Hey all, thanks so much for watching the video! While I do love Chompi, it is buggy. Sure, it's only at V1.0 in this video, but do you think bugs should be squashed and finished in beta testing? Or when it comes to small teams trying to develop, letting the customer find out bugs quicker because the sheer amount of users available is bigger is ok? They do have a discord where users report, and the team at Chompi Club does seem devoted to getting this super solid which im excited for! What are your thoughts?
I think they will figure out all the bugs, I'm pretty sure the response was bigger than they expected the Kickstarter did really well and they added all these goals they would add to the device if the goal was met. I think this might have clunked up some stuff, but I do believe they will either fix it or the developing community. BTW you can swap the switches inside seeing as they are just PC keyboard switches , I know you were complaining about the record switch getting picked up. If you go with an ultra smooth gaming switch that's properly lubed you won't hear it nearly like you do with these tactile switches they included. Probably could put a thin layer of foam inside the unit to prevent shallow echoing of the body as well. Though these sounds could be used in the sample as well!
I really appreciate your honesty in this video, Ricky. Was great to see you show of features and genuinely enjoy it, but was great to hear about your frustrations with the decide as well. Great content as always!
We are firmly in the age of paying premium prices for unfinished products. Seems most companies are getting by with cutting their QC departments/processes and farming that responsibility out to their customers. This was thing is incomplete and a non starter until it’s a fully functional unit. Don’t release stuff til it works, folks. Look at polyend with the play disaster or any of the other myriad examples. This has to stop.
What bizarre historical revisionism. The Play was enourmously popular. The idea that it stopped being so when they released an even better version is not helpful, even if people could see the future. It's highly unlikely that they would have released Play+ if Play hadn't been so popular. What few stop to consider is that you got 18 months of usage of the first device, and nobody is forcing you to upgrade. Do you get furious every time a new phone or laptop iteration is announced? No? So how do you justify this position?
Watching you seamlessly access the different functions while still having problems is such a helpful insight. I often just assume I'm going something wrong, but it's a different story seeing how you clearly mastered the manual
Chompi had my attention for a while there. I think I’m gonna drop out. I have strong GAS but I’m happy to let this one slip by. Love your videos, thanks for the content. I DONT EVEN LISTEN TO HOUSE, but your advice and inspiration is very transferable to any of my musical endeavours. Thanks
Thanks for the views! Yea, Chompi took the nation by storm haha, but at the same time was hard to figure out where it landed in terms of features. Kind of reminds me of that really cool looking midi controller video that was going around for a bit. When just a Quick Look at the video made it look like a synth
@@RickyTinez Was that the seaboard or joue je play maybe? The controller market is full of gimmicks that seem to bamboozle the consumer but… sometimes I’m a sucker for a gimmick
My wife is a Research Director at the CNRS. One thing she has made me understand is that conducting in-depth research to test a hypothesis, only to discover at the end that the hypothesis is wrong, is scientifically just as important as proving the hypothesis to be correct. In that sense, I consider making videos that teach us what NOT is even more important ! Thank you for that!
Hey Ricky! I just came across your videos today and I can't get enough. You are so well spoken, fair, and extremely educational. I can't wait to watch more and hear what you have to say about other pieces of gear. Thanks for the rad videos!
Something in the modern era that does this well (and has since 2011) the op-1! You can record to tape, slow the tape down (you can even fine control the slow down by semi-tones up to -24, which is helpful) The record more to the slowed down tape, and schwang the speed right back up. Can do it as many times as you want, up/down/up/down/up/up/up/down, etc. Easy way to make a really sweet sonically full background. Can also reverse the tape as well.
Thank you Ricky. I was really excited about Chompi and it still looks fun, but maybe not $600 fun. Especially with all the bugs. Hopefully they will all get sorted out and the price will also come down
Ricky, you make the most musical, informative, and honest videos around. And like Red Means Recording, your learning curve is exponential. You figure out synths and pedals at lightning speed. You're definitely gifted! The bottom line, your videos are a fun learning experience and a trusted source of information
Hi Ricky! You can also do some of this with the ZOIA looper. It's my favorite way to use it. The best thing is: make a fixed 1 sec loop, slow it waaaaaay down, record = immediate aliasing goodness slow it down a little more, record more = varispeed aliasing goodness :)
11:00 I had the same issue with the duplicate copies. It’s not overwriting. It’s a bug. If you swap from CUBBI to JAMMI mode and back, your samples will be back to normal. I submitted this bug in their Discord.
Chompi kind of strikes me as a synth for synth youtubers. Like it was designed to just sit on a shelf behind someone while they talk about something else. I can't deny that it's cool and sounds pretty good when you get it to do what it was built for, but ultimately I think you'd get more mileage out of any cheap sampler and a microcosm, ZOIA, or a blooper. Especially if you get them used.
Just subscribed to your channel! Was on the fence about Chompi, super informative watching you master and struggle through the functions in real time, thanks!
What I've seen of chompi really makes it seem like it just released very unfinished. I'm hopeful they can fix the issues and get it to be the fun box it can be :) I've been really enamored by the visual design of it, but I do wish it had ... more labels.
the KP3- korg Kaoss Pad does varispeed looping. And it's bpm based so you always know precisely what bpm you're varispeed'ing your loop to:) . You have four loop slots that you can resample into, so besides the varispeed stuff you can experiment with layering loops, resampling through the KP3 internal fx etc. it's a super useful piece of gear if you're into looping and resampling based workflows, especially for having been made in like the early 2000s.
