MPE Hardware Controllers (Pros/Cons)
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- KVRAF
- 2507 posts since 8 Jun, 2010
- Roger Linn Design
Good food for thought.
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FranklyFlawless FranklyFlawless https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=586325 - KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 809 posts since 24 Oct, 2022 from Abbotsford, British Columbia
Thank you all for your replies to this thread, especially from Roger in regards to Bruno's concerns for custom firmware post-sale repairs (and lack thereof). I no longer have the interest to directly contact Bruno again about the Exquis' closed-source firmware, so I will leave it to those concerned to do so instead.
The hardware override switch is news to me. I do not ever recall it being mentioned in the LinnStrument's manual, the forums, or from the Roger Linn Design YouTube channel. Is there a detailed process for end-users on how to utilize it for firmware recovery purposes?
My local Long & McQuade in Abbotsford acquired an Expressive E Osmose for demonstration, so during my time there a few weeks ago, I had the chance to play it for about 15-20 minutes. Here are my thoughts about the experience:
Pros:
This is the only MPE controller that both Long & McQuade and Tom Lee Music sell anymore. All of the ROLI products and the LinnStrument that were listed on Tom Lee Music no longer exist.
The hardware override switch is news to me. I do not ever recall it being mentioned in the LinnStrument's manual, the forums, or from the Roger Linn Design YouTube channel. Is there a detailed process for end-users on how to utilize it for firmware recovery purposes?
My local Long & McQuade in Abbotsford acquired an Expressive E Osmose for demonstration, so during my time there a few weeks ago, I had the chance to play it for about 15-20 minutes. Here are my thoughts about the experience:
Pros:
- Familiar piano/keyboard layout.
- Compact width compared to 88-keys.
- Keys felt soft.
- The length is larger compared to digital pianos.
- Performing aftertouch requires retraining, since there are two distinct thresholds of pressure involved during performance.
This is the only MPE controller that both Long & McQuade and Tom Lee Music sell anymore. All of the ROLI products and the LinnStrument that were listed on Tom Lee Music no longer exist.
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- KVRist
- 321 posts since 8 Jul, 2009
The two Osmose pros for me are that wiggling the keys left and right is a gesture some keyboardists have long performed and imagined utilising even when it doesnt do anything on nearly every other keyboard. And the sheer amount of physical travel in both zones of downwards key pressure allows for some incredibly nuanced expressivity.
It still manages to frustrate those who somehow imagine being able to instantly play it perfectly with no retraining required, both for the 'performing aftertouch' reason you mentioned but also because any previously irrelevant sideways pressure applied to keys now causes pitch bends, many of which may be unintended and unwanted. Especially notable when playing all sorts of chords. All sorts of previously inconsequential 'bad habits' in this respect now have implications, people end up noticing that theyve been dragging their fingers or that the way certain fingers touch certain keys is dragging those keys to the left or right.
The lack of CC74 being on a completely separate axis is also perhaps more painful for people with experience of other MPE controllers to come to terms with than expected, as is the lack of being able to do very long continuous pitchbends via the sweeping gestures we are used to on other MPE surfaces.
The inclusion of a built in synth engine brings with it the usual issues of the sound not being to everyones tastes, or moaning about factory presets. Hardware synth fans miss the forest of knobs and sliders that they are used to on many hardware synths, and the frustrations that come from the convoluted concepts and user interface of the software editor for the internal EaganMatrix synth engine are well known. And conversely, there seem to be quite a lot of people out there who have not figured out how to harness the Osmose as an MPE controller for other synths effectively at all. Sometimes its because of limitations in the MPE capabilities of other hardware MPE synths, or because they havent learnt how to sculpt MPE patches effectively at all. Or because they've been spoilt by the extent to which the built in synth engine has expressive gestures at the very heart of every patch and struggle to easily recreate that in synths with more rigid architectures, more limited use of MPE processing and modulation destinations, and stuff like the tendency to rely on traditional envelopes rather than using your fingers as the envelope. They tend to experience a disconnect when using traditional envelopes in other MPE-capable synths standard presets and arent always sure why, and the difference is quite stark compared to what they experience when playing the internal synth presets, a lot of the Osmose magic vanishes when that happens. In that scenario the impression of a proper cohesive musical instrument can easily fall away and they are suddenly left with the feeling of a somewhat quirky controller that just starts to resemble polyAT+ rather than a glorious instrument that purrs at their every touch. Using the handful of soft synths that actually come with carefully crafted MPE presets would overcome much of that, and the situation could be further improved if we see more dedicated MPE patch sound designers emerge to share or sell MPE presets for a wide range of MPE synths in future. Expressive E might also have something up their sleeves which will help.
