How common is sight reading on the Continuum?
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Continuum is as much about trusting your eyes than it is about trusting your ears. Lippold Haken learned the violine after all …
First continuums had only a plain red playing surface indeed !
I’ve had Falcon since it came out, and used it with other mpe controllers.
It’s extremely powerful, to the point it’s a similar to Kontakt… ( but more powerful!) it can build instruments, which is how we get all the expansions … again can be used with player version, or edited with the full Falcon.
BUT, its extensive nature makes it a bit intimidating/ overwhelming… whilst you could throw together a new preset , it’s probably not to your first choice - so I don’t use that much these days.
As for MPE it works , though I found how you add the modulation a bit clunky.
Though they may have polished a bit since I last looked … I need to update my version 
so… if you want something really powerful, want to dedicate time to one synth… its very good.
personally, I found myself, tending to use something a little quicker to use.
my favourite soft synth for mpe is still Madrona Labs Aalto, by quite a margin… it sounds good, very immediate to use and create patches for, and has ‘expression’ at its heart.
(because Madrona Labs already created the Soundplane, so they know about MPE/expression and what a synth needs for this)
what do you think about Roli Equator 2 and Xfer Serum?
never had Serum… too many plugins, not enough time !
I’ve got Equator v1, honestly, I never really enjoyed it (hence why I haven’t upgraded to v2)
Im not totally sure why… I just felt it was a very generic, almost bland sound… it never wow’d/excited me. however, its flexible, and easy to use… so, I don’t doubt you could get good results.
that said, by the time I got Equator, I had a few MPE capable vsts, so perhaps was a bit jaded with all the choice… and was really settled on Aalto as my go-to ( * ) , and was less into vsts anyway.
also Ive not looked at v2, so don’t know how it was improved.
( * ) disclaimer…
I also had a Madrona Labs Soundplane… so Aalto was built for this, and so everything just worked, felt right…
probably if you have a Roli Seaboard , you’d feel the same about Equator !
so, because of that I spent alot of time with Aalto, so even when I use with my Eigenharps (and now Osmose), it feels natural … but thats as much about ‘learning a synth’, as how great Aalto is !
Equator 2 is better in sound than v1 for sure. The interface is still simple enough. The presets rely heavily on effects though (which sound good nonetheless) and the expressivity of the presets is limited. At least editing is a good experience in Equator 2. I won’t connect my Osmose to it though. My Linnstrument is the controller of choice for Equator 2. The latter is the only external plug-in that I’ve purchased on my computer.
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I got a chance to demo an Osmose yesterday and was struck by how few percussion presets there were, have people gotten a lot out of it percussion wise? It also strikes me as something that would be a great drum controller. (Because it triggers instantly, anyone tried this out)
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did they have the latest firmware installed?
the osmose comes installed with a kind of demo firmware, to ‘encourage’ users to install the latest when they get it… the presets are a bit different in that firmware.
I personally thought there were quite a lot of percussive-like presets. how many would depend upon how you would classify, as many are still tonal.
… and of course, it comes down to what you want, I dont want/need many so 15 would be alot to me 
sure its sensitive, so if you tap it lightly it could work.
though, I’ll say, if you hit deeper, the rebound speed on the keys is not as fast as a decent synth keybed. … its not an issue, but something to be aware of…
but frankly, I think there are better controllers for drums.
my Erae Touch is fantastic for this, which I connect to the Osmose.
(so ET = surface, Osmose = Haken sound engine)
why better?
a) its designed for both finger drumming and sticks
b) pads can be bigger ( I like use a 4x2 grid)
c) X/Y are independent.
( c ) is perhaps most important… to me
if you lightly tap the Osmose, you are not going to get to the Y axis,
also frankly, you wont be able to control the X/lateral movement… (also X is kind of sprung)
whereas the Erae Touch, esp with large pads setup as I use, you can tap in a precise X/Y area.
I absolutely love this… its something I do a lot with the Erae Touch -> Eurorack modules.
(Erae Touch + Mutable Instruments Elements is 
)
I will say, I much prefer the pressure/Z axis on the Osmose (over ET) more controllable.
