This granular instrument is unique and slightly baffling, but as Si Truss discovers, it’s also hugely rewarding
CONTACT WHO: beetlecrab.audio. WEB: playtempera.com KEY FEATURES Multi-part granular synthesiser. 4096 grains, 16 voice polyphony, per-voice filter, five per-voice routable modulators, 64 total emitters per-voice, four concurrent emitter configurations, 8GB internal storage, 16-bit stereo samples, 32-bit processing
Tempera is the second instrument from beetlecrab.audio, the Czech company who made the Vector synth. Vector, which arrived a few years ago, was a highly unique, experimental digital synth that combined multiple synthesis approaches around an animated ‘vector’ interface. As unusual as it was, Vector still resembled a standard synth; labelled controls for filter, envelopes, oscillators; Tempera’s appearance is, instead, at least initially, a little baffling.
The majority of Tempera’s interface is taken up by a touchpad housing an 8x8 grid of individual cells. Switching it on, you’ll find some of these cells lit up in different colours, matching the ring lighting around the four rotaries that sit across the top of the interface. Play a note through the MIDI input and you’ll see these cells, and those around them, start to flash in jittery patterns as the instrument creates sound. It’s reminiscent of Yamaha’s cult classic Tenori-on. Pretty to look at… but what exactly is going on?
Tempera is a granular synth that lets users combine up to eight samples to create layered, evolving synth tones. Each column on the instrument’s touch grid represents an individual sample track. The four colours that delineate the rotary knobs along the top of the unit each represent one type of ‘emitter’. These emitters are essentially granular playheads. The eight rows of the touchpad divide each sample column into eight equal chunks. Place an emitter at any point on one of these columns and it grabs granular
