Hello,
I was thinking to buy an Osmose and today I had the opportunity to spend a whole hour by myself playing one in a shop in Milan. Of course it’s been an amazing experience that reinforced my will to buy one.
But as I will need to use it a lot with software instruments, even after watching many videos and reading many sources I’d like to ask a couple of questions:
1 - is it possible to map the “Z” values (first part of the key vertical travel) to a parameter of a soft instrument? I mean, in which shape will the O. send those data to the external world? As a CC? If yes, a specific number or it’s mappable? As an MPE data (one channel per note) or a normal midi one (if yes, how?) ?
2 - In a video I’ve seen using a sustain pedal as a sostenuto but the guy in the video (Josh, I think) talks about a “continuous” pedal: will a norma pedal switch will work in that way?
Thank you.
Hi! Here the Osmose manual that answers most of your questions: Dropbox
1: Yes, it is CC74 in MPE mode and aftertouch in legacy keyboard mode (p. 37) but this can be changed (p. 38)
2: Yes, both on/off and continuous pedals are supported, by default they are mapped to sustain and macro (p. 5) but that can again be changed (p. 10, 39)
Hi NothanUber and thanks for your reply and for the manual in pdf.
At p. 37 do you mean in the MPE settings?
Yes, page 37 describes the four preset modes that cover many usage scenarios (e.g. CC74 is the default CC for timbre changes in MPE): MPE, classic keyboard, poly aftertouch and multi-channel. Then p 38 describes how to set up your own mapping if those don’t fit your needs.
OK, let’s see if I got it.
If the SW instrument is MPE enabled, using the MPE should be the best bet.
But if the SW instrument is NON MPE enabled, to be able to use the pressure data I will have to follow what’s written in the multi-channel section so I will have to setup as many instances of the same instrument as the poliphony I want and assign a different midi channel to each one of them: is that right?
Yes, if the synth is MPE capable then MPE would be the best choice. If not then you have the option to either set the Osmose to keyboard mode or poly aftertouch mode, so it will send all information on channel 1 and use channel or poly aftertouch to encode pressure information (and of course velocity), which many legacy synths can cope with.
Or you would have to start many instances of the same synth, each listening to another midi channel and best use the voice per channel mode (or MPE mode if you map the CCs accordingly) of Osmose.
If you have Bitwig, this has a mode that does that automatically for you. Or there are third party solutions like MPEfy – JB Audio
Or you can manually set this up with pretty much any multi channel aware DAW.
Thank you again for your help.
I’m on Ableton so I will have a look around for some M4L device or any other trick.
It would be nice and useful (IMHO) if the developers would introduce a sort of a “free” mode where you can choose what to send and how or, at least, in the classic and the poly settings, give us the ability to choose for “Z” to send velocity or key pressure, even in a mono channel setup.
That is already possible and what I meant with “Then p 38 describes how to set up your own mapping if those don’t fit your needs.”
MPEfy should work in Live as plugin I guess - but I’m not a Live expert, perhaps there is an easier/cheaper way…
I thought that the “adjust menu” (p. 38) was a sub menu of the “config menu” (p. 37).
Instead, if I got it, in the config menu there are preconfigured settings, while the adjust menu is the one I called “free”: right?
“fake MPE” workarounds (leveraging many instances of your non-MPR synth, with tracks set to separate channels) do work in Ableton, but they do require a ton of channels. You can group and hide them, but this won’t help if you’re on Live Lite or Intro, with their extremely limited number of tracks.
Max For Live can help configure those tracks, but it can’t bypass the need for them.
You might have some luck using the “MPE Control” device to flatten an MPE signal down to single channel, though. I haven’t tried this, but that’s sort of what it’s there for, and might prove the better solution.
small correction to above.
first part of travel in MPE is sent as channel aftertouch. (aka pressure)
second part of travel is sent as CC74 (aka timbre/slide)
as for using non-mpe synths, sure as others have mentioned above. its possible.
its possible, but frankly , it gets tedious very quick, and often consume a LOT of resources (cpu/memory) using multiple instances of plugins.
so yeah, if you have to use something without multi-channel/mpe support its possible, but its not much fun - Id look for an alternative that has MPE support 
in the past it was really common to use these workarounds, as there weren’t so many plugins with MPE /multi channel support, but thankfully that has changed.
so yeah… what you are requesting is possible… in practice, id be surprised if you actually use it, unless you have a rather specific use-case.
–
one last point… about MPE plugins etc.
most MPE controllers use Y as a different axis, one that is independently controlled to Z, also Y is often bipolar.
this is not the case with the Osmose (its an aftertouch on Z)
this means many plugin presets aren’t really designed to be used as the osmose uses Y.
they will work, but they aren’t as intended by the sound designer.
so you will likely want to ‘adjust’ to your taste/needs.
note: expressive e have been working with some plugin devs to create some presets tailored to the Osmose.
Finally I bought a refurbished Osmose with no visible signs…
With the black friday it was 25% off…
One question arose in the couple of days I used it: to change the aftertouch assignement for the internal engine presets I have to do it in the Eagan Matrix editor: right? I can’t do it in the “assign” menu on board: right?
Even after updating to 2.15 I don’t see it remember the last preset active when I switched off and then on: do I have to enable it somewhere?
Thx.
