I like to put mine in order of main beats 1-8 and fill/breaks 9-16. As for voice allocation, I enjoy using just the stereo outs. When you use alternate outs, you lose the ability to use the main out volume and distortion on that part. Using multiple outs is totally ftw in the studio and for some things, but the simplicity of stereo out kinda wins for me usually. Im fairly new at mine, but i always make sure i have a beat saved that is blank. The tempest when slaved, follows start messages w/o fail and sometimes i dont want it to. My solution is to let it play, but a blank beat. One could always mute all the parts too, i guess.
crap, just noticed you said a couple weeks, a MONTH ago... So how'd it go? Im thinking of dropping the laptop and creating a Tempest backed set myself.