Tempest Audio

Tempest Audio I'm collecting THE 50 SOUNDS YOU NEED TO HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE, and this is one of them. Get the list first: https://tempest-listening-deck.pages.dev

09/24/2026

Brahms himself at the piano in 1889

In 1889 Johannes Brahms played about a minute of his own music into one of Thomas Edison's recording machines in Vienna. It is the only recording of him that exists. The family who owned it played it so many times on the wrong kind of machine that they wore most of the music away, and for a century it was mostly noise. In the 1990s a team at Stanford recovered him from it. Turn your sound on to hear Brahms himself.
🎧 I'm collecting 50 SOUNDS TO HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE — the strangest recordings on Earth, in one place. Get it first: the link is in the comments.
Piano: the Vieness Piano Duo, used with permission. 1889 cylinder: Berlin State Library; restoration: Stanford CCRMA.

09/19/2026

Edison's Greatest Failure

In 1890 Thomas Edison sold a doll with a small phonograph inside it. It was on sale for six weeks. Every doll had to be recorded by hand, by young women in his factory shouting nursery rhymes into a horn. The few records that survived could not be played for over a century, because a needle might destroy them. Then scientists found a way to read the grooves with light. Turn your sound on to hear one.
🎧 I'm collecting THE 50 SOUNDS YOU NEED TO HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE — the strangest recordings on Earth, in one place. Get it first: the link is in the first comment.
Recording: Thomas Edison National Historical Park / National Park Service.

09/18/2026

In 1883 the volcano Krakatoa exploded. Sailors 40 miles away had their eardrums burst, and people 3,000 miles away thought they were hearing a battle over the horizon. Nothing in 1883 could record a sound like that, but barometers all over the world felt it pass, 7 times over 5 days. In 2022 an eruption of about the same size happened in Tonga, and this time there was a microphone listening in Idaho. Turn your sound on.
🎧 I'm collecting THE 50 SOUNDS YOU NEED TO HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE — the strangest recordings on Earth, in one place. Get it first: https://tempest-listening-deck.pages.dev/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=krakatoa
Recording: Zach Keskinen / Boise State University, Department of Geosciences.

09/12/2026

Voice of a Man Born in 1800

This is the voice of Helmuth von Moltke, born in 1800, recorded in 1889. It is believed to be the only surviving recording of a person born in the 18th century.

More than 135 years later, we can still hear his actual voice.

Coming soon from Tempest Audio: 50 Sounds You Need to Hear, a deck exploring 50 of the most extraordinary sounds ever captured.

Sign up to be the first to hear about it:

https://tempest-listening-deck.pages.dev/

09/10/2026

SUED FOR SILENCE?

In 2002, musician Mike Batt released a track containing one minute of silence.

Then the publishers of John Cage’s 4′33″ came after him.

Yes. Someone got sued over silence.

And Batt’s response might be the best part of the whole story.

I make virtual instruments!! Check out SONA / CHROMA, a FREE Kontakt Player instrument at http://tempest.audio

09/03/2026

Does Alien's Scariest Scene have the wrong music? You decide.
Alien's scariest scene isn't scored with the music Jerry Goldsmith wrote for it — Ridley Scott replaced it with music Goldsmith had written years earlier for a completely different film. At the end, you'll hear the buried cue and the one that took its place — the Alien music you've never heard — and you can decide who was right.

I make tools for music makers! Check out my free COLOR instrument, SONA/CHROMA here: https://tempest.audio

09/01/2026

A Human Voice Gone Extinct

Alessandro Moreschi was the only castrato to make solo recordings, leaving us a glimpse of a kind of human voice that disappeared more than a century ago.

🎻 Download SONA/CHROMA FREE:
https://tempest.audio/sonachroma/

🎹 Tempest Instruments:
https://tempest.audio/

08/29/2026

At Sigal Music Museum, a moment of noodling on a Jacob Kirkman spinet harpsichord, built in London in 1748.

I had the chance to record this beautiful instrument for Tempest Instruments. Nearly 280 years later, it still has an incredible amount of personality.

CHECK OUT SONA/CHROMA
Our completely FREE orchestral instrument for Kontakt Player. Blend between 16 solo orchestral instruments in real time:

https://tempest.audio/sonachroma/

TEMPEST INSTRUMENTS
Sample libraries, unusual instruments, and new sounds for composers and music makers:

https://tempest.audio/

08/26/2026

HE PLAYED A STOLEN $16M VIOLIN FOR 50 YEARS

Hear this violin for yourself!

This is the incredible story of the Gibson ex-Huberman Stradivarius: stolen, hidden in plain sight for half a century, recovered, restored, and eventually placed in the hands of one of the world’s most celebrated violinists.

🎻 ABOUT TEMPEST INSTRUMENTS

I’m Alex Davis, composer and founder of Tempest Instruments. We make unusual virtual instruments for composers, producers, and anyone who loves exploring sound.

DOWNLOAD SONA/CHROMA FREE
https://tempest.audio/sonachroma/

SONA/CHROMA is our completely free orchestral Kontakt Player instrument. It lets you blend and morph between 16 solo orchestral instruments to create entirely new timbres and tone colors. No full version of Kontakt required.

THE JOSHUA BELL VIOLIN

For more information about the Joshua Bell Violin virtual instrument, visit:
https://embertone.com/instruments/joshua-bell-violin-series/

FOOTAGE

This video uses footage from Confluence, a film series by Louis Alvarez, Christopher Groban, Andrew Kolker, and Marion Lear Swaybill.

Watch the Joshua Bell film:
https://cnam.com/confluencearchive/artist/joshua-bell/

Watch the entire Confluence series:
https://watch.confluence.tv/

08/22/2026

STOLEN $16M VIOLIN HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

A $16 million Stradivarius was stolen from Carnegie Hall in 1936, then spent decades hiding in plain sight.

The story of the Gibson ex-Huberman Strad is one of the strangest chapters in violin history, involving a backstage theft, a working musician, a deathbed confession, and one of the most valuable instruments on Earth.

Download my FREE orchestral plugin, SONA/CHROMA here!
https://tempest.audio/sonachroma/

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