What's Dave Smith cooking up? TEMPEST!

[The groin]

Yes! Finally a new analogue drum machine that isn't just trying to be a TR-808 (not hatin' on the 808 but originality is never a bad thing). Sounds great too! I'll probably never be able to afford one, but even so I hate compromises and here it seems Smith & Linn really went balls-out. Kudos.

[cresshead]

i've ALWAYS loved drum machines right form my very first Boss dr55 in 1982....only last year i got back a yamaha rx5 cos i missed it so much!

...gonaa get this if i have enough cash for it!

[cresshead]

so the engine is 6 voice:

 

Each of the 6 analog voices has 2 analog oscillators plus 2 digital oscillators (with a large bank of included samples), Dave's classic analog low-pass filter with audio-rate modulation, an additional high-pass filter, analog VCA with feedback, 5 envelopes, 2 LFOs, an extraordinary variety of analog modulation routings, and stunning sonic quality, warmth and punch. Although optimized for drum sounds, it excels at tuned sounds as well, and even doubles as a 6-voice analog synth. In addition to the 6 direct voice outputs, there are stereo mix outputs and phones outputs, plus 2 inputs for foot switches or expression pedals, MIDI in/out and USB.

[Gribs]

Am I correct in thinking this thing could be used as a six voice polyphonic desk top analog-digital hybrid synth with 4 oscillators (2 analog, 2 digital), a low and high pass filter, 5 envelopes, and 2 LFOs per voice *with* a built-in sequencer? It sounds like it is something close to six Evolvers inside with one of the filters changed to high pass and two of the LFOs changed to envelopes - so sorta like one and a half polyevolvers. I assume that being a drum machine, it is 6 part multi-timbral too. This is indeed a very cool thing-a-mabob.

 

I called NovaMusik to inquire about a Korg Kronos and the person with whom I spoke asked me if I had seen the new drum machine from DSI/Roger Linn yet and I told him no because I got home from work and spent all the time up until I called looking at and chatting about the Kronos. I can see why he was pretty excited about this gizmo as well.

[MuzikB]

Will have in June. I allow myself 2 major purchases a year now and this will the birthday purchase.

[Bernard]

I know I will regret not getting one of these in years to come....


I just know it....

[MuzikB]

I know I will regret not getting one of these in years to come.... I just know it....

 

Yes you will. The Kronos is nice but I already have all that it offers in Logic and my M3 is still hot to me. This Tempest thing was a very nice surprise. I hope he can get them out earlier than June.

 

After receiving, I'll likely dump Stylus RMX and idrum for good.

[Bernard]

 

Yes you will. The Kronos is nice but I already have all that it offers in Logic and my M3 is still hot to me. This Tempest thing was a very nice surprise. I hope he can get them out earlier than June. After receiving, I'll likely dump Stylus RMX and idrum for good.

 

 

Keep us updated when you get it...

[kvmoore]

Yessss! The Tempest is very nice indeed. Definitely worth getting. If my money was looking right, I'd be all over it. However, the only way I could possible end up with one in my present situation and this screwed up economy would be to part with one of my 808s and put that money towards it. I'd wait awhile before cosidering that though. I was turned off by the P'08 because of the negative reviews related to it's sound and the quality problems people were having with them. But this Tempest is something different. Based on it's specs and the demo, it seems you can make it sound like anything you want. It seems to do 808 kicks too. I'd rather buy this than mod my 808 (there's always a risk with modding). The Tempest is sooo flexible!!!!! Bottom line, I'd definitely buy a Tempest if I could afford it.

I wonder what that LinnDrum II will look like? I bet the tempest is just a cutdown version of it. Since the Tempest is msrp at 2k, I can only imagine the LinnDrum II as the flagship being no less than 3k with double or close to double the features of the Tempest. That's my guess.

[Spleencage]

Seems like a toy to me. The unit is small, the knobs are tiny, the display is tiny. It doesn't sample- you have to import via flash drive. Wood panels on a DJ machine- good luck with that! Does it have digital out as well? How does it store sounds- is there an internal HD? Only compression, distortion and stutter are the FX? Why not the crazier stuff? After all this a tekno box, and not a cheap one by today's standard.