There is clearly a market for these niche "Instagram friendly" modulation looper products. $650 however is more expensive than an Xbox series X with 4k graphics. I get that it's a start up, but that's taking the biscuit .. pun intended
For $600 dollars you could get the Soma Labs Cosmos. Which honestly I think makes way more inspiring and beautiful "loops". It also allows you to reverse, add another layer, reverse it back again. Add as many layers as you want. And there's like 3 different firmware versions from SOMA that let's you do multiple other things.
Put the unit in Jammi mode. Hold down chompi key and click the speed knob. Put the unit in chompi mode, and then you'll be in latching mode so you can press chompi key and record hands-free, then press chompi key again to end the recording. You will need to do this each time you want to enter this latching mode.
80% marketing and branding, 20% device lmao. Dont get me wrong, Im sure it's difficult to launch anything without bugs. But things like crashing, basic functions not working, etc. Should be ironed out before launch. Especially if you're asking for 600 dollars.
i love the magic that comes from using chompi and love straight forward idea of working with just looping and playing with it, but all quirks u told about here makes me back up. maybe if in future chompi devs will patch those things in software and add some function ideas to make it easier to work on single piece and not mostly meandring in jamming i will get back to idea of gottin it. its lovely device and would love to get deep into it but more without thinking - now its too much thinking, too much feeling unsure about small details of workflow. because of this my mind gets to feel calmer thinking about gettin organelle m or s and using more thinking, but keepin sure i could have more control. but for adventurous jamming chompi can be better thing, i believe:) thanks for showing it so nicely Ricky. best demo for me
What a conflicting feeling I have, on one hand after that intro I was like; take my money. But, $600. Eeeeesh, that's a lot of money for not a lot of Chompi, I'll keep an eye out for one used maybe. That aside, great video, great demo, the layered piano piece at the start was epic.
so if i understand this correctly, people bought a toy looking contraption with super obscure labeling and some weird unlabeled menus that has very limited i/o and just 15 keys and that needs constant study of the manual if you leave it for more than a month and that on top costs a whopping 600 bucks... and they expected what exactly? not being ripped off?
@@Semc_Sucks Ciat Lombarde is something else i would argue. it very clearly is weird and esoteric, unapologetic if you will. but this one i feel is more of a promise broken and its cumbersome way of not communicating the controls properly and making simple things complicated is a plump way of moving with the newest trends of being unnecessarily complicated (but with many cute animals and "fun" color schemes). it would be a different story if it was cute AND did things reliably. reminds me of circuit bending.
@@tendingtropic7778 record something in one track, speed up or down the tape, record something again, go back to original tempo if desired and repeat if desired.. It's very practical for singers that can't sing in a high register so you slow down the tape and you can sing in a lower register and also slower which might be good for timing too. When going back to original tempo, the voice will sound a bit artificial though. in the intro of 'lucy in the sky with diamonds' from the beatles you can hear this effect. Cheers!. I hope I didn't make anyone to buy an op-1!, hehe.
you can do this easy with lives built in looper - follow same method as above - you can even put multiple loopers in serial and control with a controller etc that being said, chompi looks pretty damn fun for this..
The moment I saw that they were willing to make this project open source and available as DIY, that told me that there were going to be bugs lurking on release, but with that also comes such amazing possibilities and creative avenues that may not have been developed if it was such a sterile environment right out the gate. Take how buggy the Korg sq-64 was when it first came out, thankfully they eventually released a patch given the bugs and missing features were absolutely ridiculous for the price, but they did focus on the build quality and having it be very utilitarian and because of that its my go to for when I need to sequence a ton of gear in such a small footprint and need something reliable as hell. With something Chompi club though, we get to take part in something bigger and with how many people seem to be excited about the form factor this is designed in, and making it the OP1 killer, I personally dont mind at all getting it while it had some bugs, even at full price, so long as they dont just gut the project and just try to dash with the cash after getting inundated with change requests. This feels a lot more natural with smaller scale hardware products, where at least we get to witness them growing the gear into the final product that we all want to use.
Absolutely LOVE the new intro! I bet you had a fun time making it 😀.(and those small fx flourishes like the tape stop). Ever since I saw your video last week I've been really digging into the Octatrack to see if it could do the same kind of stuff. I swear it can with multiple Pickup Machines and Thru machines but haven't quite nailed it yet. Might need to ask EZBOT, haha.
At 2:00. You keep complaining about how it doesnt start when you press the button? How about pressing the button and play the first note in time, like you do with all loopers? At your third try you got it correct. I mean come on, thats how it works on all loopers. Playing in time is the secret, not pressing the rec button and starting your riff with a delay. UNLESS there is some sort of treshold detection envolved! So a lack of timing could hardly be the fault of the unit. And as far as i understand there is a mode where it only start to record when you press a key ((dont know about external sound sources))), to activate it, you have to press the play and loop button simultaneously, then a light should be flashing and its ready to go.
Looked into this machine extensively, was in the market for a hardware sampler. Ended up preordering the Torso S-4 instead. Granular is a nice feature, also I’m more into programming sequencers than playing with keys.
It starts recording the loop when you hit the button. It doesn't wait for you to place your first note to begin recording. That was a painful watch and made me doubt the validity of the rest of the review.
its really lucky for companies that they can probably throw you a piece of candy and you make an entire billy mays style sales pitch for them. the future is so weird and based completely around commercials
They should have shipped them to Beta-testers first, like Behringer did with the UB-Xa. A thing worse than waiting, is waiting for a product that still doesn’t work like it should. I’m glad that I went with the Kiviak Wofi instead, that offers more for the same price. I just hope that they will do proper quality checking. With that said, I applaud everyone who dares making new niche instruments, and also understand that there are costs involved in development and manufacturing.
mentioning things that do this varispeed looping- the Gauss app on iOS does varispeed recording very cleanly and easily. The workflow is slightly different because you determine the loop length before doing any recording. It also is not a sampler, just tape loops, but it does it beautifully, and has a really unique sequencing playback speed on the loop. If you have an iPad, highly worth checking out, especially if you already have AUM and input/output hardware for the iPad.
