Expressive E Osmose

My headline is taken from the product's description below, and indeed this is a synthesizer that offers a new way to play.!And, I think that the expressive technology is brilliant. Adjusting sounds with one key at a time is an immediate replacement for sound design and any menu diving. If that appeals to you, then this may be the perfect (addition) to your synthesizer collection... And, here's why I would put addition in exclamation points...

I own an excellent desktop keyless synth from Hydrasynth, and I have tirelessly been looking for a standalone keyboard synthesizer for my new home studio. Osmosis is immediate! Meaning that many beautiful sounds can be discovered by simply selecting one of the over 500 presets. An onboard Synthesizer menu adds options to do various tweaks which I found were quite affective. What I kept coming back to was that a good number of presets sounded too similar to others, and quite honestly my biggest dislike of this instrument was the fact that I became tired of its expressiveness. Yes, as weird as that probably sounds; for all of the Osmose expressiveness, the sound became unwelcome, and I longed for something quite different. Basically, there were more times than not when I wanted to turn pitch bending and native effects off, just to make it stop.

Regarding build quality, the Osmose felt excellent in general. However, the knobs are plastic, and the volume knob does feel particularly cheap. The volume knob reminded me of the odometer reset knob found on the dashboard of most cars.

In conclusion, I believe that the Osmose is a brilliantly designed synthesizer, and would probably be on the wishlist for many people as an addition to their collection. For me personally, I unfortunately discovered that the Osmose would not be my single studio workhorse synthesizer. Something that as a newbie to music, I could only realized after the fact.

The Osmose replacement will be the Novation Summit. After so much more research, I believe this is the instrument that will share the centerpiece of my studio. Thanks to Thomann for your service! Discovering my mistakes while putting this project together could not have been achieved shopping somewhere else, and believe me returning items is definitely no fun either.

Love this keyboard!
It’ has a completely different action to the normal keyboard feel. But once you get used to it it’s extremely expressive.
The keys throw you at first because although it has a traditional look it’s not really a normal keyboard experience .
I love the overall sound. It’s organic but not brittle. Capable of sounding analog or real instruments but more interesting is somewhere in between.
The screen is extremely easy to navigate without a manual. The Macros give control over important elements in the sound.
Really well built with tight pots and keyboard action doesn’t feel it’s going to break anytime soon.
There is one thing to be taken into account at the moment.
I knew the software would be difficult to use but was shocked to find out there isn’t proper bidirectional communication between Osmose and editor.
When you change something in the editor it doesn’t update screen on Osmose.
When you turn Macros on Osmose they don’t turn in editor. This a major flaw at the moment. I’ve heard they’re aware of it but sync between editor and Osmose is an important feature.
Similar to the Nord Modular’s and every other editor I’ve used for 30 years.
But even with this problem I’d still highly recommend it.
Thomann as usual were extremely efficient and quick in shipping.
Number one selling synthesiser on Thomann!
Who would have thought.

I cannot rate this high enough - only arrived yesterday and simply plugged in and played with the presets (first 4!) for about an hour and had already been inspired to write a new tune within minutes. That then sidetracked me whilst I tracked some other instruments. It is like playing a violin or a guitar after simple keyboards. I am a pianist by training so maybe this suits me but I didn’t find it too hard to play. Gentle polyphonic after touch swells and then bending notes individually or in chords. You end up drifting into the music - a truly revolutionary keyboard. I know programming will be a pain and hopefully sooner or later they will come up with an easier editor but I’ll leave that for another day. But it sounds lush. Recommended and definitely with the 5 months wait it took to get it

This instrument is beyond anything I have experienced in keyboards. So musical instrument, feels like playing alive instrument. Overall it is very good instrument, I just hoped that the build quality was a bit more solid. It's fine nothing to be scared of but I feel the Keybed is a bit wobbly more than it should. Maybe I need to get used to it.
The sound and the library is high quality and plenty of good sounds at your finger tip.
The only thing I wasn't happy with was the shipping, it arrived luckily in two boxes and the outer box was damaged.
Thomann team were very helpful and immediately informed me to not accept the shipment. I suggested to have a look at the keyboard and to check for any damages, luckily everything was OK. I took it home and turned ON the Osmose and it was fully functional with no sign of any damage. Thank you Thomann for double boxing it.

The amount of expression you can get out of the keys is crazy. I was once a trained cellist, and this keyboard more reminds me of playing the cello than a synthesizer. Precise vibrato by wiggling the hand sideways, the intensity of increasing pressure in the aftertouch and that many sounds start a very quiet sound just a couple of millimeter keypress.

The sounds are crazy good. So much choice, so different. I haven't owned a synthesizer with this much good factory settings before. And the macro controls for each sound typically gives each sound a whole range of character.

For quality I give 4/5 because the underside feels a bit plasticy. Ideally I think the entire thing should be metal for durability.