Figured I'd chime in about a couple things, just to give you guys an accurate picture of what the Tempest development cycle is looking like...
The first update is already in beta and I'll be releasing a copy to the dsiforum.org Tempest forum probably by the end of the week. I have decided to skip vacations for the next few months to work on the OS. I do nearly all of the code and will be solely responsible for getting updates out, so if you need somebody to yell at, I'm here. The first OS update addresses the following (probably more by the time I'm done), among other various bug fixes:
Master volume only goes half as loud as it should be (one of those "how the hell did we miss that" type things). The SNR will improve accordingly and it should address the 'weak/cloudy' sound
MIDI IN Sync
Basic MIDI playback modes (note-to-pad and synth mode, each one using a separate channel, so both can be used at the same time)
4 Pad velocity curves
'TimeShift' variable on each note event, allowing you to move it +/- 3 ticks @ 96ppqn
Pad LEDs flash as sounds are triggered in 16 mutes mode to make it easier to figure out what you're muting
I'm going to try to get sound previewing working by the first update as well, that's a big one for me, feels clunky. Kits shouldn't be too far off after that's working. Likely will get polyphonic playback from 16 tunings or MIDI keyboard working in the first update as well.
One of the shortcuts that I added (I snuck a good number of these things in and will continue to do so, luckily Dave lets me get away with it) is if you hold down the 'Osc Select' button, it will select all 4 oscillators. There you'll see the screen assigns the soft knobs to pitch of all 4 on the same screen so you can match pitch without having to select each one individually. The second screen does the same with levels (Osc 1/2 mix, Sub Osc Level, Osc 3 Level, and Osc 4 level). If you change the pitch encoder in the oscillator section it will change the pitch of all 4 oscillators at the same time, the other 2 encoders are disabled while all 4 Osc are selected.
One other thing I saw noted... the Note FX (slider param changes on an individual sound) are currently event based. This was to keep consistency between the sound as you're recording, so what you hear when you record is how it will play back. There is no reason I couldn't add a flag as a system param that would allow them to modulate things in realtime, although recording and sequencer playback would obviously still be event based. I think it's a worthwhile addition. I'll try and get it in the first or second update.
I know how frustrating it is getting a product that feels like it's still in beta and I wish I could have spent another month or two on development before release... but we lose money with hardware sitting around in storage and the decision had to be made. I spent a majority of the final weeks of development time fixing as many bugs as possible so things felt 'solid' rather than buggy. I'm of the opinion that it's far better to have thing solid and waiting for a few features than having a full feature set and finding little bugs all over the place, waiting for those to get fixed. So far the people I've talked with about it tend to agree, but only time will tell if the decision we made was a wise one.
Right. So to sum up, I'm committed to working on the OS (nearly exclusively) for the next 9-12 months, minimum. I have a ton of additional features and ideas for improvements that I've already started to sketch out. I do listen to comments and criticisms and I am very active on the forum, plus if you're in SF you could always just drop by and get an OS update while laying down some beats with us.