I am also a big fan of varispeed looping. The only thing I own that does it well is the Eventide time factor. The octatrack can be tricked into doing it, but it is very inconvenient. Also, Reaper has a global varispeed that opens up several possibilities, my favorite is to reamp tracks with varispeed to stretch the room ambience. Slow the session down, bounce then speed back up. The reverb is shorter and brighter with a different character. Also, overdubbing many tracks in the same room tends to get muddy because the room modes are the same on all tracks. If you varispeed the modes shift and dont pile up the same way.
It used to be the case when a startup ran out of funding, the creator would get bought up by a bigger player and help push the product out. Like the Valkyrie becoming the Kyra with Waldorf.
Valkyrie was only ever a prototype, Waldorf turned it into a product, but they also disabled its wavetables so it wouldn’t compete with their other products.
@@RikMaxSpeed I know that's what I was saying. Waldorf also entirely changed the interface, leaving us with one of the worst menu dives in all of synthdom. Not a worthy virus successor.
@@whoadog8725 OT can only do varispeed playback, not recording. In fact it yells at you if you try to do variapeed recording. so it’s just like any other looper or sampler in that regard
Makes me realize I should shove my sequencer into a device, call it a 1.0, and let other people find the remaining glitches lmao Also yeah, arm-style recording is mandatory imo. So many of the headaches of my looper-based pc-less setup days was from bending over backwards to get clean loop points and all that. My current DIY solution, made in puredata, uses an arm function for its midi looper, and synced audio looper start signals that come from the arpeggiator, sequencer, or midi looper. So much solved just from that. Being able to save the audio looper's contents sounds nice, that's one of the shortcomings of my setup, since it just uses a single delay buffer per channel and has nowhere to store the original loop. Might make for a good next addition...
I guess I'm a little confused as to what you are saying this thing does here. Specifically, how would this be different than the tempo slider on an EHX 95000 loop lab? Because with that I can record something at a tempo of my choosing, then use the slider to change the playback up or down, record on top of that, then return the slider to the original speed to regain the original recordings pitch while having the overdub be pitched up/down depending on the direction I go. Unless I'm missing something here, it seems like you are saying that that's what the Chompi does but without the beefy looper capabilities of my 95000.
I do the same but on a polyend tracker, pitch shift the tracks each as a layer, select them and export as stem, auto load the stem back in and pitch shift it again. You can chop it up, whatever afterward and add effects.
i love that the keyboard itself is a qwerty computer keyboard. i grew up as a computer DAW producer so i usually just use my computer to play everything. Wish theyd make a 49 key version of this lol
Great video, very inspiring. How the hell do I get my chompi to record aux directly to the looper engine? It looks like you are in chompi mode, aux connected to aux in and then just play while in looping/overdubbing mode, but mine won’t. I’ve selected the right input, and I can hold the chompi key to record a sample of my aux in, but I can’t figure out how to “live record”
Lowkey I just wanted to know if there were other options out there for a pretty fun way to approach varispeed looping while having fun with some physical knobs. I may be able to just do this shit with logic and a midi setup? All the product demos of this thing though have really beautiful low ends/texture. Would like to figure out a fun way to do it without dropping half a g. May circuit bend a tapedeck for some weird sound on sound shit idk
13:00 You would have to record a loop and save it to a slot, then erase the loop, then load the loop you just saved, then add to/edit it and record that new loop to a different spot. Rinse and repeat...
About the 4GB volume limit: They're almost certainly using a FAT16 filesystem, which is compatible across so many platforms since it's been around for 40 years. 40 years ago, 4GB was insane. About the LEDs: My guess is they really don't want you staying in Recording mode any longer than necessary, but don't want to restrict it too much when you want to record one sample after another.
To answer the question - many things do varispeed well or better than this. OP1 has done it since 2011, the Blooper is built around doing this workflow in layers, and I use my Strymon magneto for this varispeed layering all the time.
CHOMPI review aside, this video introduced me to varispeed recording and I really want to try it in the future in my own writing (I have never used a sampler before)
I’ll be a bit of a Chompi defender. I think it’s a fun instrument, with a number of v1.0 bugs. I can’t speak for Tobias and Chelsea, but from my interactions with them they’re devoted to making this better. They did a speed run for a Kickstarter project, and part of the trade off for the fast delivery was rough edges in the firmware. Tobias has talked about how he got in a bit over his head and had to call in outside help. If you spend time in the discussion forum, you see that they’re aware of the issues and want to make it right. Regarding the battery, the original kickstarter didn’t include one, and they added it last minute because they had the spare funds and wanted to make it better.
Originally had a reserve on that pink one as well. Was a bit scared of the price and the prospect of how it would come out compared to the price. I think it's cool, and I love the ideas and aesthetics of the product still. Maybe it'll be a future pick up once there's more bug fixes and possibly hardware fixes. I think Chompii could use the idea from Teenage Engineering on the new EP133 and use flashing for the lights to show the "middle"/0 point, easy and effective switch!
Hey dude I love this video and have a question. My son (11yo) is really wanting to get into this sort of thing to push his growing musical learning further. I’ve seen a few samplers like this and he’s intrigued by it but don’t have any good recommendations for a kid who’s just starting out. Something that could be a starter piece but could also grow and add new pieces to eventually. The chompi seemed like a good starting point but those bugs might be tough to deal with.
Blows my mind, I watch a guy on RUclips called Look Mum No Computer, and he builds stuff like this all the time for CHEAP. I can't understand the prices of these synth's these days. There must be a VST that does this? I wonder if vari audio do the same thing in Cubase?
