Review: Crumar Performer by Crumar

In the world of vintage synths, Italian based company Crumar, produced a series of synths in the 70’s and 80’s that rivaled the very best. The chances are, you’ll have heard their vintage synths as used by artists such as Derek Sherinian, Mike Barson of Madness and Vangelis. Created to rival the big players in the synth market, Crumar created quality instruments with a simple design. Our focus today is the Crumar Performer which is essentially a 49 key string machine with brass section. Get ready for a trip down vintage lane.

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Review: Crumar Performer by Crumar

The Crumar Performer was a compact 49 key synth with full polyphonic capabilities. It was designed to be comfortable to play yet easy to transport around. Being a string machine with a brass section, it was easy to control via the three sections and the fifteen sliders. The Crumar Perfomer plugin is a faithful recreation which works with both Windows and Mac OSX either within a DAW or in standalone form. It arrives complete with a vintage aesthetic and 85 programs which are essentially snapshots to you and me! There are a further 42 patches to create and save your own vintage presets.

Crumar Performer sells for €99+ VAT or €129+ VAT for the Deluxe Colelctors Box Set from Crumar

Thoughts

Firstly, the GUI is simply wonderful. All 49 keys fit neatly between the wooden panels and you really get the feel of playing a vintage synth. The controls are split into three sections, one for the brass section, one for the string machine and the final one for modulation effects. The final slider controls the overall volume and everything is full midi CC assignable. The top bar houses the effects, edit and help buttons, with also the program loader and ability to save your own created presets. If you click “effects” a neat little effects chain slides up featuring graphic eq, phaser, chorus/flanger and delay modules. All vintage effects, all very groovy!

Already, there is a great scope for creating your own sounds and programing is really straight forward. Yet to really hear what the Crumar Performer is capable of, the program menu is full of analogue string and bass sounds that are full of warmth and character. It’s so easy to see why this range of synths was a hit with the composers and musicians of the 70’s and 80’s. The 85 synth programs are easy to access yet are not categorised. I feel by not categorising them, you are encouraged to dive in and play them all. While this is not at all a hindrance, it would have been great to have included a favourite button to mark the sounds you’d most be using. Of course, there aren’t a huge selection so over time they would be easily remembered.

So how does it sound? The synth loads into the patch “Welcome to Performer”. Upon striking the keys, it’s a quintessential synthetic string preset with gritty brass undertones. The detail is exceptional, and the nuances and character are very well recreated. Moving to the next preset “Performer Piano”, you really start to hear what the instrument is about. This is a thick, warm yet percussive analogue keyboard that of course sounds nothing like a piano yet is a rich, sustaining string and brass hybrid. Vintage sounds at their best.

As I make my way through the various presets, it becomes clear that this synth would work perfectly in the retro 80’s film and television scoring scene. There are overtones of John Carpenter and Vangelis with modern nods to Stranger Things and Mr. Robot. Yet where the Crumar Performer really excels is it’s authenticity and ability to make slight tweaks and changes to some really fun preset starting points. The third preset “Anguish and Fear” is pure horror cinema and invites the image of the axe wielding psychopath stalking it’s helpless prey. With the simple addition of some vintage effects, there was a scene stealing underscore created in an instant.

The variety of timbres is excellent for such a small-scale instrument. Presets such as “Bird Pad” have these unique radio frequency overtones whereas “Synth Horns” has that awesome synthetic brass swell quality that reminds me of the “Wonderwheel” from the movie, “The Warriors”. Each and every preset has a unique quality, a character of its own and they are all extremely useable. This is the beauty of the Crumar Performer as while there are only 85 presets, the ability to experiment and then create your own couldn’t be more straight forward. I found myself initially finding sounds I liked as a jumping off point, then mangling them through the effects and later graduated to experimenting and building my own presets from scratch. Within half an hour I had created my own weird and wonderful analogue patches which I’ll be using in future cues. Yes, there are limitations to the synth, yet it is designed to be compact, straightforward to use and ultimately be very playable. This plugin succeeds in every way and I found myself happily playing, experimenting, and eventually layering together pads and melodies for some truly unique sounds. In case you needed any more convincing, did I mention Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran used one extensively?

The Crumar Performer is a perfect synth for those retro soundtrack and pop moments. It was released in 1979 so lends itself perfectly to the music of that era. If you are a composer who needs sounds like this, the beauty not only lies in the timbres contained within, but also the ability to easily program, experiment and manipulate with effects so easily. In terms of a preset machine, it is a fun play through 85 rich analogue presets. As an analogue sound creation machine, it sounds great and it’s a whole lot of fun. If you are a vintage synth enthusiast it is a must have. Not only is it a great recreation of an iconic synth, it is an exceptional amount of fun to play.

Facts

Recreation of The Crumar Performer analogue synth from 1979
Features both a string machine and brass section
85 presets with room to create your own
Built in effects
Compatible with both Mac OS and Windows as plugin or standalone format

Crumar Performer sells for €99+ VAT or €129+ VAT for the Deluxe Colelctors Box Set from Crumar

Demos of Crumar Performer by Crumar

Videos of Crumar Performer by Crumar

Contributor Pete Checkley reviews Crumar Performer by Crumar
“In the world of vintage synths, Italian based company, produced a series of synths in the 70s and 80s that rivalled the very best. The chances are, you’ll have heard their vintage synths as used by artists such as Derek Sherinian, Mike Barson of Madness and Vangelis. Created to rival the big players in the synth market, Crumar created quality instruments with simple design. Our focus today is the Crumar performer which is essentially a 49 key string machine with brass section. Get ready for a trip down vintage lane.”