Crumar

Crumar is an Italian manufacturer of electronic musical instruments. It was established by Mario Crucianelli in the late 1960s,[1] and manufactured synthesizers and keyboards during the '70s and '80s. Its name is a portmanteau of "Crucianelli" and the name of his business partner, Marchetti.[1] The company appears to have grown out of the Crucianelli accordion company and also continued to manufacture accordions under both names.

History and products

Crumar started out manufacturing electronic pianos and string synthesizers, such as the Compac-piano (1972/1973), Compac-string (1973), Pianoman (1974) and Stringman (1974), the functions of which were combined in 1975 with the Multiman (also known as the Orchestrator), and in 1977 with the Multiman-S.[1] The company was also known for "clonewheel" organs made in the 70's and 80's, such as the Organizer (1974), Organizer T1 (1978) and T1/C (1981), T2 (1978), and T3 (1981).[1]

In 1978, Crumar released their first full-fledged synthesizer, the DS-2, which had one of the earliest digitally controlled oscillators (DCO).[2] Crumar synthesizers are comparable and contemporaneous to Moog synthesizers and other analog synthesizers; in fact, the Crumar Spirit synthesizer (1983) was designed by Bob Moog himself, along with Minimoog co-designer Jim Scott and Tom Rhea (who wrote Moog manuals).[3] In 1984,[1]

See also

• List of Italian Companies
• Clonewheel organ
• Elka (Italian synthesizer manufacturer, also established by Crucianelli family)
• Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer

External links

• CRUMAR WEB SITE
• Vintage Synth Explorer - An online vintage synthesizer archive. This site has good images and descriptions of Crumar synthesizers.
• Technical view on Crumar Performer
• Performer sounds
• History and technical overview of the Crumar Spirit
• |webpage dedicated to Crumar performer with some sounds and pictures