The thing that really stuck out was how bad the timing was from a dedicated clock. Obviously I could not hear the TRUE fidelity via a you-tube demo, but the sounds that were chosen to demo sounded very retro and annoying (maybe thats popular now, Im not a tekno music guy at all) It seems it traded some power for flexibility.

The demo kept touting all of the stuff it could do in real time, but they never showed that.

 

I used to own a Studio-440 ( as most of you know was Sequential product) and even at 12 bit mono, it was my favorite all time sampling drum machine. The sound was organic but punchy, the clock was amazing and it had 90 frame per second SMPTE. It could change velocities, panning, volumes, filtering, ADSR, and quantize resolution- all on the fly- just as this unit does, but did so 25 years ago. meh.

I may be 100% wrong, but it seems he is targeting the DJ that interacts with his program.

[mome rath]

 

Seems like a toy to me. The unit is small, the knobs are tiny, the display is tiny. It doesn't sample- you have to import via flash drive. Wood panels on a DJ machine- good luck with that! Does it have digital out as well? How does it store sounds- is there an internal HD? Only compression, distortion and stutter are the FX? Why not the crazier stuff? After all this a tekno box, and not a cheap one by today's standard. The thing that really stuck out was how bad the timing was from a dedicated clock. Obviously I could not hear the TRUE fidelity via a you-tube demo, but the sounds that were chosen to demo sounded very retro and annoying (maybe thats popular now, Im not a tekno music guy at all) It seems it traded some power for flexibility. The demo kept touting all of the stuff it could do in real time, but they never showed that. I used to own a Studio-440 ( as most of you know was Sequential product) and even at 12 bit mono, it was my favorite all time sampling drum machine. The sound was organic but punchy, the clock was amazing and it had 90 frame per second SMPTE. It could change velocities, panning, volumes, filtering, ADSR, and quantize resolution- all on the fly- just as this unit does, but did so 25 years ago. meh. I may be 100% wrong, but it seems he is targeting the DJ that interacts with his program.

 

 

i, too, have spent many hours with the tempest and am qualified to make judgements about its overall character and performance features

[mildbill]

Am I correct in thinking this thing could be used as a six voice polyphonic desk top analog-digital hybrid synth with 4 oscillators (2 analog, 2 digital), a low and high pass filter, 5 envelopes, and 2 LFOs per voice *with* a built-in sequencer? It sounds like it is something close to six Evolvers inside with one of the filters changed to high pass and two of the LFOs changed to envelopes - so sorta like one and a half polyevolvers. I assume that being a drum machine, it is 6 part multi-timbral too. This is indeed a very cool thing-a-mabob....

I wondered about that too. From the videos showing it in use as a groove box/drum machine, it seems like I'd have a lot of fun with it for about a day before it started collecting dust.

If you can hook up a decent keyboard to it and use it as a module, it would get a lot more use.

[Acid Hazard]

Seems like a toy to me. The unit is small, the knobs are tiny, the display is tiny. It doesn't sample- you have to import via flash drive. Wood panels on a DJ machine- good luck with that! Does it have digital out as well? How does it store sounds- is there an internal HD? Only compression, distortion and stutter are the FX? Why not the crazier stuff? After all this a tekno box, and not a cheap one by today's standard. The thing that really stuck out was how bad the timing was from a dedicated clock. Obviously I could not hear the TRUE fidelity via a you-tube demo, but the sounds that were chosen to demo sounded very retro and annoying (maybe thats popular now, Im not a tekno music guy at all) It seems it traded some power for flexibility. The demo kept touting all of the stuff it could do in real time, but they never showed that. I used to own a Studio-440 ( as most of you know was Sequential product) and even at 12 bit mono, it was my favorite all time sampling drum machine. The sound was organic but punchy, the clock was amazing and it had 90 frame per second SMPTE. It could change velocities, panning, volumes, filtering, ADSR, and quantize resolution- all on the fly- just as this unit does, but did so 25 years ago. meh. I may be 100% wrong, but it seems he is targeting the DJ that interacts with his program.

