TEMPERA

New firmware, shipping update, The Gallery

Dear Temperists!

Another month has passed since the last update, and there's so much to share! We've been incredibly busy doing more or less everything there is to do: assembly, shipping, getting feedback and firmware development.

Let's get into some details!

 

First batch all shipped. Done and done.

Historic! As of last week, all first batch units have been shipped. There were delays, a few hiccups and one incredibly busy time. Without you brave first batchers there would be no Tempera. You get to bear the force of bugs and quirks, but are also taking a huge part in the early stages of firmware updates. All Tempera firmware updates since 1.1 up to and including today's v1.5 were almost entirely driven by community requests. Big thanks to you for helping us steer the project from so early on. Tempera is for you, and it is here to stay.

 

Second batch shipping started

A chunk of 2nd batch Temperas ready for packing.

Like clockwork, a well-calibrated contraption, newly assembled Temperas roll off the workshop at a pace we feel comfortable with. We rush slowly :), to get your machines to you. Keep watching your order tracker and be ready for a shipping notification along with a tracking link.

 

Third batch open for preorders

If you haven't ordered your Tempera yet, the 3rd batch is open at the official webpage and will start shipping in mid March.

 

Firmware upgrade v1.5

Adam fixing some bug, probably

Thanks to all suggestions, ideas, feature requests and bug reports, the v1.5 firmware turned out to be quite large! New features, quality of life improvements, lots of polishing and bugfixes make the new firmware a must-have! The list of fixes and small improvements is too big to to fit here, so let's focus on the most significant ones:

 

New per-emitter Tone filters

If you find that it's easy to overwhelm your mix with all the grains and emitters, the new Tone filter is one way to deal with it. It consists of a stereo pair of 1-pole LP and HP filters and it has two parameters: Width and Center. It can work as a sweepable "DJ style" filter, or a smooth bandpass to give each emitter a place in the mix. Also it is a modulator destination! Big thanks for this goes to our Discord community who was key in finding a good way to do this in a way that's useful and flowing with the rest of Tempera's UI.

 

New modulator destinations

The v1.5 firmware adds a couple of of new modulator destinations: per-emmiter Volume, Grain size, Grain Density, and Tone. Over time we'll keep adding more of these. Which parameters should be made modulatable in the next round?

 

Picking an audio slice from a long audio file

It is now possible to load a long audio file into Tempera (up to 5 minutes) and pick an up to 11s window from it to load into a Track. The new firmware also fixes some bugs with regard to audio file loading, and now supports various sample rates and bit depths.

Other things in a gist:

• There's now also a Random Name Generator to save time when saving canvases (no more AAAA.canvas!) Turtle Blues? Boring Sonata? It's all in there!
• Many new new global settings, like Velocity curve, Max volume, Audition volume, new recording mode Mix which blends half of old with half of new, adjustable Display brightness
• Small things, like Round button + keyboard to show/hide the overlay keyboard, and a new Chromatic scale option
• new Horizontal overlay keyboard variant
• a lot of polishing!
• much more!

Download the firmware here

Firmware upgrade instructions:

1. Place the downloaded file onto an (ex)FAT formatted SD card or USB stick
2. Insert the SD card / USB stick into Tempera and turn Tempera on while holding the Round button
3. Follow instructions on the displays

 

The Gallery: a sharing space & call for beta testers!

We're happy to announce the creation of a sharing space for patches and canvases, called The Gallery. There still remains some work to be done, but the share space is up and already running as a closed beta. If you have a canvas you made and want to share it with others, let me know via PM on Discord or email and I'll send you an invite link. :)

Brave beta contributors will be remembered forever by having username in vibrant color 🙃

Please note that you'll need v1.5 to use the gallery.

 

Tempera community music

Take a moment to check out this month's produce made by first batch Temperists.

 

by Substan

 

by SchickaMucke

by Scott Moon

 

by Fraktal

 

by subradial

As always, thank you for your continued support and feedback. Tempera is evolving, and we're excited to have you on this journey with us.
On behalf of the Beetlecrab team,

Andre

Beetlecrab.audio