Sounds are choking on my tempest

[alexdecker]

Hi all

I often experience that sounds wil choke out on the tempest. For instance, tonight I made a simple kick (filter resonance kick), and did a rhythm with that. Then I overlaid a high hat pattern, and all of a sudden I lost all the energy from the kick. Almost like the high hat choked the kick. I checked the choke groups, but nothing was assigned.

Does anyone know what's going on?

- Alex

[Shea]

If you only have two sounds going, there's no way they are choking each other unless they are assigned to the same voice.

I'm assuming you're using the main outs? Tempest can work fine on a single channel (or stereo outs), but it really shines as a standalone instrument when used with a mixer. Hihats can easily be higher energy than kicks unless you're on a huge sysyem. I've found the tempest is a really mid-heavy machine, especially from the mains, and ESPECIALLY with distortion on.

Here is my theory on what happens with most tempest users: They turn it on expecting booming kicks, but quickly find their kicks buried in the mix.

Over the past 10 months with mine, I've learned some tricks.

Hi pass everything but kicks and bass. It doesn't hurt to roll off the highs of some hi hat sounds also. Basically, use the filters to prevent frequency overlap.

Second, volume is very important. Kicks should be at max. If you're using samples, you can also keep the volume in check by using the level control in the digital osc. That way, even if you max out the volume on the mixer, your sounds won't get too loud. I've practiced quite a bit and have gotten in the flow of fading in sounds using the mixer on the tempest. This is useful when you're treating the tempest as a straight up drum machine using the main outs only (or in my case, just the L out).

Kicks should be the loudest, and hi hats and snares should be set to taste, but really shouldn't be at max.

All of that said, if you're not using a mixer, I highly recommend it. There is nothing wrong with having your kick on its own channel with a little boost to the lows.

[alexdecker]

Thanks for the reply!

I spend an hour sound designing myself out of the problem. Indeed, it turned out to not be a Tempest problem, but mainly a sound design problem, which I can transfer to the other times I have run into this issue as well.

I ain't expecting booming kicks from it thought, and actually prefer my kicks to not be that booming. I dont appreciate the direction music production has taken, and find that most kicks I hear are in fact TOO booming, and overtakes the whole composition.

Anyways, Im rambling. Thanks again for the advice and reply :-)

- Alex

If you only have two sounds going, there's no way they are choking each other unless they are assigned to the same voice.

I'm assuming you're using the main outs? Tempest can work fine on a single channel (or stereo outs), but it really shines as a standalone instrument when used with a mixer. Hihats can easily be higher energy than kicks unless you're on a huge sysyem. I've found the tempest is a really mid-heavy machine, especially from the mains, and ESPECIALLY with distortion on.

Here is my theory on what happens with most tempest users: They turn it on expecting booming kicks, but quickly find their kicks buried in the mix.

Over the past 10 months with mine, I've learned some tricks.

Hi pass everything but kicks and bass. It doesn't hurt to roll off the highs of some hi hat sounds also. Basically, use the filters to prevent frequency overlap.

Second, volume is very important. Kicks should be at max. If you're using samples, you can also keep the volume in check by using the level control in the digital osc. That way, even if you max out the volume on the mixer, your sounds won't get too loud. I've practiced quite a bit and have gotten in the flow of fading in sounds using the mixer on the tempest. This is useful when you're treating the tempest as a straight up drum machine using the main outs only (or in my case, just the L out).

Kicks should be the loudest, and hi hats and snares should be set to taste, but really shouldn't be at max.

All of that said, if you're not using a mixer, I highly recommend it. There is nothing wrong with having your kick on its own channel with a little boost to the lows.

[Shea]

I agree. In many contexts, you can't even appreciate booming kicks. The loudness of a kick has little to do with whether a track makes you want to dance (which any style should be able to evoke).

I've tried to embrace dull thud kicks on tempest when I can. The hollow thud sample on the digi osc is  honestly nice.