Hey Ricky another cool video. Were you using the external mic on Chompi or have you keyboard plugged into the inputs of Chompi or something else? Please if you have the time to let me know. I’m thinking about getting one for about $425 used. Whaduya think?
the knob noise is so unnecessary. its not thought through at all and tried to combine peoples love for nice sounding keyboards and keycaps with a musical instrument. its not design follows function, its "oh I want it, cause it's soooo cute". That is such a bummer. And it can not be fixed with an update either.
That Quasimodo slowed down concept was just a folktale, Madlib never recorded in that fashion! Anyone who’s ever rapped can tell you it would be impossible to rap to a pitched down beat in perfect timing! Although I believe Madlib was the actual person who started that rumor lol but I questioned it from day one. I believe Madlib just used a guitar pedal hooked up to a microphone and rapped with the pitch effects….he probably was to embarrassed at the time to admit that!
Nice MVP gadget, but an even nicer example of a much more mature piece of art, being Quasimoto 👌🏻 Isn’t the DT with its latest machines capable of doing all this, and more?
Varispeed is one of the unsung features of Logic. I don’t believe you can adjust it while looping but I may have to give that a shot. I have made some cool stuff messing with verispeed and recording then re-adjusting. Pretty cool
doesn't... every DAW support that? I know Ableton and Bitwig do. Just change the timestretch mode. Varispeed is actually the easiest way to change the speed of a digital recording - just play the samples at a different speed. Anything preserving pitch is way harder to do.
If they are going to sell a keyboard with actual mechanical key switches and an onboard mic then they need to make sure that the switches are as silent as possible. It says on the website they use silent red. Those should be relatively silent, but there are other more premium switches that when lubricated would be better. It might just be that the silent reds need some lubrication too. Topre would be a good choice too because I bet the electrostatics could be used to control some other aspect of the sound. It does say it’s hotswap compatible, so many give some other switches a try.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
Hey all, thanks so much for watching the video!
While I do love Chompi, it is buggy. Sure, it's only at V1.0 in this video, but do you think bugs should be squashed and finished in beta testing? Or when it comes to small teams trying to develop, letting the customer find out bugs quicker because the sheer amount of users available is bigger is ok?
They do have a discord where users report, and the team at Chompi Club does seem devoted to getting this super solid which im excited for! What are your thoughts?
I think they will figure out all the bugs, I'm pretty sure the response was bigger than they expected the Kickstarter did really well and they added all these goals they would add to the device if the goal was met. I think this might have clunked up some stuff, but I do believe they will either fix it or the developing community.
BTW you can swap the switches inside seeing as they are just PC keyboard switches , I know you were complaining about the record switch getting picked up. If you go with an ultra smooth gaming switch that's properly lubed you won't hear it nearly like you do with these tactile switches they included. Probably could put a thin layer of foam inside the unit to prevent shallow echoing of the body as well. Though these sounds could be used in the sample as well!
You mean "I" have to pay the "Chompany" $600.00......to be a Beta-Tester??!?!!?!!!
I really appreciate your honesty in this video, Ricky. Was great to see you show of features and genuinely enjoy it, but was great to hear about your frustrations with the decide as well. Great content as always!
It’s a new company, some speed bumps are to be expected. One advantage is, they have no excuses being distracted by other projects. 😂
im just so tired of it..
We are firmly in the age of paying premium prices for unfinished products. Seems most companies are getting by with cutting their QC departments/processes and farming that responsibility out to their customers. This was thing is incomplete and a non starter until it’s a fully functional unit. Don’t release stuff til it works, folks. Look at polyend with the play disaster or any of the other myriad examples. This has to stop.
on the other hand, these boutique companies would not be able to put out products without people who are willing to pay the early adopter tax.
Beta testing is a job. Pay up all you scumbags.
What bizarre historical revisionism. The Play was enourmously popular. The idea that it stopped being so when they released an even better version is not helpful, even if people could see the future. It's highly unlikely that they would have released Play+ if Play hadn't been so popular. What few stop to consider is that you got 18 months of usage of the first device, and nobody is forcing you to upgrade. Do you get furious every time a new phone or laptop iteration is announced? No? So how do you justify this position?
Electronic instrument manufacturers taking a cue from video game developers.
@@pjforde1978lol what? phones? really?
Thanks for that quality content. This channel is a mandatory watch every time.
Thanks for the support Heyes!
Watching you seamlessly access the different functions while still having problems is such a helpful insight. I often just assume I'm going something wrong, but it's a different story seeing how you clearly mastered the manual
Chompi had my attention for a while there. I think I’m gonna drop out. I have strong GAS but I’m happy to let this one slip by. Love your videos, thanks for the content. I DONT EVEN LISTEN TO HOUSE, but your advice and inspiration is very transferable to any of my musical endeavours. Thanks
Thanks for the views! Yea, Chompi took the nation by storm haha, but at the same time was hard to figure out where it landed in terms of features. Kind of reminds me of that really cool looking midi controller video that was going around for a bit. When just a Quick Look at the video made it look like a synth
@@RickyTinez Was that the seaboard or joue je play maybe? The controller market is full of gimmicks that seem to bamboozle the consumer but… sometimes I’m a sucker for a gimmick
@@poco_a_poco_music Perhaps that means this one. Nopia: ruclips.net/video/Ivuy9QYLFVY/видео.html
My wife is a Research Director at the CNRS. One thing she has made me understand is that conducting in-depth research to test a hypothesis, only to discover at the end that the hypothesis is wrong, is scientifically just as important as proving the hypothesis to be correct.
In that sense, I consider making videos that teach us what NOT is even more important !
Thank you for that!
