Artemis Waitlist Newsletter: Issue No. 2

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Hi All! In the last month since we published our first newsletter to our waitlist members we’ve made huge progress with the Artemis as we gear up to our founder’s edition launch in October. Thanks to everyone who’s stuck with us through the development phase, there’s not long to wait now until our first units will start rolling out!

From Harry: hardware updates

Over the last month the hardware has taken a massive leap forward. The biggest change comes from a massively upgraded digital section which has improved the noise floor of the Artemis when using virtual loops. I swapped out the old audio interface (codec) chip inside the Artemis to a cutting-edge cirrus logic part that boasts around 128dB of dynamic range. This puts the artemis on par with high-end studio equipment and makes running virtual effects,  recordings and NAM A2 full sound amazing - more on that later though!

Hardware improvements that YOU suggested

We heard a few people mention that they would like to be able to disable the input buffers to the artemis, to increase compatibility with older pedals such as vintage fuzzes. I am pleased to say that the new artemis motherboard revision now supports this feature.

You also mentioned that the bottom left footswitches on the Artemis looked hard to reach, after some alpha testing sessions we agree! The final enclosure has now been locked in and spaces out the footswitches so they are much more evenly distributed, reducing the chance of any accidental presses. Overall it feels a lot better to use - thanks for pointing that one out to us! We have also decided to move to a two part enclosure and are using a custom CNC bottom plate, not only does this look cool, it also makes assembly at least twice as quick and also acts as a very large heatsink that keeps Artemis’ processor nice and cool.

Latency Measurements 

I have profiled the total roundtrip latency for the virtual loops which measures in at 2.3ms (round-trip) which is invariant of preset/virtual loop that is active. That is roughly equivalent to standing about a meter away from an amp in real-life terms and is on par with high-end amp modellers. We have also had  no issues running stereo NAM (neural amp modelling) A2 full + a stack of virtual effects which is mainly thanks to a beefy 2.4GHz quad-core processor that powers the artemis. Of course analog loops can still be used at a 0ms penalty and the virtual portion of the artemis remains entirely optional, giving you the flexibility to choose between a totally analog, totally digital or a hybrid rig.

Software Updates 

This month marks the completion of a slightly mundane but nevertheless critical feature of the Artemis: Software Updates. We plan to support both over-the-air (OTA) WiFi updates and also USB transfer updates. I have been putting the update system through its paces this month to test the reliability and recovery abilities. Artemis uses a two slot update system which means if you accidentally yank the power during a system update, it's no issue as it can automatically rollback to a previous version of Artemis OS and you can reattempt the update! Our plan once the founder’s edition units have shipped is to deploy monthly updates that introduce new features, apps and any improvements suggested by our community so that Artemis will get even better over time.

Moving forward I will be working to get the motherboard production ready and begin ramping up ready for the founder’s edition. Now all the hardware inside Artemis is proven the more boring work of compliance and rigorous testing begins. We are looking forward to hearing the results back from our beta testers in a month or so.

From Nathan: Houston software

Hey guys, Nathan here. It’s been a busy month here at Trinity Labs, and we've been hard at work implementing many changes and improvements to the general look and feel of the Artemis.

Launchpad

One really good example of this is the Launchpad application, which sits between Houston and the computer inside each pedal.  Launchpad is the app launcher, file manager, and update system for the Artemis - and it is also fully internet capable, featuring a web browser. This allows you to install other software onto your Artemis, as well as browse existing websites from one place.

Importantly, Launchpad as well as Houston will be open source projects at launch (licensed under GPLv2).  This means that anyone will be able to download, modify, and run their modified code on their own device completely for free. Furthermore, we really want the Artemis to be a platform, with launchpad acting as its main interface for launching third party applications - ideally also under the open source GPLv2 framework.

Groovebox

There are some such applications that we plan to implement in the future ourselves, particularly groovebox, which will contain a drum sequencer, software synths, as well as general midi handling, sequencing, and arranging. This will integrate with Houston through internal software Midi connections - allowing presets to trigger functionality in a headless instance of Groovebox.

Essentially, within Houston you will be able to elect to use Groovebox as a primary source within certain presets - with its functionality fully controllable by Midi messages. Groovebox will also have a react UI - allowing you to set it up to your liking, with Midi clips playable on the fly - triggered seamlessly from Houston using Midi.

Houston

Now on to Houston, specifically The look and feel of the app has been much improved - for example, the new preset editor looks a lot more clean:

It shows clearly your signal paths on both buses (inputs and outputs included), and also allows for seamless drag and drop editing of the whole preset - with virtual loops, and real pedals properly distinguishable in the UI now. We’ve also added control output support, which are toggled per input by the triangles at the bottom of the page, so the Artemis can also replace your channel switcher for your amp if you want it to.

NAM A2-Full Integration

Our virtual Loops have also gotten a big upgrade, with them currently supporting two simultaneous full A2 NAM files (one per virtual loop):

These full A2 models are already head and shoulders above most competing products in terms of sound quality, and since our hardware probably supports it, plan to integrate blended NAMS (so 4 concurrent full A2 NAM files) on both channels at some point soon.

Colour

You can set your own defaults for these on a slide in the main Carousel:

Where any objects within Houston (mainly presets, songs, and setlists) can be assigned unique default colours based on your preferences. This is now a unified approach to colours - appling to any object across Houston, so even pedals: virtual and Real, are customizable in the same way.

Metering

Another thing we've added to Houston are the new audio meters - measuring the input and output levels for both Virtual Loops. These are visible when making a preset, and help make sure you are not peaking into or out of your virtual loop portions. While you can absolutely still cause peaks internally in the device through digital effects, this effect is often more unpleasant than clipping with analog gear, so these meters provide a way to mitigate that.

The meters add no latency to the virtual Loops - acting as taps within jack to seamlessly display the loudness of your signal before and after your virtual effects. The updated mixer page has all meters viewable at once, allowing for more precise control of signal level inside the device.

From Joel: Launch

Hi Everyone,

First of all I wanted to thank everyone for following our journey so far, Trinity labs and the Artemis has been our full time jobs for over a year now and to see such a great community already growing from it. Our goal was to make a guitar pedal platform that can develop over time within the community, which I think the industry is currently lacking.

Here is a quick breakdown of our founders edition launch which I'm sure you’re all excited to hear about!

The Founders edition is expected to be live on the 24th October - we will announce the exact time on our social media platforms closer to the date. Our first run will be a very limited quantity,these will be shipped out 1-2 weeks after your order so they should come to your door mid/late november.

As you might have seen, once the founders edition has sold - the price of the artemis will go from £589GBP to £629GBP, however for our waitlist members, you will get a one time, unique code which will be valid for 3 months to bring the price back down to £589, we believe this is fair for our members who have supported us this far. Capped pre orders will start as soon as the founders edition sells out and we will give accurate timescales on our website before anything will be ordered. As you can probably imagine, we assemble each pedal by hand, buy stock months in advance (thanks to the current RAM crisis!) so it may take a small amount of time however we are already preparing for this.

If you would like to talk to any of us personally, please feel free to message us on our contact page and we will get to you as soon as we can. We’re always up for a chat!

Harry, Joel and Nathan

Trinity Labs