One of the other products
they made was the Crumar Performer, a versatile string synthesiser
that was as good as any of their more famous rivals.
An offshoot of their 'Multiman', the Performer was a
string synth first and foremost but, like the ARP String Ensemble,
they also included a 'brass' section which was actually not bad
for simple polysynth sounds. It was the string sound, however, that
was the best thing about this underrated little gem!
It was lush and swirly, featured a three band EQ section,
adjustable attack and release envelope controls and an LFO and you
could coax a lot of sounds out of its simple feature set. Well orchestrated,
it could sound surprisingly realistic.
The Performer was most famously used by Duran Duran but
it was (is?) a staple part of the St Etienne sound as well.
I owned a Crumar many (many, many!) years back and loved
it - solid, dependable and reliable and sounded great in any number
of circumstances and one of the only string synths to rival the
much more expensive ARP String Ensemble.
Samples kindly donated by Jon Katz |
