I like the elegant look, and the engine sounds good so far. My predicted concerns: 1) Ease of sound editing, 2) Amount of facility needed to make good use of its expressions.
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I quite literally had to ditch something to fit a Digitone in here last week. Space is that tight in my studio these days.
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Yeah, impossible not to go for it. The Continuum is amazing and with the discount you get a very unusual and unique synthesizer plus a very special keyboard. The price is fantastic value. The website was slow, presumingly due to the demand. I surely did not have this on my list but having followed the work of Lippold Haken and Edmund Eagen, I am an admirer of whatever they do.
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I agree. I reckon this would be a good companion for the Continuum, with each filling in the bits that the other does not cover as well (for example, full-range polyphonic glissando on the Continuum, better traditional approach to adjacent notes on this).
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I am no keyboard player, totally helpless and yet even I can play the continuum. Sounds strange, considering even Haken saying you need years to learn it. For pad sounds, for the percussive stuff, however you get amazing sounds and soundscapes with it, with no need for keyboard skills. You really feel you are playing directly connected to the thing, so you can express yourself without keyboard skills. Synthesis with the Eagen matrix is far too complicated for me but the presets give you several instruments that are enough. Its like someone giving a violin etc, which is enough to play with for a very long time. Difficult to describe but really very different to everything else.
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Same here. I had an accident some time ago that permanently damaged my right hand, and lost what little ability I had to play with any amount of technical skill (a child of the monosynth era, I was never any good with my left hand). Nevertheless, I picked up the Continuum pretty easily. It’s internal synth engine sounds fantastic (especially run through a bit of Analog Heat). Plus, it’s now my favorite way to play my analog synths (with the optional CVC unit). There’s something about the interface that makes even staccato passages come alive. I was surprised by how much I liked it for playing bass tracks.
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Wonderful development the Osmose instrument.
From sound design point of view I like to have a more dedicated UI for creating your own sounds, same for the Continuum. They need to get Axel Hartmann involved for a tactile UI layout. I would love to pay 2k extra for this. It’s not my favourite thing to design sounds on a computer.
I hope to see a future with new synths that feature Osmose or Continuum control.
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EaganMatrix would be more than enough for me. I wouldn’t need another synth engine in this thing.
EaganMatrix is a modular synth already, with patching under a Synth-like matrix paradigm. They can just drop in new modules as user requests come in, be it an oscillator, a filter, or whatever without having to put in a whole new synth engine.
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woah, nice to see someone finally do this… can definitely see getting on down the line. I feel like the other MPE options lacked a bit in the feel for strike where this seems like it shines for striking style patches.
This thing is starting to sink it’s hooks in. I want to see more of it used with vsts and daws. My wallet doesn’t want that, but I do.
This sort of approach is similar to what I envisage for a Push 3/grid controller. If it was this sort of tech in a new Push I’d insta buy.
Only got space for one keyboard though. At the moment that’s a Komolete Kontrol s49 mk2. That never actually gets used
Cant wait to see Osmose and Octatrack videos. Capturing percussive stuff and pads/leads would be fun.
Pre ordered! I love these truly innovative interface designs. I like to have more ways of expression in my live performance.
I played the Haken Continuum in March for the first time and I was impressed by the possibilities of musical expression. I was a bit lost on the flat surface, but the sliding is great. Didn’t like the mini version very much. 4400€ for the half size is a lot for me. The pre order price for the Osmose is a fantastic offer I think.
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These lovely looking amps were mentioned before, I believe, in another Haken related thread. Still not in production but apparently it’s a lot closer. Probably not the right solutions for club beats, 808 kicks, gnarly Moog bass, etc. but designed for the acoustic-like sounds of the Continuum.
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Had some responses from the Expressive E guys and for anyone wondering, it has multichannel support (much like the Roli seaboards) so for those using non MPE DAW’s there are work arounds to get that playability in the box.
Not ideal for someone like me who just wants plug and play but it is as expected really until Ableton (and others) adopt MPE. Plus there is always the built in synth engine to enjoy anyway.
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When I began looking at the Continuum, it was only meant to be a controller for Kyma. By the time I could afford one, the Eagenmatrix synth had been added. Nevertheless, my primary motivation was still to use it as a controller for Kyma. Once I got the thing and began playing with the Eagenmatrix synth, it pretty much took over for me. Far more often than not, I’m using it with the Eagenmatrix rather than with Kyma. Oh, and CV. I use it as a CV controller more than I do as a Kyma controller. Funny.
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Bitwig has supported MPE for a long time not.
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There are many nice new synths out there, but this one takes the cake for me. A super expressive keyboard with MPE, seemingly good keyboard build, and the EaganMatrix (which sounds awesome) built in to be played stand alone? PRE-ORDER PARTY BABEEEEEE!
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Ah, so you want them to add a Falcon player engine. That makes sense.
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Yep, but not really interested in switching away from Ableton.
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I guess the more powerful option would be to port all their patches to EaganMatrix, instead of just getting UVI to port the Falcon player or whatever.
I imagine the wait for customers would be longer, but perhaps more rewarding, at least for those who are the power user type