Tempest Operational Tips & Tricks AKA FAQ Thread (Attention!!Read this first!!)

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

Hi fellow Tempesters,
Thought i'd gather any specific operational tips/tricks i could find on the unofficial forum and make it a sticky.For your convenience i'll keep em organised on the first page.If you have any tricks up your sleeves show em

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Tempest Operational Tips & Tricks

1st things 1st (an explanation of Tempest's Voice architecture)
You're hearing your sound cycling through the main outs while you've plugged a cable to one of your individual voice outs.Is there's something wrong?Nop, you are a victim of T's voice architecture...ATTENTION!!! Read below!!!
Tempest's individual voice outs are hardwired to their respective synth voices. This means that when you plug a cable into one of these jacks, you are effectively removing that voice from the signal path altogether: i.e. from the main-outs, from the master FX, etc. So when you have a cable plugged into one of the voice-outs, as the Tempest randomly cycles through voices, whatever sound gets picked up by that voice will then appear at that output momentarily. To avoid this behavior you can assign sounds to specific voices. You do that via the 'Choke and Voice Assign' page, the shortcut to which is holding 'Shift' and pushing the 'Mod Paths' button.Finally the number of assigned sounds depends on how many cables you are plugging to the individual voice outs.And now that we've mentioned cables let's see what type do we need for the Tempest.
For the Main Outs we need two 1/4 Inch TS Male to TS Male:


and for the 6 stereo/12 Mono individual Outs we need these 1/4 Inch TRS Male to TS Male:


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   •   Before you start using your Tempest make sure you have the final Main OS 1.5.0.2 and Voice 1.5 installed

   •   After updating to the final Tempest OS make sure to calibrate it with all cables unplugged (except power cord of course)

   •   Hold down "mod paths" when changing beats to retain beat FX settings.

   •   Tempest can only accept Midi CC messages on main MIDI channel as follows:
CC# 12 - Distortion
CC# 13 - Compression
CC# 19 - a value other than 0 reverts Beat FX params to defaults
CC# 20 - Beat FX All Osc Frequency
CC# 21 - Beat FX Feedback
CC# 22 - Beat FX Lowpass Filter Cutoff
CC# 23 - Beat FX Lowpass Filter Resonance
CC# 24 - Beat FX Lowpass Filter Audio Mod
CC# 25 - Beat FX Highpass Filter Cutoff
CC# 26 - Beat FX All Env Attack
CC# 27 - Beat FX All Env Decay

   •   Shift+Mod Paths takes you to voice assign (16 Sounds/Sounds mode).

   •   Shift+Real Time FX playback for intensity or destination of the note FX values.

   •   Holding both shift buttons + Stop is the MIDI panic button.

   •   Holding both shift buttons + System button takes you to Tempest’s system root menu.There you can do lots of cool stuff to your Tempest like formatting it,saving your custom init setups etc.

   •   Hold down the Oscillator 'Select' button to edit all 4 oscillators at once. The Pitch encoder changes the pitch for all 4 oscillators and the OLED displays the values for each oscillator individually so you can edit them all together or one by one using the soft knobs.You can also do something similar with the oscillator levels, you just hold the oscillator 'Select' button then tweak the oscillator 'Level' knob and the screen appears.  Alternatively try the arrow / page up & down buttons

   •   You can control the level of a single analog oscillator by turning the second oscillator to 'off'. When only 1 oscillator is used, the OSC 1/2 mix param acts as a level control.

   •   In 16 sounds, you can press shift and a pad to select that sound with out sound being triggered. good for going into 16 tuning mode live.

   •   Don't use the Save/Load button for loading individual sounds for pads.
When in 16 Sounds/ Pads mode, the upper two soft knobs let you load sounds for the pad you are playing easily. just keep hitting the pad as you turn the upper right soft knobs to hear each sound.

   •   1) Play beat
        2) Tap roll to turn on
        3) Hitting the same beat pad turns off roll but the light stays on
        4) Now roll beat by pressing that beat pad instead of roll button.

