Quote Originally Posted by Jinsai View Post
I'll check out the Dave Smith forum. Thanks, but before I go there if I could ask a question regarding your personal experience with the kit...

Would you say it's reliable for a live gig? That's probably the main reason we're picking one up, and while I'll still be running my laptop, we were planning on having a Tempest slaved to the computer's clock. Has it just been issues with the USB (we were planning on sync'ing it via MIDI cables)? The Virus TI also launched as an unfinished piece of gear, and while I love the thing to death and would never part with it, I don't think I would rely on it live.

So far we've been looking at either going with an Elektron Monomachine or Machinedrum, or the Tempest. The Tempest is the most expensive out of the bunch, but it also seems the most enticing, but the most important aspect is how reliable it is as a slaved device.
The Tempest is, more than anything else, designed to be used live. The way that, in pattern mode, if you press the roll button, it causes the current beat to stutter until you let go, and jumps back in where it should be. The way the knobs can be used to control that parameter across all the drum sounds being played (pitch is fun for that one), the dual pressure-sensitive ribbon controllers, and of course, the MPC style pads.

But your question is about slaving it to a clock... that's a great question, but not one that I'm not really able to answer myself, as that's, funnily enough, not how I really use it, not yet anyway. For the first time in a very, very long time, I have finally hooked everything MIDI that I own into the MIDI in & out of my Projectmix IO, but I'm using an old Kawai MX8R as a MIDI through box, and I think that's introducing significant lag. At least, I hope that's the case. Anyhow, I think someone at the DSI forum will be better suited to answer your question, if someone else hasn't already asked it. Standalone, it's fucking great live. And yeah, it's definitely pricey. If I add up what I've paid for all the other synth gear I own, and maybe even throw in a guitar and bass, it would come to about as much as I've paid for the Tempest.