Hey Ricky! I just came across your videos today and I can't get enough. You are so well spoken, fair, and extremely educational. I can't wait to watch more and hear what you have to say about other pieces of gear. Thanks for the rad videos!
another incredibly clear, well thought through & super helpful breakdown... for the people, by the people. thanks bunches, enrique!!
Something in the modern era that does this well (and has since 2011) the op-1!
You can record to tape, slow the tape down (you can even fine control the slow down by semi-tones up to -24, which is helpful)
The record more to the slowed down tape, and schwang the speed right back up.
Can do it as many times as you want, up/down/up/down/up/up/up/down, etc.
Easy way to make a really sweet sonically full background.
Can also reverse the tape as well.
this is the best video i've seen showcasing this lil guy! lots of good info ty :)
Thank you Ricky. I was really excited about Chompi and it still looks fun, but maybe not $600 fun. Especially with all the bugs. Hopefully they will all get sorted out and the price will also come down
Bro your lighting and color grading is so nice
Ricky, you make the most musical, informative, and honest videos around. And like Red Means Recording, your learning curve is exponential. You figure out synths and pedals at lightning speed. You're definitely gifted! The bottom line, your videos are a fun learning experience and a trusted source of information
$600 seems like a really bad price for something so limited, can get a used op-1 for that price
hell yeah! a used OP1 with 3 missing keys and a faulty battery!
@@Semc_Sucks Toys aren't cheap these days!
You could get a brand new sp404mk2 for that price. Actually for a little less.
@@Decoy303 Or a MPC One.
Used OP-1s are getting *more* expensive, not less. At least that's what I've seen near me
Hi Ricky!
You can also do some of this with the ZOIA looper. It's my favorite way to use it.
The best thing is:
make a fixed 1 sec loop, slow it waaaaaay down, record = immediate aliasing goodness
slow it down a little more, record more = varispeed aliasing goodness :)
can't you do this with op-1field too?
11:00 I had the same issue with the duplicate copies. It’s not overwriting. It’s a bug. If you swap from CUBBI to JAMMI mode and back, your samples will be back to normal. I submitted this bug in their Discord.
aaahhhhh interesting! Thanks for that tip
That’s good to know. I’m looking forward to joining the community and getting to know the methods.
@@setphaser that bug among others is fixed in a recent update, been working great since!
Gauss (iPad/iPhone app made in collaboration with @Hainbach) is somewhat designed to do variapeed loops.
Morphegene does verispeed recording very well. You can sync it with clock too, and set the loop to play back according to the incoming clock.
Chompi seems like a simple morphagene and basic clouds in a box - kinda cool!
Great video,! There are so many samplers out there to choose from at the moment. Thanks for breaking this one [down] for us.
Chompi kind of strikes me as a synth for synth youtubers. Like it was designed to just sit on a shelf behind someone while they talk about something else. I can't deny that it's cool and sounds pretty good when you get it to do what it was built for, but ultimately I think you'd get more mileage out of any cheap sampler and a microcosm, ZOIA, or a blooper. Especially if you get them used.
Yea, It's a cool premade diy synth.
haha i totally agree!!
Spot on. 100% spot on. All these synthtubers are the same too, and it’s exactly what they’ll do with it 😂
Just subscribed to your channel! Was on the fence about Chompi, super informative watching you master and struggle through the functions in real time, thanks!
What I've seen of chompi really makes it seem like it just released very unfinished. I'm hopeful they can fix the issues and get it to be the fun box it can be :) I've been really enamored by the visual design of it, but I do wish it had ... more labels.
Like... "CUBBI" and "JAMMY" modes? Just tell us what it is, don't give shit dumb cutesy names to confuse everyone.
the KP3- korg Kaoss Pad does varispeed looping. And it's bpm based so you always know precisely what bpm you're varispeed'ing your loop to:) . You have four loop slots that you can resample into, so besides the varispeed stuff you can experiment with layering loops, resampling through the KP3 internal fx etc. it's a super useful piece of gear if you're into looping and resampling based workflows, especially for having been made in like the early 2000s.
I have a KP3 and never knew this
It’s easy to armchair quarterback any design, but you did a thorough review that was as free from bias as possible. Ty!
There is clearly a market for these niche "Instagram friendly" modulation looper products. $650 however is more expensive than an Xbox series X with 4k graphics. I get that it's a start up, but that's taking the biscuit .. pun intended
Thanks for making me not feel dumb been trying to figure this thing out bought it at launch and it's not as easy as I thought it would be
VERY cool 🤩 I hope the next run is available in pink as well!
For $600 dollars you could get the Soma Labs Cosmos. Which honestly I think makes way more inspiring and beautiful "loops". It also allows you to reverse, add another layer, reverse it back again. Add as many layers as you want. And there's like 3 different firmware versions from SOMA that let's you do multiple other things.
For $600 you can do a lot. So what?
Put the unit in Jammi mode. Hold down chompi key and click the speed knob. Put the unit in chompi mode, and then you'll be in latching mode so you can press chompi key and record hands-free, then press chompi key again to end the recording. You will need to do this each time you want to enter this latching mode.
Back in the 90s all hardware was always more reliable than software but today its often the reverse.
80% marketing and branding, 20% device lmao.
Dont get me wrong, Im sure it's difficult to launch anything without bugs.
But things like crashing, basic functions not working, etc. Should be ironed out before launch. Especially if you're asking for 600 dollars.
i love the magic that comes from using chompi and love straight forward idea of working with just looping and playing with it, but all quirks u told about here makes me back up. maybe if in future chompi devs will patch those things in software and add some function ideas to make it easier to work on single piece and not mostly meandring in jamming i will get back to idea of gottin it.
its lovely device and would love to get deep into it but more without thinking - now its too much thinking, too much feeling unsure about small details of workflow. because of this my mind gets to feel calmer thinking about gettin organelle m or s and using more thinking, but keepin sure i could have more control. but for adventurous jamming chompi can be better thing, i believe:)
thanks for showing it so nicely Ricky. best demo for me
What a conflicting feeling I have, on one hand after that intro I was like; take my money. But, $600. Eeeeesh, that's a lot of money for not a lot of Chompi, I'll keep an eye out for one used maybe. That aside, great video, great demo, the layered piano piece at the start was epic.
