Love that bag you got with it!
I have some links which I read religiously when I got the Tempest:
https://forum.sequential.com/index.php?topic=1348.0
https://forum.sequential.com/index.php/topic,34.0.html
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Many thanks for the tips! The Tempest does seem logical and well thought out. It’s just that my brain is wired the Elektron way right now after heavy use of their instruments. I’m sure the Tempest will start to make sense once I’ve had enough time to study and play it.
Yeah it was the same for me with the MD as well, being my first Elektron. Unlike the OT and MnM I got something out of it at first using the EFM machine preset kit. But once I tried making my own sounds, that’s when your journey really begins with an instrument IMO and I was lost for a long time, ha! I’m pretty sure the Tempest will frustrate the F out of me every now and then but I’m going to be patient. We’ll see where I’m at a year from now. 
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I read a great tip somewhere in regards to working with Tempest… use your time for music making and patch making separately.
It used to frustrate me that I got caught up in patch making when I just wanted to jam out, so instead focus a cpl of hours of making sounds you like and then apply it to a musical context. The machine is so deep that you literally get lost in it.
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I’ve loved switching into 16 Beats mode and processing the whole pattern, even though it was pretty simple, the result was almost always great, then I was taking that beat, copying to another beat, then processing there further, copying it again…etc. Of course after that you can switch from beat to beat using those amazing pads. For me designing sound on Tempest was quite boring but performing with it is really something else.
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This is my favourite thing about playing with the Tempest, it takes performance to another level when you can seamlessly jump between patterns (‘Beats’) as they’re playing and apply the four performance slider effects of your choice, as well as using the momentary Roll and Reverse functions to further mangle things. Truly hypnotic.
I was playing with one of the factory preset projects (Funk Kit) and recorded something - just a bit of fun but goes to show how the Tempest is quite capable of functioning as a dry drum kit as well as a razor-gargling techno bastard:
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Ha! The same line of inquiry took me from perkons to tempest. Both awesome but several features sold me on the T. And with that went the dough for the perkons.
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Additional +1 just for “razor-gargling techno bastard”
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I think I’ll be getting a tempest. Seems to be a sound designers dream.
It has been mentioned here that using it with midi is problematic. I don’t care about CC’s but can I expect that it will work fine with clock and transport from OT i.e. flawless start/stop in sync?
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Never had any sync or clock issues. Works like it should
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Thats the best dry drum kit ive heard from a drum machine. The microtiming and groove and authentic sound make it a winner. Now i want one!!
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That is great news, Is there anything else I should be thinking of when being used to Elektron machines? I know they are very different and that there’ll be some menu diving but I believe I’ll have depth and sound design capabilities with that. I’ll have a look at the manual but until then:
Is there a severe limitation in how many of my own sounds I can store?
Can beats launching via the pads happen in sync?
Did I hear mention of a Control all feature or do you mainly set up the sliders for modulating sounds in realtime?
In which ways does it have great performance capabilities?
I feel qualified to answer this as I’ve recently set up a Tempest template that has all the MIDI settings dialled in.
Firstly, in terms of CCs, the only ones available are for Beat performance - ie the global performance macros like filter cutoff, reverse envelopes etc. It’s actually pretty cool to control these externally. In terms of controlling the voices, this is easy to set up by choosing which notes correspond to which pads. And while there is no way to chromatically control every voice externally (which would have been wicked) it is possible to play one of the pads polyphonically, so if you want to have a polyphonic Prophet-esque voice in your song, this can be achieved fairly easily, though of course the voice count will be reduced accordingly so may be best for overdubs.
In terms of transport, I have had problems with start/stop as it definitely drifted a lot for me. That said, when sequencing anything externally I use the sequencer not to send transport but just notes. In this way I have an Oxi One controlling the Tempest two banks of 16 pads like they were a drum/synth module and it’s great. Or for production I’ll create a pattern in the Tempest, record the individual sections into Ableton Live and treat them like stems.
There is a limit and I think it’s something quite silly, but that said there are tons of presets on my machine which I need to remove anyway and everything can be backed up via SysEx. Haven’t hit the limit yet.
Oh yes, that’s what I was doing on my last demo a few posts back. Beats can be launched at various divisions of the tempo (like clips in Live) or instantly. Never misses a beat. It’s sick.
Control All style features are available - when in 16 Beats mode the Tempest allows you to fiddle with parameters such as Roll (beat repeat), filter cutoff (high and low pass), decay and pitch across all the pads at once. And the sliders… Seriously, they’re SO cool. Okay, so there are two sliders, and each one has an A and B state toggled with Shift, so effectively get four sliders. Each one can be set up to be momentary or latching, and each one can be in +, - or +/- state (effectively allowing the strips to react differently to presses). The strips are touch AND pressure sensitive, and both touch and pressure can be assigned to different values. In 16 Beats mode there are eight Beat FX which can be assigned to the touch strips for sound mangling live.
The amalgamation of everything mentioned above, along with those lovely pads, the swing, the fact each Beat is completely standalone in terms of pad content, slider fx and tempo… It’s really a ridiculously overspecced machine. It’s far from perfect but if you learn to accept the idiosyncrasies you will love the Tempest.
Agreed, I’ve never heard a drum kit sound so real! It’ll be the samples inside it making the sounds, and in fairness you could use an MPC to similar effect, but even an MPC doesn’t have the crazy performance fx and instant pattern switching of the Tempest. It’s just a crazy machine that brings a smile to my face in every way except the price. 
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Great read Claid - sounds exciting! Glad to hear it’s ridiculously overspecced
I really like it’s tone and the special sounds it can make.
I guess I’ll see about the sync - I can see it’s not a problem for Fleuw above.
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Did you guys see this sound design video? Really some surprisingly massive hits he made on the Tempest. Best sounds at 7:47 and 8:55
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Those hits are amazing, I will NEVER be that good at sound design.
However, I did have a play with another preset pattern just now, called New World. No external effects at all, not even EQ, it’s straight out of the box. Check out the sound quality and the detail in the programming, it’s like something straight out of a videogame soundtrack but it’s coming out of a drum machine. Truly wild.
I had to downgrade the audio quality, to get it to upload but it still sounds great.
Giving me Crash Bandicoot vibes.
Or are they Banjo-Kazooie vibes? I really can’t tell.
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I went to try a Tempest locally but it had an issue with panning being offset to the right side. It was not something we could find the cause of or solve. The guy tried to do a calibration but the screen was stuck at Hi Pass filter with no sign of progress. He wanted to see if he could solve it so I left. Not sure I should buy that Tempest. Is that how calibration usually works?
I was using headphones and noticed a jittery noise at higher volume levels and when adding compression. Is the Tempest quite noisy or could it be an issue?
I think thats the charm of a Tempest, it’s got a unique character 
I’ve not tried the calibration to be honest… I’d check to see which version of the OS is installed for starters.
Honestly I barely if ever use the compressor, I can record a quick before/after on a pattern if it would help?
Thanks, that’s probably not necessarey but if you could check with headphones at higher levels if its quite noisy. I guess you would hear it on your monitors too if it’s normal. To me it sounded like it was too much.
This Tempest looked a bit worn with several scratches so I think I better pass that one.
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This video made me take out my Tempest for a spin… remarkable technique that ive never thought of … layering samples and using the envelopes. Something so trivial on. Rytm that I completely forgot i could do on the tempest - have been more focused on the synthesis aspect 
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