What a load of crap. DJs? Really? Where do you get this from? This is NOT for DJs. Where is the "Sync to audio" function? It's a {censored}in DRUM MACHINE! How does it store sounds? You can't be serious. You've apparently never heard of flash ram before. How do all the other drum machines store sounds?

And exactly HOW BAD was the timing? The only dedicated clock i saw was the unit itself.


A bunch of uneducated words.

[MuzikB]

What a load of crap. DJs? Really? Where do you get this from? This is NOT for DJs. Where is the "Sync to audio" function? It's a {censored}in DRUM MACHINE! How does it store sounds? You can't be serious. You've apparently never heard of flash ram before. How do all the other drum machines store sounds? And exactly HOW BAD was the timing? The only dedicated clock i saw was the unit itself. A bunch of uneducated words.

 

He's just tapping the bees nest with a stick man. Or perhaps he simply doesn't understand the significance of this instrument.

[mome rath]

If you can hook up a decent keyboard to it and use it as a module, it would get a lot more use.

 

didn't they already say you can do that?

[Ir1to0]

 

Seems like a toy to me. The unit is small, the knobs are tiny, the display is tiny. It doesn't sample- you have to import via flash drive. Wood panels on a DJ machine- good luck with that! Does it have digital out as well? How does it store sounds- is there an internal HD? Only compression, distortion and stutter are the FX? Why not the crazier stuff? After all this a tekno box, and not a cheap one by today's standard. The thing that really stuck out was how bad the timing was from a dedicated clock. Obviously I could not hear the TRUE fidelity via a you-tube demo, but the sounds that were chosen to demo sounded very retro and annoying (maybe thats popular now, Im not a tekno music guy at all) It seems it traded some power for flexibility. The demo kept touting all of the stuff it could do in real time, but they never showed that. I used to own a Studio-440 ( as most of you know was Sequential product) and even at 12 bit mono, it was my favorite all time sampling drum machine. The sound was organic but punchy, the clock was amazing and it had 90 frame per second SMPTE. It could change velocities, panning, volumes, filtering, ADSR, and quantize resolution- all on the fly- just as this unit does, but did so 25 years ago. meh. I may be 100% wrong, but it seems he is targeting the DJ that interacts with his program.

 

 

DSI hate machine in full swing...or trolling

what is it mods?

"please let us not have interesting very small market products available to us"

sleencages (narrow) mindset

[lemons]

Isn't this basically just a 6-voice Tetra with drum pads and added digital oscillators?

[zoink]

Well, I'll make the unqualified remark that this thing looks awesome. It's the first DSI product that made me want to get one from the get go. Nice interface, novel concept, great-sounding, apparently fun to use. Aside from the price, there's little else not to like.

[GuyaGuy]

 

Am I correct in thinking this thing could be used as a six voice polyphonic desk top analog-digital hybrid synth with 4 oscillators (2 analog, 2 digital), a low and high pass filter, 5 envelopes, and 2 LFOs per voice *with* a built-in sequencer? It sounds like it is something close to six Evolvers inside with one of the filters changed to high pass and two of the LFOs changed to envelopes - so sorta like one and a half polyevolvers. I assume that being a drum machine, it is 6 part multi-timbral too. This is indeed a very cool thing-a-mabob. I called NovaMusik to inquire about a Korg Kronos and the person with whom I spoke asked me if I had seen the new drum machine from DSI/Roger Linn yet and I told him no because I got home from work and spent all the time up until I called looking at and chatting about the Kronos. I can see why he was pretty excited about this gizmo as well.

