Two questions before buying...

[chapelier fou]

Hi there, I hope you don't mind me asking for clarification, as I couldn't find a clear anwer for those 2 points :

1. When you work with, for instance, a 3/4 beat, can you have the actual first beat of each bar be displayed on the first step of each page (and leaving the 4 end steps empty) ? Or is it linearly spread across the steps, thus offsetting the first beat across pages ?

2. What's the deal with changing patterns remotely via MIDI. I understand that there are no Program Changes, but what's the workaround ?

Thanks !!

[chapelier fou]

anyone ?

[dr Pokerian]

Hi!
Ad 1. Non 4/4 beats are visually subdivided into bars on the screen, but there is no possibility to have distinct bars fixed to the subsequent pages.
Also bear in mind, that the Tempest is corrupt with regard to all non 4/4 time sigs. I bought the Tempest with programming odd time beats in mind. Sent it back after using it for about 20 days due to broken loop screen function and frequent freezing when playing anything beyond 4/4.

[chapelier fou]

Hi dr Pokerian ! Actually I'm the OP of this topic : https://llllllll.co/t/drum-machines-or-sequencers-non-4-4-friendly/6788 !

Still had this lust of buying it, though...
I'm not sure to understand, for instance, how are 4 bars of a 3/4 beat represented ?
Also, what's the loop screen function ?

[grayxr]

Hi!
Ad 1. Non 4/4 beats are visually subdivided into bars on the screen, but there is no possibility to have distinct bars fixed to the subsequent pages.
Also bear in mind, that the Tempest is corrupt with regard to all non 4/4 time sigs. I bought the Tempest with programming odd time beats in mind. Sent it back after using it for about 20 days due to broken loop screen function and frequent freezing when playing anything beyond 4/4.

Which firmware are you running? I'm able to do odd time signatures pretty well without freezing, running the main OS on v1.5.0.2 -- however yeah the loop screen functionality doesn't seem to handle odd time signatures well.

[chapelier fou]

can anyone please just confirm how severzl bars of 3/4 are represented ?
and what are the "loop screen" uses and how buggy is it ?

[grayxr]

can anyone please just confirm how severzl bars of 3/4 are represented ?

Are you referring to the Events screen?

and what are the "loop screen" uses and how buggy is it ?

Loop screen is accessed via shift button when in the 16 Time Steps screen, and enabled via the second soft knob. How it works is that is just repeats/loops the beat time steps shown on the screen. Turning the first (quantize) soft knob allows the loop to include more or less of the beat's time steps (AFAIK).

The bugginess seems to be that in non-4/4 time signature beats, depending on the quantize setting, the loop screen does not play any time steps in the beat at all, resulting in silence. Whereas in 4/4, the loop screen will play the beat at any quantize setting.

[grayxr]

Turning the first (quantize) soft knob allows the loop to include more or less of the beat's time steps (AFAIK).

Sorry, I just tested it. Someone correct me if I'm wrong -- I don't really use LoopScreen:

1. Enable LoopScreen by entering 16 Time Steps and holding shift and turning soft knob 2,
2. With LoopScreen enabled, turning the first soft knob (quantize) controls the time step granularity amount allowed to loop in the beat. E.g. turning the first soft knob all the way back displays less time step intervals, hence a longer loop. Turning the soft knob forward increases the granularity of the intervals, hence a tighter loop.
3. With LoopScreen enabled, turning the second soft knob will sort of "scrub" or navigate the loop to the time step columns denoted by the X.X.X column values.
4. Messing with #2 in combination with #3 will determine where the in the beat the loop will occur and for how long/tight the loop will be.
5. The above functionality seems to not work consistently when using non-4/4 time signatures, resulting in silence when some combinations of the #2 and #3 are used.

That's my understanding, I could be wrong, like I said I don't really use it.

[grayxr]

can anyone please just confirm how severzl bars of 3/4 are represented ?

In the Time Steps screen, I think it depends on the quantize setting. The triplet quantize settings (8T, 16T, 32T) don't use all of the available cells on the screen. But otherwise, it seems to me that all screens/pads display time steps distributed sequentially, regardless of time signature.

Sorry If I'm not being too helpful.

Edit: aaaand I just got my Tempest to crash when trying to mess with various LoopScreen settings in a 7/4 beat. Yeah, not a fan of that.

[muleskinner]

2. What's the deal with changing patterns remotely via MIDI. I understand that there are no Program Changes, but what's the workaround ?

This is easy - you just set 'remote pad play' in the system menu to 'beats' mode.