Sounds Of The Crumar Bit 99 Synthesizer

This video, via Davide Micheli, is an exploration of the sound of the Crumar Bit 99 synthesizer, a 6-voice polysynth from 1985.

The rare analog synth features 2 VCO’s per voice, dual LFOs, ADSR envelopes and the ability to split or layer sounds.

The demo features custom patches on the Bit 99, with echo and delay added.

6 thoughts on “Sounds Of The Crumar Bit 99 Synthesizer

  1. Good demo, Davide. You gave the synth a quality showing. This is one of my lost synths of antiquity and high on the list of items I’d only play via MIDI. The build was a cheaptastic mess I found very uninviting at the time, but as you can hear, it has a great voice and snappy envelopes. Too bad it isn’t a current tabletop synth.

  2. What is he playing at 17:00 ? i know the tune from when i was a kid but i cant remember what it is and its bugging the hell out of me. Synth sounds pretty sweet too.

  3. Does anyone out there know of a UK based company that can repair the BIT99? I own one that needs some work doing on it but have had no success in finding anyone who can repair it .

  4. VCO’s or actually DCO’s?
    The immediate predecessor the Bit 1 was appallingly badly tuned – higher the pitch the worse the digitally approximated temperament got! I couldn’t live with it – a drifting VCO is one thing but this sounded nasty.

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