Tempest is a collaboration between Dave Smith and longtime friend and fellow instrument designer Roger Linn. Tempest is a professional drum machine that generates its sounds using six of Dave's powerful, highly-acclaimed analog synthesis voices, and uses an innovative, performance-oriented operating system that permits an extraordinary level of control to create, edit, arrange and manipulate beats in real time without ever stopping.
Summary of Features
Compact and portable: 15.4" L x 9" W x 2.5" H
Each of the 6 analog voices has 2 analog oscillators plus 2 digital oscillators (with a large bank of included samples), Dave's classic analog low-pass filter with audio-rate modulation, an additional high-pass filter, analog VCA with feedback, 5 envelopes, 2 LFOs, an extraordinary variety of analog modulation routings, and stunning sonic quality, warmth and punch. Although optimized for drum sounds, it excels at tuned sounds as well, and even doubles as a 6-voice analog synth. In addition to the 6 direct voice outputs, there are stereo mix outputs and phones outputs, plus 2 inputs for foot switches or expression pedals, MIDI in/out and USB.
The performance-oriented operating system, 90 panel controls, and bright 256 x 64 OLED display work together to provide a tightly integrated, non-stop workflow: record a drumbeat in real-time, switch to another drumbeat and use the lit pads to record it using step programming, switch to another drumbeat and record tuned keyboard parts, use the 2 touch controllers to to record real-time note or beat-wide parameter animations, use the generous sound controls to edit any of the drum sounds, tweak the analog effects or drum mix, arrange beats in real time and record the live arrangement into a song, enter/exit Song mode and much more, all without ever stopping play.
16 pressure- and velocity-sensitive lit pads are arranged in a 2x8 configuration, providing intuitive access to all your fingers and providing the ideal compromise between the popular 4x4 pad arrangement (popular for real time programming ) and 1x16 arrangement (popular for step programming) because Tempest does both. The pads can be used to play 32 drum sounds (2 banks), mute/unmute the 32 sounds on playback, play and arrange 16 beats in real time, play one sound at 16 tunings (in a variety of scales) or 16 velocities, or as 16 time steps for step programming. The ROLL button permits creating drum rolls or repeated groove patterns by varying pad pressure as the beat records, and doubles as a momemtary "stutter" effect when the pads are assigned to play beats. Use the Sustain button on tuned parts like a keyboard's Sustain pedal, or to choke drum sounds or drumbeats when the pad is released.
Two pressure- and position-sensitive Note FX slide controllers permit real-time recording of note or beat-wide sound parameter changes into the drumbeat as you play. For example, record simultaneous filter frequency, tuning, envelope decay and pan changes for each note, or control similar parameters affecting the entire beat.
A variety of unique effects are provided while maintaining a pure analog signal path: 1) Stereo analog compressor and distortion circuits affect the stereo output mix, 2) beat-synced delay is achieved by generating additional delayed note events within the sequencer, and 3) a beat-synced "stutter" effect is created entirely within the sequencer by looping short portions of the drumbeat on demand.
The degree of swing timing can be adjusted in real time during playback. Roger used his entire bag of tricks to make the swing sound very human and natural.
Overview The Mopho Keyboard is a compact and affordable—but powerful—monophonic analog synthesizer. The voice architecture is similar to a single voice of the Prophet '08, but with a couple of twists … More
Tempest is a collaboration between Dave Smith and longtime friend and fellow instrument designer Roger Linn. Tempest is a professional drum machine that generates its sounds using six of Dave's powerf… More
The Prophet '08 PE (potentiometer edition) has all the features of the standard Prophet '08, but many of the front panel's rotary controls use potentiometers (AKA "pots") for more "vintage-style" cont… More
The big follow-up to Dave Smith's original Evolver, the Poly Evolver Rack, is essentially four Evolvers in a single rack space. It can be a four-voice poly synth, four mono synths (each with its own s… More
The Poly Evolver Keyboard is the king of Evolver performance synthesizers. It is a four-voice synthesizer with a 5-octave keyboard, pitch and mod wheels, and a ton of knobs and switches in a clean, cl… More
The original desktop Evolver is a compact monophonic synthesizer that packs an amazing amount of sonic power into a small package. It features two analog oscillators and two digital oscillators utiliz… More
The Prophet ‘08 Synthesizer Module is a tabletop “knobby” module with all of the features and controls of the Prophet ‘08 Keyboard (minus the keyboard, of course) in an even more compact enclosure. In… More
Mopho is a compact and affordable - but powerful - monophonic analog synthesizer. The voice architecture is identical to a single voice of the Prophet '08, but with a couple of unique twists to distin… More
Affordable, fully programmable poly synth with a 100% analog signal path. Classic, real analog sound—including legendary Curtis analog low-pass filter. Four-part multitimbral capability with four sepa… More
