New DSI instrument!

[Stab Frenzy]

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?

Well if there were 32 sounds and you only wanted 16 you could just not use the second bank of 16, seems pretty obvious to me.

The more videos I see of this the more I decide I'm gonna get one. Just watched a video where the swing knob is tweaked and changes the whole track in real-time, I love that. Can't do it with the MPC. And the fact that you can have a pad trigger an external synth is pretty awesome, although I think it'll lead to a rise in demand for midi splitter boxes. I reckon it would be pretty amazing hanging an MBase 01, Modular and Tetra off this, like I do (minus the Tetra) with my MPC.

[Pym]

You'd rather not be able to morph between the two layers of sounds?

32 Sounds gives us a ton of flexibility for cool features... just have a little faith =)

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?

[th0mas]

just have a little faith =)

PLUS ONE

I hate when developers show up on forums only to get inundated with arbitrary feature suggestions. This thread hasn't been too bad yet but the prophet forums one seemed to turn into "oh hey please add esoteric features ill probably never use, heck ill probably never buy this product but to me its useless if you don't add variable slew rate on the s&h".

Thanks for building this product.

[jeeroj]

can you add a drinks holder please Pym?

[smoothcriminal]

I'm curious about the developer team size for this instrument (or any instrument, really). Greater or less than 10 people?

[loungedumore]

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?

Nice to see you here PYM !
So the tempest is not limited to 6 sounds a preset ( 1- per voice ) interesting . Making my credit card very itchy damn it . lol
P.S.
There dose seam to be alot of price complaint .... for the record I just had to by a new computer so mine was about having to justify another 2k ( give or take ) as I said ....

Not saying it's a bad price point it seams like it's well worth it ... lifespan of that sexy o-led not withstanding , but crazy for me to be considering . Consider it I will however .

Not that anyone is keeping track

[StepLogik]

I'm curious about the developer team size for this instrument (or any instrument, really). Greater or less than 10 people?

there is a discussion about this elsewhere in one of the DSI threads. if memory serves, Pym pretty much writes all the firmware for DSI instruments himself.

[Pym]

There are 5 of us total at DSI, not including Roger Linn who contributed a lot on the Tempest project. In a nutshell it's just Dave and I on the tech side of things: Dave does all the hardware design and maintaining his old code, I do all the new firmware and the OS stuff nowadays. Everybody in the company contributes to the design work and handles all sorts of odd jobs. Small company life is pretty hectic.

I'll see if I can convince Dave to add a cup holder and a 'Dave Smith Margarita Machine' attachment, although don't be surprised if you try to put in low quality tequila and it spits out just before insulting you loudly in a vocoded voice.

I'm curious about the developer team size for this instrument (or any instrument, really). Greater or less than 10 people?

there is a discussion about this elsewhere in one of the DSI threads. if memory serves, Pym pretty much writes all the firmware for DSI instruments himself.

[Stab Frenzy]

I think the real area this machine could innovate is how the sequencer/interface deals with the polyphony limitation and tweaks it accordingly. On top of the voice morphing the Chris mentioned earlier (closed hats morphing to open hats, yes please!) I'm sure some amazing stuff could be done by programming more notes than the polyphony could handle, locking some down to particular voices (ie the kick) and then using the mod strips to tweak the voice allocation priority in some way.

Chris have you guys considered this at all? I have no idea if that would be an easy or hard thing to do in the code, or even exactly how it would work (assign each sound a position on a 2D plane and then use pressure and position to move a point around the plane with the x closest sounds getting assigned a voice?) Maybe that's too left-brain to set up but it would be fun for the right brain to play.

Or how about having each sound (pad) being able to have an A and a B patch which could be continuously morphed between by the mod strips or the sequencer, is that what you were getting at before?

I've been writing a few papers about interface design in electronic instruments lately (none published yet) and I think the position/pressure strips being included on this is a fantastic thing, they're the way forward for mod sources in my opinion.

[Pym]

I don't know if we'll have priority as a mod destination... only because I don't know how easy that will be to do in realtime and exactly how it would work. I'll think about it. I won't have time to visit this really until OS 2.0 though.

The morphing thing is my idea (one of many that I think is gonna make this thing, for lack of a better term, 'tits') that I've only begun to sketch out. The touch faders will be likely be involved, or possible the pad pressure (so the harder you press down the more it morphs to layer B, or vice versa) and then some swap key you can hold down and hit a pad to switch between layers.

But that's all just in my head so far, I'll tell you guys more when I'm closer to coding it, or maybe just make some videos, who knows.

