In this video, synthesist Steve Learson takes a look at a classic Italian string synthesizer, the Crumar Orchestrator, also known as the Multiman-S.
The Orchestrator is a polyphonic/paraphonic synth design from 1977 that features 6 sounds: Brass, Piano, Clavichord, Cell, Violin & Bass.
If you’ve used the Crumar Orchestrator, leave a comment and share your thoughts on it!
Excellent demo of a killer antique. Instant Larry Fast! Its further proof that your studio IS an instrument that can entice a lot of power from unlikely sources.
This is realy nice…i wonder if it was used for any record that time…hopefuly someone has link for youtube for example…
A friend passed his Orchestrator on to me and I love everything about it besides the 15 bowling balls they hid somewhere inside the thing. Used it all over our last record in various places. All the keys on this track were made with an orchestrator and an H9 https://caveofswords.bandcamp.com/track/lately
Love these old Crumars. I got an old T1 for $100 and had it fixed (another $50). The bass and organ sounds are all over a record I just did. I can’t justify traveling with it though because, as others have commented, these things are just too heavy.
That Crumar sounds sweet! The guy’s other synth videos are worth a look too.
It’s a really nice performance, but strange the presenter doesn’t know the difference between polyphony and paraphony. As a youtube commenter points out, having two keyboard zones (hence _two_ filters/envelopes) makes paraphony pretty usable.
Why do you say he doesn’t know the difference between polyphony and paraphony?
There’s been a lot of BS on the net about paraphony in the last couple of years, as companies have started to use it again to hype synths that are essentially mono synths where you can control the oscillator pitches independently.
The Crumar is fully polyphonic – plus it also adds a paraphonic filter. I see this as no different than running a clavinet through a wah wah pedal. Nobody would argue that a clavinet isn’t fully polyphonic – but the wah effect is on the output.
The Crumar is a lot different than synths that have been marketed over the years as paraphonic. ‘Paraphonic’ has mainly been used to make people think that they’re getting something more than a monosynth – which is very different than the way string synths were marketed and used.
I said it because he wrote “I’m hard pressed to think of examples of an instrument that will trigger a filter-per-voice with more than 2 oscillators” amongst other things. No disrespect intended because he gets a beautiful sound out of it and a very nice composition.
Fair point about clav+wah. The filter envelope on the Crumar is triggered by note-on, though, so maybe it is more analogous to autowah.
Filter can be set to manual and also contour (cutoff) can be controlled by external pedal, so it’s more like wah pedal. 🙂
My first two synths were Korgs (Micro Preset, 770) but next after those I made a major dive in and took out a huge loan and bought a Micromoog and a Crumar Performer. The Performer has the little brother of the Orchestrator. If I remember correctly it just did strings and brass.
Thanks for posting my video here! I was doing some digging to try and find some more information on this synth and stumbled upon this thread. I’m glad so many people are talking about this awesome instrument
I had that thing in the late 70s/early 80s, and mine did NOT sound that good, I think it’s the effects he’s using that make it sound superb here. I bought a Juno 6, and I got beyond lucky when I sold it to a girl who was in a competing college band for 700 dollars or so. I was SO happy to unload it, the piano sound was so bad I was embarrassed to play it. aaaah, memories….
Great instrument. Played it for years in a student band late 1980’s. We made a recording with it. Very versatile and fantastic sounding strings. Wish I hadn’t sold it back then (for almost nothing but lack of space and money), but fell in love with the D50 which I still have.