New user with excessive noises and clicks/pops

[rededfred]

Hello to all.
I have just purchased a secondhand Tempest and am a bit worried that it is faulty.
I have only used it with headphones so far.
With the volume turned down turning on or off creates a loud pop.
With nothing playing, if I turn the distortion or comp knobs there is a lot of noise that should not be there. the noise is so bad it makes these knobs unusable.
I have tried resetting system settings etc but no joy.
Main OS : 1.3.0.12
Voice OS : 1.2
Panel OS : 1.3
Sam OS : 1.1
I would be grateful for any advise as at the moment I feel like sending it back for a refund. Thank you.

[BobTheDog]

The pop is normal, annoying isn't it.

Concerning the Distortion/Comp knobs what exactly do you mean?

Does turning the knobs cause noise.

If you have them turned up and no sounds are playing then there is noise?

Can you make a recording of this noise and post it here.

[hardwarecore]

Yep, the pop is normal.   As for the noise when you turn up the distortion and compressor, that is normal as well.  The analog distortion will introduce some noise when you turn it up with no sound playing through it and then the compressor will take whatever noise it makes and raise the level of it.  When I use these effects, I tend to keep the distortion to maybe 1/3 of the way up or less.  And, of course, the compressor noise won't be nearly as noticeable when you actually have sounds playing because it will take whatever sounds are going through it and sort of even them out (compress) them.  It seems that a lot of people don't really care for the distortion but I think it sounds good when you use just a touch of it.  But to be honest, I have a very hard time making good use of the compressor.

[hardwarecore]

Oh, and if you notice a slight "pop" when you first turn the distortion knob, that is also inherent in all Tempests, as far as I know.  That part definitely sucks because it kind of renders the distortion unusable in a live performance context.  It would be nice if it did not pop and was more gradual.

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

Yep all normal...May i also suggest you should update to the latest OS and calibrate.But ye all these are T's flaws.Personally i never use Comp & dist as i do it outside in Ableton Live..