A small sampler, tape looper and lo-fi effects box in one, modelled on the TAPE and TEMPO firmware of the open-source CHOMPI sampler. Sample a sound, play it across the keys, loop and overdub it on a virtual tape, and run it all through delay, reverb, drive and a one-knob filter.
Chombi is an independent emulation. It is not an official CHOMPI Club or Chase Bliss product, and it uses none of their names, marks, panel art or factory samples.
The idea
CHOMPI is a hand-held sampler whose firmware is open source. Chombi follows that firmware closely, quirks included, so it behaves like the device rather than like a reinterpretation of it. An Engine switch picks between the two firmwares.
Tape is the sampler-and-looper side. In Melo mode one sound plays chromatically across the keys; in Hitkit mode the white keys become pads, each with its own sample and settings. A tape looper records, overdubs and plays back at any speed, forwards or in reverse, and the effects can sit before or after it.
Tempo is the rhythmic side. A clock drives an arpeggiator and pattern player, either through a Chromatic engine that plays a sound across the keys or a Slice engine that cuts a loop into sixteen slices. Its glitch delay is clocked too: repeats retrigger, reverse and jump in pitch on the beat, and Freeze locks the current repeats into a loop.
Good to know
- You cannot load your own sample files yet; new sounds come from sampling the audio input.
- Loops are not saved with your project, and the looper holds up to 60 seconds of stereo audio.
- Notes from MIDI 24 to 72 are used. The Tempo engines ignore velocity.
- Tempo's scenes, slot saving and MIDI output are not available yet.