A group of owners of the Dave Smith Instruments Tempest have launched an online petition, asking the company to make updating the operating system of the drum machine a priority.
Signees feel that “there is still a sizable list of problems and glitches to address” with the Tempest.
The petition author asks:
Sign this petition to help make the Tempest a priority again for Dave Smith instruments. Request that they finish development on the product they released over 5 years ago so we can make the most of this amazing machine.
We love the Tempest, and would be thrilled to see it feature complete and (hopefully) bug free.
The petition is hosted at Change.org and has a goal of 500 supporters.
Update: Dave Smith Instruments’ Carson Day left a detailed response to the petition in the comments on this post. We’ve included below:
The description in the campaign is interesting, though somewhat misleading. The vast majority of Tempest owners are happily making music with it. Most importantly, if anybody had contacted us directly at DSI support to ask whether we have quit development on the Tempest, we would have told them no. We do intend to continue, and finish, development of the Tempest.
Separately, the campaign appears to be an inaccurate representation of Tempest users since there’s no way to qualify who is an owner and who is not.
As the Tempest currently stands (OS 1.4), there are some valid and somewhat annoying bugs that are present. Most everything listed on the campaign is on our bug list of items to consider for fixing/implementation. The Tempest is a mature product (Shoot! 5 years is long enough for humans), and there have been many improvements made and features added which were not explicitly called out for implementation when the product was released. Because we are a small company and constantly produce new instruments, we have to rotate between updates for all instruments. I will reiterate, we DO intend to release another update for it.
If users are actually unable to back up their work, please contact us directly at DSI support. This would be a serious problem, but I am unaware of any users contacting us in this regard.
I’ve addressed the list of issues more specifically below.
1. Tempest not being able to discern between note ‘velocity’ and pad ‘pressure’…
Velocity and pressure are derived from the same sensor, a force sensing resistor. That means that when a pad is played, velocity is the near instantaneous change in resistance from off to on. The question is, when should the continuous change in resistance start acting as pressure? How long do we wait before interpreting the sensor data as pressure? Adding a small fixed delay to onset of pressure might help, though I can imagine situations where you would also want pressure to react immediately.
2. Note sustain without a duration limit…
This is a feature request, not a bug. The duration of a step must be held in memory so it can be saved/reloaded etc. Memory is not infinite.
3. “MIDI sequencer sound” prevents the corresponding internal sound from triggering, yet the ‘OFF’ setting remains broken…
This is on our bug list.
4. Adding swing to the ‘ROLL/ARP’ function…
Not really a bug, more of a worklfow/feature request. It’s on our request list for consideration.
5. The missing “Env Shape” parameter as seen on page 16. of Operation Manual 1.0…
When the 1.0 manual and 1.0 Tempest was released, it was explicitly stated that the unit was not complete and that it and the manual was subject to change. Most of these changes (all the way to 1.4) were welcome additions and fixes. I was not with the company officially when the Tempest was released, though I would imagine that “env shape” was removed as a design/navigation consideration.
The envelope shape can be modulated via the mod matrix or using the pitch and aux envelops to change its shape.
6. Basic file management…
You already have basic file management. You can save/copy/rename files into a series of directories. It sounds like you want more “organization” functionality which is quite different than stating the Tempest lacks “Basic file management”. This is a feature request and not a bug.
7. The envelope/LFO bug that causes the digital oscillators to quit or otherwise not trigger when modulated to, from, or through a relative ‘level’ of zero…
Just set the envelope amount value to 1. Also see #9.
8. Tempest not remembering the folder-of-origin when saving…
I cannot speak to the reason for this as I have not spoken with Chris about it.
9. ‘Key Follow OFF’ not working for the digital osc’s…
on our list. Not sure if possible due to the SAM chip itself.
10. Glide not working for the digital osc’s…
See #9.
11. Pitch Bend not working for the digital oscillators…
See #9.
12. The ever-present but still not functional Glide/Legato modes…
It’s on our list. I’m not personally aware of the reasons for this.
13. The ‘Playlist’ crash bug…
I’m not sure I’m familiar with this one specifically. If it has been reported to support and reproduced, then it should be on our list. If nobody has reported it, please open a support ticket.
14. Using the ‘ROLL’ function to record a part causes other pads to randomly trigger – even pads
I’ve seen this before and believe it’s related to a strange issue where the sound initialization procedure and/or file corruption issue. If I had to guess, it could be related to files saved on specific (non official) operating system releases or by users changing the initialize settings in the debug menu. Does this happen on the official 1.4 OS with a newly created file?
15. Using the ‘ROLL’ function to record in ’16 Levels’ mode fails to record the correct velocities: i.e. it only repeats the velocity of the lowest pad pressed…
It’s on our list.
16. Recording a ‘ROLL’ with a sound assigned to a voice results in the pad lighting up as if it is being triggered, yet there is no sound…
It’s on our list.
17. There is an advanced bug that causes the pad names to randomly change when auditioning sounds; it happens most predictably when you have auditioned a sound from one pad and then try to audition a sound from another pad. When this happens the available sound folder also changes, not just the pad name: i.e. the ‘Kick’ pad, for instance, will suddenly become a ‘Snare’ pad – *which instantly loads a snare sound by the way (devastating!) – after which you can no longer access the kick folder from that pad at all, unless you “revert” the sound…
Not an advanced bug at all and certainly does not block access to any sound. The description is a bit overblown, however, it’s on our list.
18. If the Tempest receives a RAM sound dump via USB, while also receiving note-on/off data on the MIDI DIN input, then USB MIDI sys-ex is not received correctly half of the time: i.e. it just stands there waiting for MIDI data in those cases.
It is not advised to use USB and MIDI at the same time for MIDI input. This is true for all of our instruments.
20. When switching beats on-the-fly, the first step of the sequencer-out is consistently late; so if you’re triggering a sample loop on the one, every time you switch beats on the Tempest, it will be out of sync for the first pass…
I would guess that this initial latency is due to higher priority tasks being performed when changing beats. There’s a whole lot of data to load very quickly on a beat change and keeping the internal sound engine in time and performing as expected is certainly It’s also worth noting that the “sequencer out” parameter was added by Chris on his own accord. Sequencing external instruments from the Tempest was never stated as a feature when the Tempest was released.
21. Pad names need to be added for all the sound folders, and vice versa. And many of the existing pad names need to be properly linked to their respective parent folders, so “Tamb” doesn’t default to “Shaker”, etc. when auditioning sounds (not to be confused with point 17. which is a completely different bug)…
This is half feature request and half bug, and fairly low priority in the scheme of things. It falls into the “nice to have” category.
22. When triggered via MIDI, sustained ADSR sounds hang whenever the bank those sounds are from is not the currently selected bank…
It’s on our list.
23. The Tempest’s timing drifts in ‘Slave’ mode when using the MIDI DIN input, gradually losing sync with the ‘Master’ clock source; and this behavior is further exacerbated with use of the ‘ROLL’ function…
I cannot speak to the accuracy of this statement. I have no information regarding the performed tests, loaded OS versions, settings, and overall method. We have an Innerclock System in the office that we can use to verify this is true. Whoever is experiencing this drift, please open a support ticket with us and provide detailed step-by-step instructions for reproducing this and we will look into it.
For all current and prospective Tempest owners out there, please understand that we are aware of your concerns and appreciate your perspective. We have not abandoned the Tempest OS. Between pushing forward with new designs and refining existing products, there is never a point in time at which we are idle here at DSI. It’s a complex balancing act with many variables. We will be revisiting the Tempest OS, and hopefully soon, but the Change.org petition has no bearing on our timeframe, and we can’t specifically guarantee when will dive back in.
This will remain our definitive statement on this matter. Thank you for your continued patronage and support.
via John Keston
I hope everyone interested in holding instruments makers Hardware/Software and everything in between accountable, sign this petition (I do not own a Tempest). Whilst this is a novel idea, I hope it succeeds. Unfortunately many companies fail miserably in the after-sale support that is critical in engendering brand loyalty and good will. Arturia comes to mind as one of the worst offenders.
I hope DSI pay’s attention!
What are your issues with Aturia? I have read some complaints about their midi controllers, but I have had no issues with the Minibrute.
Arturia has a notorious reputation with releasing their products, if not all in beta state. That and poor quality control, inferior customer support and notorious service. As an early adopter of the Origin, a $2800 synth, that has never worked properly nor been stable, I can attest first hand that after conversing with the CEO at Muiskmesse, Arturia is one of the worst companies I have come across.
The internet is littered with horror stories, and it is disproportionate in terms of the number complaints!
At least Arturia tries, and does update their stuff from time to time.
Unlike M-Audio, where you can expect the unit to stay exactly the same, bugs and all, from Day 1, and never have your issue acknowledged, let alone fixed.
I dropped all of my M-Audio stuff because of their short-lived support, at least for the things I bought. Over the years I have bought synths that came with promises, which is why I buy my stuff after it has been out a few years. I still remember my Alesis QS7 , which was incapable of looping a sample without clicks, even though the software worked. It had the synth for 18 months and reported this in the first week, and it was still not fixed. Sold on Ebay!! If that wasnt enough, I bought the Alesis Fusion years later (idiot) and boy was that a promise that never delivered. It was never completed and could have been a monster had it lived up to their (over)hype. IMHO, companies should not even be allowed to mention the things it “will be able to do” as a selling point. Once hardware became software-updateable, quality control and full testing got chucked out the window. We now “finance” companies by buying beta products, which is BS.
Admin: Personal attack deleted.
Keep comments on topic and constructive.
the other way to get this done would be for DSI to release the code and have it done open-source. His company is small and seems uninterested obviously, so let someone else complete the work! it could get done for free as a school project practically..