 

 

 

1. There will not be user sample loading in software version 1.0, it may be added in 2.0

2. The sequencer will have a lot of functionality; basic structure will be up to 32nd Triplet resolution and a loop length of up to 8 bars

3. The sequencer will be able to record pitch, velocity and duration, plus 4 assignable parameters per sound (you have 16 sounds per beat, each with it's own sequence). You can record those parameters by live knob movements, using the sliders position or pressure, external MIDI, or pedal inputs

4. There will be nudge options for the sequencer, as well as moving the whole sequence over by one step. Seriously I can't count how many times I started making a beat and realized that the 1 was somewhere in the middle... drives me nuts when I have to redo the whole thing

5. The touch sliders have both position and pressure response, both are assignable.

6. There are several CPUs in the Tempest, a PIC32 running at 80MHz is the main processor

7. You can indeed use the Tempest as a 6 voice synth. You can ALSO use the Tempest as a 1 voice synth and have the other 5 voices playing drums (or 2 1 voice synths, or 1 2 voice synth, or any combination thereof). So hook up a keyboard controller, assign a pad to one voice and a MIDI channel, then you can play a live bass or lead over the drums

8. You can definitely take the wood sides off the machine, the metal is folded down over the sides so it looks just fine and rather sleek with the wood off. If you like I'll take a picture for you guys when I get back home.

9. Waveshapers? I'm not exactly sure what that's about, if you elaborate maybe I can answer. It has no digital FX in the path, it's all analog except the chip doing sample playback

10. It will be rack mountable, but I'm not sure whether or not we'll include them in the initial product. I'll get back to you on this closer to production

11. There probably will not be an editor on release but if someone would like to start one I will give you the CC/NRPN layout and all Sysex functions as soon as I code them in so you can get a head start.

12. There will not be a VST on release. I would love to have one, but the overall cost of doing a VST is far more than is worth it (mostly due to the support nightmare of so many DAWs and so many systems)

13. There are 2 pedal inputs, both can be assigned to either an on/off switch or a pedal CV input. These should handle drum trigger inputs as well (although we haven't tested them with any yet)

14. Delay is being handled at a kit/mixer level so you will have one set of param settings for the delay and a send amount for each individual sound

15. At this time no encoders are assignable. The sliders position and pressure are however

16. The digital oscillators have a lot of options, but the DSP is less powerful than the chip we were using the Evolver. We will have the Prophet VS waveforms as well as a lot of noise options (some cool ones like green noise, UV noise, resonant noise, etc) for doing layering.

17. The Digital oscillator source will have a mix control for sending the signal pre/post analog filter

18. There's no DSI MIDI controller in the works... we like our analog stuff

19. The LEDs are blue, not purple. They will not be as bright/piercing in the final version since we'll have a translucent cover over them. Also we're looking into cyan/aqua LEDs but it's hard to find them

20. We could have made it cost less, like 1500-1800$, but it wouldn't have the touch faders and the pads. We chose to make it slightly more expensive but WAY more fun to play

21. The build quality, if I do say so myself, is rock solid. Solid steel on the outside, pads are solid (not gummy or flimsy) and the knobs are the same as the Mopho keyboard. I'm sure someone who has checked it out here at NAMM can confirm this one way or the other

22. You will have some degree over controlling note stealing. You can assign a particular sound or set of sounds to a particular voice for example, and you can route that out the corresponding stereo output so it bypasses the compressor/distortion circuitry if you so choose. I also may implement some sort of customizable priority handling

23. LFOs and Envelopes are digital. They are twice as fast as our other synths so you get an extra octave out of the LFOs and much quicker envelopes. The LFOs have time sync

24. Each of the envelopes have a 'peak time' parameter that holds the maximum of the envelope between the attack and the delay time. The param goes from 0-127 and scales from ms increments in the low amounts to about 3 seconds at 127. You can get really tight gating effects using the envelopes in this fashion

25. The 6 stereo outputs (1 per voice) are TRS jacks

26. There will be a mapping setup so you can use a mopho keyboard or prophet as a controller

27. The USB interface will be MIDI only in version 1.0. I may add file system support for samples in version 2.0, but I don't want to get anyone's hopes up yet. It cannot do audio over USB.

