Expressive E Osmose 61 CE

At heart, I am a classical musician and composer (flute, guitar, piano, oboe), but have recently started exploring the world of electronic music, presets, a new DAW and MIDI controllers. I previously bought AKAI's EWI 5000 (to be able to practise woodwind pieces at home) and the new guitar from Aeroband (to play with headphones) and bought a better version of Bigwig so that I could access micro-pitch scales.

A new MIDI keyboard was the next logical step and after much research, I opted for the Expressive E Osmose CE 61. I am blown away by this instrument! The ability to bend notes, add vibrato to each note expressively through MPE, arpeggiate at will, add portamento, etc. make for an exciting playing experience. The free software, ctrl-e, contains hundreds of instrument sounds, many of which are set up for MPE use. As a beginner, I already have a highly adaptive and feature-full instrument at my fingertips, even though I haven't yet started to create/edit my own unique sounds.

After a little bit of initial difficulty in the setup - the instructions are good, but not foolproof - I now have the Osmose CE integrated with the software and connected to my DAW. The instrument's onboard screen and controllers mean that I can set many parameters without taking my hands away from the instrument's keyboard.

Are there any drawbacks? I am a little humbled by how much there is yet to learn, and I need to adapt my playing technique to meet the huge opportunities that the Osmose CE key actions provide. I am not finding the LCD screen or the controllers to be intuitive to use as yet, but again, I am just a beginner.

What is clear is that the Osmose CE is a fantastically exciting new instrument, packed with features, with excellent software, and DAW integration.