CHOMPI as a Free Plugin, a Waldorf Wave for your DAW, and a big Coral Update: Synth Journal
CHOMPI as a Free Plugin, a Waldorf Wave for your DAW, and a Massive Coral Update: Synth Journal · Source: Temecula DSP, mo0kid, OXI Instruments
Chase Bliss officially discontinues and open-sources CHOMPI – and a developer immediately turns it into a free plugin. Also in this week’s Synth Journal: a Waldorf Wave emulator for your DAW and a huge update for the OXI Coral Eurorack module.
Synth Journal
CHOMPI is now Open-Source – and Available as a Free Plugin!
Back in July, Chase Bliss sadly announced that everyone’s favorite little hardware sampler CHOMPI would be discontinued. At the same time, the company also said that it had plans to make the CHOMPI firmware available on an open-source license, opening the door to third-party developers to improve and expand on the original concept.
Now, Chase Bliss has followed up on its announcement from July, saying that CHOMPI is now officially discontinued. Although it’s been out of production for a while and no additional units will be made, they do still have some in stock, so if you haven’t grabbed a CHOMPI yet, this may be your last chance. The company also said that it would continue to provide support for CHOMPI.
In the same announcement, Chase Bliss also made good on its promise to open-source the CHOMPI code. If you’re so inclined, you can now download and hack the firmware to your heart’s content, add your own features to CHOMPI or turn it into a different device altogether. Heck, you could even build a DIY CHOMPI of your own!
And it didn’t take long until the community took the company up on that offer, but maybe not in the way Chase Bliss had envisioned. Only hours after CHOMPI was open-sourced (I strongly suspect that AI played a part here), developer Temecula DSP released NIBBI: a free sampler instrument for your DAW inspired by CHOMPI’s unique concept and design. NIBBI works just like CHOMPI. You can record a sample in real time or import one by dragging it onto the panel. The plugin then lets you record and overdub loops, add effects, and resample the output to create a new sample. While NIBBI obviously doesn’t offer the same hands-on experience as the hardware, CHOMPI’s straightforward and inspiring workflow should be a lot of fun in software, too!
NIBBI is available for macOS and Windows in VST3, AU, and AAX formats.
Free Waldorf Wave Emulator Brings the ‘90s Synth Icon to your DAW
I vividly remember riding the bus to my piano lesson and reading a magazine article about the mighty Waldorf Wave when it first came out in 1992. I was a young teenager at the time, and my love for synths was just starting to show, so this giant behemoth of an instrument made a huge impression on me. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen, like a dream instrument from another galaxy. At the same time, it was devastatingly unattainable, and still is for most, due to the low number of units built and prices well in excess of $20k.
But there’s hope! The latest in a series of spectacularly accurate low-level hardware emulations of iconic digital synths – The Usual Suspects’ creations like Blue Giant and JE-8086 being just the beginning – the new Waldorf Wave Emulator by mo0kid brings the early ‘90s icon to your DAW. As with other emulators of this kind, the developer went to great lengths to accurately reproduce the digital guts of the synth in software, including the 68k CPU, Waldorf’s proprietary ASIC chips, the three physical voice cards with 16 voices each, and even the Wave’s LC display. The analog filters are also emulated.
The catch is that, similar to other reverse-engineered emulators, mo0kid’s Waldorf Wave requires you to source your own copies of the synth’s firmware and wavetable ROM.
OXI Coral Gets 6 new Synth Engines and More!
Coral by OXI Instruments is one of the most powerful polyphonic Eurorack synth voices available, and it continues to get better. The latest firmware update to v3.0 introduces no less than six new synth engines, bringing the total up to 27 (!):
- FMX7: 6-voice polyphonic FM engine based on the DX7 architecture (loads DX7 patches and banks)
- ACID 2: acid synth engine with four kinds of distortion and a Devil Mode
- OB-VA: virtual-analog synth engine inspired by classic Oberheim polysynths
- String 2: string machine engine with a smart chord mode and a morphing feature
- Pianoz: inspired by vintage ROMpler piano and organ sounds
- Stitcher: sample-based drone machine inspired by the Fieldtone pedal
In addition, the Coral update adds a new drone mode, the option to select different wavetables (96, to be exact) in the three wavetable engines, and an incredibly useful engine memory feature that preserves the settings of one engine when you switch to another and back again.
A massive update that makes one of the most versatile polyphonic Eurorack modules even more powerful! There’s hardly a sound this module cannot produce, and when you combine it with the possibilities of the modular environment, it gets even better.
The update is now available as a free download on the OXI Instruments website.
Coral is available from our affiliate partner Thomann*.
This might also interest you
