Introducing Tempera MINI: The Future of Compact Expressive Synthesis
At beetlecrab.audio, we have always been committed to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Tempera has seen an incredible response from musicians, sound designers, and experimental artists who have embraced its unique interface and deep sonic capabilities. However, one question has persisted: what is the absolute essence of Tempera?
This question led us down an ambitious path of innovation, culminating in our latest development—Tempera MINI. A radically compact version of our flagship granular synthesizer, Tempera MINI distills the essence of expressive polyphonic synthesis into a form factor so small, it defies reason.
Development Progress & Challenges
The development of Tempera MINI has been an exercise in extreme engineering. Our team faced several core challenges, including:
- Interface Miniaturization – The original Tempera features a spacious multi-touch surface designed for expressive playability. Shrinking this down while compromising playability required rethinking the user interface entirely. Through meticulous touch calibration and adaptive gesture detection, we managed to preserve a highly playable surface area despite the drastic size reduction.
- Component Density – Packing almost none of Tempera’s synthesis engine into a fraction of the space posed significant electronic and thermal management challenges. After extensive board redesigns and custom component sourcing, we successfully achieved a form factor that maintains basically no functionality of the original Tempera—albeit at a radically compact scale.
Tempera MINI: Engineering Deep Dive
At beetlecrab.audio, we love tackling the unique technical challenges that come with designing expressive instruments. While Tempera MINI may seem like a simple downscaled version of its predecessor, the reality is that achieving this level of miniaturization while maintaining no playability required some serious engineering problem-solving.
The Challenge of Miniaturizing the Multi-Touch Surface
One of the biggest hurdles we encountered was adapting the multi-touch interface to a drastically smaller form factor. The original Tempera features an 8×8 touch grid, allowing for fluid gestural control across 64 independent touch points. 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.
The Audio Engine: Optimizing for Efficiency
Tempera’s granular synthesis engine is computationally intensive, and we quickly realized that running the full processing pipeline on limited hardware would be a challenge. The original Tempera supports 4096 simultaneous grains; Tempera MINI, in contrast, delivers a refined experience with exactly 1 grain. This singular grain receives the full attention of the synthesis engine, ensuring the highest possible quality per grain.
Additionally, while the original Tempera boasts 16-voice polyphony across 8 independent tracks, Tempera MINI embraces a more focused approach: 1 voice, 1 track. This distillation allows you to fully immerse yourself in a single, unbroken sonic moment—an exercise in minimalism and precision.
Hands-On Demonstration
Rather than just talking about it, here’s a quick demo of Tempera MINI in action:
You can see how the touch-sensitive surface maintains the expressiveness of the full-size Tempera while responding dynamically to different playing techniques. The compact form factor doesn’t mean compromise—it means rethinking the instrument from the ground up for a new kind of creative workflow.
Experience the Future at Superbooth 2025
We are excited to announce that the first functional prototype of Tempera MINI will be available for hands-on experience at Superbooth 2025. We invite all attendees to come try it out and explore the future of ultra-compact expressive synthesis.
Tempera MINI is a testament to our commitment to innovation and the future of synthesis. It delivers the power of Tempera in a space-saving form factor with all of the compromise. This is not just a technical exercise—it’s a vision realized. We’ll see you at Superbooth at W245.