It still manages to frustrate those who somehow imagine being able to instantly play it perfectly with no retraining required, both for the 'performing aftertouch' reason you mentioned but also because any previously irrelevant sideways pressure applied to keys now causes pitch bends, many of which may be unintended and unwanted. Especially notable when playing all sorts of chords. All sorts of previously inconsequential 'bad habits' in this respect now have implications, people end up noticing that theyve been dragging their fingers or that the way certain fingers touch certain keys is dragging those keys to the left or right.
The lack of CC74 being on a completely separate axis is also perhaps more painful for people with experience of other MPE controllers to come to terms with than expected, as is the lack of being able to do very long continuous pitchbends via the sweeping gestures we are used to on other MPE surfaces.
The inclusion of a built in synth engine brings with it the usual issues of the sound not being to everyones tastes, or moaning about factory presets. Hardware synth fans miss the forest of knobs and sliders that they are used to on many hardware synths, and the frustrations that come from the convoluted concepts and user interface of the software editor for the internal EaganMatrix synth engine are well known. And conversely, there seem to be quite a lot of people out there who have not figured out how to harness the Osmose as an MPE controller for other synths effectively at all. Sometimes its because of limitations in the MPE capabilities of other hardware MPE synths, or because they havent learnt how to sculpt MPE patches effectively at all. Or because they've been spoilt by the extent to which the built in synth engine has expressive gestures at the very heart of every patch and struggle to easily recreate that in synths with more rigid architectures, more limited use of MPE processing and modulation destinations, and stuff like the tendency to rely on traditional envelopes rather than using your fingers as the envelope. They tend to experience a disconnect when using traditional envelopes in other MPE-capable synths standard presets and arent always sure why, and the difference is quite stark compared to what they experience when playing the internal synth presets, a lot of the Osmose magic vanishes when that happens. In that scenario the impression of a proper cohesive musical instrument can easily fall away and they are suddenly left with the feeling of a somewhat quirky controller that just starts to resemble polyAT+ rather than a glorious instrument that purrs at their every touch. Using the handful of soft synths that actually come with carefully crafted MPE presets would overcome much of that, and the situation could be further improved if we see more dedicated MPE patch sound designers emerge to share or sell MPE presets for a wide range of MPE synths in future. Expressive E might also have something up their sleeves which will help.
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- KVRAF
- 2507 posts since 8 Jun, 2010
- Roger Linn Design
I think Expressive-E did an excellent design on the Osmose, and it’s a great choice for piano keyboard players who want to add some of the functions of expressive touch control without requiring them to change their piano keyboard skills. Any such new design will present some compromises but I think they’ve come up with a well-considered and balanced design.
Frank — my impression of Long & McQuade is that they’re more of a commodity musical instrument store, carrying items that have larger demand, which the new Osmose is currently experiencing. They’re smart to do this because they have significant real estate and employee costs. It’s a shame that there aren’t more local places to try out a LinnStrument, but that seems to be the new normal in the current internet sales era.
Frank — my impression of Long & McQuade is that they’re more of a commodity musical instrument store, carrying items that have larger demand, which the new Osmose is currently experiencing. They’re smart to do this because they have significant real estate and employee costs. It’s a shame that there aren’t more local places to try out a LinnStrument, but that seems to be the new normal in the current internet sales era.
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- KVRAF
- 2507 posts since 8 Jun, 2010
- Roger Linn Design
Hi Frank,FranklyFlawless wrote: ↑Thu Oct 26, 2023 6:24 am The hardware override switch is news to me. I do not ever recall it being mentioned in the LinnStrument's manual, the forums, or from the Roger Linn Design YouTube channel. Is there a detailed process for end-users on how to utilize it for firmware recovery purposes?
The “force update” switch is really a minor feature and not worth mentioning. There has never been a case where it was needed because if LinnStrument is ever bricked due to, for example, repeated power brownouts during flash writes, it always wakes up ready to receive an OS reload that fixes it. That hardware switch would only be used if someone went to significant effort to distribute a malware update. This is actually pretty difficult to do, given that the internal USB coprocessor (which isn’t field-updatable) is able to assert hardware control over the main ARM chip, forcing it to accept an update.
