On the fence about the Tempest

The Lounge Other Gear
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Friends

Ok, so I’ve posted this on the DSI Forum as well, but there’s a bunch of Tempest users here, so I figured I’d look for your advise, too.

I’ve had the Tempest for about a year and a half now, and I’m on the fence about selling it. While I love the way it sounds when you tweak it right, I’ve also found that the time it takes to get somewhere with the Tempest, is starting to get to me. There’s a lot of hard work involved in getting anything useful from it, and I’m not sure I want to keep investing my time in this instrument, for that reason, any longer.

I’m pretty sure most of you, no matter where your skill is at, have thought about this at one time. Some of you sold it and bought it again, some of you kept it, some of you sold it and never looked back.

The advise I’m looking for is, where did your thoughts go when you thought about th and why did you end up making the decision you did, if you sold it, kept it or whatnot? And if you got one again, what brought you back?

Here’s what you should know about me before we begin the discussion:

I enjoy creating my own sounds and I’m good at it. Thus, this about knowing what you’re doing to get something out of the Tempest, this I know. Some of the best sounds I’ve created, come from the Tempest. But they’re far between.

One hour with a Microbrute usually gives me three or four patches from which I can build something. One hour with the Tempest often yields nothing. But after ten hours, I usually come up with something that’s better than the thirty or so patches I might’ve come up with, with the Brute. If this difference in quality matters, though, is what I’m question myself now.

I have no idea how to create drum sounds, nor does it interest me. I use the Tempest as a synth with a solid groove box feature. To me, it’s an analog Electribe. I usually don’t use Tempest drum sounds at all, but find those from other sources. As a drum machine, the Tempest does not interest me.

While the Tempest is polyphonic, I think it’s more a matter of “Ok, it can do that too”, not "My god, it’s an awesome poly synth.

I LOVE the way it sounds, when you do get it right. I’ve yet to find anything that compares with it. But I’ve not tried a Prophet12, and people tell me it’s the same, but with more sound sculpting features in the P12. This, I don’t know.

It swings like nothing else. I don’t know why, but there’s a groove going on inside the Tempest that just makes your feet move. I work a lot with Elektron’s boxes, and perhaps it’s my imagination, but they just don’t swing like the Tempest. In fact, I think the Volca Sample and the Tanzbär has a groove more similar to the Tempest. But this subject has been covered before, and if you don’t agree, just humour me and accept that I think the Tempest has a magic swing elf inside its box and love me for it, like I love you.

I don’t build complete tracks on the Tempest anymore. I sketch, make drafts and stuff. But as a six voice workstation, I want at least a proper delay and more options to balance the mix within the box. In this area, any box from Elektron far exceeds the Tempest, for comparison. Or an Electribe, for that matter.

I don’t use the Tempest live. I sample heavily from it, both sounds and sequences. This might be because I don’t play live, yet :slight_smile: But when I do, the Tempest won’t be part of it, no matter if I keep it or not.

Ok, so that’s it.

If the Tempest had just one voice, the same groovy sequencer (stripped features would be ok, it’s the groove and instant jamming input I like) and obviously a price to match this digest version, I’d buy that in an instant. Now, however, it’s expensive, it’s a six voice machine in a context where I don’t need those six voices, and it takes time to create something good with it. Time which I’m wondering might be better aimed at an instrument that just generates more immediate results, no matter if you’re a sound wizard or not.

How did your thoughts go when you had your Tempest doubts?

And is there any DSI instrument that can match the Tempest in its funky, raw sound? The P12 module? Evolver Desktop? Something else?

Thanks for your time and advise.

//Andreas

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When is hard work ever not rewarding?

Sure its nice when it comes easy, but without the contrast whats it worth?

An amazing machine, not without its issues.

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Had a Tempest and sold it but have just recently been missing it a bit. My favourite thing about it is the workflow, you can bang out interesting tracks very quickly and its one of the most fun units Ive played. The reason I sold it was the sound. I’m not too keen on its Analog voices for drum synthesis, and it bothers me that you cannot load samples, you are stuck with the ones it has. Recently, I’ve thought it would be really cool to have as a synth and not worry about the drum aspect of it at all, which was hard to get over at the time it being…a drum machine. When I look at it more like an A4 it becomes much more interesting to me.

