User satisfaction about hardware after some use time

Expressive-E Osmose
1

As I wrote in another thread, I don’t own an O. (yet), but today I played one undisturbed for more than an hour and I’d like to ask all of you that have already used it for some time, how do you feel about the hardware: keybed, display, rotary knobs, buttons, etc.

In my very limited experience I found the rotaries a bit small and, above all, lacking the indentations feeling while turning them so you are never sure if you have selected a new line or not.
While surfing through a few presets, one third of the time I accidentally passed the next one and had to turn the knob back a little to select it. Doesn’t this bother any of you in the regular use?
Another thing - but this is a software one, is that to me it would be useful being able to easily activate and deactivate a sort of an “auto select” behaviour so that when you select a new line in the presets list it automatically get selected and the preset loaded. Many times I had to remind myself to click the rotary after turning it. And even after changing category I could see new preset names but the previous one wos still playing. Yes, I understad that in normal use this should be a positive thing but when you are looking for a particula sound and start “surfing”, I find it a bit annoying having to click after each turn.
What do you think of all that?

And also, I’m thinking to buy a refurbished one: does anybody have any experience about that?
Thanks.
fabio

1 Like
2

It’s a matter of taste. Imho it is good that it doesn’t instantly change to the sound, so you can prepare the next one that is to come and then activate it in the right moment.
The Osmose is still quite new, so you have to be lucky to find one on the used market. But generally I buy many things used, was lucky up to now.

1 Like
3

before getting into details… its important to get into the overall feel.

my overall impression is:
Osmose is a high quality instrument, it just feels great - and it’s backed by a really high quality sound engine.
It set out to be an expressive instrument for keyboard players and it 100% nails it.

the sound engine has a certain sound, I think, personally, its strength are in physical modelling - best in class, and (for hardware) it uniquely ties expression into that engine.

this is its character, I think it definitely has a character … this is not a neutral workstation like synth.

ofc, that ‘character’ is (like any characterful synth) is its achilles heel, if its not for you… then its not for you :slight_smile:

also, whilst the Eagan Matrix is really powerful, its takes effort to get to grips with it.
this is not a synth with hands on sound design.

hardware

keybed ,this is 99% the most important aspect , and is fantastic, its everything I wanted from it.
some complain it can be a bit noisy, if adjacent keys touch (due to bend), but for me that was just as I got used to it, and had less ‘control’ in my fingers :wink:

screen is great, bright and clear to read.

buttons are ok. some might prefer more positive action, but Im fine with them.

I don’t think the small encoders have quite the same quality as the rest of the instrument.
but they are 100% fine, never had an issue with them.
I tend to prefer encoders without indents, but thats taste

note: I had an early unit which had to be replaced, so above is based on the one I ended up with… as I believe they have resolved the earlier issues.
support was fantastic on getting my issues resolved.

preset loading

Ive no issue selecting presets, or accidentally selecting the wrong one.

Id not want the selection to auto load when using the encoder, as loading takes a fraction of a second… but this would mean scrolling thru a long list would take way too long.

however to do what you want to do is simple… just use the preset +/- button these do switch presets immediately - perfect for preset surfing.

also bare in mind, preset surfing is most common when you are new to the instrument.
later, when you know the presets, rare you want to go thru every preset… rather you are picking an choosing, so would not want to auto load the ones ‘in between’.

on that point, EE latest update has new features to allow you to save set lists and favourites, which streamlines the process :slight_smile:

refurbished

sorry no experience, that said. the support / service from EE was fantastic.
I’d be pretty confident they only supply something of good quality.

ofc, within what ever limits they mention in the ‘refurbishment’ description.

2 Likes
4

I was in a conversation with Lippold Haken (professor of Electrical Engineering, Champaign-Urbana, ret.) where he gave high praise to the engineering behind the Osmose, the production equipment, and the process used to manufacture them. The units are designed for field service accessible to end users, and he expects them to be generally robust under use.

1 Like
5

Thank you very much for your detailed [and well organized :-)] reply. I copied and saved it for future reference and to remind myself how a good forum reply should be. Oc*, it’s very useful, for me and for everybody, I think. And also your true love for this marvelous instrument comes out from the text, and to me that is always an added value when it doesn’t make a reply biased (and here is not the case). So thank you again.

Going back to the build quality, to me it’s been clear since the first moment that the level was high and EVERYTHING we can see or touch is the result of a careful and deeply thought process of designing. As a clue, I thought that even a small detail as the recessable headphones volume knob must have been a subject in a few product designing meetings to decide where to place it, how to do it and where to find it or how to make it.

And about the choices they had to make, a clear example is the preset “auto select” I talked about. As you pointed out, implementing such a feature it is not just as adding a single line of code to the display SW but it implies having to figure out all the possible scenarios of user behaviour and what would be the pros and cons balance.

I’ll open another thread with a couple of questions about two cases of real time use scenarios I will have to setup.

Thank you.

  • I used “Oc” instead of Ofc because somewhere I read that sometimes the central “f” could mean a certain word… :wink:
2 Likes
6

Just saw that they have some refurbished Osmoses available (currently on discount). No idea about quality but if it’s from Expressivee directly I would personally expect them to ensure that they are in good shape:

1 Like