah, X+Y dimension of an Eigenharp is perhaps closer to Osmose than X+Z dimension - with the haptically feelable pressure point as “zero position”. Even though you start at “-1” on the Osmose, not middle 0.
I honestly mainly still play stuff on the Morphs that I could also play on the Eigenharps (or Osmose), using pitch for vibrato with a limited bending range. Sliding around just because you can isn’t strictly necessary at all times 
That said, there are certainly many interesting musical ideas where this can be used. Just a different kind of instrument.
Here an example where somebody uses a similar trick to fake a continuous glide on a Melodica, it’s really more a glissando, but sounds pretty convincing (right at the beginning):
Edit: You can “pitch bend” on the Melodica by pressing the key only half. Additionally higher notes only start to sound when a certain air pressure is provided, so he can already press the key before the note sounds. As I understand it that way he creates the in between steps that give the illusion of a glide.
Would have to experiment with an Eigenharp (or Osmose) whether that effect couldn’t also be produced without any further special software change, just as playing technique (for sounds without a too pronounced attack phase).
Another interesting thing to try with Osmose could be to have a bend range of +/- a semitone tone instead of +/- a quarter tone, so the pitch ranges of adjacent keys overlap and the middle position of one key is the same as the rightmost/leftmost position of the previous/next key. As far as I remember @keymanpal did experiments into that direction with Eigenharp already?
Another option could be to not trigger the note when the key is initially pressed but as soon as it reaches the haptic middle z position. That way you could dial in the x position before triggering the note. So if chromatic keys are a semitone apart one could prepare the second key right besides the initial key by pressing it slightly and move the finger to the leftmost position - but without triggering it yet. Then press the initial key, move it rightwards and as soon as it reaches the right side move the already prepared adjacent one down and then the initial one up. Now move that key from left over middle to right while preparing the next key etc.
If played with a sound in legato mode (no attack phase if another key is still pressed) or with a sound that has no promounced attack phase when triggered lightly then this could give a quite good impression of a glide. Would need practice to do this fast…
As for the Continuum the Osmose will have a pressure weighted portamento: you define an interval (let’s say a 3dr), then if you play any 2 notes within a 3rd, the pitch will be within these 2 notes according to the relative pressure on each note
You even can do this with an interval being the whole keyboard (then you are monophonic…)
Same as the better-known CS-80 and YC-45D. Brian Eno was a big fan of that feature.