   •   Press and hold the 16 sounds button, select a pad.This way the pad doesn't triggers.It's like the Hold Shift+ Pad fuction.

   •   If you half the tempo of your beat/project before you start recording anything you can achieve double the bars per beat.

   •   The mixer page can reveal the delay settings and the distortion/compression page with the Page up/ Page down buttons.

   •   While recording, hold a slider position and punch in and out with the playback button.

   •   If you keep the slider assigned to beat-roll held down on BEATS or MUTES screen and then, while still holding the slider, switch to the SOUNDS screen, take your finger off the slider and presto! The roll is latched! This might seem useless being the ROLL button latches, but you can cut a beat roll down even further with the sliders and create a nice 2/4 signature and latch it. Perfect for those tricky transitions.I've also found you can use a similar function in the TIME STEPS screen by holding down the SHIFT button. An option for "Loop Screen" will appear.

   •   Juan Solo's External Sequencing Setup:
1. Go into the system menu page System:MIDI Polyphonic Keyboard Play
2. Scroll down to #5 MIDI: Sequencer Out Channel,
set this to the midi channel that your external instrument is receiving on.
It has to be a unique channel, Tempest will not allow you to share channels you are already using for Tempest, and you will see a dim #(USED) message
3. Scroll to #6 MIDI:Sequencer Sound, choose a pad you want to use to sequence your external instrument.
4. Exit the System Menu
5. On the pad you chose to sequence your external instrument, set the amp envelope amount to 0, and the amp velocity to zero. If you do not set these to zero you will get a distorted clicking when external instrument is receiving notes.
6. Make sure the pad you chose is not muted
7. Make sure the mixer volume for this pad is set anything above zero
8. Make sure the volume in the feedback display is set to anything above zero
9. Set the envelope for this pad to ADSR, to record durations of held pads
Now you should be able to play your external gear in 16 tunings mode for that pad.
You can also record what you play into Tempest's sequencer, OR sequence in 16 steps mode.
For now the Tempest only sends pitch, velocity, and duration.

   •   Hold step in 16 time steps and press FF or Rewind to move that step forward/backwards by one quantize amount.

   •   Tempest’s Copy function now allows you to be selective about copying other elements associated with a Sound or a Beat by using the soft knobs.Also by holding copy and double tapping a pad swaps that sound between sound bank A/B

   •   Samples on OSC's 3-4 now organized into Categories and can be skipped by hitting Shift+softknob.

   •   You can start Tempest at any bar.Just hit the FF/RW buttons to take you to the desired bar then while holding the Stop button hit Play.

   •   How to avoid inconsistency on sounds by Yorgos Arabatzis:
1) Use Wave Reset
2) Mess around with various combinations on Delay parameters for Pitch,Filter,VCA or Aux envelopes.A setting of 1 will do the trick.Also play around with VCA attack time & Peak.
4) Using the self oscillating filter is unstable as Chris stated unless sound assigned to a voice.Try to use the waveforms of OSCs 1-4 instead if you don't assign a sound to a voice.
5) Assigning a sound to a voice can help but also produces a small click to the sound.It's very noticeable if you play fast bass or sustained sounds.
6) Take it easy on the Feedback!Settings beyond 80 create unstable environment.
7) Every tiny change you make in Tempest's envelopes counts so it's a mater of sweet spot in them.A spectrum analyzer can indicate these changes.
8)Hi-passing is a good way to avoid rumble when you crank up that feedback.Also it's a matter of sweet spot on this.A good range for kick/bassy sounds is between 1-4.
9)Try to design your sounds with volume and velocity at fixed max values and after you have a consistent result tweek the velocity you want to taste in case you need it.

   •   Creating Custom Initialize Projects/Beats/Sounds
You can save your own Initialize templates by accessing Tempest system root menu and saving it there.
Holding both shift buttons + System button takes you to Tempest’s system root menu.