Companies do this in extremely rare cases, but hardly ever. Its all about legalities and rights … Etc. even when companies go belly up, soembody buys the rights and will not release it to open domain.
edit: replied to wrong message
The description in the campaign is interesting, though somewhat misleading. The vast majority of Tempest owners are happily making music with it. Most importantly, if anybody had contacted us directly at DSI support to ask whether we have quit development on the Tempest, we would have told them no. We do intend to continue, and finish, development of the Tempest.
Separately, the campaign appears to be an inaccurate representation of Tempest users since there’s no way to qualify who is an owner and who is not.
As the Tempest currently stands (OS 1.4), there are some valid and somewhat annoying bugs that are present. Most everything listed on the campaign is on our bug list of items to consider for fixing/implementation. The Tempest is a mature product (Shoot! 5 years is long enough for humans), and there have been many improvements made and features added which were not explicitly called out for implementation when the product was released. Because we are a small company and constantly produce new instruments, we have to rotate between updates for all instruments. I will reiterate, we DO intend to release another update for it.
If users are actually unable to back up their work, please contact us directly at DSI support. This would be a serious problem, but I am unaware of any users contacting us in this regard.
I’ve addressed the list of issues more specifically below.
1. Tempest not being able to discern between note ‘velocity’ and pad ‘pressure’…
Velocity and pressure are derived from the same sensor, a force sensing resistor. That means that when a pad is played, velocity is the near instantaneous change in resistance from off to on. The question is, when should the continuous change in resistance start acting as pressure? How long do we wait before interpreting the sensor data as pressure? Adding a small fixed delay to onset of pressure might help, though I can imagine situations where you would also want pressure to react immediately.
2. Note sustain without a duration limit…
This is a feature request, not a bug. The duration of a step must be held in memory so it can be saved/reloaded etc. Memory is not infinite.
3. “MIDI sequencer sound” prevents the corresponding internal sound from triggering, yet the ‘OFF’ setting remains broken…
This is on our bug list.
4. Adding swing to the ‘ROLL/ARP’ function…
Not really a bug, more of a worklfow/feature request. It’s on our request list for consideration.
5. The missing “Env Shape” parameter as seen on page 16. of Operation Manual 1.0…
When the 1.0 manual and 1.0 Tempest was released, it was explicitly stated that the unit was not complete and that it and the manual was subject to change. Most of these changes (all the way to 1.4) were welcome additions and fixes. I was not with the company officially when the Tempest was released, though I would imagine that “env shape” was removed as a design/navigation consideration.
The envelope shape can be modulated via the mod matrix or using the pitch and aux envelops to change its shape.
6. Basic file management…
You already have basic file management. You can save/copy/rename files into a series of directories. It sounds like you want more “organization” functionality which is quite different than stating the Tempest lacks “Basic file management”. This is a feature request and not a bug.
7. The envelope/LFO bug that causes the digital oscillators to quit or otherwise not trigger when modulated to, from, or through a relative ‘level’ of zero…
Just set the envelope amount value to 1. Also see #9.
8. Tempest not remembering the folder-of-origin when saving…
I cannot speak to the reason for this as I have not spoken with Chris about it.
9. ‘Key Follow OFF’ not working for the digital osc’s…
on our list. Not sure if possible due to the SAM chip itself.
10. Glide not working for the digital osc’s…
See #9.
11. Pitch Bend not working for the digital oscillators…
See #9.
12. The ever-present but still not functional Glide/Legato modes…
It’s on our list. I’m not personally aware of the reasons for this.
13. The ‘Playlist’ crash bug…
I’m not sure I’m familiar with this one specifically. If it has been reported to support and reproduced, then it should be on our list. If nobody has reported it, please open a support ticket.
14. Using the ‘ROLL’ function to record a part causes other pads to randomly trigger – even pads
I’ve seen this before and believe it’s related to a strange issue where the sound initialization procedure and/or file corruption issue. If I had to guess, it could be related to files saved on specific (non official) operating system releases or by users changing the initialize settings in the debug menu. Does this happen on the official 1.4 OS with a newly created file?
15. Using the ‘ROLL’ function to record in ’16 Levels’ mode fails to record the correct velocities: i.e. it only repeats the velocity of the lowest pad pressed…
It’s on our list.
16. Recording a ‘ROLL’ with a sound assigned to a voice results in the pad lighting up as if it is being triggered, yet there is no sound…
It’s on our list.
17. There is an advanced bug that causes the pad names to randomly change when auditioning sounds; it happens most predictably when you have auditioned a sound from one pad and then try to audition a sound from another pad. When this happens the available sound folder also changes, not just the pad name: i.e. the ‘Kick’ pad, for instance, will suddenly become a ‘Snare’ pad – *which instantly loads a snare sound by the way (devastating!) – after which you can no longer access the kick folder from that pad at all, unless you “revert” the sound…
Not an advanced bug at all and certainly does not block access to any sound. The description is a bit overblown, however, it’s on our list.
18. If the Tempest receives a RAM sound dump via USB, while also receiving note-on/off data on the MIDI DIN input, then USB MIDI sys-ex is not received correctly half of the time: i.e. it just stands there waiting for MIDI data in those cases.
It is not advised to use USB and MIDI at the same time for MIDI input. This is true for all of our instruments.
20. When switching beats on-the-fly, the first step of the sequencer-out is consistently late; so if you’re triggering a sample loop on the one, every time you switch beats on the Tempest, it will be out of sync for the first pass…
I would guess that this initial latency is due to higher priority tasks being performed when changing beats. There’s a whole lot of data to load very quickly on a beat change and keeping the internal sound engine in time and performing as expected is certainly It’s also worth noting that the “sequencer out” parameter was added by Chris on his own accord. Sequencing external instruments from the Tempest was never stated as a feature when the Tempest was released.
21. Pad names need to be added for all the sound folders, and vice versa. And many of the existing pad names need to be properly linked to their respective parent folders, so “Tamb” doesn’t default to “Shaker”, etc. when auditioning sounds (not to be confused with point 17. which is a completely different bug)…
This is half feature request and half bug, and fairly low priority in the scheme of things. It falls into the “nice to have” category.
22. When triggered via MIDI, sustained ADSR sounds hang whenever the bank those sounds are from is not the currently selected bank…
It’s on our list.
23. The Tempest’s timing drifts in ‘Slave’ mode when using the MIDI DIN input, gradually losing sync with the ‘Master’ clock source; and this behavior is further exacerbated with use of the ‘ROLL’ function…
I cannot speak to the accuracy of this statement. I have no information regarding the performed tests, loaded OS versions, settings, and overall method. We have an Innerclock System in the office that we can use to verify this is true. Whoever is experiencing this drift, please open a support ticket with us and provide detailed step-by-step instructions for reproducing this and we will look into it.
For all current and prospective Tempest owners out there, please understand that we are aware of your concerns and appreciate your perspective. We have not abandoned the Tempest OS. Between pushing forward with new designs and refining existing products, there is never a point in time at which we are idle here at DSI. It’s a complex balancing act with many variables. We will be revisiting the Tempest OS, and hopefully soon, but the Change.org petition has no bearing on our timeframe, and we can’t specifically guarantee when will dive back in.
This will remain our definitive statement on this matter. Thank you for your continued patronage and support.
i dont own a Tempest. But reading the responses of this Carson Day guy, the way he is flippantly dismissing so many concerns is a giant RED FLAG for this company. Honestly this guy is no PR genius and should be stood down. Taking all his responses as a whole, the general vibe suggests that users are just whingers and all these problems are generally nonsense and an annoyance.
saying that the “Change.org petition has no bearing on our timeframe” is saying that you can complain all you want, we are going to ignore you and users voices mean nothing to us. Again…from any company this is just so insulting statements it makes me reel back in disbelief.
Makes me want to think twice about purchasing ANY of their products now. How short-sighted to you need to be not to realize that this will rub off onto sales of future synths? rediculous.
Interesting. I own a Prophet 12 and my experience has been exactly the oposite. New features added, bug fixed in multiple versions, excellent, AMAZING service when I had hardware troubles and had to replace the soundboard in my unit. They even sent me via mail free nuts for the audio outputs that I somehow lost. Having owned many Korg products (10/10 in the scale of “wedontgiveafuck”) this is as good a customer support I will find in my life.
And not to mention the direct interaction with developers in the forums… Developers that actually listened to our requests and implemented the most important ones, tweaking them as we asked them to. An example the two delay modes (legacy and Clean) are a result of our requests.
selling mine now. I am not on DSI’s timeline.
Just addressing Carson’s comments about the Tempest petition:
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
The description in the campaign is interesting, though somewhat misleading. The vast majority of Tempest owners are happily making music with it…
*Um, evidently there are more than a trivial number of Tempest owners out there to whom this matters, Carson.
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
Most importantly, if anybody had contacted us directly at DSI support to ask whether we have quit development on the Tempest, we would have told them no. We do intend to continue, and finish, development of the Tempest…
*Oh, but we have contacted DSI, repeatedly in fact, only to be patronized. Besides which, this campaign isn’t about what you say you’re going to do; it’s about what you’ve actually done. Many of these bugs have allegedly been “on your list” for years now. And make no mistake about it, that’s what this is about.
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
Separately, the campaign appears to be an inaccurate representation of Tempest users since there’s no way to qualify who is an owner and who is not…
*That’s right, Carson, we’re making all of this up. The petition signees, the entire conversation here at Synthtopia, the 32 thousand posts on the DSI forum… All persons and opinions fabricated by an insignificant group of malcontents with a hate-on for DSI. Whatever helps you sleep at night, man.
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
As the Tempest currently stands (OS 1.4), there are some valid and somewhat annoying bugs that are present. Most everything listed on the campaign is on our bug list of items to consider for fixing/implementation…
*How much longer are these “annoying bugs” to be under consideration exactly? I can tell you how long they’ve been annoying me!
