CIRCLES (beta 1)

CIRCLES turns CHOMPI into a small ensemble: up to fifteen players, each with a mallet instrument, together in one room. You play a short figure and press loop, and that player keeps repeating it. Pass the figure on to other players, the way the musicians in Terry Riley's In C do. Give one of them another length, and its copy slides through the others, lining up with them only now and then. That slow shifting is the music.

Start here: the guided tutorial, https://ugrossek.github.io/CHOMPI/circles/. Six short lessons, pieces to start from and a cheat sheet. With the CHOMPI connected over USB (Chrome or Edge), each lesson sets up its players on the CHOMPI, lights the control to use next, and notices when a step is done. Without a CHOMPI it runs as a demo.

In beta 1

• Fifteen players, fourteen instruments on the white keys: wood, marimba, amadinda, gangsa, mbira, kora, snare bar and muffled for rhythm; vibes, bell, hang, singing bowl, gong and glass for melodies.
• Figures: play, press loop to keep; copy a figure to another player; give each its own length as a ratio of the shared beat (1/3 to 3).
• Sound: K1 to K4 shape each player (with CHOMPI held, a second layer); the room and the volume on K6. With the switch on all, the knobs and the black keys work on everyone.
• Hold K6 to see how many voices sound and how busy the CHOMPI is.

Install: with the multi-firmware launcher v1.1 or later, send CHOMPI_CIRCLES_beta_1.bin to a free key with the setup tool. On a stock card, put it in the card root as the only .bin.

Beta: expect rough edges; feedback is welcome. When many long notes ring at once the CHOMPI runs out of CPU and lets the quietest go first.

SHA-256: 7ff2badcaa52cf5f8285efd9546ca1149b569cfa4d2b1aff4c97996edd8bb605

Source: firmware/chompi-meter on the meter-fw branch.

Written together with Claude, Anthropic's AI assistant, and tested on one CHOMPI. Unofficial, experimental software, provided as-is with no warranty; use it at your own risk.