Introduction
The Dave Smith Instruments & Roger Linn Design Tempest is truly a one-of-a-kind collaboration between two legendary electronic music instrument makers. Combining 6 of the original Prophet voices inside of a 4 oscillator (2 analog, 2 digital) synthesizer with a unique Roger Linn inspired drum machine and pad interface.
Basic Features
- Dynamic sequencer,
- Onboard controls for most synth features
- Bright multi-modal OLED screen
- Two vertical touch strips
- 2 LFOs
- High and low pass filters
Pros
- 32 sounds (including sound bank B) per beat
- 16 beats per project
- OLED display
- Modulation
- 6 stereo voice outs (!)
- Onboard distortion & compressor (only on stereo outs)
- Beat roll & reverse effects
Cons
- 6 voice polyphony, only plays 6 sounds simultaneously
- Lacking in external MIDI control parameter access
- Saving is a bit tedious…having to scroll thru alphabet with the knobs…
- Internal disk space is very small (I have to delete files to save new ones…)
- Song does not stay in memory through power cycles
Ride The Lightning
The Dave Smith Instruments & Roger Linn Design Tempest is one I coveted and lusted after for a while, saving up for, researching & GASSING endlessly (for those who don’t know yet, the acronym “GAS” stands for “Gear Acquisition Syndrome”…generally associated by feverish research and anxious excitement, maybe some hemming and hawing, comparison shopping, YouTube watching…you get the picture… :)) and bought second-hand on eBay for just over $1000 in Fall of 2019. Being an Electribe 2 user, I was attracted by the Tempest’s color scheme, nice blue-lighted pads & LEDs, OLED, printed knob labels lights and control parameters, too. The list goes on.
One really nice aspect of it is the depth of control. Also the second sound bank expands it to 32 sounds per beat (I believe) and then 16 beats per project. Thats a lot (to me). But only being able to play six of them at any time, limits things and forces a creative, or just more focused and … doh! limited way of using the machine. That said, for what it does, it does very robustly.
Conclusion
I was not expecting to be so affected by the voice count, but this device does feel limited in terms of the number of voices that can play simultaneously. It can only play six (6). The sounds are amazing, punchy, controls and enough modulations for me… even has several modes, each with deep and powerful control paradigms and feature sets.