BUT thats more useful for melodic playing … which is why I love the Osmose.
different surfaces suit different purposes - none are perfect for all use-cases.
though of course, we don’t need the ‘perfect’’ case, compromise is fine…
and I will say, I do enjoy tapping out rhythms on the Osmose keys
(resonant drum + osmose keys is a lot of fun)
If I JUST wanted the Haken sound for percussion (which is definitely not my use-case).
Id probably go for something like Erae Touch + Eagan Matrix Module (eurorack)
Yeah I was on the demo firmware so that may have been the issue. I was loving the bowed instruments though, they sound and feel incredible. I’ll have to check out some videos on the percussion presets.
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yeah, I will say, I don’t know how many extras there are, or in what categories they are… basically, I did as I was told… and loaded the ‘proper’ firmware the second I got my Osmose (mainly, because you have to, to use the EM editor)
also as I mentioned, the term ‘percussion’, I use broadly here.
there are not that many kick,snare, toms - if thats what you are looking for.
but Id consider other presets that are just ‘percussive in nature’
this includes many that are tonal, and also some of the more ‘experimental’ sounds, and also some sounds that can be played percussively.
this last point is important, the sounds on the Osmose, and its surface, means many sounds change character significantly depending on how you play them… this is no ‘accident’, its by design.
so someone could play a preset and you think its not percussive, but if they played it differently , it could be.
but, if you are looking for traditional drums, there’s probably only a handful.
though you could quite easily create new ones in the Eagan Matrix.
(and you might well find a few more included in the Continuum presets, that could work out of the box, or with minor tweaks)
certainly its an interesting area to explore…
Suddenly I am interested in an Erae Touch.
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Pretty damn cool you can play it with drumsticks too. The lights seems a bit hard to see when they were showing off it’s step sequencer mode but that could be the nature of cameras and LEDs.
None the less, pretty interesting
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Slightly off- topic, feel free to move this to the relevant discussion
I’m usually suspicious of hardware for which essential configuration features depend on a stand-alone software application. That’s what’s also put me off with Expressive E’s Touché (-> Lié).
It also amazes me that companies are willing to pay loads of money for configuration software which is by design platform-dependent. How come such software is not stored as a browser-compatible web application together with the firmware inside the hardware? The UX would be practically the same, except it would be cross-platform by design and also be accessible by tablet or maybe even by phone for that matter.
Not trying to be sarcastic here, but what about all the other hardware we use which has its own OS? What about everything Apple? I am planning to buy an Osmose, and there is nothing about its reliance on EaganMatrix that I find off-putting. I WANT good hardware/software integration.
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@Lieder the leds are pretty bright… though likely depends on your environment.
(I never use the sequencer… bit gimmicky for me … but perhaps others do)
I played a bit today, and was looking thru the continuum presets, and indeed there are quite a few more percussion ones in there.
one thing I noticed, when playing them with Erae Touch (rather than Osmose or my Eigenharp), I found I needed to turn up the sensitively of the pressure a bit on the ET, otherwise it wasn’t really hitting full pressure - though I guess if you played with sticks the opposite might be true
The Eagan Matrix Editor is decades old… (though obviously continually being updated) ,
and it has served the continuum user base well - so I really don’t see an issue.
could we write something different, perhaps even better, or with newer tech … sure.
but Haken are a small team, and to re-write would be a major development job… its not a simple piece of software - and frankly, they’ve had better things to do with their time.
perhaps it will be updated, perhaps it won’t…
but the Osmose was not sold on the premise of how good or bad the editor was.
in fact, just like the Continuum, there is a certain expectation that many will never use it.
but hey, if its not for you , don’t buy the Osmose… whilst there are talks of a newer editor, perhaps, in the the future, there is no commitment, nor roadmap…
so as always you can only buy based on what is available when you buy it.
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I wonder if there is a way for them or some third party to do some kind of high level software overlay with EaganMatrix underneath it, so those of us who are not interested (or capable) of making new presets with the EaganMatrix can at least have access to more sound design options for existing presets? Something akin to Logic being the interface overlay for the Environment we used to have to use. Could be economical for someone to do this if the Osmose really takes off (which seems pretty likely at this point).
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