The aftertouch behavior is programmed into the preset. In some presets there is a macro control to influence aspects of the aftertouch encoded in the preset, but not always. If a preset doesn’t expose macro control, then it requires diving into the editor to change how it responds to Y.
Re remembering the preset, it’s a new option that must be turned on, in the device menus.
@patchde - Thank you.
Browsing through the factory presets I found that quite a few use the mod slider to manage the vibrato but for some of them I’d like to use the poly aftertouch instead: would it be easy to move the vibrato from the mod slider to the aftertouch or would that require some EM knowledge?
(I haven’t had a look at the EM editor by now…)
Thank you.
The EaganMatrix engine itself doesn’t have anything labelled “vibrato”. That high-level musical function can be implemented a number of ways, so it would mean dissecting the individual preset to see how that component of the sound is generated (I’m guessing most often determining the frequency of a signal generator in the patch) and use Y (aftertouch) to drive that.
I don’t know how the mod slider on the Osmose affects the EM and how to control that (I write software that works with the EM, but I don’t have an Osmose). Hoping someone (RK) knows more specifics. I do know that the slider is somehow connected to the pedal settings.
“would it be easy?”, "would that require some EM knowledge? … two different questions
would it require some EM knowledge?
yes.
would it be easy?
well it requires EM knowledge , so that may be your answer already.
(so im not going to go into explicit details too much here… )
outside of that, depends on the patch, but in theory, it might be easy for some patches.
basically, vibrato is implement using one of the EM function/cycle generators.
the mod wheel might control its rate, and you can ‘simply’ change that to use Y instead.
or the mod wheel might control its depth, which means where multiplier used for the generator (on frequency) , again replace that with Y can your good to go.
there are various patches which already do this, so you can have a look at those.
honestly, I think the ‘reputation’ of the EM patching complexity is over played.
yes, it needs some conscious effort to learn, but its actually pretty straightforward / logical.
(also the haken manual is very good)
adapting patches is easer, and you can learn by trying on simpler patches first.
ofc, its not like a conventional synth engine, where you can twist a few knobs, and get some happy accidents. you need to be ‘intentional’ with changes , which is perhaps what puts some off. that and the fact, you have to install/launch an editor on a computer, so an ‘extra step’
give it a go… it may or may not be for you 
the mod wheel might control its rate, and you can ‘simply’ change that to use Y instead.
again replace that with Y can your good to go./>
That’s what I meant, in some way.
In the EM editor we can see there are the six boxes with the six macro knobs assignements and also the two pedal boxes with the pedals assignements but I can’t see a simply labeld “Z” box and neither a “Y” box.
I hoped they were there so it would have been a simple matter to assign to the Y what was already assigned to the mod wheel and maybe change the wheel, should you like to. This would have not required a certain knowledge of the EM editor. You were just trasferring the same function from one controller to another.
By the way, while browsing the factory presets to find one to use as an example, my Osmose went suddenly silent. I boot cycled it but now only weird sounds come out. I left it alone a few minutes and then switched it on again but it’s still the same: anyone experienced that? Any fix?
Thank you.
yeah, thats not how it works.
the whole ethos behind the EM is it works on formulas at intersections of the matrix.
these formulae can reference things like the macro values and the x/y/z axis.
its kind of the USP of the EM, making expression at the very heart of the sound, rather than a simple modulation source (like mod matrix etc). I think its why sounds feel so alive/responsive in the EM.
for sure, its takes a bit of getting used to… but its extremely powerful.
ofc, the ‘issue’ is, it means to understand how a sound is made, you have to look at where the intersections are made, and the formula used with it.
this is not that difficult in this case, since you know vibrato is a pitch modulation, so its going to be a formula on the frequency of the oscillator. from there you can determine the function generator being used etc.
BUT as I said, yes, you need to play with the EM and get a bit of understanding, but its not that difficult once you dig in a bit.
OK, I understand that the engine builds its sounds - and we can control them, thanks to formulas and that their single operatos can’t be exposed easily.
But, what I thought was that if in a preset, the mod wheel is link to some inner point of some formula and that let the wheel generate a vibrato effect, if we had a “Modwheel box” and an “Aftertouch box” too as we have the six macros boxes and the two pedals, it should have been easy to move the existing link from the modwheel box to the aftertouch box without having to know where the other end of that thread is linked to. (I’m “seeing it” as a grafical line as I’ve been programming with Labview, until a few years ago…)
But this can just be a feature request, maybe…
Anyway, thank you again for your detailed reply.
Now I’m waiting for the technical support reply to the ticket I opened earlier today.
I hope I’ll be able to recover the situation… If so, I will then start to play with the EM editor, eventually.
f.
I managed to fix the problem going to reset the global settings in the EM editor.
Before that I tried and flashed the 2.0.18 published today, but it didn’t fix it.
But now it seems to me that for some presets there is some “dirtiness” and or distortion, and I hear it especially on the airy part of some timbre. I don’t know if it is just psicological or what. And I don’t know if it is part of the desing of the preset - and so it was there before, or if it is something new and wrong.
I will post a sample of some presets and I beg you to compare it with the same preset of your Osmose, please, to tell me if it sounds the same or if you feel my one is dirty/dirtier.
But I will do it tomorrow.
By now, good night.
Thx.