There was a B-stock CE 49 at a reduced price and in a moment of weakness, I got it.
It arrived yesterday, and so far I’m very happy with it. The original Osmose 49 and also the 61 had joined (and left) my humble home studio, so I have a good basis to compare.
A controller is what I wanted all along. The Osmose’s internal synth is very good but apart from a couple of presets it wasn’t fitting the kind of music I am going for.
Also maybe I wasn’t lucky (or I wasn’t too familiar) with the keybeds of the previous two units, but there were a couple of keys that would have a slightly different feeling, a little click, or… something that would distract me. This CE 49 has a very solid and satisfying keybed so far.
The metal body is a great choice. The choice of white in contrast with the keybed makes it look gorgeous – and this is coming from someone who systematically goes for black versions whenever evailable.
The knobs have a slightly cheap feeling. I mean only the caps, the type of plastic they are made of. Are these the same as the Osmose synths? I don’t recall getting this feeling before, but without having side by side I can’t compare. It’s just the caps, the resistance and travel when turning the knows is good. Maybe someone will try to upgrade the knobs and will have a recommendation for the rest of us.
I got the CE automatically recognized by Bitwig on Linux and everything works as explained in the documentation and the corresponding video. No need to install any scripts if you are in Bitwig 6. The docs say that Bitwig 5 users can also get this integration after installing the extension manually.
What is a (rather expected) bummer, is that I haven’t been able to get the Ctrl-E “software bundle” working. After a couple of years without Wine & yabridge, I install them again and tried to install Ctrl-E. There is a chance that the actual Ctrl-E app and some/all of the soft synths included do work (yabridge and Bitwig see the plugin), but I am stuck in this PACE iLok installation asnd therefore license authorization. I will ask around if someone has succeeded getting this PACE iLok thing running but my hopes are less than low. And my motivation for Windows workarounds in general is even lower.
So unless I get a surprise, I will deinstall Ctrl-E, yabridge, and Wine, and I will patiently collect MPE-friendly presets in Bitwig and other Linux native soft-synths. Suggestions welcome!