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
The Tempest is a mature product (Shoot! 5 years is long enough for humans), and there have been many improvements made and features added which were not explicitly called out for implementation when the product was released. Because we are a small company and constantly produce new instruments, we have to rotate between updates for all instruments. I will reiterate, we DO intend to release another update for it…
*Okay… When? And can I have my money back to hold in trust until that happens?
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
If users are actually unable to back up their work, please contact us directly at DSI support. This would be a serious problem, but I am unaware of any users contacting us in this regard…
*What good is a successful back-up if there are still issues with loading older projects and sound files?
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
1. Tempest not being able to discern between note ‘velocity’ and pad ‘pressure’…
Velocity and pressure are derived from the same sensor, a force sensing resistor. That means that when a pad is played, velocity is the near instantaneous change in resistance from off to on. The question is, when should the continuous change in resistance start acting as pressure? How long do we wait before interpreting the sensor data as pressure? Adding a small fixed delay to onset of pressure might help, though I can imagine situations where you would also want pressure to react immediately…
Chris Hector from DSI (May, 2014) wrote:
Velocity and pad pressure should be separate and will get looked into. There is already a timeout because the pads don’t rise to the correct velocity immediately, I just need to tune the timeout for the aftertouch response…
*You see, Carson, we are listening, so I suggest you get your stories straight.
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
2. Note sustain without a duration limit…
This is a feature request, not a bug. The duration of a step must be held in memory so it can be saved/reloaded etc. Memory is not infinite…
Chris Hector from DSI (May, 2014) wrote:
Note sustain without a duration limit causes a problem with the automatic voice allocation behavior. I do consider it a bug, but due to the way everything is integrated it’s not simple to change. I tried it a while back and it led to some more annoying bugs so it’s on the back burner right now…
*So now it’s a memory thing is it?
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
3. “MIDI sequencer sound” prevents the corresponding internal sound from triggering, yet the ‘OFF’ setting remains broken…
This is on our bug list…
Chris Hector from DSI (May, 2014) wrote:
This is a bug and is fixed in my latest beta…
*That was two official operating systems ago, so what happened to this fix?
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
4. Adding swing to the ‘ROLL/ARP’ function…
Not really a bug, more of a worklfow/feature request. It’s on our request list for consideration…
Chris Hector from DSI (May, 2014) wrote:
I’ll be adding a flag so the sound roll will swing, that’s about done…
*That’s funny, according your chief programmer, it’s been done for two years already. So where is it, Carson, since you think we’re all just wining?
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
5. The missing “Env Shape” parameter as seen on page 16. of Operation Manual 1.0…
When the 1.0 manual and 1.0 Tempest was released, it was explicitly stated that the unit was not complete and that it and the manual was subject to change. Most of these changes (all the way to 1.4) were welcome additions and fixes. I was not with the company officially when the Tempest was released, though I would imagine that “env shape” was removed as a design/navigation consideration. The envelope shape can be modulated via the mod matrix or using the pitch and aux envelops to change its shape…
*Yes, but why should we have to waste a mod slot for every envelope we want to shape, when the parameter we need is right there in the original manual? You know, the manual you kept encouraging us to read; the one we used to educate our purchase back when all these promises were still on the table.
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
6. Basic file management…
You already have basic file management. You can save/copy/rename files into a series of directories. It sounds like you want more “organization” functionality which is quite different than stating the Tempest lacks “Basic file management”…
*Oh, right, I guess we should have stated more specifically that: when we save one of our 500 sounds ‘WE’D LIKE TO KNOW WHERE IT WENT!’
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
7. The envelope/LFO bug that causes the digital oscillators to quit or otherwise not trigger when modulated to, from, or through a relative ‘level’ of zero…
Just set the envelope amount value to 1…
*This doesn’t work if you want to use negative envelope amounts or when using an LFO for that matter. And… It’s a BUG!
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
8. Tempest not remembering the folder-of-origin when saving…
I cannot speak to the reason for this as I have not spoken with Chris about it…
*Well, I have, and allegedly it’s one of those “easy” fixes that Dave Smith just can’t be bothered to allot him the time to fix.
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
9. ‘Key Follow OFF’ not working for the digital osc’s…
It’s on our list. Not sure if possible due to the SAM chip itself…
10. Glide not working for the digital osc’s…
See #9 .
11. Pitch Bend not working for the digital oscillators…
See #9 .
*Okay, so, all of the above are both in the manual and have been present in every incarnation of the operating system to date. Of course, they have never worked. And now we’re supposed to believe that you embarked on this without actually knowing whether or not the chip could be programmed to do these tasks… Seriously?
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
12. The ever-present but still not functional Glide/Legato modes…
It’s on our list. I’m not personally aware of the reasons for this…
*Okay, but Chris does, and it still needs to be implemented. Again, there it is in the manual and in the operating system, doing nothing. This one was a real selling point too!
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
13. The ‘Playlist’ crash bug…
I’m not sure I’m familiar with this one specifically. If it has been reported to support and reproduced, then it should be on our list. If nobody has reported it, please open a support ticket…
*Okay. Could someone please report this to DSI support… Again (sigh)?
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
14. Using the ‘ROLL’ function to record a part causes other pads to randomly trigger…
I’ve seen this before and believe it’s related to a strange issue where the sound initialization procedure and/or file corruption issue. If I had to guess, it could be related to files saved on specific (non official) operating system releases or by users changing the initialize settings in the debug menu. Does this happen on the official 1.4 OS with a newly created file?
*Yes, it happens with newly created files in OS 1.4. It’s related to the ARP, and Chris allegedly has it isolated, but again… When will it be fixed?
Chris Hector from DSI (Nov, 2015) wrote:
I fixed the bug where roll is causing problems when the erase was on. It was specifically tied to the arp. The behavior didn’t occur when it was doing retrigger normally. I figure this will help me narrow it down and find out what’s causing the inconsistency, I’ll let you know when I find it…
*See, we listen!
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
15. Using the ‘ROLL’ function to record in ’16 Levels’ mode fails to record the correct velocities: i.e. it only repeats the velocity of the lowest pad pressed…
It’s on our list…
16. Recording a ‘ROLL’ with a sound assigned to a voice results in the pad lighting up as if it is being triggered, yet there is no sound…
It’s on our list…
*Yes, yes, they’re all “on your list”… Precisely our point really. And so they’re going to be fixed when exactly?
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
17. There is an advanced bug that causes the pad names to randomly change when auditioning sounds; it happens most predictably when you have auditioned a sound from one pad and then try to audition a sound from another pad. When this happens the available sound folder also changes, not just the pad name: i.e. the ‘Kick’ pad, for instance, will suddenly become a ‘Snare’ pad – *which instantly loads a snare sound by the way (devastating!) – after which you can no longer access the kick folder from that pad at all, unless you “revert” the sound…
Not an advanced bug at all and certainly does not block access to any sound. The description is a bit overblown, however, it’s on our list…
*Did I say “advanced”? Sorry, I was just trying to distinguish it from the other two pad name bugs that Chris and I have been going back and forth on for months. But since it’s so pedestrian, Carson, it shouldn’t take much in the way of time and resources to fix it, right?
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
18. If the Tempest receives a RAM sound dump via USB, while also receiving note-on/off data on the MIDI DIN input, then USB MIDI sys-ex is not received correctly half of the time: i.e. it just stands there waiting for MIDI data in those cases…
It is not advised to use USB and MIDI at the same time for MIDI input. This is true for all of our instruments…
*Chris publicly acknowledged this as a bug in this very forum, and repeatedly promised ‘Razmo’ (who brought this to our attention) that it could be and indeed would be fixed. Hell, if I remember correctly, he even said it was fixed and would be in the release of OS 1.4. So who are we to believe if not the guy writing the code? And by the way, it works in the Evolver!
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
20. When switching beats on-the-fly, the first step of the sequencer-out is consistently late; so if you’re triggering a sample loop on the one, every time you switch beats on the Tempest, it will be out of sync for the first pass…
I would guess that this initial latency is due to higher priority tasks being performed when changing beats. There’s a whole lot of data to load very quickly on a beat change and keeping the internal sound engine in time and performing as expected is certainly It’s also worth noting that the “sequencer out” parameter was added by Chris on his own accord. Sequencing external instruments from the Tempest was never stated as a feature when the Tempest was released…
*Internal latency indeed! But you’re right, Carson, this feature was never supposed to be in the operating system; yet we still can’t shut it ‘OFF’ so we can use that pad for our internal sounds, as was intended by design when we purchased the Tempest. See #3
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
21. Pad names need to be added for all the sound folders, and vice versa. And many of the existing pad names need to be properly linked to their respective parent folders, so “Tamb” doesn’t default to “Shaker”, etc. when auditioning sounds (not to be confused with point 17. which is a completely different bug)…
This is half feature request and half bug, and fairly low priority in the scheme of things. It falls into the “nice to have” category…
*So half-fix it then! At any rate, I happen to know that it’s already fixed; but then, Chris would have to be given the time to compile a proper update now wouldn’t he?
Chris Hector from DSI (Nov, 2015) wrote:
Right, that’s the sound type bug I just fixed. It was setting the pad kit sound to the default for the directory you were auditioning sounds in…
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
22. When triggered via MIDI, sustained ADSR sounds hang whenever the bank those sounds are from is not the currently selected bank…
It’s on our list…
*So fix it!
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
23. The Tempest’s timing drifts in ‘Slave’ mode when using the MIDI DIN input, gradually losing sync with the ‘Master’ clock source; and this behavior is further exacerbated with use of the ‘ROLL’ function…
I cannot speak to the accuracy of this statement. I have no information regarding the performed tests, loaded OS versions, settings, and overall method. We have an Innerclock System in the office that we can use to verify this is true. Whoever is experiencing this drift, please open a support ticket with us and provide detailed step-by-step instructions for reproducing this and we will look into it…
*Sometime this decade then?
