Reader Bruno Fabrizio Sorba let us know about these videos, demonstrating a collection of vintage synth style patches he created for the Dave Smith Instruments Tempest analog drum machine.
While the Tempest is tailored to drum synthesis, it’s also a capable six-voice synthesizer, with two analog oscillators per voice, 2 digital oscillators per voice, switchable 2/4-pole filter and five ADSR envelope generators & 2 LFOs.
Sorba has shared the patches via the DSI Forum (SysEx topic). An account is required by the forum.
Great programming – now I’ve got the GAS for the Tempest even more!
haha! great machine the Tempest..
Hey look, someone who can play with BOTH hands on the keys and sound good doing it! Very nice patchwork, Bruno. That’s what quality polyphony is all about.
Amazing that this is a drum machine!
I’ve heard a lot of grumbling from Tempest owners about the OS not getting updates they want, which makes me a little wary of it. Then I see something like this and it blows me away that it’s a drum machine that’s also a kick ass polyphonic synth. I’m not sure what to think of the Tempest!
Well, that’s exactly the problem with the Tempest. As a drum machine it is quite cumbersome to program, before you’d get halfway decently snappy, kicking sounds out of it. And as a synth it sits too much between the DSI chairs that are the Tetra and the (Poly) Evolver, from which it has its sound design heritage.
In my personal opinion, the Tempest just does not cut it as a drum machine. The sound programming is one thing, but the quite fiddly sequencer is another (and that’s really a bummer for a – well – drum machine), and most importantly: I could not ever in all the months I have tried hard get a decent kick and snare drum out of it. Maybe, I am just stupid, but none of the gazillions of video demos have proven otherwise for me either.
So, if you want a tight kicking analog drum machine, get an Elektron Analog Rytm. If you want a capable synth, get a Tetra (when you’re on budget), an Evolver (when you dare) or ultimately a Pro 2 (if you’ve got the money.)
If youre buying a tempest to make snappy kicks, youre missing the point. You discount EVERYTHING it does superbly well, like percussion, bass, hats, toms, grimey zips and zaps and other sounds.
It is foolish to write off one of the greatest drum machines ever just cos you couldnt get a snappy kick from it. Use it for its strengths which are many.
And as for being a synth, it is just as capable as any dave smith bar the new wave prophet and pro.
The sequencer is my favourite part for what its worth.
Many people will jump to call something crap cos it didnt do what THEY thought it would! Use an instrument for its strengths instead of compliaining that it doesnt do one thing right.
The Tempest is a drum machine – does that allow any new or interestingly different synth effects or modulations that wouldn’t be possible with a standard equivalent 6-voice DSI synth?
5 envelopes that can be freely routed and the ability to treat the digital oscs seperate from the dcos by not routing them through the filter make for some good transient creation.
The DSI forum post just links here:
http://stimresp.wordpress.com/tempest-recipes/
The one used in the video is “Project with 14 unfinished kits.”