Pitch Issue When Using MIDI

[A Person]

Hi all,

Just got a Tempest and trying to work through all the technical and workflow issues so I can seamlessly produce music.

For a while I was struggling to map the Tempest's pads to Ableton such that pad A1 would = note C3, A2 = C#3, etc., so I can send a MIDI pattern to the Tempest. The notes are mapped as such in the MIDI System menu, so I don't know why it wasn't working.

I don't know how, but somehow I resolved this so that A1 = C1, etc. However, the MIDI piano still affects the pitch of the Tempest drums. So when I play A2 on the Tempest, the drum is the pitch it's supposed to sound out, but when I play it via playing C#1 in the MIDI roll, it's at a semi-tone higher pitch. This problem continues up the scale so that by the time I reach pad # 16 the pitch is ridiculously high. Any way to fix this? Thanks.

I don't understand why the Tempest manual says basically nothing about MIDI.

I may be posting other issues in this thread as I go along... hope that's all right...

[A Person]

Also, ever since syncing it to Ableton, even if I remove the MIDI cables and switch the MIDI settings in the System menu to "Off," the Tempest does not produce sound and the pads do not light up when I play them. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

[idm]

The last question is an easy one. You probably turned local control off. It'sin the system menu. You should turn it on

The other issue I'm not sure about. I cannot test it right now. Hopefully someone else can!

I do wonder what technical difficulties and workflow issues you are having though? Have you updated to the latest beta OS? Because it fixes a lot of major issues. I've been using Tempest almost flawlessly. There's still some things that need to be fixed, but nothing major so far...

[onesnzeros]

I don't understand why the Tempest manual says basically nothing about MIDI.

that's because the "Godfather of MIDI" didn't include it for some reason?
go figure

[A Person]

The local control option was the reason for that problem. Thank you.

I fixed my original problem by setting the "MIDI root note" to C1. This is keeping the pads at the pitches they are supposed to be. Still don't know why Ableton is setting it to C1 when the other options to assign pads says A1 starts at C3, but whatever. Won't complain. Making slow progress...

Now I'm curious why when my pads are panned to the sides they grow increasingly louder, but when they are in the center/neutral, they are barely audible? Sorry, just going to keep encountering issues as I figure this thing out...

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

Have you read this thread?
http://forum.davesmithinstruments.com/index.php?topic=78.0
You have to understand how T's voices work..T's voice outs are stereo and that means you can have 6 stereo or 12 mono outs (panning hard left/right).What cables are you using?

Now I'm curious why when my pads are panned to the sides they grow increasingly louder, but when they are in the center/neutral, they are barely audible? Sorry, just going to keep encountering issues as I figure this thing out...

[A Person]

Thank you for that thread, but I'm not sure it totally answers my question. I am sorry if this is a simple fix/issue.

I am using six patch cables from each of the six voices to six inputs on my USB interface (Scarlett 18i8). I use voice assign to assign the first six pads to V1, V2, etc. My workflow is that I program a MIDI sequence in Ableton, output that to the Tempest, and then record the six channels of audio in the DAW. I like working this way because I want to be able to mix the Tempest sounds (EQ, pan, etc.) in post-production, rather than onboard. So I would like to be able to get the sounds at their normal volume by leaving them panned in the center on the Tempest (because panning to the sides seems to produce some ugly distortion/level issues/affect the timbre), and then just do the panning in my DAW. Is there a simple setting option I'm missing to switch to stereo so that the outs can be at a normal volume when panned neutrally? Or should I just hard pan all the way to one side and lower the input gain on my interface to adjust? 

Also, separate question -- is there a way to save a bunch of sounds at once? Like I create a drum kit of six sounds, and then I save them all in one project to be loaded instantly? I thought "Project Save" was the way to do this, but all my sounds get lost when I do this.

Thanks, sorry if this is noobish.

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

You didn't answer my question about the cables how am i supposed to help you...You know that the feedback is fed to the Left channel right?

[A Person]

Are you talking brand? I mean quarter-inch patch cables. I think they're these: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Livewire/TRS-TRS-Straight-Straight-Patch-Cable-8-Pack.gc. I don't see why that would matter? It seems to be a hardware setting/issue. I'm not using the main outputs at all. I'm using the individual voices because I want to record all the individual kit pieces as individual tracks into the DAW in one take.

It's not the feedback I'm hearing I don't think. The same effect happens when I pan in either direction--it just gets much louder, while at neutral, many sounds are nearly inaudible.

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

Now we're talking...That's why i've asked you about the cables you're using the wrong ones..That's why i've told you to understand first T's voices..
You need these:
http://elitecoreaudio.com/store/media/catalog/product/cache/2/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/2/t/2ts-trs_2.jpg

Another thing i should post to the FAQ questions thread.. A picture of the cables..

[A Person]

Thanks. Could you please explain the difference and link to a site where they or ones like them can be purchased?

Edit: http://forum.davesmithinstruments.com/index.php?topic=246.0

This thread seems to cover the issue. Thanks. It's a bummer that this will now take up double the space on my interface.

Is there any way to save multiple sounds I've created at once, for example, as a project?

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

Yes Tempest can save Sounds/Beats/Projects from the apropriate save/load menu.You know you have to read the manual right?

Is there any way to save multiple sounds I've created at once, for example, as a project?

[A Person]

I did read it, which is why I used the term "Project." My question was whether you could save multiple Sounds at once. I have saved Projects thinking that it would save all the Sounds I created in that Project and it did not......

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

When you save a project the sounds you've designed are stored with the project.If you want to use these sounds to another project you have to save each sound individually

I did read it, which is why I used the term "Project." My question was whether you could save multiple Sounds at once. I have saved Projects thinking that it would save all the Sounds I created in that Project and it did not......

[idm]

Projects contain beats and sounds, but it's completely independent from sounds and beats you might save separately.

Beats contain sound but again are completely independent from the sounds you might save separately.

Hope that clarifies workflow.

I have created a template project, beat, and sound, which is the initialize state. Everything at zero. A starting point. When I start a new project, I create new beats that I will save separately while saving the project too (so saving 2 times every time, project and beat). If I like sounds within those beats/projects enough, I'll save them as sounds.

Then I'll export the new or edited projects/beats/sounds to my pc every other day. And those get uploaded/backed up to the cloud automatically.

Seems time consuming, but it really isn't.