Beelecrab Audio Tempera Mini is an upcoming mini version of its hardware granular soundscape synth with a 1-grain engine.
Granular synthesis in hardware is still somewhat rare. However, numerous new granular synths have hit the market in the last two years. The Tempera from the young Czech company Beetlecrab Audio is particularly expressive.
With its maximum of 4096 grains, 8x multi-timbrality, and touch matrix, you can create highly expressive soundscapes. It’s even recently become a granular FX. Today, the Beetlecrab Audio team has introduced the subsequent development, the Tempera Mini, another unique granular synth.
Beetlecrab Audio Tempera Mini
Tempera Mini is a new upcoming granular soundscape synth that reduces the Tempera feature set to a bare minimum—first, the form factor. Instead of the original 8×8 grid, it will have a 1×1 touch-sensitive grid and lose all buttons and screens. This means it fits in your pocket, allowing granular soundscape generation on the go.
With Tempera MINI, we took a bold approach: a 1×1 touch grid. By focusing on a single touch point, we streamlined interaction to its purest form—direct, deliberate, and unambiguous.
It creates granular soundscapes, but is it designed to be playable at this form factor? No, it’s not supposed to be. Beetlecrab Audio says it’s challenging to create such a level of miniaturization while maintaining no playability on the Tempera Mini. The developers say it requires serious engineering problem-solving.
They also want to minimize the engine. Instead of the colorful 4096 grains that the Tempera engine can handle, the Tempera Mini will have a single feature-packed grain with the full attention of the synthesis engine. With luck, we will get a second grain via a firmware update.
Of course, you can’t get the full 8-time multi-timbrality and 16-voice polyphonic across eight independent tracks of the big brother in that size. Beetlecrab Audio plans to reduce all this and add one voice and one track.
This distillation allows you to fully immerse yourself in a single, unbroken sonic moment—an exercise in minimalism and precision.
The 1×1 Mini retains the responsiveness and expressiveness of the big Tempera’s touch grid surface. This is a video of the first prototype.
First Impression
The Tempera is a fascinating granular synth that lets you create amazingly diverse soundscapes, and the Tempera Mini looks like another innovative follow-up project. I like the combination of the non-playability aspect and the one-grain engine a lot.
This might even be the first synth that breaks through every human mind and showcases how vital granular synthesis is for our future world. Baby, child, parent, or even grandparent, one finger touch away from the granular space. We’re facing some big, granular years ahead. Be prepared.
Beetlecrab Audio Tempera Mini availability and release are TBA, but the first functional prototype of Tempera MINI will be available for hands-on experience at Superbooth 2025
More information here: Beetlecrab Audio
Well played 🪲🦀.
Without a screen this is a definite no for me.
they plan to release a Mini with screen for you on 1 April 2026 😉 Stay tuned
i’ve heard in the next os update they plan to introduce neuronic parameter access, where it beams the parameter values directly into your prefrontal cortex….. *cough*….. 😉
nice one!
learning about this fascinating development really made day – I wonder if users would become greedy after some time and ask if two or – god forbid – three of these devices could be combined for unbearable sonic results
GAS triggered, I’m buying 64 of them
No polyphonic aftertouch? Dealbreaker.