New DSI instrument!

[Phollop Willing PA]

This looks and sounds great but at $2000 it may be too much for me (although I'm sure it's totally worth it). Far more exciting (to me) than that over hyped number 9 thingie.

I hope a scaled down (and less expensive), but equally impressive version comes out as well.

A modern day DR 55

That was beyond funny to me, as it reminded me that I have one, well a DR 110, doing nothing.

[Sir Nose]

The thing that has me most excited is the promise of a true performance oriented drum machine. A sound engine that incorporates evolver and mopho/prophet into each voice should be very powerful.

I still want some info on outboard sequencing capabilities. How many tracks? Will it record/send midi CCs?

I hope a store somewhere within an hour or so gets one in to be able to play with it. I think the $2000 price tag is fair, but I don't think I can part with the cash without tweaking a bit first.

Time to start selling off some beloved gear.

[smoothcriminal]

Either way I give DSI a pass, because they threw a bunch of bones to the "where's my affordable new DCO analog?" crowd, i.e. us. I think they earned the right to cater to the top shelf market a bit.

[th0mas]

Either way I give DSI a pass, because they threw a bunch of bones to the "where's my affordable new DCO analog?" crowd, i.e. us. I think they earned the right to cater to the top shelf market a bit.

+1

who else is making mass-marketed cheap analogs for us. Mopho's go for $300 regularly. This isn't that crazy of a price for what it does.

[StepLogik]

Either way I give DSI a pass, because they threw a bunch of bones to the "where's my affordable new DCO analog?" crowd, i.e. us. I think they earned the right to cater to the top shelf market a bit.

+1

who else is making mass-marketed cheap analogs for us. Mopho's go for $300 regularly. This isn't that crazy of a price for what it does.

Agreed on both points. You have to admire Dave for covering both ends of the market - even for one as limited as analog synths.

I'm really glad that Dave/Roger figured out that they need to sell two different products and make each product do what it does well instead of a watered-down hybrid. These are smart guys who listen to their market and build quality products.

I think the price of Tempest is very reasonable, all things considered. Can't wait to get one

Is Moog throwing some bones with the Slim Phatty in order to soften up the market for a $4500 poly Moog?

[Pym]

Absolutely. Sounds are saved by themselves and inside the kit and beat structures. A kit consists of 16 (or 32 sounds, haven't decided) and all the mixer settings (volume, pan, mute/solo, delay on/off and delay send amount for each sound). A beat consists of the kit settings plus the sequencer and master params like distortion, compression, bpm/swing, etc. There will be a number of beats, kits and sounds that you can save on the box, or save via MIDI to a computer or some storage.

What I want to know (and it would be a great feature) is can I store synth voices as singular things to recall. I.e let's say I spend a day making kick sounds, can I go back and pull up any kick sound I want? Or do I have to store the sound I make as part of a full kit?

[Pym]

You will have outboard sequencing capabilities in version 1.0. You can assign a pad to a MIDI channel and will be able to control velocity, pitch, duration and 4 assignable CCs per sequence.

I don't have any hard numbers on number of tracks. It will probably be limited by how many steps you actually use in the 16 beats you have loaded up. We have a limited RAM space for realtime loading. I'll give you numbers once we've crunched them... as a lowball calculation you get around 1536 steps total per beat. (that means you could hit every 16th note on 16 tracks, with some 32nds to spare in a 4 bar loop). It'll probably be higher than that and you can have some beats more complicated if there are others loaded that are more simple... each sequence only saves the steps you use into RAM, so it's just a matter of the total steps you use across all 16 beats. Since you can also chain patterns together hopefully this will be enough for most people. I might add an option in 2.0 to have only one beat loaded and give far more resolution and bar length in the sequencer... if that's of interest ask me again about 6 months after the Tempest is released and I'll revisit it.

I still want some info on outboard sequencing capabilities. How many tracks? Will it record/send midi CCs?

