The Complaint Box

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

As the title suggests this is the place where everyone can express any complaints about the Dave Smith Instruments Tempest.Please keep it civil and constructive!We all got in a situation where something about T is bothering us and want to get it off our chest.If a complaint box used correctly can make things better and that's what this great machine needs!That's the purpose of this thread after all!
Thanks for not drinking and posting pissed off Keep it calm and groove on

[bozo]

For me

Is what was left on the table as far as the beat effects, namely, and this relates to you
Yorgos (sound packs), not being able to disable voices, specifically kick drums which get that same horrible whoo sound when you open the decay, the filter or feedback, (when using the vcf to get some omph cause the sample dont)
What started as a fantastic idea soon became a 1 trick pony that often sounds crap for me.

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

Anyone that has purchased my 808 kit can check the action going on in Mod Matrix and apply similar settings to any other pack i've made.I highly recommend it!Tempest is a deep instrument and not for the faint hearted..

For me

Is what was left on the table as far as the beat effects, namely, and this relates to you
Yorgos (sound packs), not being able to disable voices, specifically kick drums which get that same horrible whoo sound when you open the decay, the filter or feedback, (when using the vcf to get some omph cause the sample dont)
What started as a fantastic idea soon became a 1 trick pony that often sounds crap for me.

[LoboLives]

Wish it had Reverb or Audio Delay as an effect option. Also wish you could connect to more than one Midi monophonic instrument. I was hoping to drive two ARP modules using the sequencer as an alternative to purchasing an Oberheim Two Voice Pro.

[onesnzeros]

even just a single mono (fecking!!@$@#) bucket brigade delay!!!!???

also, MIDI CC!!? the Godfather of MIDI!!!???
The godfather of MIDI...?
You have GOT to be (fecking!#$#!@@) kidding me.

[HT]

At this rate my children will inherit a Tempest with a beta OS.
Whoever chose the sample set requires a hearing aid.
Sequencer is too basic.
Distortion effect is on/off and can't be used on a voice....pity.

[idm]

Ah a chance to complain...

Complaining about specs that were never and will never be part of the machine seems rather pointless to be honest...

Regarding the samples, I'm still amazed people complain about them. If you are in the market for samples, why buy a 2k dollar sound design machine? Buy a sampler instead.

Only complaint I have about the machine itself, is that I can't record real-time fx slider movement into the sequencer, only per note.

[HT]

It's a complaints thread, maybe somebody will learn from it. ;-)

[bozo]

Tempest is a deep instrument and not for the faint hearted..

Sort of, I prefer even deeper sound engines, ie: Z1, Xpander, Q, FS1-R, K 5000, Chroma.
It only really approaches things like my A4 or ANX-1
I've hit the wall with the T, (I'm sure there is still plenty left as others could surely prove) but I'm struggling to find something new sounds wise. I probably should be a customer of yours!

[joosep]

I would love to be able to access the sliders via MIDI CC.
That would open up a new world.

[onesnzeros]

"Godfather of MIDI"

[RobH]

Not being able to copy midi data with a sound from beat to beat

The whoo sound that comes from kicks

The distortion kind of sucks balls kills any beat and cant even sweep it for it makes a click and sounds like u flicked a switch when u dial it in for a unit with this calibre and cost i'd have thought that the distortion could have been like TONS better!

[Flux302]

Disappointed in the cost cutting used for memory and CPU resulting in basically all of the issues above.
Midi on this thing is a joke, prophet vs waveforms have terrible buzz to them,
Memory for saving projects is minimal, pad sensitivity is ok, but I have $400 midi controllers that are far more sensitive and dynamically responsive. Up until about a year ago there were still interview articles on the dsi site alluding to the possibility of sample import being a possible update (when it was known for years that it was not a possibility). General attitude of the company in asking about issues with responses like "this is inherent in analog synthesis" when the issue was with the digital aspects. (Yeah I saved those emails).
Did I mention the midi is impressively weak.

Other than that I freaking love it. I think if they did a tempest 2 I would be in line. Really hoping that this was just a huge (expensive for everyone) learning experience. The next tempest could be fantastic .... but I would personally do an interview to with dsi to get the record straight about what the tempest 2 will actually be able to do. I'd love to get dave on the synthsummitshow .... so far no luck.

[Sontag]

I wish to register a complaint! =) it's not about a dead parrot though. It's about promises. for more than 5 years i've been waiting for promised features and bugfixes and now this... finished. I'm happy with my tempest and i do use it every day, i know what i can do and  what it can't , but still, very dissapointed about how this is put to an end...

[muleskinner]

Personally I think the single worst thing about the Tempest all told is the piss poor MIDI implementation.

If you could trigger it externally like 6 separate monosynths and use cc to control the sliders (per voice) then at least you'd be able to use a capable external sequencer and play to what are the Tempest's strengths (ie an awesome tool for sound design). You'd also be able to record and edit sequences in a DAW which would increase the mileage one could get out of it no end. As it is you're pretty much forced to use the internal sequencer (which we all know leaves rather a lot to be desired) or ignore the realtime fx.

I have to say though that I really like 'playing' the Tempest and find the pads a gazillion times more responsive and generally 'tactile' in feel than those on the Maschine Studio or any other controller I've tried.