___
Carson from DSI wrote:
For all current and prospective Tempest owners out there, please understand that we are aware of your concerns and appreciate your perspective. We have not abandoned the Tempest OS. Between pushing forward with new designs and refining existing products, there is never a point in time at which we are idle here at DSI. It’s a complex balancing act with many variables. We will be revisiting the Tempest OS, and hopefully soon, but the Change.org petition has no bearing on our timeframe, and we can’t specifically guarantee when will dive back in.
This will remain our definitive statement on this matter. Thank you for your continued patronage and support…
*So there you have it, straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth: DSI is happy to take your money; but if you want them to fix the instrument that you paid for, they are simply not concerned with whatever you may think is a reasonable timeframe… Period. And that, folks, is why this petition exist in the first place!
So let’s just keep the pressure on and see how this weathers in the real world, where the good people part with their hard-earned to keep the employees at DSI in a job (doing whatever the hell they want apparently).
Cheers!
Just like you handled the crappy potentiometers on the Evolver? Blame the customer, tell them to DIY fix it, or charge out the nose for DSI to do it.
Your crappy after-release support is why I haven’t bought a P5 or OB6.
Lol, former owner here… Good. Luck. Checks are cashed, and the company has shown zero interest in the instrument since.
I owned one too, sold it one year after buying because of unfinished OS & too many bugs, sadly, it could have been a great instrument.
Here’s to hoping this will extend to Prophet 8 and Prophet 12 owners to get the arp timing issues repaired as well. I’m watching this one closely to see if there’s a response.
Dave has said many times he’s more interested in ‘making new instruments’. I can’t blame him for following his personal excitement but it’s definitely a concern for buyers when these things get abandoned. Like, we’re paying premium prices for these beasts, and why shouldn’t we be able to expect some support??? seems shady.
Yes he has said this, in response to people asking for reissues of former products though.
But every time he’s confronted with the questions on why he doesn’t fix issues on his ‘old’ products, he doesn’t give a straight answer… which is actually exactly what you are doing here also.
Another former owner here – good luck. I sold mine for a $500 loss and picked up the RYTM and didnt regret it – although seeing this makes
Me miss those pads! Layout was excellent, it just failed to live up to what was promised – and I truthfully lost a lot of respect for DSI.
Damn Dude, you got hosed!
Ebaying that would have at least netted you a grand, easily!
…. Sold mine to buy a RYTM. Practically and even trade!
**edit**
Read that wrong, thought you said you got 500$ for it!
Is DSI just Dave and Chris? Hire another software developer for God’s sake.
And this is exactly why I sold my DSI Tempest for a RYTM. Didn’t pay $1600 for a bug filled, abandoned drum machine, that in all actually didn’t sound the greatest, and had some incredibly useless and confusing features (I’m referring to the “delay”, which wasn’t a delay but instead a “midi delay”… whatever that meant in any practicality…). Last I talked to DSI about 6 months ago, they stated: “We are not actively working on the Tempest OS”, even though they are fully aware it needed some love. The menu is a bug filled nightmare, the sound design is mediocre, and it’s just not a comfortable instrument to learn. When the Tempest first came out, I was just getting into Synthesizers, and it really was the only analog one on the market at the time. The RYTM is superior in every way, gets active updates, and isn’t confused about what it actually is (am I drum machine, or a sequencer module that can drum?). Sure I had some fun with it, but after a while, I wanted to do something other than get lost in menus trying to get a kick to not sound like a deflated balloon. I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who is upset over this. I feel somewhat vindicated now.
….
Damn, now that I’m writing about this, all my rage regarding this is coming back…
So useless features: Let’s talk about the “Distortion” for a moment: 0-11 with a 1/16 turn of the knob?? This isn’t distortion, this is a low-fi gain knob that makes it sound more like it’s being run through a broken megaphone just by touching it.
The Compression knob is the same way, except that it doesn’t even anything out, it makes everything sound flat.
The Delay button (revisited). This one just pissed me off… Everyone in the free world hears delay and they think “echo”. Granted somewhat erroneously, but there it is. But why you would make a button that say’s “delay” that serves no practical application other than some kind of “midi” delay is beyond me. I have not ever seen such a thing anywhere else.
Oh… OH… OH! And… The “normalized” samples or patches. Sounds simple, right? I plug in my trusty M50’s into the Headphone Jack (that means stereo, right?), and for the next 30 minutes or so, I go through each and every single patch re-leveling them (because some are really quiet, and others really loud…) and re-balancing them because we all want to hear a tom in the left ear, and a snare in the right ear…. WHY? WHY are none of the patches balanced (okay, none is a bit of a stretch, but Tempest owners will know what I’m talking about…).
Worst part was when I first got this, I couldn’t figure out why when I outputted through the (L) using a speaker, which I’m fairly certain is common practice… I couldn’t hear half of what was going on because everything that was being outputted to the right channel wasn’t being heard.
… damn I hated this thing….
… The touch sliders were cool, tho…
Your complaint about the DELAY thing is pointless. MIDI delay is fairly common on other devices. For example, Kurzweil K and PC series have layer delays that just let you set some amount of time before that layer sounds. It also allows you to do things like shift the time relationship between two synced devices, or make a snare beat more laid back, etc. Not everyone things “echo” when they see delay. It IS a delay. If they has called it Delay Effect, or Digital Delay, you might have a legitimate complaint.
Your complaint about the compression knob is confusing: “It doesn’t even anything out, it makes everything sound flat.”
What you are describing almost sounds like a form of latency correction, which I can understand for older, digital gear. But this is an analog device heavily designed for performance. A midi delay wouldn’t need to be an upfront feature, as it seems to be more of a under the hood feature. Regardless, even reading descriptions of Korg’s Keys and Minilogue, or Elektron’s description on delay with their products, and delay appears to by synonymous with repeated notes. Even the Pro 2 has a similar approach on the front as to it’s “delay” feature, which is more in line to what people expect delay to mean.
This is more of a design and implementation complaint, but I feel is indicative of the direction they went with this.
It also didn’t help that when I called them, the tech suggested that I wasn’t the only one to question what that meant…
And unless I’m mistaken, compression is meant to boost lower levels, decrease higher levels and even out sound, not flatten the EQ but to normalize the audio, apologies if that came off as confusing.
Thanks. That all makes sense.
about 4000 other users are quite happy with it, including BLAWAN.
so your opinion on the sound quality is rather subjective, i guess 😉
This is a good test of Dave Smith Instruments.
Ideally, we want to think that these medium-to-high-end hardware developers are highly motivated to make the best hardware they can make. And, that they develop firmware that makes things run smoothly at worst– and amazingly at best.
No doubt, it is more challenging than we users think. There are plenty of hurdles to get something to market, and lots of compromises along the way. Channeling some resources toward keeping older products running smoothly sends an important message to potential new customers. I.e., “We won’t abandon you after we get your money.”
Any customer wants to be able to say that their purchase is “Rock solid.”. When it ain’t, manufacturers can and should find a way– especially THIS manufacturer.
Here’s the problem with “Older” products:
When the Tempest was released, the FW was Alpha at best. It’s never been completed, and right out of the box it was broken. I’m not one to jump on the FW update bandwagon, but at least when you release a product, you should at the very least make certain that it works properly.
DSI did not do that, they released a half finished product knowing full well that it was half finished, tossed in a few updates that sorta made it better, and then treated it like the red headed step child.
4 years is a long time to not fix something as practical as a patch menu, or general interface, or fine tune the knob calibration. Seriously, you’d go into the patch menu, select a patch, go back to the main display, and display whatever it wanted to display, rather than the patch you selected.
There was a years time span between 1.3 and 1.4 and while 1.4 added some pretty cool features (arp sequencer was cool), and some neat patches, they still neglected everything else. It was more like releasing last years car that had a faulty speedometer, and instead of fixing it, they gave it a new paint job.
DSI is not the only manufaturer with problems: I own a Moog sub 37 for about 2 years having lots of problems with the firmware. The promised Vst editor is still not available. Nord (Clavia) is even not interested in a Vst- or standalone editor or proper presetmanager for the leads. Most Aturia hardware has huge problems with firmware but also with the hardware. The Waldorf Blofeld creats noise and hum to the outputs when it’s connected to USB. The Streichfett reverb sounds like an additional noise generator. No win 8/10 usb-Midi drivers for the Roland v-synth. Elektron Overbridge is not really stabe and about 2 years too late released. And don’t forget the countless bugs in Vst and DAW’s…
I’m on the beta testing team for the sub 37, which was open to anyone who wanted to participate when it was announced on the moog forum. Amos and Gil have been awesome about responding to even our more obtuse issues with the software and firmware. It should be released soon, I’m hoping within a month if not in weeks. Hold tight my friend 🙂
Shouldn’t they just release the OS as open source and let the market decide what features users want?
i agree and not just with the tempest, products are getting dumped by manufactures at a greater pace as cheaper manufacturing has made it easier to release more products and restrict over supply of parts. the merry go round of OS updates from the likes of apple is increasing the redundant nature of goods that are not updated by the manufacturer.
may be its time to get a petition going to force manufacturers of all electronic goods to release their OS open source so people can still use goods that are physically and mechanically sound apart from a dated or buggy OS. trouble is with the move by central banks towards negative interest rates to create more consumer spending and global demand for goods declining its hard to see any government making it law.
There was that one fellow who reverse engineered the RYTM and Elektron didn’t seem to mind. Created a neat app to go with it, too. I’d say someone just needs to go do it, and publish it.
He reversed engineered the SysEx commands not the firmware. Very very big difference! But Strom for Rytm is an amazing app 🙂
Tempest is shit. I sold it fortunately.
You only by Dave smith kit once, for various reasons.
I have followed the Tempest as a prospective purchaser but the lack of ongoing updates to users many issues has always dissuaded me .
