The Sound Of Dune: Part Two – Hans Zimmer Redefines Film Scoring With Osmose


“This should have been built 100 years ago – it may well become the story of 21st-century music”: Hans Zimmer on the next-gen synth he used for the Dune: Part Two score

Synth manufacturer Expressive E has released a new mini-documentary, Behind the Music of Dune 2, with Hans Zimmer, giving viewers an insight into how Zimmer and his team composed the film’s epic and futuristic score.

If you’ve seen either of the two recent Dune movies, you know that the scores, by Hans Zimmer, are an evocative mix of futuristic synthesized sounds, otherworldly ambiences and musical influences from around the world.

With Dune: Part 2, Zimmer created a score that is at the cutting edge of film soundtracks, using state-of-the-art expressive synthesizers to orchestrate his music, with sounds that blur the edge between electronic and acoustic sound.

The video, embedded below, explores how Zimmer created a unique orchestra for the soundtrack:

In the documentary, Zimmer explains that he wanted to avoid composing a traditional orchestral score for the Dune series, in order to place the film, a sci-fi based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune, in a different universe. “Why can’t we believe that there will be new instruments, there will be new sonic textures?” Zimmer says. “Why can’t we go and invent new things that don’t remind us, in a peculiar way, of the past?”

In his quest to discover “unique sounds” for the score, Zimmer employed the Osmose, an instrument developed by Expressive E and Haken Audio that he said empowered him to “play the music of an imaginary future”. “We had one or two [Osmoses],” says collaborator Steven Doar, “and we started playing with it, then Hans said ‘we need five more!'”

Announced in 2020 but released last year, Osmose is an MPE-enabled synthesizer and controller that offers performers three dimensions of control from every single key, thanks to its AKA (Augmented Keyboard Action) technology. The first dimension is the initial key press, the second is the synth’s polyphonic aftertouch and the third is the lateral movement of its keys, made possible by the Osmose’s raised keybed. Along with Zimmer, Osmose has earned a number of famous fans since its release, including Flying Lotus and Jean-Michel Jarre.

Rather than having a piece of technology in the room, you suddenly have another musician in the room, that you’re having a conversation with,” Zimmer says of Osmose. “For us, it was an obvious thing once it existed. You’ve built an instrument for Dune, so we should take advantage of that. You guys spent an enormous amount of time building exactly the instrument that should have been built 100 years ago.”

The documentary provides a fascinating glimpse into how Osmose was used to create synthesized vocal lines for the score. “Hans had an idea for this very long vocal part that would just continue throughout a few scenes, and would constantly be evolving,” Doar says. “It was this idea that within one note, so much can happen. That’s what [the Osmose] does,” adds Zimmer. “This instrument allows us to play the music of an imagined future,” notes Zimmer about the Osmose.

Christophe Duquesne, instrument designer for Haken Audio, explains how the team transformed a sample of musician Molly Rogers’ voice into a synth patch using Osmose’s resynthesis feature, giving them the ability to not only play the vocal, as you would with a sampler, but also manipulate its timbral characteristics in real time via the instrument’s expressive keyboard.

“This is an important instrument,” Zimmer says of the Osmose. “It’s an important step forward in what can become the history of 21st-century music. While nations are fighting and politicians are useless, and television programs like The Bachelor are ruining any culture that we might still have left, you guys [Expressive E] went and built something that can actually create beauty and rage and emotion, and all sorts of things that amplify who we are at our best.” High praise indeed.

Find out more about Osmose at Expressive E website.

Music For Synthesizers + MIDI-Controlled Music Box


Synthesist and instrument designer Christophe Duquesne shared this video, capturing a composition for synthesizers & electronic music box.

The arrangement features:

  • The Muro Box-N40 Standard, a MIDI-controllable music box;
  • The Continuum synthesizer and Eagan Matrix module from Haken Audio; and
  • An Expressive E Osmose synthesizer.

Duquesne is part of the team behind the development of the Haken Continuum and Eagan Matrix synth engine; the developer of several software synthesizers and effects; and the founder of La Voix du Luthier, a company that makes resonators for electronic music, in the tradition of the diffuseurs of French instrument designer Maurice Martenot. He also contributed to the unique sound of the Hans Zimmer soundtrack for Dune: Part II.

What Duquesne shared about the technical details of this piece:

“The Muro Box-N40 s controlled via MIDI by a Korg SV1. The N40 is an enhanced version of the N20, the main additional feature being a chromatic scale and internal piezo microphone, both being huge improvements!

The voice is built from and analysis of the voice of Khatija Rahman and resynthesised by the Continuum. The pitch and shimmer effect on the Murobox are done by an Eagan Matrix Module. Both are done thanks to the new 10.40 features of the Eagan Matrix.

The murobox is recorded with 3 internal piezo and an IQ7 microphone. The piezo are connected to a small preamp (TubeMP from ART, but multiple others will work).

The output of the preamp goes to a Eurorack (in an Eagan Matrix Module). I then a processing chain with a notch filter cuting a frequency band aroud 280/300 Hz, and a noisegate in order to lower the motor noise. The Eagan Matrix module then adds shimmers and pitch effects.”

Expressive E Osmose 2.0 Update Now Available


Today, Expressive E shared this overview of Osmose 2.0, the first major firmware update for the unique expressive synthesizer.


Osmose 2.0 is a free update that introduces 7 new features:

  1. Save your favorite presets
  2. Make playlists for your projects
  3. Switch presets & playlists easily w/ program changes
  4. Discover the new preset browser
  5. Use press glide in external midi mode
  6. Use the mpe arpeggiator in external midi mode
  7. Save custom midi config presets

Topics covered:

0:00 intro

0:36 add presets to favorites

1:03 create preset playlists

1:48 switch presets via midi program changes

2:31 discover the new preset browser

3:20 use press glide in ext. midi mode

4:48 use the mpe arpeggiator in ext. midi mode

6:18 save custom midi config presets

7:10 how to update

7:36 what’s next for osmose?

Osmose 2.0 is available now as a free update.