Beetlecrab Audio Tempera 2.2: granular synth now with poly aftertouch pads, and more

Following 2.0 and 2.1, Beetlecrab Audio Tempera 2.2 is out now, adding polyphonic aftertouch to the pads of the multi-timbral granular synth and more.

The Tempera from the young Czech company Beetlecrab Audio is a fascinating granular Synthesizer. Instead of churning out half-baked products, the developers are focusing on updates, making the Tempera increasingly more comprehensive and creative.

At Superbooth 2025, the developers already showcased the Tempera 2.2 firmware. It is now available and brings a wealth of new features.

Tempera 2.2

One of the Tempera synthesizer’s key features is the innovative touch field, which is either pending patent approval or already has been. It contains far more technology than we previously knew, as it has now gained greater expressivity.

With firmware 2.2, they’ve now implemented polyphonic aftertouch. This means you now have per-finger, per-voice pressure detection as a modulation source. Additionally, these can be captured, enabling very expressive playing.

This update makes the touch panel an even more powerful component of the instrument. But that was only one new feature of this new update.

Firmware 2.2 also introduces a new reverse grains function, allowing you to set the playback of the emitted grains in the opposite direction. A feature that expands the sound range of the Tempera once again.

All new Patina effects give new life to your clean sounds. You can now use age, slip, and compression at the end of the signal chain to add juice and character. There is also a new, improved reverb model to explore.

Euclidean Sequencing

Tempera’s modulation engine now also includes a step LFO that can be used in up to 16 instances per voice to modulate any target.

For musicians and sound designers who want more advanced rhythmic results, you can now work with an Euclidean grain sequencer. Alongside this, Beetlecrab Audio Tempera 2.2 introduces the ability to populate tracks with all the samples in a folder (batch-loading samples).

Audio-rate emitter volume support, LFO retrigger, and MIDI recording trigger are also part of the new firmware 2.2, as well as other improvements: Emitter copy-pasting, placing emitters via MIDI, and recording auto-trim.

Another excellent update for the Beetlecrab Audio granular synth. The fact that the touch field now supports polyphonic aftertouch is almost a game-changer for the Tempera. Congrats BA. 

The new Beetlecrab Audio Tempera 2.2 update is available now as a free download. Tempera is priced at 670€ + tax + shipping within the EU and $720 USD + shipping + import tax to the US. 

Update from January 27, 2025

It’s a good day for Tempera users. Beetlecrab Audio has just dropped Tempera 2.1, another major free update that turns into a live effects processor. 

Firmware 2.1

As you know, Tempera has a 6.35mm stereo input on the back that can be used for sampling audio. It’s also an alternative to the SD card or built-in microphone for capturing audio into the device. Now, this input is even more part of the feature set.

Beetlecrab Audio has implemented a live granular effects processor mode in Tempera 2.1. In practice, the engine continuously records a track into its memory while emitters can be placed on it.

Rather than the playhead moving across the track, the track itself is scrolling under your fingers. It also ships with a new custom-designed comb filter (rake filter) designed for granular synthesis.

It has an optionally amplitude-modulated feedback path, and the rate is the same as the comb feedback frequency, and both can be key-tracked. Then, it ships with new modulation destinations, sources, and plotter-scope visualizations. Note velocity, note tracking, and grain pan are new routing options.

The built-in delay and reverb also got an algorithm makeover. The reverb is smoother and more lush, while the delay’s bandpass filter is more pronounced.

You can also work with a new attack option for grain emission, which makes the first emitted grain sharper, resulting in long, smooth grains with a sharp attack at the same time.

Other Features Of Firmware 2.1

• MIDI program change support to the canvas features
• new exotic and pentatonic scales for the keyboard mode which now supports MIDI note output
• improved filter visualizations for better overview and understanding of wath the filter is doing 
• new “align X=off” option where grain can be emitted in between tracks. When that happens, the grain will play a weighted sum of the neighboring tracks, in other words, when smoothly moving across the tracks, they will be cross-faded
• Automatic track tuning based on indicated BPM/Hz in the audio filename ( for example, Drums125bpm.wav…) 
• more firmware polishing and streamlining 
• and more

I got the firmware 2.1 a few days before the release. But I haven’t looked at it in detail yet because of NAMM coverage. I find the possibility of using the synth as a live, granular effect processor unit fascinating.

The remaining new features are nice engine extensions that squeeze even more out of the granular engine.

Firmware 2.1 is now available as a free update for existing users.

Article from June 25, 2024

For the most part, granularity has only been explored in software Thanks to ever-better processors, numerous synths with high-resolution granular engines have come onto the market in recent years: Waldorf Iridium/Quantum, the GR-Mega, which is about to be delivered… A special one is the Tempera from the young Czech company Beetlecrab Audio.

Tempera is a multi-timbral synth, offering up to 4096 grains, 16 voices, up to 64 placed emitters per voice, and more. Using a newly developed touchpad, you can populate the mapped samples with grains and generate rich soundscapes. Firmware 2.0 is now available, which boosts the Tempera even further

Beetlecrab Audio Tempera 2.0

Tempera 2.0 is out now, and it’s a free download. “It’s the biggest upgrade so far – like three packed into one,” says Andre Sklenar of Beetlerab Audio. The developers particularly emphasize the feedback they received from the community via their official Discord channel.

Canvas Gallery

A highlight of the Beetlecrab Audio Tempera 2.0 update is the Canvas gallery. This is Tempera’s new preset format in which you can save your patch with the samples, parameter settings, etc. and share it with the community.

To highlight this, there will be a Canvas Gallery where you can download such presets. Plus, the new firmware brings a Canvas quicksave “shortcut” function, with which you can immediately save your project. Other new features are:

• adjustable LED and emitter colors (personalize the look of your Tempera)
• improved onboard keyboard with the new chromatic piano-like keyboard layout 
• improved modulator visualization 
• stable and reliable MIDI clock sync: improved clock BPM detection, etc.
• new shortcut for emitter editing
• new global MIDI channel parameter 
• bug fixes and polishing 

First Impression