Plus it looks gorgeous next to everyone’s black octatrack Mk1 (aka the best octatrack)
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Also isn’t the tempest rumored to have a successor since they discontinued it? I’m keeping an eye out for that as well as whatever the next flagship Elektron product will be.
Not that either of those would be coming out especially soon, it’s probably safe to buy whatever your heart desires.
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I would be shocked. The firmware update saga was such a scandal that I’m pretty sure Dave swore off ever making anything besides bread and butter synths again. But he did go on to reclaim sequential and release the prophet 5 again… crazy.
Tempest is, however, amazing. It has the best pads of any piece of hardware I’ve ever used. Puts everything else to shame. And you can make patches with polyphonic aftertouch. I could go in my studio right now and make cs80 sounds in a few minutes
The filter isn’t the BEST ever, but once you learn it, it’s familiar and has its strengths. Insane possibilities in the bass department once you figure out the balance between the sine wave, noise and feedback.
It even has 2 op FM.
The difficulties with kick are real, like it will take work to get a boom. It’s not like a cycles where you can just open a kick machine and have the hugest kick ever.
The main 2 things with tempest are
1: fantastic synth engine. Deep mod matrix, 5 envelopes, 2 lfos, all freely assignable.
2: it’s the most playable piece of hardware I’ve ever used. Mute mode plus roll and reverse.
My only gripes are: voice architecture takes a long time to come to grips with, and the high pass filter has no resonance.
This track is 100% tempest, one take. At 2:50 you can hear some live performance rolls and reverses.
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Really it’s wishful thinking on my part, I want a tempest 2 to exist. I’d hope that Dave and Co could learn from the tempest (admittedly I’m unfamiliar with the details of the saga) and build on the general idea of it. It sounds so GOOD.
Plus I think I remember him saying he’d never reissue the 5 and here we are haha
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Let me see if I got it right:
AR is not so great for his drums engine but for samples because passing them through its analog engine.
Now comes the question:
Wouldn t be close than to use instead my OT with an Analog Heat? Wouldn t be close enough instead of spending 1500€?
Just asking…
If you liked that I think you’ll enjoy this person’s work
Afaik their tracks are only AR.
The engines are not “not so great”. They’re not as versatile as the Tempest, true. But with the AR it’s the sum of its parts, really: FX and distortion and compressor (and yes samples) all plockable, LFOable, scene and performaceable, the box as a whole is wildly versatile. With some finessing and work, it sounds and is incredible.
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Personally I think there’s a lot of mileage in the AR synthesis engines. But they’re not very sweet-spotty and it might not be the kind of sounds that a lot of people are looking for.
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Can the kick on AR thump as the one on MC?
Also, can it do stuff like the Nord Drum 2?
Thanks a lot!!
I don’t know the MC well so can’t comment. I don’t know the ND2 that well either but, based off its reputation, I’m going to say maybe up to a point, but I don’t think it’s a great comparison as the ND is capital D digital and can go places the AR can’t as it’s capital A analog. On the other hand, the AR can go and sound places the ND can’t. I think it’s important you decide if you want a digital or analog drum machine as imo they are two very different propositions.
Analog filter per voice… moreover, I like the synth engines - they might need some work to reveal the sweet spots, but as a whole I find them very versatile.
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And I know you’re not asking but is be remiss not to mention that the Analog sequencer is imo one of the very best sequencers out there.
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The most I am interested on AR. I feel its versatile. But as we know it s not cheap. That is the reason I am trying to find out if its worth.
So, because I have OT, I thought the cheap version for me would be to pair ot with Analog Heat , especially for what everyone said that the samples on AR is the cream of it.
If that is not like that, then I would like to know if the kick is better than MC and the perc better then Nord Drum.
Otherwise, as I own MC, I could just get Nord Drum2 as is not that expensive and couple it with OT sequencer.
If all these fails, than I will join the AR circle.
So, I am waiting for ur opinions. Thanks a lot!!
Well if you’re interested in perc primarily I would say the ND absolutely beats it there; if you have an MC and happy with the kick no need to change Imo.
What I question is that the ND is not that expensive: last I checked it was approaching rare gear prices; def more expensive than an AR mki.
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That whole track is all AR? Insane.
As far as I know. They posted some bangers back when the AR was released that were all AR only and sporadically added to the thread through the years which came off to me as they were still AR only.
Incredible. Inspiring and also somewhat like being hit on the nose with a newspaper when I feel happy with some simple pattern I plocked out after fiddling for 1hr
EDIT: to the wider discussion, to my ears the AR sounds amazing, there is a lot of versatility in the engines. Get the “New Blood” sound pack for example. The kicks are super powerful, add some compression and they’re punchy. Prefer by far to M:C kicks
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I feel you. Based on their work, I know my tracks ain’t the ARs fault 
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AR and ND2 are very very different gear.
I think you can’t get similar sound.
ND is all in the digital world and it’s great for percussive and abstract sound.
Crazy synthesis IMO, more similar to MD (but not the same).
AR is fat, analog, with more limitations in synthesis.
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No experience with the AR, but the Nord Drum 2/3 can do killer kicks and sub bass - I mean foundation shaking. The downside of the 2 and 3 - only two outs. IMO for live, the ND 3 is preferable as it has 2 send FX, reverb and delay. ND3 has the most flexible synthesis engine of all the drum machines / drum synths currently in production. ND paired with an OT is an amazing combo IMO.
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Shameless self promotion, but this is all AR mkI using both the synth and sample engines layered. The marriage of the two is really where the AR excels.
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