Merry Christmas. Hell has frozen over. Thanks, Dave! (And Pym.)

Dave Smith Instruments has released a new operating system for the Tempest drum machine, adding user-requested features, new sounds, beats, projects and more.

The new operating system, OS 1.4, and the new sound set ship with newly purchased instruments. For users wanting to upgrade their Tempests, version 1.4 is also available for download from the Tempest OS Support page.

Dave Smith Instruments Updates Tempest OS, Adding User-Requested Features

3...2...1...till someone complains that it still can't sample and sequence other gear...

Sequencer MIDI Note Output

Tempest can now be configured to output MIDI note number messages from a
single sound’s sequencer track.

To enable MIDI Note output for a Tempest Sound:

1. Press the system button to enter the Tempest’s system menu.
2. Turn soft knob 4 (category) to the right until the midi polyphonic keyboard
play category appears.
3. Turn soft knob 1 (select line) to select item 5, midi: sequencer out channel
4. Turn soft knob 3 (channel) to select a MIDI output channel.
5. Turn soft knob 1 (select line) to select item 6, midi: sequencer sound.
6. Turn soft knob 3 (sound) to select a sound from Bank A or B.

What changes and what happens to our projects/beats/sounds?

http://www.davesmithinstruments.com/...1.4.pdf?6e49ae

Thanks. It doesn't say if the sounds are replaced or not though... Unless I'm missing something.

I'm so excited!!!!!!!!

I was waiting for a great update like this...DSI is always good for it, (eventually) lol

From their website about the new sounds

"IMPORTANT NOTE
Be aware that the Tempest has a limit of 650 sound program locations. When loading new sounds to your existing setup, be aware that it is possible that you could run out of available sound program memory, receive an error code, and have to delete some files to make room for the new content. If you have sounds you want to keep, be sure to save them to a SysEx file first.

Refer to your Tempest manual for more information about backing up files by initiating a SysEx dump from the Tempest’s front panel controls."

Total Sysex time takes about 15 minutes guys...

59 new Kicks drums
34 new Snares
34 new high hats
etc....

Thanks for the heads up Scott Wozniak, I thought we'd have to wait till NAMM for this.

Excuse my ignorance as a non-tempest owner..

So the new OS gives it a bunch of actual new drum samples?

If so, that's cool. I have read some people complaining about the quality of some sounds in the past..

You're HALF right.

The new OS 1.4 does NOT contain drum samples.

Version 1.4 Sound Banks is what contains new drum samples and projects.

I counted 220+ (estimate) NEW drum/percussion samples.
They're all usable.

One thing about DSI, a lot of times the factory presets on their gear is trash.
(basically showing off the capability of their gear, not always practical patches)

I definitely felt the original samples were fine, but they needed MORE. If they're not going to allow sampling keep making updates like this are available and sampling won't be necessary for me.

FWIW all the new features of this official OS release have been available and tested out by the DSi forum members for close to a year now.

DSi have also acknowledged that with this OS version, Tempest is now considered feature complete and although they will keep improving it, development is in end cycle and it will mostly be stability updates. It is very unlikely sample import will make it, they've tried hard to get it working but it's a no-go for various technical reasons..

I don't believe they can't work out a way to do it. Simply put- if those samples made it in there then they can be taken out and new ones put in.

Build a utility that allows users to do it- they have the know how and resources.

Come on DSI.

I've been testing the tempest since day 1 and I can't get enough of it. Samples would make it perfect.

It is technically possible however the way the Tempest was coded makes it apparently extremely difficult. DSi most certainly don't have that many resources with only a single programmer for their entire product line. As for the know-how, Tempest is their first drum machine, they even admitted that in hindsight they would have spec'd it way differently had they'd known the dev limitations they've run into. They actually hired some outside help last summer to try and get it done but it was a no go. After the announcement that Tempest was feature complete and that development was winding down (probably due to future product dev) I have serious doubts sample import will be tackled. It definitely seems way more complicated then it appears..

It took them three years - 3 YEARS - to release a new OS.
Talk about taking the piss.

^ not true we're at 1.4, last was 1.3, 1.2... but yeah it did take them 3 years to make it "feature complete" and still there things like legato or full midi which are broken/absent and substantial bugs such as in playlist where the machine freezes at the turn of a knob..

Still no legato or MIDI? That's laughable.

I was an early adopter and gave-up on their cowboy behaviour after over a year of fruitless beta-testing and constant obfuscations from DSI.
Incredibly shabby treatment of paid-up customers. Never again.

legato actually worked in early OS's and then it was broken and apparently is very hard to bring back because of the way the coding has evolved. As for MIDI, of course it has it but in a limited way. The machine has much evolved though since you've probably last used it and it's quite capable and fun instrument. I love it in fact. But it is of course imperfect and i do feel DSi have led us on to false hopes in many areas. Had i known the frustrations ahead 3 years ago, I would have never invested in it, but now after enduring so much and getting it to where it's at today, it is hard for me to let it go.. love/hate or tough love is probably what you'd call it!


by the way my #1 missing feature would be polyphonic recording. tempest (like most DSi instruments) excels at poly sounds and i would love to easily be able to record a chord. that single feature would be a real game changer for me..

Does this OS update fixes the sync latency issues?

I just sold mine after a year and a half of use and I did so because it was so bad a being in sync with other machines or even as a master clock.

The Tempest is good for what it is...I love it

It can be quite expensive to bring an outside software dev onboard. DSI is a small company, they gotta make a profit.

Yeah I paid $2000 for it. So they definitely need keep the bug fixes coming in new updates. Other than that they made the right choice in sticking to their guns.

Legato needs to be fixed to call the tempest feature complete.

I have the same question. I hope so as I loved it live for many reasons but this slipping out of time during a none stop set made me reluctantly stop using it.

what OS version are you guys using? there have been several timing enhancements in between 1.0 & 1.4

Not sure but it's 1.3 something. Don't have it to hand. may be that it was older when I last played live 1.2? But if it's fixed it may just put it back in the frame for live. Working on a new set at the moment so it's going to be a tempest/rytm showdown !

Legato would be good. Still you can't have everything...

Are you sure that they've actually included new samples with the new sounds? There's no mention of this in the text file that comes with the new factory Projects and Sounds stuff, which would seem crazy if they actually replace some of the previous samples, and there's definitely not 220 additional samples after the update. There's 464 samples in the Tempest and they match the list that's in the back of the 1.3 manual.

Definitely curious about this because I've updated, and unless something went wrong, I'm not seeing that there could be 220 new samples...

^ there are no new drum samples, what they are is new drum patches made out of analog/digital oscillators... so you do get new drum sounds but definitely no new samples..

Yeah, that was what I assumed but the way that post was worded it seemed to be implying that there are new samples and that just doesn't add up. There's the same 464 samples before and after loading the new sounds. So the answer to this...

...should have been "No". There's basically a bunch of new presets, that's it.

yeah it definitely sounds like he means there are new samples but unless i missed something he's plain wrong about that..

They should hire the dude that codes JJOS. He wacks out new features and updates all the time. He's made the MPCS do things it shouldn't be doing.

I don't know yet about this update but the previous one was not bad at all when Tempest was used as a master for my Cirklon.