It looks like those who supported the Chompi sampler on Kickstarter had a pleasant surprise as 2023 drew to a close; it seems that many have now received their units and are making music with them.
Which, of course, means that the YouTube demos and jams are starting to appear, including one from German musician, Hainbach.
The first thing that strikes you about the Chompi, of course, is how cute and approachable it looks. Indeed, Hainbach says that he had to make his video quickly because his youngest daughter had already “called dibs” on it.
It doesn’t take him long to come up with a woozy electronic jam, and Hainbach says that he likes the simplicity of Chompi, which forces you to “just roll with things without thinking too much”.
He’s particularly impressed by the effects and looper, but suggests that it would have been helpful to have labelling on the keys to reduce the amount of time spent referring to the manual. He also says that he prefers the flatter laptop-style keys on the OP-1 - which also makes an appearance - to the the old-school ‘mechanical’ ones on the Chompi.
It’s a promising start, though - the Chompi will be available for purchase once all the Kickstarter pre-orders have been fulfilled, which should be some time this month. It costs $599.