@rickeyTinez - I miss the old intro. It's been part of my saturday for three years.
Bought limited edition. Got it. Hated it so so much. Sold for $1000 . Yay
I’m intrigued by the Chompi, but I made a commitment to not buy any gear in 2024. Waiting patiently for someone to recreate it in M4L.
I like you. You're fair and balanced and a good teacher. I'll be coming back to check your other videos...
That issue around 11:00 is why I put mine down for a while. I’m going to test out the firmware update soon.
so if i understand this correctly, people bought a toy looking contraption with super obscure labeling and some weird unlabeled menus that has very limited i/o and just 15 keys and that needs constant study of the manual if you leave it for more than a month and that on top costs a whopping 600 bucks... and they expected what exactly? not being ripped off?
I agree but it is kind of critically lacking in polish for an intentionally limited device, which is particularly damning for six hundred dollars
@@GreatistheWorld exactly my point. For 150 i would give it a pass as a fun mystery box.
and yet people buy Ciat Lombardes garbage. Its ok if youre not into niche synths but holy hell what a weird take.
@@Semc_Sucks it's the fact that he is not into it at that price point, which makes a lot of sense, looks a lot like style over substance to me.
@@Semc_Sucks Ciat Lombarde is something else i would argue. it very clearly is weird and esoteric, unapologetic if you will. but this one i feel is more of a promise broken and its cumbersome way of not communicating the controls properly and making simple things complicated is a plump way of moving with the newest trends of being unnecessarily complicated (but with many cute animals and "fun" color schemes). it would be a different story if it was cute AND did things reliably. reminds me of circuit bending.
Watching this makes me super happy I snagged an sp404mk2 for $400 on black friday. $200 less and wayyyy more capable
The piano tone from the electro is gorgeous. Forget chompi
the varispeed recording can be done super easy in op-1 and also in organelle. also of course in tape machines with speed control.
how would you do this in an op-1?
@@tendingtropic7778 record something in one track, speed up or down the tape, record something again, go back to original tempo if desired and repeat if desired.. It's very practical for singers that can't sing in a high register so you slow down the tape and you can sing in a lower register and also slower which might be good for timing too. When going back to original tempo, the voice will sound a bit artificial though. in the intro of 'lucy in the sky with diamonds' from the beatles you can hear this effect. Cheers!. I hope I didn't make anyone to buy an op-1!, hehe.
you can do this easy with lives built in looper - follow same method as above - you can even put multiple loopers in serial and control with a controller etc that being said, chompi looks pretty damn fun for this..
OP1 can do the varispeed - Quasimodo - type thing by changing the tape speed and overdubbing. The reverse on chompi is cool though!
Yea but it's way too expensive
@@atetraxxwhen you consider this is $600 for like 1/5th of the features that Op-1 has, I’d say this is worse value for money to be honest.
oh not bad! and the used prices have come down a ton
The moment I saw that they were willing to make this project open source and available as DIY, that told me that there were going to be bugs lurking on release, but with that also comes such amazing possibilities and creative avenues that may not have been developed if it was such a sterile environment right out the gate. Take how buggy the Korg sq-64 was when it first came out, thankfully they eventually released a patch given the bugs and missing features were absolutely ridiculous for the price, but they did focus on the build quality and having it be very utilitarian and because of that its my go to for when I need to sequence a ton of gear in such a small footprint and need something reliable as hell. With something Chompi club though, we get to take part in something bigger and with how many people seem to be excited about the form factor this is designed in, and making it the OP1 killer, I personally dont mind at all getting it while it had some bugs, even at full price, so long as they dont just gut the project and just try to dash with the cash after getting inundated with change requests. This feels a lot more natural with smaller scale hardware products, where at least we get to witness them growing the gear into the final product that we all want to use.
Hi and thank you for this great video.
Could you please tell me if Chompi is still buggy now (end of july 2024) ?
Absolutely LOVE the new intro! I bet you had a fun time making it 😀.(and those small fx flourishes like the tape stop). Ever since I saw your video last week I've been really digging into the Octatrack to see if it could do the same kind of stuff. I swear it can with multiple Pickup Machines and Thru machines but haven't quite nailed it yet. Might need to ask EZBOT, haha.
At 2:00. You keep complaining about how it doesnt start when you press the button? How about pressing the button and play the first note in time, like you do with all loopers? At your third try you got it correct. I mean come on, thats how it works on all loopers. Playing in time is the secret, not pressing the rec button and starting your riff with a delay. UNLESS there is some sort of treshold detection envolved! So a lack of timing could hardly be the fault of the unit.
And as far as i understand there is a mode where it only start to record when you press a key ((dont know about external sound sources))), to activate it, you have to press the play and loop button simultaneously, then a light should be flashing and its ready to go.
Bro had me hypppppped when low class conspiracy came on that track BANGS
every time right?! neck breaker
With that Lord Quas up in here 🤩🤩
Respect for the Quasimodo shoutout!
Lord Quas
my tape machine does this
wish this thing was a $200 desktop/pedal without they kepad
Looked into this machine extensively, was in the market for a hardware sampler.
Ended up preordering the Torso S-4 instead. Granular is a nice feature, also I’m more into programming sequencers than playing with keys.
Quas!!! oh hell yeah, Madlib in the house!
Unexpected and much appreciated!!!