I wish the petition luck ( I may sign , depending on eligibility criteria ) , though judging by Dave Smith’s comments on the Tempest particularly & his attitude generally in the recent Nashville Synth Group Skype Interview on Youtube , he seems to suggest you like it as it is & buy one , or go somewhere else & shut TF up .
I think this attitude is particularly unfair to Tempest owners as , more so than other products , it was released unfinished but with many promises as to long term updates & support as their flagship instrument .Probably the closest DSI has come to Crowdfunding , it was sold as an ongoing project on the back of D Smith & R. Linn reputations where user input could shape firmware & features . It is sad the promises were not realised & users are still waiting for standard features they expected for a flagship product .
Tempest comments towards end IIRC ;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiEBRT9IZ3E
Fascinating to hear Dave actually say towards the end that he is not interested as much in innovation, and that we would rather “incrementally tinker” with progress in this development. Yes Dave, some of us see that.
employed a drummer !
🙂
You have to find a drummer first, that’s an even bigger challenge than an OS update for the Tempest.
Drum Machines have no Ego.
Tempest was recently updated, Stop the whining. Tempest is Rock N’ Roll…
My honest opinion is that the $1700.00 instrument I bought was not complete. I would be jamming and enjoying things, and all of a sudden the thing would crash – when this happened I would lose my patterns, sounds and everything. Also, I found it very hard to work the “cheese” out of the machine – just about any combination of sounds ended up sounding pretty lame. I personally loved the user interface and found it simple and easy to learn on – but the buggy system has definitely made me want to stay away from any more “Dave Smith Instruments”. As a guitar player, I imagine buying a $1700.00 Strat – get it home and the pickups start malfunctioning…should have taken the sucker back
as a tempest owner i think your talking about a different machine, it has bugs which are not a game changer but as for “I would lose my patterns, sounds and everything” you must have had a faulty machine because i have had mine since the first os and never had these problems.
if you read through the current bug list which you can find on the forum none of your alleged problems have been stated by any member. to some up the situation, the petition in the case of bug fixes is looking to smooth over some finer issues not any ridiculous claims of losing patterns, sounds and everything?
Calling my claims ridiculous is not appreciated. I just stated my opinion and experience. If you’re curious about my view why not just ask?
anyone up for a Teenage Engineering OP-1 OS update petition? It’s due…
Stop it. TE has supported the OP-1 with consistency and creativity. They’ve continually improved on the OS.
Stop it.
TE has supported the OP-1 with consistency and creativity. They’ve continually improved on the OS.
Maybe all this Tempest rage will drive the used price way down, and I will be able to afford one 🙂
To me this sounds like the DSI I know. There were issues with poly chain in the evolver line they wouldn’t address as well. I’m glad I sold my DSI gear and plan never to go back. OB6 sounds really yummy but I don’t want to deal with DSI so I’m not going to buy one.
Hmm. Mine sounds quite alright. Live and let live, for real. This is a case where you can hate the player instead of the game.
Total shameless self-plug:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX01mb7rLMw
First world problems. People buy a two-thousand dollar instrument, then proceed to write multiple paragraphs complaining about it online. Yeesh, if y’all spent as much time as you did on forums whining about your “malfunctioning” gear, you might actually make some music. I mean, music is what this is about, ultimately, right?
It’s like watching spoiled-brats kick a mall santa in the shins. Kinda disgusting actually.
Demanding excellence for our money is not a first world problem, it’s simply that: Demanding excellence. If that was the case, then you might as well not even bother with holding anyone to a standard of accountability.
Nice little jam, by the way.
Excellence and perfection are two totally different things. I have not run into any bugs during the use of my Tempest Serial#04101 It sounds great and can do things no other drum machine that I know of can. Instead of complaining, maybe you could work on a “work around” solution. It seems That people are raging about some pretty minor things. Other drum machines have glitches also. MY WISH is a computer editor from the company that made them for the Tetra etc. People who have lost everything due to a crash, back things up just like you should be doing for your computer.
Look at the OB6…try to buy a 2 voice and 4 sems with what you would spend on an OB6. Dave helped Tom bring that instrument to market so people who weren’t rich could enjoy owning a true Oberheim Sounding and designed Instrument. People could always go out and buy several of the Moog sequencer reissues and the Euro rack modules needed to make a drum machine. If you won the lottery or were loaded with money to burn. Dave was basically the creator of MIDI. He is no slouch at designing/engineering either is Roger LInn. I think that DSI is probably giving a new Tempest OS as much attention as is warranted by it’s profit generation, he is in business to make a living remember. He has what should be considered a small company that makes some of the best analog and most affordable analog gear on the market. So maybe a little understanding is due to him and his company. Have you played the Sequential Prophet 6? It sounds absolutely beautiful and made with discreet components as far as I know! Maybe we should be more understanding and less selfish show him some compassion.
@ Darren P: sorry, but this is just as wrong as the boring “entitlement” argument.
Musicians want to function their instruments the best way possible.
Here, as well as in Africa, China or Peru .
You know what a first world problem is: To want to buy a new synth every few months.
Around our house, we use the phrase “First World Problems” to put things into perspective when that is a helpful thing to do.
But we don’t use it to smack down a reasonable conversation– or invalidate a well-deserved gripe. Complaining. Is. Fun.
How annoying would it be if after everything you say, someone puts his finger in your face and says “First world problems.” Don’t be that guy.
Lawl. Validation much? I’ve worked hard for everything I own, and also practiced hard for whatever skills it may be I have honed. I try to not take those things for granted like so many here seem to. If you have problems, solve them. “Complaining is fun?” No. A well had conversation between two intellects is fun. Complaining is annoying. Sounds like most of you are trying to push your own shortcomings onto Dave and his crew. If you got gripes with the machine, don’t hold on to it and say “it’s their fault!” Do something about it instead of playing the helpless puppet. Take a few steps back and take a look into the mirror here folks. I’m done with y’all. Back to the music.. err.. I mean.. Fallout 4
Darren your tracks are FANTASTIC!!!
As far as I can remember back when those who bought in at 2k with an alpha OS were begging for them to rush the release, people were really excited.
The product got cheaper and OS dev was slow to function.
I can see how people get upset.
I had come to the conclusion to get the most out of Tempest you use it the way it works best.
Darren and some other users have videos which demonstrate that perfectly.
What surprises me is how loud disgruntled Tempest users are, and how they come off extra entitled with subjective desires that are so amazing surly the world agrees.
The RYTM was about a year before any significant OS changes, and has lots of complaints.
Ableton Live has the same arguments stacked against them by users.
These arguments span across the board with hardware and software, not sure why this case is being singled out.
I think the petition is silly, but it did get a definitive response from Carson.
Tempest is incredible, it just sucks at the things it cant do.
It’s not much different than buying a snare drum and complaining that it doesn’t sound like a bass drum because it was so expensive.
I’ve seen all the, open source JJOS, this machine in the 90’s could do it, sample upload petition efforts. All I see is a bunch of other unique scenarios that can be compared to Tempest only because they are unique. It’s illogical to compare these things any further.
When I first read it, I though similar to what Carson responded with, many of these things are feature requests.
I think a good all round solution would be for dsi to employ a third party to provide a sysex archive of settings, and most importantly a plug in editor. Not everyone uses it to play and practice guitar with. I suspect most happy owners use Tempest for fast paced techno, such as psy and acid. Just what I’ve seen really the sonic pallet fits in perfectly. I love my tempest but overall it is not my go to for drums. I use it for Percs and glitchy goodness. I can say I regret not purchasing a jomox 999 instead. Hopefully Dsi will remedy this regret.
i LOVE my tempest – it’s never struck me as insanely buggy – more inspiring than most drum machines in my collection, and certainly a weird and great sound design tool! That said, i’ll sign, cause by all means MAKE IT BETTER!!!!! 🙂
So I don’t know a single thing about the Tempest … Just read this because the subject was something I am interested in and have certainly experienced with hardware. But I have to ask … This is a drum machine? And cost How much?? Holy $-(/;/);:@! A drum machine?
To be fair, calling it a drum machine is a bit of an understatement. It’s more of a 6 voice, 12 oscillator, polyphonic, 16 track sequencer. It’s a damned beast, comparatively. When it first came out, DSI had two things going for it: The name “Linn Drum” and that no one else was putting out instruments like this. Analog synths were just starting to come back, it was still kind of a uncertain place. This is actually where I jumped on board the synthesizer train.
Today, 5-6 years later, you have a market FILLED with people coming out with full on analog gear, as well as incredibly powerful digital gear that has the same characteristics of Analog with Digital Engines. So DSI doesn’t have that luxury of being the only kid on the block with cool toys anymore.
Let’s put it this way, when you have a new Korg Electribe for 500$ sound WAY better than a 1600$ analog drum machine, and in many cases is more powerful as far as sound design and feature, you need to step up your game a little bit.
you can use it as a drum machine as well as a 6 voice synth
Imagine the synth to be something between Prophet 600 and Polyevolver
plus a fantastic Sequencer and one of the 2 or 3 best user interfaces of any modern synth,
which makes it really an instrument.
just watch some videos WHAT you can do with the Tempest.
if i see the prices people pay for 808, 909, 303,
many vintage synths, then the Tempest is fantastic priced.
People should sign this even if they don’t own a Tempest, out of principle. Companies need to know that it takes them taking care of their customer for their customers to take care of them…. Help me help you etc.
“People should sign this even if they don’t own a Tempest, out of principle.”
That seems like a recipe for creating petitions that manufacturers will completely ignore.
I’m not really sure what people expect from this Change.org stuff, other than an opportunity to vent some frustration.
i think manufacturers never can ignore the customers will, if it is solid and makes sense.
Of course they can…
The only thing they can’t ignore is the customer’s money !
