réactions à la news Expressive E et Haken Audio dévoilent le synthétiseur Osmose

Citation :

Si tu veux parler de sons "classiques" un peu synthé de base bourrin il y a ça par exemple à 2:03:40 :

Exactement! (entre autres)

En fait je me demande s'il me manquera quelque chose par rapport à un synthé polyphonique "traditionnel" (au delà de du côté analogique/numérique)

I played the Osmose prototype, which had a very rough case and 3d-printed keys, but I was told that although the unit looked rough, the action and feel was very close to what was intended for the production version.

The unit I played was definitely NOT a "synth action" keyboard. The upper half of the key travel was about as deep as a normal synth keyboard, but when you hit bottom you can "dig in" further for another half-inch or more, so the bottom half of travel felt nearly as deep as the top half. (Not quite, but close) In the top half the keys move freely and unrestricted, not "gooey" or meeting any resistance, and when you "hit bottom" it's like landing on a rubber cushion instead of the floor.

Once the key hits bottom you can press further to dig in to the pressure zone, and this portion of the key travel feels very much like the Touche - smooth and easy to control, with stiffness increasing as you approach the bottom extreme. Perhaps they use a similar donut-like cushion at the bottom of the travel (although I did not see inside the unit). There is a definite and easy-to-feel point at which the upper half of travel hits the cushion, so you won't be wondering when your fingers get there, but there's no sensation of "clack" at all when hitting bottom - more like a soft landing. The cushion seems stiff enough to play precisely and quickly without digging in to the bottom half of travel if you want to avoid sending too much spurious pressure information.

It feels very different to even a high-end synth action like you'd find on the Moog One or older poly-AT keyboards like the Roland A-50 - but not in a bad way at all. The keys are light and quick, so it's nothing like a Kurzweil Midiboard or other piano-action keyboards.

I can't remember exactly what they told me about the sensing mechanism and data derived in the top half of the travel, but watching the demo videos makes it seem like there IS continuous sensing of key position throughout the entire range of travel, as opposed to it being like a normal keyboard until it hits the cushions at which point pressure sensitivity begins. Not entirely clear on that from the half-hour I had with the prototype.

It will probably feel very different from the HyperSynth or any other synth-style keyboard that just happens to have poly-AT. If you've ever used the Touche then you will have an idea of the natural feel of the "squishiness" of the cushions. It feels very organic and natural to play and takes no front-brain calculations - your fingers just seem to naturally do what your brain wants and the instrument responds as expected.

I have a Continuum and a Linnstrument, and I think the Osmose will be a worthy addition to my arsenal. I'll still use the Continuum for more free-form drone sculpting and far-out five-octave ribbon-controller-style sliding action, and the Linnstrument for more precisely fingered stuff that wants to be unconstrained by the linear layout of a piano keyboard, but the Osmose would be my first choice by far for playing expressive parts using physical modeled or sampled simulations of orchestral instruments like cellos or flutes.

Since the Osmose is not far from a "normal" keyboard in size and action, most players will take no time at all to get comfortable with it, and how many times have you played a wonderful cello sound and found yourself wiggling your finger side to side, even if you know full well it won't create vibrato? Well... now it can.

It's really something special and precisely what a lot of people have been wanting for a long time.

Since the Osmose is not far from a "normal" keyboard in size and action