   •   To anyone searching for a tight sync between Ableton Live & Tempest if you own an iOS device with the free Midi Link Sync app and this Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter
you can have a very tight sync using Ableton's Link feature

   •   Use panning as a dirty method to get recordable effect sends. Run one side of a voice out dry to a mixer, run the other side through an effect. Have it hard panned normally, and set up a note FX routing for panning.

   •   Real Time NOTE FX Sounds Mode Operations

* Real Time FX are always available as momentary effects.
* Playback bypasses Sequencer Note FX, and Arms Real Time FX for Recording
* Latching requires an Initial Touch, but once set can be engaged and disengaged by toggling Play Back, * which when off, reverts to the Sequencer control.
* Latching is ignored during recording,




   •   Polymeters on Tempest:
OK, it might be a bit quirky, but it does work for some polymeters.
You can use other time signatures than 4/4 to get some polymeter action. Try using 12/16 @ 2 bars. You can now do 3 over 12 and 6 over 12 for instance.
It's pretty basic, but it does work . I have not tried other combinations yet, but maybe 5/16 @ 8 bars could also work for instance. Programming sequences like this is pretty quirky though
The basic idea is using other time signatures and programming 4/4 beats within them.

   •   Ahh and let’s not forget...The metronome steals a voice

   •   Simple but very useful, but did you know you can achieve a quantised beat-wide revert by hitting the current beat's pad again?  The beat will not revert until it reaches the position that corresponds with its quantise setting.  Obviously this requires that the beat does indeed have a quantise setting in the first place.

   •   A detailed Tempest Samples index number file by Van can be found attached at the bottom of this post ⇩
You must be logged in to download it.

[viudu]

Now you should be able to play your external gear in 16 tunings mode for that pad.
You can also record what you play into Tempest's sequencer, OR sequence in 16 steps mode.

For now the Tempest only sends pitch, velocity, and duration.

Wait - I this sends pitch? I thought I tried this and was unable to get more than a single note number, am I mistaken?  BTW - thanks for this post, most helpful!

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

Yep Tempest can send pitch also..

[Pym]

It can send pitch for a single sound if you set up a MIDI synth sound, normally it sends each drum as a single note value like most drum machines

Yep Tempest can send pitch also..

[viudu]

Thanks for that info - was able to get pitch info recorded into a pad and sent to via midi to an external synth. Very cool.

I was unable to get the arpeggiator to work by pressing the roll button though. Is that working for others?

[Morgenspaziergang]

so, can i use the tempest to play external samples in an external sampler?

say, map channel 4 to a tempest pad and that pad plays a sample in the external sampler thats listening to midi channel 4?

if so, can one use , say,, 8 tempest pads with unique midi note channels to externally trigger/control 8 unique samples in an external sampler?

too good to be true?

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

It's a shame that Tempest can output only 1 sequencer channel..Many users on the old forum have been asking for this.

so, can i use the tempest to play external samples in an external sampler?

say, map channel 4 to a tempest pad and that pad plays a sample in the external sampler thats listening to midi channel 4?

if so, can one use , say,, 8 tempest pads with unique midi note channels to externally trigger/control 8 unique samples in an external sampler?

too good to be true?

[Morgenspaziergang]

thank you for your input. cheers!

[tumblingplanet]

Hi Yorgos

Are you sure this works, because I'm trying to put an 8th note from the beginning of a beat to the end using this method. I also tried taking the second 8th note and putting it back to the one, but no go.
This would be a tremendous help because as you may know the copy and paste functions only work for full bars! Could you go in depth on this one please?

   •   Hold step in 16 time steps and press FF or Rewind to move that step forward/backwards by one quantize amount.

Thanks,
 Scott

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

Ye it works..In 16 times step if you hold a lit pad and press FF it'll move that pad to the next one.If you hold the lit pad again and press RW it'll take it back to were it was.This has nothing to do with copy functions.

Hi Yorgos

Are you sure this works, because I'm trying to put an 8th note from the beginning of a beat to the end using this method. I also tried taking the second 8th note and putting it back to the one, but no go.
This would be a tremendous help because as you may know the copy and paste functions only work for full bars! Could you go in depth on this one please?