That only makes the petition obsolete as far as the Tempest is concerned. And what good would it or any petition do in a case like this anyway?
Pro-2 can use a petition as well.
Been waiting for an update long time…………
It looks like they only want to bring out new synthesizers.
My interest in Dave Smith gear is losing day by day.
Open source it please! I already opened a forum post on DSI forum a few years back which I cant find…
Anyway that would be the way forward!
I am owning a tempest since day 1:
Even though it has many annoying “features” I still love it and would not swap to something else. Having said that, my list of things that I dont like in it:
1. Loading a sound is now easier with a knob but the folders are always fucked up. You have a sound in folder X loaded, then you turn the knob and it always jumps to folder Y or Z and loads the first sound in that folder.
2. Loading a beat or a project is soooooo fcking lame. Zillion button presses and menu hell, and you also have to stop the sequencer. Seriously???
3. Menus are counterintuitive in many ways. It would be too long to go into this in a comment but Sometimes it feels like the programmer started somewhere and ended up elsewhere, implemented something that may have been convenient in a technical point of view in the very moment but is really bad user experience. That’s OK as long as they would listen to customers and fix the UI and UX issues but they just cant be bothered.
4. Before 1.4, when you’d switch to another beat during playback, instead of having a straight cut int the sounds that were being played it kind of kept playing the notes with a release and the sounds kind of morphed to the new sounds Of the new beat, which I loved very much. It was much more lively as an instrument. Now the sounds just cut off and you cant change this behavior.
5. Why only 8 bars? Would it cost like $10 more to a put a larger memory in there? Or even keep the memory’s size but dont restrict on the beat length. Why a limit at all? Or why not say 64 or 128 or 256? This is just plain stoopid.
6. Larger memory, pretty pls, we’re in 2000 fcking 16!
7. Beat mode and analog knobs. Awesome feature which no other synth has, but the analog pots just dont do what they display. Good we have the encoders too…
And the list could go on.
I still love it, it’s like the stupid girlfriend you love to fuck with but wouldn’t want kids from either.
– i got 2 Tempests. I love them. I think it is one of the most creative electronic instrument ever invented.
you can do so much with it and it has such a great sound.
– i second ANY petition for OS updates, as these are initiated by people who love their instruments and want them to be better. This has nothing to do with entitlement or first world problems. This has to do with being a musician or a fanboy who wnats to buy the next new toy every few weeks.
– on the Tempest Forum, Pym has promised to support developers/programmers , if we (the users) can find
one. I try to find onw all the time. still i think, DSI and Roger Linn should still care themself about the Tempest too.
– there are many good ideas for improvements, for me also important would be larger memory for patterns.
i would suggest that at least 1000 users ( and more than 4000 Tempests seem to have been sold until today) should pay 10 bucks each and hire a programmer. With 10.000 usd, this should be possible. I would gladly pay 10 USD for a better OS.
(btw i also had the RYTM but sold it for the moment to finance something else . MAybe i buy another one.
but if you think DSI is hard to talk to about a better OS, then try your luck with Elektron. THAT is tuff)
That’s how much dsi collect for 3-4 of their polysynths, couldn’t they be bothered to send some money towards tempest? Is it only for the dime? these people are supposed to have reputations..
“Tempest” is certainly generating a “storm” of complaints…
a storm of complaints?
what are you talking about?
i mostly only know peoply who love it and want it to be improved.
I think Herman was just playing with the word “Tempest” (= storm).
ah sorry 😉 my English is not good enough for that 😉
As a tempest owner who uses it as a studio sound design tool as opposed to a live instrument to jam or perform with, I’ve got absolutely no complaints.
The distortions was fixed in the last patch to not go from 0-11 in 1/16 of a turn. The compressor was given proper attack and release controls, the samples were increased in a round about way. We got polyphony ages ago.
I have a channel in live dedicated to tempest and basically use it for what I need – whether it’s bass or a synth sound or drums and I’m more than content. I’ll take this drum machine to the grave.
Heartbreakingly, I had to chose between this and the rytm a little while ago and this stayed.
In saying that, the may come where I want to use it as a live performance instrument so am always happy to have imporvements
Others have made this point pretty clearly.
In essence, a manufacturer should run a product through rigorous testing to find major problems and fix them before it goes out the door. IF that doesn’t happen, and there are some reasons why that might be excusable, then they should be acknowledged and fixed quickly thereafter.
Needless to say, carelessness like this hurts the manufacturer’s reputation, and can affect resale value.
Others have made your questionable point quite clearly too. Yet here we are.
You buy a product as it is. If you buy a product expecting it to get better, you’re a fool. If it does get better, great. If not, the onus is on you to make sure you bought what you wanted.
Dave smith offered a free no question asked refund policy on tempest for ages. If first wave users didn’t like it, they gave it back. Which leaves no room for users now – years after release to complain.
It’s a product. It works. It may not work the way you want it to, but that’s life. So much entitlement, it’s like Dave should drop his business and just cater for our every needs with updates.
It’s this simple – don’t like it? Sell it. Like it? Shut up and make some music!
As I said, bug fixes and updates would be great, but it’s already one hell of a six voice synth that does drums!
1. Entitlement is to think, because others think different than you on this, you are entitled to call them “fools” or to “shut up”. The organizers wrote the whole change.org text very friendly.
2. Everybody who signs this KNOWS how great Dave Smith, Roger Linn and DSI are.
That’s why we use a Tempest.
3. As customers, at the moment we are “tempted” (no pun intended) by A LOT of new equipment every few weeks at the moment. I think it is a very good idea, to try to get what you already got as good as possible. Also if it is years later. Why not if it can be done ? it just sjows, how much we enjoy this great instrument. This is what serious musicians do. The other thing is to buy the next synth if you are not instntly happy with what you got. This is fanboyism.
4. I heard this entitlement thing so often. You know who are the first to celebrate new features others did “fight” for ? Exactly the ones talking bout entitlement.
So calm down, stay positive, sign the petition and support this. Nobody is against DSI.
They are great.
I have bought products where it specifically states certain attributes, properties, or abilities on the box, only to find that it doesnt and they promise it in a future update. I contacted Alesis to convince them that they should take my QS7 back as a defective item because it didnt do what the box said it could do. They refused of course, but honestly if I was a turd and took them to court (with a free lawyer of course 🙂 ), I would have won. In my mind this is like buying something and finding that parts are broken when you open it up. Or, like buying something that says batteries included, but they aren’t. It is BS that companies can sell hardware with a ton of bugs, and then take forever (or never) to fix it.
Perhaps in these cases the only way to get instrument developers to follow thru on their promises that milked people out of thousands of dollars is a class action lawsuit like what you see with mainstream products.
I dont understand how there is so many companies like DSI (not a customer) that create these very expensive items and then just move on while its left in limbo. You do see this in car manufactures and other product services, but before it gets to a change.org petician normally you see some legal maneuvers, people get money back or the company is forced to deliver on their promises.
I dont want to see DSI or any other developer run out of business, but you cant offer infior products for top dollar knowing full well you’ll give up on the platform after so many have invested. It sounds illegal, especially to come right out and state you have no plan to fix the known issues you sold for $$$$
Accountability needs to be adhered too, and there needs to be some policing to protect consumers, no matter the product designated “experimental” or not.
I doubt there was any fine print DSI placed on the product indicating it might not work properly and might never work properly and I’m sure no one paid full price for a device initially understanding it would never be fully finished and working 100%
In fact I cant even wrap my head around the idea that a company can pull this off… If I bought a car that was suppose to go 200MPH but when new only went 150MPH i’d understand a need for an update, nothing is always 100% out the gate, but if I bought a car that was suppose to go 200MPH and it only went 150MPH in reality and the company said “welp tough titties” I’d ask my Lawyer what “tough titties means, legally speaking”
They did say when they released it that it was in a non feature complete state (I don’t remember the wording but it was really alpha, not even beta) and they were using it to raise money for its own development.
People were mostly okay with that, I think the problems occurred when they stopped even pretending they were going to finish the thing.
It’s like the kick-starter thing, people’s motivations seem to drop off once they have the money and DSI really did promise the world with the tempest.
One thing though is the “fix it in software” attitude, I imagine even if they had devoted a team to finishing the os (instead of one guy named pym) they would only be able to go so far without also changing the hardware.
I think realistically, considering the incredibly rough state it was in when they released it it probably requires some hardware changes to finally achieve all that was promised, not just coding.
Thanks for the info man, I was obviously speaking from off the couch not being a customer myself.
In the end a stated proposal for development and the lure of investment, to then openly disregard that proposal still seems like a lawyer’s hey-day… Even if I hate our lawsuit crazy society. Ya cant just say this and do that when money is exchanged, once you except payment you have closed a contract in my opinion and you are held to your end of it.
Hahaha, your last few statements are hilarious. This kinda is what they are saying. Tough titties alright.
Dave Smith Instruments are a great great company. I own two of their synths and in spite of some third party software that was buggy. DSI made great effort on sorting out the issues I had. DSI thank you and having heard the tempest I love it. Just need a budget version!!!
B
when you guys are done here can you please move this whole operation over to Native Instruments because their lack of development for maschine is downright ugly!
I’ve owned a tempest a couple times. It was always a ton of fun but in the end I had frustrations not having any simple way to do xox sequencing, and the buttons on the panel that were supposed to toggle between 1-16 and 17-32 just didn’t do anything. They’d just be staring at me, sneering about not wanting to do their jobs. Eventually I switched over to all elektron stuff for sequenced/rhythm work and couldn’t be happier. The sequencing is better, the OS gets amazing updates and I can just get on with making music. Sure I miss the quantized scales on the pads, but these days there’s a million ways to do that. i miss the tempest but seeing how they still haven’t come up with a stable OS, let alone finished fleshing out the feature set, there’s no way I’d pay that kind of money. Life’s too short, and cool rhythm machines are more bountiful by the year.
