I’ve always found it to be very jammable personally - more so that other drum machines I’ve had. I enjoy the less than vanilla sounds that arise as a result.
It’s true that when I’ve used it in a situation where predictabilty is paramount (live / jams etc) that I rely heavily on the ‘performance’ buttons such as roll / reverse etc… as well as the two sliders (well four if you count the buttons)… which when set up correctly make the Tempest extremely jammable with a kit you’ve set up for the purpose previously.
It certainly divides opinion. A lot of people don’t like it at all. And it definitely takes programming time (i.e. work) and dedication to get the best sounds from it and to assemble a broad pallet of sounds that can be jammed out.
It took me a long time to get to my perfect Kick drum on it for example and several years to arrive at a set of sounds i thought really bought out the best in its sound engine…
It’s no Model:Cycles
I want a Tempest even more now… Must resist!! Loved reading your posts @JohntheSavage, the Tempest is certainly a unique beast and I’ve wanted one for years. Got a Pulsar-23 now which is nothing like it but gives me that hands-on, analog feel that I was craving. If I ever sell the Pulsar it’ll be for a Tempest.
Seems like my Tempest is getting to the age when I want to replace buttons and pots (pads and stripes are still doing fine ).
Wondering if it’s possible to replace buttons to a different kind of thing, not clicky, more soft and sensible? I believe this could add a lot to ui, speed up the workflow and make the whole experience more friendly.
Is it possible to fit something instead of those clicky dustsuckers?
I think there are probably more-than-a-few good reasons to stick with stock Tempest parts from DSI/Sequential.
Never mind that the positive ‘click’ of those buttons was a conscious design decision, meant to increase the tactility of the Tempest’s interface.
I, for one, like the physical feedback of those buttons, especially on a noisy stage, wherein feel is all I’ve got to go on. But that’s just me.
Cheers!
P.S. The buttons on the Tempest are of the self-cleaning varietal. So, if some of them are acting up, the first thing DSI support is likely to recommend is that you “press the button 50-100 times with a certain amount of force”.
John, I remember you saying you had given up on the tempest in the thread in dsi, after many months of going back and forth with roger linn and pym about OS fixes.
Glad to see you going to bat here.
I still have mine and never updated it past whatever was the current firmware in 2016.
It’s hard to put myself back there now; but in retrospect, a lot did get accomplished, in the way of bug fixes, in that last year of development, when Roger and I started working together. All told, I think we documented, correlated, prioritized, and ultimately fixed 140 critical bugs.
It was a bittersweet experience though. I remember being extremely frustrated when Dave called pain and pulled the plug before we could get everything fixed; and I’m reminded of it, to this day, every time I turn on my Tempest.
On the other hand, working with Roger was an honor and a pleasure, and we remain friends to this day, still talking tech every chance we get. That alone is a wonderful takeaway.
Regardless, I’m thankful to have been given the opportunity to help improve the Tempest, both for myself and on behalf of the community. It was pretty special watching everyone come together that way.
Who knows, maybe someday, Chris or some other bright spark will endeavor to get back inside that esoteric code and iron out the last of the wrinkles.
Either way, I reckon the Tempest is destined to be a classic.
Maybe you’re right, to keep it in original state and don’t break the design… at the same time even with new buttons sometimes it’s needed to press it twice to get to the menu or to save sound, maybe it’s even not buttons themselves but slow response from processor, not sure.
And yes, support suggested to press them hard 50 times for self cleaning, but seems like it doesn’t help much, same on my tetra.
They are amazing sounding machines, just want them to respond instantly and bring back the joy of using them.
Well, for what it’s worth, my Tempest is going on 12 years old now, and my colleague’s Tetra is several years older than that… Both having been used and travelled extensively, and we’ve yet to experience any issues with the buttons.
Regardless, there should be no measurable lag, due to processor response time, when switching screens or calling up menus. You might, however, encounter some blurring if you scroll through a long list of files really quickly. This is a result of the screen refresh rate being slightly delayed by the alphabetization of files.
The only other thing I might suggest or suspect is that some operations (saving files and accessing certain menus and pages) do require two button pushes, or a combination of button pushes, that one can sometimes miss. But it sounds like you know your gear, so that’s probably not it.
Of course, if you smoke or vape around your gear, all bets are off.
Either way, all the buttons, pots, and encoders in those synths are user serviceable with minimal effort and expertise. Otherwise, DSI/Sequential will do it for you for a very reasonable flat fee.
Test all knobs, all pads, all switches, all outputs, the screen… The usual really. The tact switches are probably the first thing to go on these are they are on the MPCs though I’ve had no issue with mine.
