Tempest - Beat control in Ableton

[coleydj]

Hi All,
ive just got myself a Tempest (my first analog drum machine) and needless to say im loving it. My plan is to control the Tempest using Ableton for Beat selection only as im finding the UI on the Tempest really easy & fun to use. I have managed to figure out how to draw in a midi pattern in ableton to trigger the Tempests sounds like you would with a sound module etc but im struggling with triggering Beats only (which in my mind should be easier than controlling its sounds). I can only seem to get Tempests sequencer started by enabling the 'Sync' section of the tempests output midi in ableton, however this starts the current Beat regardless as to whether i have midi drawn in on Abletons piano roll or not. Once the sequencer has started it responds and changes to the midi info drawn in on the pianoroll.

What im trying to achieve is for the first 8 bars of a song not to feature the Tempest, then start say pad 1 for 8 bars followed by 2 for 8 bars etc - managed by midi notes drawn into the ableton piano roll.
I have done the following:
1. assigned each Pad to a midi note in the system menu (verified as when i press the key on my nord keyboard the pad changes selection & lights up on the tempest)
2. set the correct midi channel for the 'pad in channel' as per the external instrument selection
3. Ensured that the midi out 'Track' is selected in Ableton for the Tempest
4. set the midi clock mode to slave on the tempest
5. ensure that that the midi in cable is set to usb (as its connected by usb)

Basically when i start Ableton playing the sequencer does not start on the Tempest although i can change the Beat selection with either the keyboard or midi notes drawn in on Abletons piano roll. Is there a separate midi note that starts the sequencer or am i missing something in the system menu? Any help would be very much appreciated.

thanks
Brian

[kokoran]

old thread, but I ran into this and thought I’d offer my workaround.
1. set tempest to midi sync to daw as slave.
2. figure out how many bars of silence  until you want the tempest to drop the beat.
3. make a silent bar in the tempest with no notes.
4. program that many bars of silence in to the beginning of the playlist of the tempest.
when you hit play in your DAW at the beginning of your song the tempest will start running (silently)… play through the song until you see if you got the bar count correct.

hope this helps someone!