I own a Tempest, a MD, and a Rytm. I am happy with all of them, because each does it’s own thing better than the others. I find the Tempest is the most organic, the Rytm has the best presets and a hell of a kick, and the MD is the most flexible. I find I use my MD the most, and the Rytm the least, but plan to hold onto them all. That said, each possess their own unique frustrations.
I honestly find this change.org petition stupid. What are the ramifications of ignoring it, as the majority of users are quite happy with their Tempests? Many of these comments reflect a complete misunderstanding as to how small DSI is, much less the meaning of working capital. A small minority reveal how little the user knows about synthesis. Tis a poor craftsman who blames his tools, I guess.
I know bugs are annoying and disappointing, but wrapping them in this overbearing blanket of self entitlement I feel is not productive. People are demanding that DSI hires more developers, but then criticize them for being only interested in releasing new instruments. How do you expect them to pay for these new developers? Do you expect the developers to work for free? Sounds like it. It’s a balancing act, and it unfortunately takes patience on our parts. It’s all on you if it stops you from making music.
Tempest:
1. oscilators – weakest I could hear, with little abilities, weak quality (you need many many eq’s, compressors and other effects if you want to help them),
2. samples – tragic, low quality, without the life, simply amateur,
3. no noise,
4. ratio of the price to the quality – no comment,
5. ratio of the price to the usefulness – tragic.
I sold it.
no noise, err on that point i will just assume your charlatan and have never used the machine
White Noise
Pink Noise
Green Noise
Resonant
4K Noise
Soft Noise
Cicada
Buzzed
Chain Link Grinder
420 HighPass Noise
then artists like Blawan, Orbital, Junkie XL, Mathew Johnson (and a few thousand others) : they all know nothing about synths?
The Pro 2 is the most beautiful and inspiring instrument I have ever owned, and I don’t see myself selling it, but it is very frustrating that DSI’s developers can’t seem to fix a few bugs that hamper its potential, without creating new ones. It makes customers wary of investing further in this company, though I am rooting for DSI big time. It’s also insulting to release updates for newer products before updating the Pro 2 OS (beyond a busted beta).
When Arturia ditched support for the Origin once the Brutes became a hit, I swore I’d never purchase another Arturia project. I hope the same doesn’t happen with Dave smith.
A glitch or a bug is a malfunction. They released a semi functioning drum machine! The very least they couldve done was to fix all issues immediately. DSI are showing a level of disregard for customers that have already handed over the cash.
I will never buy DSI or Arturia, just no way. I totally understand the small development house mentality because I’ve worked in one. You need to continually generate new product to stay afloat and that means old products cannot even be considered at all. It’s obvious that DSI and arturia both have substandard practices in place and that’s the key reason why I will never buy their products.
I really hope DSI surprises us all and updates the tempest but it would really go against their bottom line to do so.
Elektron have been selling their md for 15-20 years. If you make the product right it will sell forever. If dsi made the tempest work it wouldn’t have such a sort circle, but now everyone who even remotely gets interested visits a forum reads about all these bugs and the dsi attidudes and stays away.
Talk about narcissistic self-entitlement! YOU bought the product out of your own volition, silly! If you didn’t like it, you should have returned it, and now you complain? Whew. Spoiled self-entitled bratz seem to be taking over these days. Go back to VA plugins if you want “perfection”. This is a hardware instrument – and they all have shortcomings. Take responsibility for your decision, and live with the decision YOU made to purchase it – instead of blaming the creator because it doesn’t do what you want it to do. As they said, they have lots on their plate as they are a small company.
Haha, another good laugh for the evening. People are not complaining because it doesn’t do what they want, they are complaining because it doesn’t do what is advertised. Interestingly you say to go back to software, when this is at the heart of the DSi problem – software. There are no shortcomings with the hardware, just the broken software driving it. I have no qualms with DSI at all, but do take issue when hardware companies sell their hardware with hobbled, half-a$$ed software or functionality that doesn’t deliver what they say it does.
Just addressing Carson’s comments about the Tempest petition since he ‘locked’ the topic at DSI:
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]The description in the campaign is interesting, though somewhat misleading. The vast majority of Tempest owners are happily making music with it…[/quote]
Um, evidently there are more than a trivial number of Tempest owners out there to whom this matters, Carson.
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]Most importantly, if anybody had contacted us directly at DSI support to ask whether we have quit development on the Tempest, we would have told them no. We do intend to continue, and finish, development of the Tempest.[/quote]
Oh, but we [i]have[/i] contacted DSI, repeatedly in fact, only to be patronized. Besides which, this campaign isn’t about what you [i]say[/i] you’re going to do; it’s about what you’ve actually done. Many of these bugs have allegedly been “on your list” for years now. And make no mistake about it, that’s what this is about.
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]Separately, the campaign appears to be an inaccurate representation of Tempest users since there’s no way to qualify who is an owner and who is not.[/quote]
That’s right, Carson, we’re making all of this up. The petition signees, the entire conversation at Synthtopia, the 32 thousand posts in the original DSI forum… All persons and opinions fabricated by an insignificant group of malcontents with a hate-on for DSI. Whatever helps you sleep at night, man.
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]As the Tempest currently stands (OS 1.4), there are some valid and somewhat annoying bugs that are present. Most everything listed on the campaign is on our bug list of items to consider for fixing/implementation.[/quote]
How much longer are these “annoying bugs” to be under consideration exactly? I can tell you how long they’ve been annoying me!
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]The Tempest is a mature product (Shoot! 5 years is long enough for humans), and there have been many improvements made and features added which were not explicitly called out for implementation when the product was released. Because we are a small company and constantly produce new instruments, we have to rotate between updates for all instruments. I will reiterate, we DO intend to release another update for it.[/quote]
Okay… When? And can I have my money back to hold in trust until that happens?
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]If users are actually unable to back up their work, please contact us directly at DSI support. This would be a serious problem, but I am unaware of any users contacting us in this regard.[/quote]
What good is a successful back-up if there are still issues with loading older projects and sound files?
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]1. Tempest not being able to discern between note ‘velocity’ and pad ‘pressure’…
Velocity and pressure are derived from the same sensor, a force sensing resistor. That means that when a pad is played, velocity is the near instantaneous change in resistance from off to on. The question is, when should the continuous change in resistance start acting as pressure? How long do we wait before interpreting the sensor data as pressure? Adding a small fixed delay to onset of pressure might help, though I can imagine situations where you would also want pressure to react immediately.[/quote]
[quote=”Chris Hector (May, 2014)”]Velocity and pad pressure should be separate and will get looked into. There is already a timeout because the pads don’t rise to the correct velocity immediately, I just need to tune the timeout for the aftertouch response.[/quote]
You see, Carson, we are listening, so I suggest you get your stories straight.
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]2. Note sustain without a duration limit…
This is a feature request, not a bug. The duration of a step must be held in memory so it can be saved/reloaded etc. Memory is not infinite.[/quote]
[quote=”Chris Hector (May, 2014)”]Note sustain without a duration limit causes a problem with the automatic voice allocation behavior. I do consider it a bug, but due to the way everything is integrated it’s not simple to change. I tried it a while back and it led to some more annoying bugs so it’s on the back burner right now.[/quote]
So now it’s a memory thing is it?
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]3. “MIDI sequencer sound” prevents the corresponding internal sound from triggering, yet the ‘OFF’ setting remains broken…
This is on our bug list.[/quote]
[quote=”Chris Hector (May, 2014)”]This is a bug and is fixed in my latest beta.[/quote]
That was two official operating systems ago, so what happened to this fix?
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]4. Adding swing to the ‘ROLL/ARP’ function…
Not really a bug, more of a worklfow/feature request. It’s on our request list for consideration.[/quote]
[quote=”Chris Hector (May, 2014)”]I’ll be adding a flag so the sound roll will swing, that’s about done.[/quote]
That’s funny, according your chief programmer, it’s been done for two years already. So where is it, Carson, since you think we’re all just wining?
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]5. The missing “Env Shape” parameter as seen on page 16. of Operation Manual 1.0…
When the 1.0 manual and 1.0 Tempest was released, it was explicitly stated that the unit was not complete and that it and the manual was subject to change. Most of these changes (all the way to 1.4) were welcome additions and fixes. I was not with the company officially when the Tempest was released, though I would imagine that “env shape” was removed as a design/navigation consideration.
The envelope shape can be modulated via the mod matrix or using the pitch and aux envelops to change its shape.[/quote]
Yes, but why should we have to waste a mod slot for every envelope we want to shape, when the parameter we need is right there in the original manual? You know, the manual you kept encouraging us to read; the one we used to educate our purchase back when all these promises were still on the table.
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]6. Basic file management…
You already have basic file management. You can save/copy/rename files into a series of directories. It sounds like you want more “organization” functionality which is quite different than stating the Tempest lacks “Basic file management”…[/quote]
Oh, right, I guess we should have stated more specifically that: when we save one of our 500 sounds ‘WE’D LIKE TO KNOW WHERE IT WENT!’
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]7. The envelope/LFO bug that causes the digital oscillators to quit or otherwise not trigger when modulated to, from, or through a relative ‘level’ of zero…
Just set the envelope amount value to 1.[/quote]
This doesn’t work if you want to use negative envelope amounts or when using an LFO for that matter. And… It’s a BUG!
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]8. Tempest not remembering the folder-of-origin when saving…
I cannot speak to the reason for this as I have not spoken with Chris about it.[/quote]
Well, I have, and allegedly it’s one of those “easy” fixes that Dave Smith just can’t be bothered to allot him the time to fix.
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]9. ‘Key Follow OFF’ not working for the digital osc’s…
on our list. Not sure if possible due to the SAM chip itself.
10. Glide not working for the digital osc’s…
See #9 .
