In his latest video, Alex Ball takes an in-depth look at the Crumar Multiman-S, an Italian string synthesizer from 1977, also known as the Crumar Orchestrator.
Along the way, Ball also tackles string synths in general, divide-down oscillators, paraphony and some of the unusual features that make the Multiman/Orchestrator a classic.
Topics covered:
0:00 – Opening demo
0:35 – The String Synthesizer
2:44 – Paraphony
4:11 – The Crumar Multiman-S
4:32 – Basic Strings Demo
5:42 – Low Strings Ensemble Demo
6:07 – Phased Strings Demo
6:34 – Brass
7:46 – Piano
8:17 – Clavichord
8:31 – Bass
9:01 – The Multiman
10:11 – Outro Disco Bonanza
Gear used in this video:
Crumar Multiman-S (1977)
ARP Avatar (1977)
ARP Odyssey 2813 (circa 1976 – 77)
Roland SH-1000 (1973)
Roland System 100m (1979)
Roland Juno-6 (1982)
Roland CR-78 (1978)
Simmons SDS-3 (1978)
Ibanez RM-80 (early 80s)
Seekers Voice Spectra Vocoder (circa 2000)
Hylight Phazer Mk II (2019)
It was lolz and informative. Alex with funny accessories like disco glasses.
He’s one of (my favorite) the youtubers that should be invited to Sonic Talk instead of the same people every week.
At least it wasn’t a 400-pound snarly Mellotron. Crumar has made some great instruments like the GDS and today’s Mojo organ, but divide-down has always smelled like elderly cheese to me. Its double bad when its disco cheese. Give me a traditional poly or samples, thanks.
way back in the day i traded my yamaha cs-10 for a crumar multiman-s.
I love this, I wish more of the known companies would focus more on string synths …both Korg, Roland and Yamaha had some nice legacy string devices…