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Very true. This is what I’m thinking as well. And it does generate something special. If something decent comes out of hard work, it’s never just another pad or lead. It’s something else, something new.

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That’s actually why I’ve kept it for so long. I gave up the drum part of it about six months into I bought it, not because it didn’t deliver in that area but that it’s just so much cooler as a synth. I use it on and off for drums, but usually I just look at them as stealing voices from some awesome synth patch anyway.

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I’d sell the RYTM before the Tempest. I actually did sell my RYTM to get a Tempest, and am very happy with the decision. Ironically, I’m interested in the RYTM again to mess with samples. I agree a million percent that the Tempest has a groove that the RYTM lacks. You have them next to each other right now; if you took a hi hat from the Tempest, programmed a 16th note roll, and played back the same sample on the RYTM with the same roll, I’m sure you’d notice how rigid and machine-gun-like the RYTM sounds. I remember always trying to offset every other step with microtiming, but it didn’t sound that much better. I’ve owned the Tanzbar before too, and definitely noticed the groove on that machine as well. It’s strange, the RYTM has the most rigid clock out of all the Elektron boxes, because I always felt the A4, Monomachine, and MD had a great feel when I programmed straight 16th note hi hats.

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I had a Tempest for about six months a year and a half ago. I found the beat making to be smooth and once the workflow was sorted you could move quickly. The sound design, not so much. I am however willing to concede my patch design skills in general were not up to the task of a machine that deep at the time. Unfortunately, there were all sorts of issues with the OS at the time and updates seemed to introduce as many bugs as it fixed. I had many more moments of internally yelling “serenity now!” than moments of admiration of what I had done on it.

In the end I found myself turning to it for synth duties far more often than drums. I ended up returning the Tempest and buying an A4 and havent regretted it at all. With the money left over plus a couple more hundred I was able to put it toward a secondhand MD mkII and now I have, I feel, a more capable drum machine than the Tempest and a far more versatile synth in the A4.

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If you’re not enjoying the challenge anymore, then you may as well sell it and focus on the things you do enjoy. Life’s too short.

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[quote=“” rex_mundii""]
If you’re not enjoying the challenge anymore, then you may as well sell it and focus on the things you do enjoy. Life’s too short.
[/quote]

I enjoy what comes out of it, but I no longer enjoy the work. So there’s some truth there, I guess. Music is not duty, unless you’re Avicii. Which clearly, I’m not

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I own both the Tempest and a Monomachine, and while I’ll say the Tempest can achieve groove quicker, you can achieve lots of groove via delays and P-locks in the Elektron boxes.

I don’t really understand what you couldn’t get from the Tempest, nor how it can be a testing workflow for you. I’ve had mine for over 2 years and the workflow is undeniably quick (at least to my brain). Of all the different synths I’ve used/own (work at a music store), the Tempest was hands down one of the most intuitive. For beats or as a sound module.

I speculate the sound engines have been adopted from the Evolver series, as that incorporated 2 Analog / 2 Digital voice structure. That being said, you might be able to achieve the Tempest “Tone” but not workflow via a DSI Evolver module/synth.

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No, I agree, the workflow is great and enjoyable too. For some reason, though, results are far between when I tweak with it. I’m usually pretty good at getting sounds from even the most obscure instruments, but there’s a lot coming out of the Tempest which I just don’t enjoy. But once I find something I like, it’s beyond awesome.
I guess it comes down to focus. It’s a beast. It requires time and concentration, and I’m hanging out more with my Rytm and my Octatrack these days.
Obviously, I’m the problem, I know that. I’m just curious what kind of journey others have made with their Tempest and those of you who sold it, what eventually made you decide. Sometimes, you’re in dead end - sometimes, you’re just in a dip (Seth Godin said that, not me).

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I suppose if the Tempest doesn’t work for you sound wise all the time I say sell it and then put that money elsewhere if you already own 2 other Elektron machines. I thought I needed more Elektron boxes, but I’ve started to realize I can get by with just 1. 2 would be pure luxury.

That being said, I WILL one day have an Analog 4. Or maybe I will try to convince Elektron to make an “OP-1” type portable unit…

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That would be something, wouldn’t it?
An Evolver, you say? I’ll check it out. Sounds interesting. Neat package, too, the desktop version that is.