Crumar Musical Instruments User Group.

Hello everyone,

Thought I'd post an actual message on the board! I hope it doesn't get 
drowned in all that spam... I can't wait for the moderator to be 
chosen...

I've been playing a Crumar Performer for years, both live and in the 
studio. It's the best string machine I've got, and blows me away 
everytime I use it... It looks really simple at first glance, but the 
amount of control you get on the sound is actually pretty big.

Some things I like about it:

1- Dirty sounding strings, kind of abrasive in a way, very mellotron 
like sometimes, and tweakable with the EQ section. I really like this 
sound: Bass 8/10 Mid 3/10 Treble 8/10... fat and lots of presence, cuts 
through in a mix but without taking too much space in the mids... nice!

2- I don't know the inner working of the synth envelope, but you can 
crossfade complex chords and it never cuts off a note. It's really 
fantastic! For example, when I play strings on my Korg PolySix (six-
note polyphony), very often I alternate four-note voicings -- the 
problem is, since the polyphony maxes out at 6, playing a new 4-note 
chord while the previous one is still fading out cuts out two notes 
from the previous chord... This NEVER happens with the Performer, it 
seems to have unlimited polyphony (I don't know the exact specs...) So 
you can crossfade any chord into another very smoothly.

3- The brass section is also quite nice, even though it's very limited. 
I really like the sound when the envelope has closed, it's very spooky. 
So I often play while making sure I never retrigger the envelope (which 
basically means, always have a note playing...), then play the cutoff 
and modulation section while doing dark chords... Put that through a 
tape delay and it's a very haunting sound indeed. Sometimes I stick a 
piece of paper between two notes so the fundamental is always playing. 
This creates a drone I can play over, while at the same time ensuring 
that the envelope doesn't retrigger.

On the negative side, sometimes I wish it had knobs instead of sliders. 
Although there are advantages to sliders (you can go much faster from 0 
to 10 than with a knob), half of mine are broken (not by me!) so 
they're obviously not very sturdy, plus they get dirty more easily. The 
trick to playing them fast is to hold them with the thumb and index at 
the very base, that way you reduce chances of breaking them. 

I recently put some music online on Myspace that uses the Performer 
quite a lot. If you feel like it you can hear it in action at 
www.myspace.com/estecho. Here are the tracks that feature the Performer:

Ricochet - this one feature a string sound, through a tape delay, 
through an analog phaser, for the first 3 minutes, then the closed 
envelope brass sound for the second half of the song.

Groove Me - has fat strings starting at around 2:30; you can't miss 
them, they're right in the front. There's also a brass track that pops 
up every once in a while.

Desert sun - the Crumar starts at around 3:20 (before it's the 
PolySix). There's a backing string track, a Polysix backing track, plus 
a melodic track which is a heavily distorted Crumar through the preamp 
of a Univox Echo Tech tape delay. I consider this to be the most 
haunting sound I've ever created... it's probably just me.... you be 
the judge...

Cha Cha K - there's a closed envelope brass track providing the 
background tapestry from the very first second of the song to the very 
last. You can't miss it! I play with the modulation a lot near the end, 
making bubbles!

So there you have it, my effort to keep this Yahoo Group alive... 
Crumar instruments are so wonderful, I wish they received the credit 
they deserve (although that would probably drive prices through the 
roof, so maybe not!) My Performer beats any ARP Solina or Roland I've 
ever played!! 

BTW, I'm still looking for a manual and/or service manual (with 
schematics) for the Performer, so if anyone has it, uploading it to the 
files section would be really nice!

J.F.
www.myspace.com/estecho

PS. as a last note, did you know that some Performers have an "octave 
shift" rocker switch in the middle, while others don't? I'm lucky to 
have it on mine, and it pretty useful to extend the range of the 
instrument by one octave. I'd be curious to know if they extended it in 
the bass range or the treble range...