Dave Smith Instruments / Roger Linn Tempest (Demo Deal)

Tempest is a collaboration between Dave Smith and longtime friend and fellow instrument designer Roger Linn.  Though they've consulted with each other on past projects,Tempest marks the first time a product will carry both the Dave Smith Instruments and Roger Linn Design logos.  "If you're going to make a drum machine, who better to have in your corner than Roger Linn?" said Smith, referring to Linn's legacy as inventor of the digital drum machine.

Tempest is a professional drum machine that generates its sounds usingsix of Dave's powerful, highly-acclaimed analog synthesis voices, and uses an innovative, performance-oriented operating system that permitsan extraordinary level of control to create, edit, arrange andmanipulate beats in real time without ever stopping.

Features:

• Each of the six analog voices has two analog oscillators plus two 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, five envelopes, two LFOs, anextraordinary 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 six-voice analog synth.  In addition to the six direct voice outputs, there are stereo mix outputsand phones outputs, plus two inputs for foot switches or expression pedals, MIDI in/out and USB.
• The performance-oriented operating system, 90 panel controls, andbright 256 x 64 OLED display work together to provide a tightlyintegrated, non-stop workflow: record a drumbeat in real-time, switch to another drumbeat and use the lit pads to record it using stepprogramming, switch to another drumbeat and record tuned keyboard parts, use the two touch controllers to to record real-time note or beat-wideparameter animations, use the generous sound controls to edit any of the drum sounds, tweak the analog effects or drum mix, arrange beats inreal 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 2x8configuration, providing intuitive access to all your fingers andproviding the ideal compromise between the popular 4x4 pad arrangement(popular for real time programming ) and 1x16 arrangement (popular forstep programming) because Tempest does both. The pads can be used toplay 32 drum sounds (2 banks), mute/un-mute the 32 sounds on playback,play and arrange 16 beats in real time, play one sound at 16 tunings (ina variety of scales) or 16 velocities, or as 16 time steps for stepprogramming. The Roll button permits creating drum rolls or repeated groove patterns by varying pad pressure as the beat records, and doubles as a momentary "stutter" effect when the pads are assigned to playbeats. Use the Sustain button on tuned parts like a keyboard's Sustainpedal, 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 filterfrequency, tuning, envelope decay and pan changes for each note, orcontrol similar parameters affecting the entire beat.
• A variety of unique effects are provided while maintaining a pureanalog signal path: 1) Stereo analog compressor and distortion circuitsaffect the stereo output mix, 2) beat-synced delay is achieved bygenerating 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 soundvery human and natural.
• Compact and portable: 15.4" L x 9" W x 2.5" H