It starts recording the loop when you hit the button. It doesn't wait for you to place your first note to begin recording. That was a painful watch and made me doubt the validity of the rest of the review.
He himself said that as well
It would've been cool if they had that built in (not that it was supposed to work and didn't)
@@alnea It's almost like they got to the part they disagreed with, quit watching, and immediately came to the comment section to complain.
its really lucky for companies that they can probably throw you a piece of candy and you make an entire billy mays style sales pitch for them. the future is so weird and based completely around commercials
This video is super sick ! Awesome content brother
They should have shipped them to Beta-testers first, like Behringer did with the UB-Xa. A thing worse than waiting, is waiting for a product that still doesn’t work like it should. I’m glad that I went with the Kiviak Wofi instead, that offers more for the same price. I just hope that they will do proper quality checking. With that said, I applaud everyone who dares making new niche instruments, and also understand that there are costs involved in development and manufacturing.
mentioning things that do this varispeed looping- the Gauss app on iOS does varispeed recording very cleanly and easily. The workflow is slightly different because you determine the loop length before doing any recording. It also is not a sampler, just tape loops, but it does it beautifully, and has a really unique sequencing playback speed on the loop. If you have an iPad, highly worth checking out, especially if you already have AUM and input/output hardware for the iPad.
I am also a big fan of varispeed looping. The only thing I own that does it well is the Eventide time factor. The octatrack can be tricked into doing it, but it is very inconvenient.
Also, Reaper has a global varispeed that opens up several possibilities, my favorite is to reamp tracks with varispeed to stretch the room ambience. Slow the session down, bounce then speed back up. The reverb is shorter and brighter with a different character.
Also, overdubbing many tracks in the same room tends to get muddy because the room modes are the same on all tracks. If you varispeed the modes shift and dont pile up the same way.
It used to be the case when a startup ran out of funding, the creator would get bought up by a bigger player and help push the product out. Like the Valkyrie becoming the Kyra with Waldorf.
Valkyrie was only ever a prototype, Waldorf turned it into a product, but they also disabled its wavetables so it wouldn’t compete with their other products.
@@RikMaxSpeed I know that's what I was saying. Waldorf also entirely changed the interface, leaving us with one of the worst menu dives in all of synthdom. Not a worthy virus successor.
Loopy Pro does varispeed really well.
I don't know man, for $600 you can get a lot of great gear.
when I first saw Chompi i fell in love, kinda bummed that it has some kinks
Nice! I haven't tried it but I'm pretty sure the OP-1 will do vari-speed recording, even different speeds on different tracks.
Absolutely as long as you record the tracks one at a time
The OP-1 can definitely do it. The Octatrack has vari-speed playback, which allows you to mimic it as well.
@@whoadog8725 OT can only do varispeed playback, not recording. In fact it yells at you if you try to do variapeed recording.
so it’s just like any other looper or sampler in that regard
one of the flaws of the octatrack is the overdubbing wont let you mess with tempo. stupid/outdated on an otherwise amazing hardware.@@zbsfm
@@zbsfm Totally, but you can mimic the technique in the video with varispeed playback and resampling.
Makes me realize I should shove my sequencer into a device, call it a 1.0, and let other people find the remaining glitches lmao
Also yeah, arm-style recording is mandatory imo. So many of the headaches of my looper-based pc-less setup days was from bending over backwards to get clean loop points and all that. My current DIY solution, made in puredata, uses an arm function for its midi looper, and synced audio looper start signals that come from the arpeggiator, sequencer, or midi looper. So much solved just from that.
Being able to save the audio looper's contents sounds nice, that's one of the shortcomings of my setup, since it just uses a single delay buffer per channel and has nowhere to store the original loop. Might make for a good next addition...
I guess I'm a little confused as to what you are saying this thing does here.
Specifically, how would this be different than the tempo slider on an EHX 95000 loop lab? Because with that I can record something at a tempo of my choosing, then use the slider to change the playback up or down, record on top of that, then return the slider to the original speed to regain the original recordings pitch while having the overdub be pitched up/down depending on the direction I go.
Unless I'm missing something here, it seems like you are saying that that's what the Chompi does but without the beefy looper capabilities of my 95000.
At 600 bucks this shit should be FLAWLESS
Why is it not a sequencer but looks like one?
One could do variable speed loop recordings with a 4 track tape machine.
I do the same but on a polyend tracker, pitch shift the tracks each as a layer, select them and export as stem, auto load the stem back in and pitch shift it again. You can chop it up, whatever afterward and add effects.
I dunno if i like the instrument but i❤like what u get offovit. Beautiful.
i love that the keyboard itself is a qwerty computer keyboard. i grew up as a computer DAW producer so i usually just use my computer to play everything. Wish theyd make a 49 key version of this lol
I'm still baffled by the price of this thing.
Great video, very inspiring. How the hell do I get my chompi to record aux directly to the looper engine? It looks like you are in chompi mode, aux connected to aux in and then just play while in looping/overdubbing mode, but mine won’t. I’ve selected the right input, and I can hold the chompi key to record a sample of my aux in, but I can’t figure out how to “live record”
Lowkey I just wanted to know if there were other options out there for a pretty fun way to approach varispeed looping while having fun with some physical knobs. I may be able to just do this shit with logic and a midi setup? All the product demos of this thing though have really beautiful low ends/texture. Would like to figure out a fun way to do it without dropping half a g. May circuit bend a tapedeck for some weird sound on sound shit idk
It's a very cute synth. The manufacturers knew that, and that's the only reason why it got to market.
always on the money Ricky 💚
13:00 You would have to record a loop and save it to a slot, then erase the loop, then load the loop you just saved, then add to/edit it and record that new loop to a different spot. Rinse and repeat...
