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.