11. Pitch Bend not working for the digital oscillators…
See #9 .[/quote]
Okay, so, all of the above are both in the manual and have been present in every incarnation of the operating system to date. Of course, they have never worked. And now we’re supposed to believe that you embarked on this without actually knowing whether or not the chip could be programmed to do these tasks… Seriously?
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]12. The ever-present but still not functional Glide/Legato modes…
It’s on our list. I’m not personally aware of the reasons for this.[/quote]
Okay, but Chris does, and it still needs to be implemented. Again, there it is in the manual and in the operating system, doing nothing. This one was a real selling point too!
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]13. The ‘Playlist’ crash bug…
I’m not sure I’m familiar with this one specifically. If it has been reported to support and reproduced, then it should be on our list. If nobody has reported it, please open a support ticket.[/quote]
Okay. Could someone please report this… Again (sigh)?
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]14. Using the ‘ROLL’ function to record a part causes other pads to randomly trigger…
I’ve seen this before and believe it’s related to a strange issue where the sound initialization procedure and/or file corruption issue. If I had to guess, it could be related to files saved on specific (non official) operating system releases or by users changing the initialize settings in the debug menu. Does this happen on the official 1.4 OS with a newly created file?[/quote]
Yes, it happens with newly created files in OS 1.4. It’s related to the ARP, and Chris allegedly has it isolated, but again… When will it be fixed?
[quote=”Chris Hector (Nov, 2015)”]I fixed the bug where roll is causing problems when the erase was on. It was specifically tied to the arp. The behavior didn’t occur when it was doing retrigger normally. I figure this will help me narrow it down and find out what’s causing the inconsistency, I’ll let you know when I find it.[/quote]
See, we listen!
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]15. Using the ‘ROLL’ function to record in ’16 Levels’ mode fails to record the correct velocities: i.e. it only repeats the velocity of the lowest pad pressed…
It’s on our list.
16. Recording a ‘ROLL’ with a sound assigned to a voice results in the pad lighting up as if it is being triggered, yet there is no sound…
It’s on our list.[/quote]
Yes, yes, they’re all “on your list”… Precisely our point really. And so they’re going to be fixed when exactly?
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]17. There is an advanced bug that causes the pad names to randomly change when auditioning sounds; it happens most predictably when you have auditioned a sound from one pad and then try to audition a sound from another pad. When this happens the available sound folder also changes, not just the pad name: i.e. the ‘Kick’ pad, for instance, will suddenly become a ‘Snare’ pad – *which instantly loads a snare sound by the way (devastating!) – after which you can no longer access the kick folder from that pad at all, unless you “revert” the sound…
Not an advanced bug at all and certainly does not block access to any sound. The description is a bit overblown, however, it’s on our list.[/quote]
Did I say “advanced”? Sorry, I was just trying to distinguish it from the other [i]two[/i] pad name bugs that Chris and I have been going back and forth on for months. But since it’s so pedestrian, Carson, it shouldn’t take much in the way of time and resources to fix it, right?
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]18. If the Tempest receives a RAM sound dump via USB, while also receiving note-on/off data on the MIDI DIN input, then USB MIDI sys-ex is not received correctly half of the time: i.e. it just stands there waiting for MIDI data in those cases.
It is not advised to use USB and MIDI at the same time for MIDI input. This is true for all of our instruments.[/quote]
Chris publicly acknowledged this as a bug in this very forum, and repeatedly promised ‘Razmo’ (who brought this to our attention) that it could be and indeed [i]would[/i] be fixed. Hell, if I remember correctly, he even said it [i]was[/i] fixed and would be in the release of OS 1.4. So who are we to believe if not the guy writing the code? And by the way, it works in the Evolver!
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]20. When switching beats on-the-fly, the first step of the sequencer-out is consistently late; so if you’re triggering a sample loop on the one, every time you switch beats on the Tempest, it will be out of sync for the first pass…
I would guess that this initial latency is due to higher priority tasks being performed when changing beats. There’s a whole lot of data to load very quickly on a beat change and keeping the internal sound engine in time and performing as expected is certainly It’s also worth noting that the “sequencer out” parameter was added by Chris on his own accord. Sequencing external instruments from the Tempest was never stated as a feature when the Tempest was released.[/quote]
Internal latency indeed! But you’re right, Carson, this feature was never supposed to be in the operating system; yet we [i]still[/i] can’t shut it ‘OFF’ so we can use that pad for our internal sounds, as was intended by design when we purchased the Tempest. See #3
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]21. Pad names need to be added for all the sound folders, and vice versa. And many of the existing pad names need to be properly linked to their respective parent folders, so “Tamb” doesn’t default to “Shaker”, etc. when auditioning sounds (not to be confused with point 17. which is a completely different bug)…
This is half feature request and half bug, and fairly low priority in the scheme of things. It falls into the “nice to have” category.[/quote]
So half-fix it then! At any rate, I happen to know that it’s already fixed; but then, Chris would have to be given the time to compile a proper update now wouldn’t he?
[quote=”Chris Hector (Nov, 2015)”]Right, that’s the sound type bug I just fixed. It was setting the pad kit sound to the default for the directory you were auditioning sounds in.[/quote]
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]22. When triggered via MIDI, sustained ADSR sounds hang whenever the bank those sounds are from is not the currently selected bank…
It’s on our list.[/quote]
So fix it!
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]23. The Tempest’s timing drifts in ‘Slave’ mode when using the MIDI DIN input, gradually losing sync with the ‘Master’ clock source; and this behavior is further exacerbated with use of the ‘ROLL’ function…
I cannot speak to the accuracy of this statement. I have no information regarding the performed tests, loaded OS versions, settings, and overall method. We have an Innerclock System in the office that we can use to verify this is true. Whoever is experiencing this drift, please open a support ticket with us and provide detailed step-by-step instructions for reproducing this and we will look into it.[/quote]
Sometime this decade then?
[quote=”Carson from DSI”]For all current and prospective Tempest owners out there, please understand that we are aware of your concerns and appreciate your perspective. We have not abandoned the Tempest OS. Between pushing forward with new designs and refining existing products, there is never a point in time at which we are idle here at DSI. It’s a complex balancing act with many variables. We will be revisiting the Tempest OS, and hopefully soon, but the Change.org petition has no bearing on our timeframe, and we can’t specifically guarantee when will dive back in.
This will remain our definitive statement on this matter. Thank you for your continued patronage and support.[/quote]
So there you have it, straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth: DSI is happy to take your money; but if you want them to fix the instrument that you paid for, they are simply not concerned with whatever you may think is a reasonable timeframe… Period. And that, folks, is why this petition exist in the first place!
So let’s just keep the pressure on and see how this weathers in the real world, where the good people part with their hard-earned to keep the employees at DSI in a job (doing whatever the hell they want apparently).
Cheers!
Mod: you can erase the above message, I didn’t realize this forum wouldn’t support HTML. I re-posted it in plain text as a proper ‘reply’ to the intended recipient anyway. Sorry for the hassle, I get the drill now (grin).
My new Tempest TODAY just out of the box! is not a lowing # 10 pad to light up no matter what floor mat . any answers?
I love the tempest. Thanks dave and team for creating something so unique and inspiring. There are users like me who appreciate what you have contributed to the world, regardless of the shortcomings. Learning the nuances / idiosyncrasies of gear is what makes hardware interesting. Thumbs up for the cv in mod source 😉
We all love the Tempest. The flaws that have been brought up are head scratchers when you experience them. That’s probably the most frustrating thing. It’s the kind of thing that should just be working, and any company should be embarrassed that they are not working, and in turn deeply concerned with their reputation.
I have to say I’m steering clear of tempest until it’s finished, or I can get lucky on eBay. I dig the sound though. I always just found it to be too expensive for a drum machine that did mostly just fat and dirty sounds.
I think I’m beginning to see why the OB-6 didn’t implement Page 2 (from the OB-8)….
This is depressing. I had my heart set on the OB-6 but I think that money needs to go elsewhere, to a company that values customers. I don’t own a Tempest, but I would be pissed that FIVE YEARS have passed and original advertised features don’t work. That IS embarrassing and the attitude is offensive.
Luckily I purchased the PRO 2 for the feature set it came with from day one. I did however have a problem, and DSI INSISTED on a video from me to open a support ticket. I had to jump through hoops to make it (had nothing to record one) and it put a horrible taste in my mouth. But they did fix it promptly.
it would be great if 1000 people would sign this,
just as a sign, that we as consumers are interested in perfecting
our machines as far as possible, instead of always buying something new.
I’ve been using it as a live performance and recording tool for near on 3 years and I love it.
Amazing instrument and it’s unique character is what makes it stand out.
LOVE IT
it would be great if 1000 people would sign this,
just as a sign, that we as consumers are interested in perfecting
our machines as far as possible, instead of always buying something new.
+1 !
I think it is a good thing to sign, as it shows the manufacterers, how much you care about your instruments.
Even if you don’t have a Tempest, you could sign, as a few other pieces of gear also could need a better OS.
I have had Tempest and RYTM. The Tempest OS is fine in its current state for what that machine is. A new OS will not make it into a RYTM or even any better that it currently is. In light of the RYTM, maybe the Tempest is at the end of its life cycle. DSI clearly need a new machine with sampling and a USB audio interface. There is a lot of room to beat the RYTM in the pads and Roger Linn could certainly come up with a better workflow than RYTM.
I feel their is a epidemic of putting products out and not first doing the home work or standing behind it ,Example RANE the Rane mp44 $2000.00 mixer now discontinued Rane 68 Firmware instead of fixing the $2800.00 mixer they discontinue it and make another so the consumer,artist is left with a empty promise..investment .I hope and pray these are just little things that can be bugged out .I guess the question is is it a hard ware malfunction or a firmware issue on the # 10 pad not lighting up it does trigger sounds