I'm so glad I missed out on the kickstarter.
What I read from all this is that Chompi's childish, simplistic interface actually makes it a lot harder to use.
the workflow is actually pretty simplistic and not hard to get around at all! I think that's a plus it has going for it
@@RickyTinez Except that you have to go on a single LED to set filter values and what some button combos really do is more of a lottery.
About the 4GB volume limit: They're almost certainly using a FAT16 filesystem, which is compatible across so many platforms since it's been around for 40 years. 40 years ago, 4GB was insane.
About the LEDs: My guess is they really don't want you staying in Recording mode any longer than necessary, but don't want to restrict it too much when you want to record one sample after another.
aaahhhh the FAT16!! I remember that when using my old GoPro camera! haha
To answer the question - many things do varispeed well or better than this. OP1 has done it since 2011, the Blooper is built around doing this workflow in layers, and I use my Strymon magneto for this varispeed layering all the time.
CHOMPI review aside, this video introduced me to varispeed recording and I really want to try it in the future in my own writing (I have never used a sampler before)
I’ll be a bit of a Chompi defender. I think it’s a fun instrument, with a number of v1.0 bugs. I can’t speak for Tobias and Chelsea, but from my interactions with them they’re devoted to making this better. They did a speed run for a Kickstarter project, and part of the trade off for the fast delivery was rough edges in the firmware. Tobias has talked about how he got in a bit over his head and had to call in outside help.
If you spend time in the discussion forum, you see that they’re aware of the issues and want to make it right.
Regarding the battery, the original kickstarter didn’t include one, and they added it last minute because they had the spare funds and wanted to make it better.
Perhaps they should have used those spare funds to make something that actually worked.
@@dinogoldie9716, you must be so much fun at parties.
@@cchoge If only lashing out at me could fix your grotesquely overpriced piece of junk.
Battery is sort of irrelevant these days with power bricks. Actual music making functionality is far more valuable.
Originally had a reserve on that pink one as well. Was a bit scared of the price and the prospect of how it would come out compared to the price. I think it's cool, and I love the ideas and aesthetics of the product still. Maybe it'll be a future pick up once there's more bug fixes and possibly hardware fixes.
I think Chompii could use the idea from Teenage Engineering on the new EP133 and use flashing for the lights to show the "middle"/0 point, easy and effective switch!
lol,. Man I cannot belive you mentioned "Quasimoto",.. lol,.. : )
Lord Quas
Hey dude I love this video and have a question. My son (11yo) is really wanting to get into this sort of thing to push his growing musical learning further. I’ve seen a few samplers like this and he’s intrigued by it but don’t have any good recommendations for a kid who’s just starting out. Something that could be a starter piece but could also grow and add new pieces to eventually.
The chompi seemed like a good starting point but those bugs might be tough to deal with.
Blows my mind, I watch a guy on RUclips called Look Mum No Computer, and he builds stuff like this all the time for CHEAP. I can't understand the prices of these synth's these days.
There must be a VST that does this? I wonder if vari audio do the same thing in Cubase?
For varispeed tape looping in eurorack, I highly recommend the jroo loop!
Morphagene can also do it
so can Whimsical Raps W/ - downside is the horrible UI@@ChumpyDumps
Hey Ricky another cool video. Were you using the external mic on Chompi or have you keyboard plugged into the inputs of Chompi or something else? Please if you have the time to let me know. I’m thinking about getting one for about $425 used. Whaduya think?
the knob noise is so unnecessary. its not thought through at all and tried to combine peoples love for nice sounding keyboards and keycaps with a musical instrument. its not design follows function, its "oh I want it, cause it's soooo cute". That is such a bummer. And it can not be fixed with an update either.
If someone thinks keycaps sound 'nice' I really don't want to hear their music..
That Quasimodo slowed down concept was just a folktale, Madlib never recorded in that fashion! Anyone who’s ever rapped can tell you it would be impossible to rap to a pitched down beat in perfect timing! Although I believe Madlib was the actual person who started that rumor lol but I questioned it from day one. I believe Madlib just used a guitar pedal hooked up to a microphone and rapped with the pitch effects….he probably was to embarrassed at the time to admit that!
Nice MVP gadget, but an even nicer example of a much more mature piece of art, being Quasimoto 👌🏻 Isn’t the DT with its latest machines capable of doing all this, and more?
@RickyTinez did someone make a fake account…?
[EDIT] it seems to be gone already. Did get a reply from ‘you’ on Telegram.
Varispeed is one of the unsung features of Logic. I don’t believe you can adjust it while looping but I may have to give that a shot. I have made some cool stuff messing with verispeed and recording then re-adjusting. Pretty cool
doesn't... every DAW support that? I know Ableton and Bitwig do. Just change the timestretch mode. Varispeed is actually the easiest way to change the speed of a digital recording - just play the samples at a different speed. Anything preserving pitch is way harder to do.
@@iFireender I haven’t used Ableton or Bitwig so I can’t speak to those, but I know Logic makes it easy.
Doesn’t the op 1 have varispeed as well??
It would make a good tool especially for lofi that varied speed recording is cool create a loop and sample it into a sample
If they are going to sell a keyboard with actual mechanical key switches and an onboard mic then they need to make sure that the switches are as silent as possible. It says on the website they use silent red. Those should be relatively silent, but there are other more premium switches that when lubricated would be better. It might just be that the silent reds need some lubrication too. Topre would be a good choice too because I bet the electrostatics could be used to control some other aspect of the sound. It does say it’s hotswap compatible, so many give some other switches a try.
now you know why we need polyphony in digitakt
The new $600 Fischer Price toy trying to pass as a serious sampler is a bit embarrassing. Glad i wrote off this piece of plastic a long time ago.