Forge

The second big tool out of the forge, a little workshop of custom firmware for CHOMPI. This one gives CHOMPI an effects section and a screen: your phone. Released for community testing: play it, break it, tell us.

The forge page: myth-world.github.io/Forge: make sounds with any chatbot, open Choowivision, read the manual.

What's new

• The FX page. Four effect modules run on everything CHOMPI plays: Space (echo + room, cloud, tape echo), Colour (saturation, fold, crush), Texture (cassette, broken, squash) and Motion (chorus, phaser, tremolo). Toggle down, hold CHOMPI, tap KEY_21 until the light turns green. White keys pick the effects, the knobs set how much (hold a knob and turn for its character), and a knob turned all the way down takes its module out.
• Your own effect order. Tap A#3, then tap one key from each module in the order you want the sound to go through them; the fourth tap locks it. Hold A#3 for a second for the classic order. The order changes how the effects colour each other.
• Choowivision: CHOMPI's screen on your phone. Open the forge page in Chrome on Android, tap Choowivision, plug CHOMPI in with a USB-C (OTG) cable and Connect. You see the panel live: every light, the page you're on, what each key and knob does there, the chord you just played, the looper and the battery. Works on a computer too. The illustrated manual uses the same drawing, so you can check one against the other.
• Undo an overdub. Tap PLAY + LOOP together and the last overdub is gone.
• Surprise me rolls effects too, and mutate lets them drift.
• The forge page makes 0.20 sounds: the chatbot and the editor know the FX section.
• Clearer names: SW3 page 2 is now Colour, the synth page's tremolo is LFO → volume.
• And a few secrets. We won't spoil them.

Install

Download choowi-0.20.0-rc3-card.zip and follow its README-FIRST: back up your card, empty its samples, copy the zip's files, switch on. Already on 0.19.2 with the purple samples? FORGE.bin alone updates the firmware. Sounds made on the forge page now need 0.20.

Release candidate

Built and checked on the owner's CHOMPI as it was made: the FX section, the phone display (on an Android phone), the new surprise rolls. It also starts from the community multi-firmware launcher (checked with launcher 1.5.0: copy FORGE.bin into the launcher card's FIRMWARE folder as, say, 05_CHOOWI.bin). Still being played: the new order gesture, overdub undo with natural timing, and every effect at its extremes. Known issues: on some power banks CHOMPI stops charging while it's switched on (charge it switched off); the SW6 battery colour is a rough check (white means full). Report anything on the repository.

Choowi 0.19.2 · release candidate 2

The first firmware out of the forge, a little workshop of custom firmware for CHOMPI: a playable synth, sampler and looper that plays chords for you, wakes up singing and dreams when you ask it to.

What's new since release candidate 1

• Dream, redone. Hold SW4 + SW1 for a second and CHOMPI plays an ambient piece on its own: an auto-drone to listen to and watch. It follows your sound (pads get slow overlapping chords, plucky sounds get drifting clusters of notes, a drum kit gets soft patter), stays in your key, and the lights dance: keys glow and fade in the chord's colours while the knobs breathe. Hold SW4 + SW1 again, or press a key, to stop. Leaving CHOMPI alone for two minutes now gives a gentler nap.
• Loop chords. On TAPE's page, SW1 now steps auto-loop off → loop → loop chords. Plain loop keeps TAPE's rippling repeats; loop chords makes a held chord repeat as one.
• The start-up chime always sounds, even with no saved sound yet (it plays on a small built-in bell until you save or recall a preset).
• Harmony keeps a few more secrets. We won't spoil them.
• Smaller firmware for all of that: the release build is 253 KB.

Also in 0.19.2

Choowi's own sounds (14 instruments, 14 drums in bank purple, free), banks named by colour, Choowi's forge (describe a sound, any chatbot writes it, hear it live on CHOMPI, save it to CHOMPI), a saved sound is the one CHOMPI wakes up with, and a battery dip while playing no longer switches CHOMPI off on a computer port.

Install

Download choowi-0.19.2-rc2-card.zip and follow its README-FIRST: back up your card, empty its samples, copy the zip's files, switch on. FORGE.bin alone updates the firmware only.

Release candidate

Checked on the owner's CHOMPI; the newest parts (Dream, loop chords, the chime fix) are freshly built and being played now. Known issues: on some power banks CHOMPI stops charging while it's switched on (charge it switched off); the SW6 battery colour is a rough check (white means full). Report anything on the repository.

Licences: Forge is MIT (CHOMPI Club, DeeCee), built on CHOMPI Club's open-source firmware and Electrosmith's libDaisy. NOTICES.txt (in the card zip and attached here) carries every third-party notice; keep it with copies. Choowi's sounds are CC0; the Choowi name and artwork are Forge's own (TRADEMARKS.md).

Forge is independent community firmware, not affiliated with or endorsed by CHOMPI Club.

Choowi 0.19.2 · release candidate

The first firmware out of the forge, a little workshop of custom firmware for CHOMPI. A playable synth, sampler and looper that plays chords for you, wakes up singing and dreams when you leave it alone. Tools forged so far: Colour Lantern, Wake-up Bell, Sweep Brush, Dream Bellows, Tinker Wrench (the synth page), Thingamabob and Whatzit.

New in 0.19.2 (Whatzit)

• Harmony's secret modes: Chord Bloom, Chord Conversations and Harmony Mischief (manual 8a).
• Choowi's own sounds: 14 instruments and 14 drums in bank purple, free (CC0).
• Choowi's forge on the web: describe a sound, any chatbot writes it, hear it live on CHOMPI, tweak it, save it to CHOMPI. https://myth-world.github.io/Forge/workshop/
• Banks go by colour; a saved sound is the one CHOMPI wakes up with; a battery dip while playing no longer switches CHOMPI off on a computer port.

Install: download choowi-0.19.2-card.zip and follow its README-FIRST (back up your card first). FORGE.bin alone is the firmware; choowi-samples.zip is just the sounds.

Release candidate: checked on the owner's CHOMPI, with a few things still being tested (the TAPE functions, dream mode unplugged, the battery investigation). Known issues: on some power banks CHOMPI stops charging while it's switched on (charge it switched off); the SW6 battery colour is a rough check (white means full). Report anything on the repository.

Forge is independent community firmware, not affiliated with or endorsed by CHOMPI Club.

Licences: Forge is MIT (CHOMPI Club, DeeCee), built on CHOMPI Club's open-source firmware and Electrosmith's libDaisy. NOTICES.txt (in the card zip and attached here) carries every third-party notice; keep it with copies. Choowi's sounds are CC0.