Glad you like the strips, let Roger Linn know if you run into him, he developed those =)

I think the real area this machine could innovate is how the sequencer/interface deals with the polyphony limitation and tweaks it accordingly. On top of the voice morphing the Chris mentioned earlier (closed hats morphing to open hats, yes please!) I'm sure some amazing stuff could be done by programming more notes than the polyphony could handle, locking some down to particular voices (ie the kick) and then using the mod strips to tweak the voice allocation priority in some way.

Chris have you guys considered this at all? I have no idea if that would be an easy or hard thing to do in the code, or even exactly how it would work (assign each sound a position on a 2D plane and then use pressure and position to move a point around the plane with the x closest sounds getting assigned a voice?) Maybe that's too left-brain to set up but it would be fun for the right brain to play.

Or how about having each sound (pad) being able to have an A and a B patch which could be continuously morphed between by the mod strips or the sequencer, is that what you were getting at before?

I've been writing a few papers about interface design in electronic instruments lately (none published yet) and I think the position/pressure strips being included on this is a fantastic thing, they're the way forward for mod sources in my opinion.

[Stab Frenzy]

Awesome, can't wait to play with it when it's done! I think the mod strip would be better than using pressure, that way you could do an overdub pass and tweak the morph values without having to worry about messing up the timing of the playing. Or I guess that's the beauty of the mod matrix, you can pick whatever you want to use.

Did Roger develop a single sensor that does both pressure and position? We've been sticking Hotpots on top of FSRs to do it, works pretty well.

[balma]

I don't agree with all this sniveling at the price. This isn't an MPC folks, it's analog!

Analog or not, $2000 is a h**l of a lot of cash for a drum machine!

drummachine is just a term. Focus on the features, not on your preconception of what a drum machine must cost.

Most similar stuff is the Radikal Spectralis II, wich is also analog/sampler. And how much does it cost? $2300. Why nobody complains? Because nobody calls it drummachine

[bhrama]

So my 6 yr old daughter brought home a library book entitled "Boom-Boom Chik-Chik" and now I'm re-visiting this older post for a couple of reasons. Wondering how many of you are planning on getting a Tempest upon release? I've spoke with Novamusik about pre-ordering (only done that once before with the Voyager), and they are pricing it @ $1899 USD...so a little bit of a break. I've searched for new videos and/or articles, but nothing radical has come up since NAMM. I did however, find this cool little ditty from Roger Linn. Forgive the tangent here, just too cool not to share!



More to my point. OK, so I owned a P08, updated it to PE and eventually sold it. While an extremely great and sonically deep sounding synth, with extensive avenues to explore, I just couldn't bond with it. Anyone ever have this situation before with a piece of equipment? No fault of DSI whatsoever, they make great equipment, just one of those things. I'm worried the same thing will happen with the Tempest. I truly wanted to like the P08 (I really tried!), and I truly want to bond with the Tempest. I'm hoping for love at first sight, instead of some awkward arranged marriage. The descriptions, specs and videos lead me to believe it will be amazing. Sadly, I'll probably have to employ a leap of faith, as I know of no local shops that carry DSI gear. It's a sizable amount of cash, but I have no issue with the price tag if it proves to be as advertised. Maybe this is a common feeling for others in the advent of a "release", especially with the intense rollercoaster ride the Tempest produced on it's way to fruition. Sorry to ramble here, just kind of writing cathartically to work out my thoughts. The old adage may just hold true again; Taste is subjective. I just wish I knew damnit!

[GuyaGuy]

Funny you should bump this because I've just gone back to re-watch all the vids in the past couple of days! I'm actually considering getting the Tempest to replace the PEK. Looking at the features of both, the Tempest seems to do just about everything I need from my PEK. Well, except having a keyboard. But I got lots of those.


I do know what you mean about bonding. You gotta feel it. And that's why Dave Smith said he returned to hardware. If you didn't bond with the sound, it should be pointed out that this is the same synth architecture as the Poly Evolver. But if you didn't bond with the UI, I will say that it seems you can take a minute's glance at the Tempest and know how it works, more or less.

[tom Cadillac]

I know what you mean about the bonding and 'love at first sight'' thing. I bought a mopho keyboard when it first came out and it just gets better. But I have been using it a good deal. Whereas I never really felt to get an 08. I'm lucky coz there's a local dealer to try stuff out.

Though the Tempest is expensive in the end this is a good thing. I feel the mopho is somehow more quality than the 08. It looks like with the Tempest the price is justified by the sound possibilities and basically there's a lot more to love.

I think also if you've get gear saturation then the mopho keyboard is something new and different to explore. (much more so than the 08 was). The same with the Tempest - its the new ground that gets exciting.
Hope that makes sense.