   •   Hold step in 16 time steps and press FF or Rewind to move that step forward/backwards by one quantize amount.

Thanks,
 Scott

[Jurgen]

4) Using the self oscillating filter is unstable as Chris stated.Try to use the waveforms of OSCs 1-4 instead.
5) Assigning a sound to a voice can help also.

I always use self-osclillating filter for my kicks.  Other then assigning the sound to 1 voice, I set up the pitch filter to lowpass and in mod section to highpass filter. Attack 0 and decay 5-9 amount 5-9. Filter env and amp env. have a traditional approach on the attack 2-3. It's pretty stable this way

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

As you said you have to lock the selfosc filter to a voice to be stable but in my experience this can result in small click to sounds that can't go away even if you raise the amp env attack.That's why when i design my sounds i don't lock them to voices.That's what Chris said in an older thread:

Short answer:

I have looked at this rather extensively; this is the big reason I was so adamant about putting the wave reset feature in the Tempest, because the transients varied too much. The problem is this only works for oscillator playback and not for sounds that use the self-resonance of the filter or the feedback. The problem is due to the transition between states, pushing into self-resonance or heavy feedback is not a stable operation in a very similar fashion to a free running oscillator (see: chaos theory). This is similar to the effect you would get on many distortion units, where it is impossible to get an identical response each time you play through the unit.

So you basically have two ways of going about it to stabilize the transient right now. One, using the oscillator for the transient and bringing in the desired amount of feedback/self-resonance after the transients using an envelope. Or, two, putting a second sound layered on top of the kick as the 'click'. There is also something in the pipeline that we've tested but haven't enabled in the OS. I'll talk about this more in the early betas after the 1.3 OS is out.

[dekalboy]

  " While recording, hold a slider position and punch in and out with the playback button."


=> Don't understand that .

[dekalboy]

   •   You can start Tempest at any bar.Just hit the FF/RW buttons to take you to the desired bar then while holding the Stop button hit Play.

Nice !
But I made a suggestion for the developpers  : would be AWESOME to keep this starting while keeping holding the STOP button.

Su ppose you want to start at BAR 4 :
 => you push the FF button 3 times
=> you hold STOP
=> hit PLAY
=> still holding STOP , you hit play again and it is restarting the sequence to BAR 4
Very very useful when editing the sequence or even create  live effects .

Another cool thing s we could have is saving the sequence always starting at BAR 4 for that sequence ....

[soidthezoid]

Hold down the Oscillator 'Select' button to edit all 4 oscillators at once. The Pitch encoder changes the pitch for all 4 oscillators and the OLED displays the values for each oscillator individually so you can edit them all together or one by one using the soft knobs.

You can also do something similar with the oscillator levels, think you just hold the oscillator 'Select' button then tweak the oscillator 'Level' knob and the screen appears.  Alternatively try the arrow / page up & down buttons

   If you half the tempo of your beat/project before you start recording anything you can achieve double the bars per beat.

I also figured that one out but I seem to recall that it caused laggy beat transitions in some cases.  It only seemed to happen if I programmed a lot of 32nd notes (essentially 16th notes when the tempo is halved).  That was before the recent flurry of OS updates though, so might be fixed now....

[lifted_ground]

Great tips!  After 4 years of wanting a Tempest, I finally bought one this week!  So far, I love it.  I'm a long-time MPC and Evolver user, so I knew I wouldn't be let down with this collaborative effort.  Cheers to everyone who has contributed here. I'm reading everything and finding it all very useful.   

[bobbyquine]

Use panning as a dirty method to get recordable effect sends. Run one side of a voice out dry to a mixer, run the other side through an effect. Have it hard panned normally, and set up a note FX routing for panning.

[LucidSFX]

Very interesting idea man.

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

Nice one bobbyquine added to the list!

Use panning as a dirty method to get recordable effect sends. Run one side of a voice out dry to a mixer, run the other side through an effect. Have it hard panned normally, and set up a note FX routing for panning.

[Yorgos Arabatzis]

@idm
Moved your sound design tip into the appropriate thread

Thanks