28. We do not have advanced features in the sample playback chip, however those are not out of the question for a future release. These include things like start/end point of loops and triggers, digital FX, sample reduction and bit crush, etc, etc. They would only affect the digital samples as there is no ADC in the signal path, it's a fully analog path. However we do really want to add a 'reverse' toggle for a sound which would affect both the analog and digital portions

 

These are things that I am coding into the structure of the sequencer but probably will not be in the initial release of the product:

 

1. Individual step delay and groove templates

2. External MIDI control from the sequencer

3. Individual sequence parameters such as sequence length and sequence swing per sound

4. Exotic combinations of time sigs (7/8 over 3/4 or whatever). The initial version will have the basic range of time sigs possible over the whole sequence. You could do 5/8 for example, or 17/32.

5. Sequencer playback modes like reverse

 

--Chris from DSI

http://dsiforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=827&start=15

[Amigo]

 

1. There will not be user sample loading in software version 1.0, it may be added in 2.0 2. The sequencer will have a lot of functionality; basic structure will be up to 32nd Triplet resolution and a loop length of up to 8 bars 3. The sequencer will be able to record pitch, velocity and duration, plus 4 assignable parameters per sound (you have 16 sounds per beat, each with it's own sequence). You can record those parameters by live knob movements, using the sliders position or pressure, external MIDI, or pedal inputs 4. There will be nudge options for the sequencer, as well as moving the whole sequence over by one step. Seriously I can't count how many times I started making a beat and realized that the 1 was somewhere in the middle... drives me nuts when I have to redo the whole thing 5. The touch sliders have both position and pressure response, both are assignable. .................. --Chris from DSI http://dsiforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=827&start=15

 

 

Just a few questions about the use as a synth module. I was thinking of getting a tetra and a sampler, this could perhaps be the best of both worlds? My question being, how well does it operate as a synth? Is it difficult to tweak or assign? By the looks of it, it almost looks easier to use than the tetra as a synth plus it has six voices. Can you hook more than one controller to it?

[cresshead]

sonic state vid interview/demo

http://www.sonicstate.com/news/2011/01/14/wnamm11-tempest-exclusive/

[Bernard]

...

''quotation marks are useful''

[cresshead]

that's actually somewhat cheap if you add up what your getting....

 

mopho interface

two and a half tetra's

poly evolver waves

classic drum samples

flash memory

rhythm/drum machine creation style for making music

touch and pressure sensitive pads and sliders

every parameter gets recorded too.

can be used as a 6 voice muti tambral synth

midi based delay built in

individual outs

 

it looks like an enjoyable thing to spend time with too...which is a big deal in my book.

[GuyaGuy]

'' quotation marks are useful ''

"true."

[Bernard]

that's actually somewhat cheap if you add up what your getting.... mopho interface two and a half tetra's poly evolver waves classic drum samples flash memory rhythm/drum machine creation style for making music touch and pressure sensitive pads and sliders every parameter gets recorded too. can be used as a 6 voice muti tambral synth midi based delay built in individual outs it looks like an enjoyable thing to spend time with too...which is a big deal in my book.

 

 

Hmm... well very different in many ways, but I see where your heading

 

TEMPEST:

 

''Each of the 6 analog voices has 2 analog oscillators plus 2 digital oscillators (with a large bank of included samples), Dave's classic analog low-pass filter with audio-rate modulation, an additional high-pass filter, analog VCA with feedback, 5 envelopes, 2 LFOs, an extraordinary variety of analog modulation routings, and stunning sonic quality, warmth and punch. Although optimized for drum sounds, it excels at tuned sounds as well, and even doubles as a 6-voice analog synth. In addition to the 6 direct voice outputs, there are stereo mix outputs and phones outputs, plus 2 inputs for foot switches or expression pedals, MIDI in/out and USB.''

 

Tetra:

 

''The voice architecture is based on the Prophet '08, but with the addition of a sub-octave generator for each oscillator and a fully programmable feedback loop for each voice. That breaks down to two DCOs, a resonant low-pass filter, three DADSR envelope generators, four LFOS, deep modulation routing, an arpeggiator, and a 16 x 4 analog-style step sequencer per voice. Feedback is capable of producing effects ranging from mild distortion to fairly extreme harmonic instability. (That's a good thing.) The possibilities are nearly endless. And the audio signal path is 100% analog.''