[TrondC]

wow! was not expecting this at all! $2000 is a great price, just compare it to the other analog drum machine out there, the metasonix one..

now how on earth to afford this + the octatrack is the question.. :p

[shaft9000]

just compare it to the other analog drum machine out there, the metasonix one..

comparing their 'analog-ness":

dsi tempest - mostly digital regarding memory, control and sound generation. there is a VCF, overdrive, comp and perhaps a VCA in there. but it's 95% digital, despite yada yada "100% analog audio signal path". ime digital EGs and LFOs do affect the sound quite differently, despite claims to the contrary one might have heard.
metasonix d-1000 - is not 100% analog either. It's maybe 50% analog, 50% tube. Analog control, but valve/tube based soundpath. Not 100% solid-sate transistor(SST=analog).
( Just in case anyone is confused, analog by definition refers to transistors taking over, in solid-state form, the functions of tubes. The whole distinction comes from using transistors instead of tubes, hence they are analogous Tubes do not fit neatly in the analog category, being a non-solid-state predecessor of transistors. The common perception of EVERYTHING non-digital being in the category of "analog" are mistaken)

[b3groover]

I'll have what he's smoking.

[GuyaGuy]

just compare it to the other analog drum machine out there, the metasonix one..

comparing their 'analog-ness":

dsi tempest - mostly digital regarding memory, control and sound generation. there is a VCF, overdrive, comp and perhaps a VCA in there. but it's 95% digital, despite yada yada "100% analog audio signal path". ime digital EGs and LFOs do affect the sound quite differently, despite claims to the contrary one might have heard.
metasonix d-1000 - is not 100% analog either. It's maybe 50% analog, 50% tube. Analog control, but valve/tube based soundpath. Not 100% solid-sate transistor(SST=analog).
( Just in case anyone is confused, analog by definition refers to transistors taking over, in solid-state form, the functions of tubes. The whole distinction comes from using transistors instead of tubes, hence they are analogous Tubes do not fit neatly in the analog category, being a non-solid-state predecessor of transistors. The common perception of EVERYTHING non-digital being in the category of "analog" are mistaken)

75% of this info is made up.

[Sir Nose]

just compare it to the other analog drum machine out there, the metasonix one..

comparing their 'analog-ness":

dsi tempest - mostly digital regarding memory, control and sound generation. there is a VCF, overdrive, comp and perhaps a VCA in there. but it's 95% digital, despite yada yada "100% analog audio signal path". ime digital EGs and LFOs do affect the sound quite differently, despite claims to the contrary one might have heard.
metasonix d-1000 - is not 100% analog either. It's maybe 50% analog, 50% tube. Analog control, but valve/tube based soundpath. Not 100% solid-sate transistor(SST=analog).
( Just in case anyone is confused, analog by definition refers to transistors taking over, in solid-state form, the functions of tubes. The whole distinction comes from using transistors instead of tubes, hence they are analogous Tubes do not fit neatly in the analog category, being a non-solid-state predecessor of transistors. The common perception of EVERYTHING non-digital being in the category of "analog" are mistaken)

75% of this info is made up.

I prefer the phrase "personal interpretation"

[kuroichi]

Let's not turn this into a vs match, as neither machine compares with the other, and I personally am glad both exist.

[GuyaGuy]

Let's not turn this into a vs match, as neither machine compares with the other, and I personally am glad both exist.

Prophet VS match?

[sequentialsoftshock]

just compare it to the other analog drum machine out there, the metasonix one..

comparing their 'analog-ness":

dsi tempest - mostly digital regarding memory, control and sound generation. there is a VCF, overdrive, comp and perhaps a VCA in there. but it's 95% digital, despite yada yada "100% analog audio signal path". ime digital EGs and LFOs do affect the sound quite differently, despite claims to the contrary one might have heard.
metasonix d-1000 - is not 100% analog either. It's maybe 50% analog, 50% tube. Analog control, but valve/tube based soundpath. Not 100% solid-sate transistor(SST=analog).
( Just in case anyone is confused, analog by definition refers to transistors taking over, in solid-state form, the functions of tubes. The whole distinction comes from using transistors instead of tubes, hence they are analogous Tubes do not fit neatly in the analog category, being a non-solid-state predecessor of transistors. The common perception of EVERYTHING non-digital being in the category of "analog" are mistaken)

I prefer the phrase "personal interpretation"

I'd call it a good way to save $2000

Pym- 32 sounds seems like quite a bit imo; any chance there would be a way to have the end user decide for themselves? Like, I could toggle 16 sounds, or change it to 32 if I wanted more?