Why did Chase Bliss kill the CHOMPI?
Chase Bliss Audio pulled the plug on its CHOMPI sampling keyboard in July, and didn't hide behind a vague excuse. The processor simply ran out of room. Chase Bliss Audio had spent close to three years building out the original TAPE mode, then absorbed the Chompi Club project in 2025, then started work on a bigger TEMPO firmware update, and that's where the ceiling showed up.
"We started to bump into the limits of what that processor was capable of while making the new TEMPO firmware."
Founder Joel Korte put it more bluntly elsewhere: "That turned out to be a pretty bad idea." The brand confirmed there's no CHOMPI V2 in the works, and no modified-hardware production run either, an idea it had floated and then dropped. Fewer than 250 units remained in inventory when the discontinuation landed. This wasn't a flop nobody wanted. It was a product the existing chip couldn't carry any further.
What exactly did Chase Bliss give away?
Instead of locking the door, Chase Bliss handed over the keys. In September, chompiclub.com/opensource went live with the entire CHOMPI project: every firmware version the hardware ever ran, TAPE and TEMPO included, plus a wavetable synth called WAVE that had never shipped publicly, released as a beta starting point for whoever wants to pick it up. Hardware schematics, PCB files and enclosure designs went up alongside the code. Only the branded artwork stayed off limits, for copyright reasons.
The fine print matters. Original CHOMPI buyers keep full official support and repairs. Anyone who builds their own unit, or forks the firmware into something new, gets none of that, by design. "We will not be making any more of this CHOMPI design," Chase Bliss wrote, adding that "the spirit and ethos of CHOMPI will continue to influence future projects we work on."
How fast did the DIY scene respond?
Weeks, not months. Developer Temecula DSP picked up the open firmware and built NIBBI, a plugin that ports CHOMPI's tape-loop sampling workflow into any DAW, for free. It runs as VST3, AU and AAX on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, plus Windows, and it ships with the original hardware's factory samples baked in.
NIBBI is a seven-voice polyphonic sampler that records live or takes a dragged-in file, with adjustable playback speed and direction, fixed start and end points, and a basic AD envelope. A single knob drives each onboard effect: filter, lo-fi, saturation, granular, delay. The tape-loop recorder supports sound-on-sound overdubbing, the trick that made the original hardware's TAPE mode click with people in the first place. No CHOMPI required.
What does this mean for the rest of the gear world?
Boutique hardware usually dies quietly: a product page disappears, firmware updates stop, and owners are left guessing whether their unit still works next year. Chase Bliss took the opposite route, and did it before the complaints piled up. Giving away the schematics doesn't put a single new unit on a shelf, but it means CHOMPI doesn't end just because Chase Bliss stopped selling it.
