Studio Pics

[Guest AdamRMcC]

Thanks y'all, it's a tiny room so I did what I could to make it a comfy little lair to work in.

[Rbrmyofr]

How do I quote somebody else without their quote of me showing up? This is easier in other forums I'm on.

Anyway to answer: "Is that a Crumar Spirit underneath the sh101 and above the sh1? How is that? been looking out for one for a long time but never pops up."

Yes it is a Crumar Spirit. It's an interesting synth, mostly because of its dual filter in the form of two CEM3350 chips which haven’t made many appearance in other synths apart from the even rarer Synton Syrinx and the Rhodes Chroma. Its oscillators use the "fairly common in 80s analogue synths" CEM3340 chip (which also appeared in the Pro One, SH101, J6, Memorymoog, MKS80, P5 Rev 3, the Syrinx once again, and more).

The filter is the killer sound on this synth, a really unique bandpass / formant type thing which I can’t really put into words, I’ll record a demo sometime and stick it up on the internet. However it is let down by its envelopes which are nowhere near the snappy loveliness of the SH101 or Pro One. I’ve resorted to running it through an external VCA triggered by an external ADSR to get the snappiness I like. I’ve asked fellow owners about this and it’s a common point of contention with the Spirit.

The build quality also isn’t great, it feels cheap compared to say, the System 101. That’s not a real wood enclosure, it’s plastic. Crumar themselves have an interesting history, they were an Italian company who knocked out a few semi decent if poorly built synths like the DS-2. Bob Moog was involved in the design with for the Crumar Spirit in 1983.

Later Crumar Spirits had ports on the back with the word "midi" over them but with a plastic cover over it as Crumar never got as far as installing midi kits before they stopped production of the synth. In my own one somebody installed a mod so I can sync the "Mod X" LFO and trigger the "Shaper Y" externally via a midi cable that splits into two 6.35mm jacks.

And that’s all the Crumar Spirit information I can think of at the moment. Oh, David Morley (R&S, Andrea Parker etc) used to own one and stuck a video of him playing it up on Youtube:

[Rbrmyofr]

Wanted to edit that post to fix a typo, but also, I hear a lot of other people mention how it's one of their sought after synths. In my opinion it's a very good synth but it lacks that certain dreamy beautiful sound that you'd get from say, a Roland System 101+102.

[Guest Chesney]

Ah, that's a bit dissappointing about the envelopes, I love snappy ones too. I have a Crumar Stratus and to be honest, the envelopes are poor on that too. I love odd/rare synths with individual sounds but I guess not all of them are as good as they are rare. Can't believe that it's not wood either! that's real dissappointing.

One that I have been after and just recently found is the Teisco 110F and boy is this a quirky underated synth. The filter is to die for. Envs are snappy as a croc as well.

Get rid of the spirit and get a 110f and have plenty of change.

Edited June 23, 2014 by Chesney

[BCM]

[Audioblysk]

I like to mix in mono to the right too

[delet...]

i'd go nuts if i couldn't stretch my legs out, guess you've gotta do what you can with the space you've got.

[BCM]

yeah man my place is teeny

[popiax]

System 100

:'0

[xox]

 

I like to mix in mono to the right too

 

 

it's a 5.1 system (5 stairs, 1 speaker)

[delet...]

He needs to keep the other ear open for his girlfriend's nagging.

 

/dleetr keeping it oldschool.

[Guest pafr]

[Guest]

lel!

[DorkingtonPugsly]

Rbrmyofr

 

Can I have your Eventide?

 

 

 

Thanks

[Audioblysk]

Rbrmyofr

 

Can I have your Eventide?[/color

 

 

 

Thanks

Mwahahaha he gives nothing to anyone but awesome music and gear-wetdreams

[lala]

 

It's getting there.. I lost a really good space so it's in the front room now so that sucks.. but new Jbl monitors and analog rytm not shown in picture

Edited June 25, 2014 by lala

[digit]

 

 

Posted some photos ages ago but have changed things around a bit.

 

you have an Octopus!

 

seems like a cool controller but that's the first time i've seen one in the wild. how's your experience with it?

[LimpyLoo]

Rbrmyofr, you should post some demos/choons of all that beautiful gear.

[Guest yanG]

In boxes that are not on the pic I have a Casio SA-35 and various acoustic instruments (kalimba, flutes, guitars + amps), and "experimental" / toy / DIY gear (nebulophone, HSS3i, DEP2a)

Edited July 2, 2014 by yanG

[Guest yanG]

4EVZLcq.jpg

 

When you think of it, whatever you get besides this setup is for masturbation purposes.

[weakmassive]

In boxes that are not on the pic I have a Casio SA-35 and various acoustic instruments (kalimba, flutes, guitars + amps), and "experimental" / toy / DIY gear (nebulophone, HSS3i, DEP2a)

 

What do you run on the Amiga?

[th555]

A Kalimba is on my wishlist too.

[Guest yanG]

What do you run on the Amiga?

It's an Atari and it runs MaxYMiser :)

[Aefx]

countryside summer studio

[Rbrmyofr]

Rbrmyofr, you should post some demos/choons of all that beautiful gear.

I think I did already but here ya go: http://virtualurbanrecords.bandcamp.com/album/glassilaun-memento

 

To answer Digit, the Octopus is really interesting and I find myself coming up with melodies on it quickly that I wouldn't have been able to do just using Logic or other regular sequencers. The way you can have all the notes right there in front of you and change each one really quickly is great. Also it looks beautiful and whenever people come over it's usually the first thing they ask about. I use it all the time, it's also perfect for controlling drum machines as you have the whole grid in front of you.

 

Unfortunately the OS has a few bugs which were never fixed before the company went bankrupt. It's not the tightest sequencer either, its midi clock is out of time with the notes it sends out slightly. I actually worked with one of the guys from the company to test OS updates to try to get it more in time but they never sorted that out, they got it close enough so most people won't notice though but I'm really picky about things being in time.

 

The OS is open source and some people have been making new versions themselves but I'm afraid to upload a user OS in case it bricks the thing as the company aren't around anymore. Overall I love it, would never sell it.