Find below some setup examples that illustrate the possibilities the Osmose keybed offers to play all kinds of synths more expressively.
ℹ Be aware that once you are happy with your setup and adjustments, you can always name and save your custom MIDI config to quickly recall it from the config menu at a later point.
make your monophonic hardware synth expressive
In a monophonic context, it doesn’t matter that much whether a synth supports MPE or not. When there is only one note anyway, it doesn’t pose a problem that modulation is only applied globally for all notes (traditional MIDI) and not independently for multiple notes sounding at the same time (MPE). Therefore, you can make pretty much any monophonic synthesizer more expressive by playing it from Osmose.
Start by connecting Osmose’s DIN output to the hardware synth’s DIN input with a MIDI cable. In the midi i/o tab of the global settings, make sure din mode is set to 1/3 or 2/3. Go to the config menu and load the ‘classic keyboard’ configuration. Ensure that in the adjust menu, mode tab, the selected MIDI channel matches what your monosynth is expecting (normally channel #1).
Osmose’s keybed’s aftertouch will already send channel pressure (“mono aftertouch”), a parameter that often has a direct effect on a synth’s sound. The gesture tab of adjust menu allows you to experiment with sending MIDI CC messages from the initial pressure or aftertouch dimension instead. For example, when choosing CC#1, pressing on Osmose’s keybed will have the same effect as if you were moving the synth’s mod wheel (but without the need for your second hand).
To go further, enable bending in the sensitivity menu by increasing the bending parameter from its classic keyboard’s default value 0. This lets you play vibrato and pitch bends directly from the lateral movements of Osmose’s keys.
Watch this sound example with a Moog Sub Phatty : Osmose CE — Overview
ℹ This setup generally works with any polyphonic hardware synth as well. You need to be aware, however, that when you start playing more than one note, parameter changes like pitch bend or aftertouch or MIDI CC will continue to affect all notes in the same manner. The ‘activation’ parameter that is available in the ‘gesture’ tab of adjust menu as well as in the bending tab of sensitivity menu lets you decide whether it’s e.g. the last note or the highest note that defines the value for all notes.
ℹ Pressure Glide can only work correctly when a synth can be set to +-48 semitones of maximum bending range.
play an external MPE synth with limited voice count
In the case of playing an external MPE synth, connect a DIN cable from Osmose’s DIN output port to the MIDI in port. Verify that the synth you want to control is set to ‘MPE mode’.
Let’s say you would like to use a GS Music E7, which has 7 voices. Head to the config menu and change the MIDI config setting to ‘mpe‘. With MPE, channel 1 is always reserved as the master channel, so individual voices start on channel 2. Go to the mode tab in the adjust menu, and set ‘end ch’ to ‘8’.
Continue to the midi i/o tab in global settings, and set DIN mode to 1/3. Check the midi channel settings on your E7 to be sure they correspond to channels 2-8.
Watch this example to hear how this can sound : MPE: Demystified - creative tutorial #8
play a hardware synth with polyphonic aftertouch
Some synthesizers support polyphonic aftertouch when it comes to their sound engine, but the keybed build into them does not send the parameter. An example for this would be Sequential’s Prophet Rev2. You can use Osmose to actually play with polyphonic aftertouch in this case.
Connect a MIDI DIN cable from Osmose CE’s DIN output to the Prophet’s DIN input. In the midi i/o tab of the global settings, make sure din mode is set to 1/3 or 2/3. Open the config menu and load the ‘poly aftertouch’ configuration.
Go to Prophet Rev2’s settings and verify it receives MIDI on the same channels you are sending out. You can change the MIDI channel that Osmose sends on via adjust menu -> mode tab. Customize press/velocity, aftertouch and bending to taste.
combine multiple synths in your DAW into a “super synth”
To create a ‘super synth’ to control with your Osmose, start by loading in several instrument plugins in your DAW. You can use either the same plugin, or combine different plugins and patches.
For a six-voice polyphony, create 6 tracks, and add the instrument plugins you want to them. Assign track 1 to MIDI channel 1, track 2 to MIDI channel 2, etc, so each track responds to a unique MIDI channel.
In this example, we are using the USB connection of Osmose (Port 1) to control external software. In the config menu, load the ‘multi-channel’ configuration. Continue to the mode tab of the adjust menu, and set ‘start ch.’ to ‘1’ and ‘end ch’ to ‘6’.
When playing on Osmose, each finger will be given its own voice: MIDI notes and parameters will be sent out to the six different synths in a round-robin manner.
Here’s an example of how such a ‘super synth’ can sound: MPE: Demystified - creative tutorial #8
per-note expression for non-mpe orchestral libraries
For orchestral libraries that don’t support MPE, you can still set them up for per-note expression with a workaround.
Let’s say we want 8 voices to control, all using the same sound, e.g. a strings ensemble. Often, orchestral library plugins are multitimbral, so you can load multiple sounds within one plugin instance while still being able to set the MIDI channel for each sound individually.*
Assign each instance its unique, consecutive MIDI channel. Channel 1 for instance 1, channel 2 for instance 2 and so on. Finally, set channel 8 for instance 8.
In Osmose’s config menu, load up the factory ‘multi-channel’ config. Go to the mode tab in the adjust menu. Here, choose ‘1’ for the ‘start ch’, and ‘8’ for the ‘end ch’ so the channel count corresponds.
Find out which MIDI message is expected by the plugin to control its dynamics. This could be CC#1 for example. Go to the gestures tab, and select this common dynamics parameter for both pressure and aftertouch.
To avoid MIDI conflicts, adapt the value ranges with the ‘min’ and ‘max’ parameters, so that pressure sends from 0 to 40, and aftertouch from 41 to 127. You can experiment with where you set the threshold (40/41), as each library offers a slightly different response. The value numbers must always be adjacent to each other For example, a max value of ‘63’ for pressure means the aftertouch min value should be ‘64’.
Watch this example : Osmose CE — Overview
*If your plugin is not multitimbral, you can always create one track with the plugin on it, then duplicate the MIDI track in your DAW until you end up with 8 MIDI tracks. Use the tracks’ MIDI input settings to ensure that every track reacts exclusively to one of the channels 1 to 8. When playing and recording, be sure to arm all those tracks at the same time so you don’t loose voices. Most DAWs have a ‘track folder’ feature that facilitates this.
