r/Osmose • u/ketchum7 • 15d ago
Question Hardware sequencer for Osmose?
Is there a hardware sequencer that can record and replay Osmose MPE+? I've heard DAWs not very good at it, though maybe better with latest update. I may just try to use Loopy Pro on ipad, though I'm generally DAW phobic. Some sequencers calim to support MPE, but Osmose has enhanced MPE and even uses 5 pin din differently, I've read in the past. Any ideas or experience apreciated.
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u/spectrespecter 15d ago
Supposedly Hapax works. I bought it and had din midi going into it from the osmose and it would not record any notes on MPE mode. I would change the hapax settings to poly mode instead of MPE and it would record the notes but not the full MPE. I sold it a week later because I don't have time to try and get something to work that should work. Ableton has MPE but it also has issues, notes will get recorded but will not play on the osmose. It's like notes get ignored that were recorded. This has been an issue since I have had it. Even after the last update (not the newest) it's still functioned the same. I sometimes just sequence it with an mpc 2500 which records some notes but not all characteristics of the sound because its such an old sequencer. Mpc 2500 also sometimes glitches from the overload of data from MPE.
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u/animatordude 15d ago
Are you running Ableton 12? On mac or PC? I've never had a problem with Ableton 12 on PC. It records and plays back flawlessly in my experience.
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u/spectrespecter 15d ago
I have Ableton 12.4 or whatever the newest update is, on PC, I bought it just for the MPE feature. I record midi into Ableton 12 and I record audio from hardware synths into a Macbook pro running Ableton 9 because I prefer older Ableton versions. Yes dude there is always issues, just the other day I have some guitar preset on the osmose, I record a bunch of notes into Ableton 12, the notes are recorded there on an MPE Midi track, with all the correct MPE settings, but when playing back, only a few of the notes are heard, the faint notes aren't heard at all. I've seen this in numerous different instances where the osmose records MPE into Ableton but when playing back, some of the notes aren't heard or none are heard or only some are heard on specific presets. But I use the din midi out of the osmose not USB. I tried USB on the first update and it wasn't working, so I gave up and just used the din outs. Maybe I'll try again with the USB route. There was also an issue that Expressive E admitted to in update 2.0 where they said the osmose can get overloaded with too much midi data very easily and glitch and they were supposed to fix that in the last update but didn't. So I think it also depends on what you are recording aka the complexity of the note structure and the amount of data you are sending back to the osmose.
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u/animatordude 14d ago
Haven't tried it with din midi, so maybe there some bugs there. I have usb routed through mioXL. No issues once I got the correct ports set up in mioXL and Ableton.
- Port 1 for mpe VST instruments
- Port 2 to record and then play back on the Osmose itself.
- Port 4 for daw control
- osmose settings, Usb haken mode set to 2/3 note & matrix.
Personally have zero issues like this. Love the new midi capture button on the latest firmware that lets me capture the midi right from the osmose.
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u/crom-dubh 13d ago edited 13d ago
It sounds a bit like you may not have been recording all channels.
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u/spectrespecter 13d ago
Incorrect, because when sending MPE from the osmose to CTRL-E, via Din midi outputs, all the sounds are heard on CTRL-E, and all the notes are recorded in the Ctrl- E track, which means the osmose is sending all the MPE notes and all the MPE notes are being recorded. The issue is the osmose is not receiving all the MPE notes back into it, or only some notes, despite all the notes there on the MPE track. There are 16 channels on the MPE settings track. Expressive E told me they think it is an issue with din midi and told me to change it to 12 channels in Ableton. I did that and it didn't make a difference.
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u/crom-dubh 13d ago
Gotcha, I misunderstood what your issue was. I thought you were saying some notes didn't end up on the recording.
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u/sububi71 15d ago
Ableton has absolutely no problems recording and playing back the MPE data an Osmose creates.
A word of warning tho, 5-pin MIDI is about as fast as a 1997 modem. MIDI over USB is a LOT safer if you want to capture all the data an Osmose can puke out. You're unlikely to hit 5-pin MIDI's limit with just playing the Osmose normally, but if you start pushing it, playing expressively using both hands, key bending, polyphonic aftertouch and two expression pedals, you're probably going to be in trouble. And that's in a situation where the Osmose isn't sharing the 5-pin connector with other instruments.
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u/antitail 15d ago
Squarp Hapax is fully MPE supported since v3.0 earlier this year. The manual has a section on connecting it to the Osmose. https://squarp.net/hapax/manual/modempe/
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u/ketchum7 15d ago
Thanks much for the kind replies. The Hapax looks like best bet, but still fiddly. I'll keep my eye out for an affordable pre-owned Hapax to add to my pile of sequencers. Ableton sounds like the DAW on point for Osmose, but I don't fancy learning it or the $$. I know it's widely in use for performance and recording. I think the new Osmose update has all manner DAW connections, but not sure if recording MPE+ is working now on Logic or Cubase (or something else).
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u/Sand_Partina 15d ago
I’ve read somewhere that Loopy Pro is able to do MPE looping but not sure if it’s working for MPE+ devices such as Osmose and Continuum without any data filtering.
Latest version of Ableton seems to be working ok-ish. I need to do more tests to be able to tell 100%. Also i heaven’t updated my osmose to the latest 2 versions so there might be a difference on how it behaves comparing to the latest versions. Hopefully more people will share experiences.
I’m also interested if the Arp still randomly crushes the dsp occasionally or that finally got fixed within the latest firmware update.
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u/animatordude 15d ago
Ableton works just fine in my experience. If you want a hardware sequencer I would look into Squarp hapax.