Crumar Roadracer

Easy as pie (as long as you have a working amplifier to plug it into - no onboard speakers see). Three presets - all crap. No editing. Only an idiot would need a manual.

It is 'fully polyphonic' which means each not has a dedicated oscillator. Keyboard action is awful but 'economy' was the key feature with this unit. Chorus - made the crap crap crap crap crappest of crap sounds a little less crap but still crap. Expandable:No. MIDI:No. On-board sequencer:Leave it out!

Sounds were based on one very gritty clavi type sound but to call it a piano is an insult to anybody who'd ever been near a real piano - I ain't gonna mince my words here - it sounded B*LL*CKS! I used it in a rock band - the very first rock band I ever played in before I could play - I got what I deserved at the time.

I can honestly say it never packed up on me - every key sounded that awful dirdgey mess without fail. Would I ever use it to gig again? Hmmm, not if I was offered this week's winning lottery numbers. Not if my life depended on it. I'd rather have piles. I'd rather die. I'd rather die of piles - big cistular piles oozing custard and making me smell like a dead dog. No OK - NO NO F*CKING NO NEVER!

If I ever rang this company it would only be to tell them what a stinker they produced.

It exists somewhere at a friends house - in a loft - where it can stay as long I'm concerened. Ok, I'm being horrible - it got me started in about 1983 - I next got hold of a Crumar Trilogy (another pile of old w*nk) before finally sleeping with my bank manger and getting a loan for a Korg DW8000, then a Korg M1 and a Roland RD300 Piano - all wonderful pieces of kit. The Roadster - glad its gone, hated it, hated it, hated it. I got a better tune banging a pot against a wall than I did out of this thing. There should be clinics with specialist councellers for people who owed one of these. Pass me my valium......!!!

plug in a play, nothing to it.

Polyphonic. Keyboard action is all wrong for an electric piano. It has the action of an organ, spongy. Built in effects= chorus, which is ok for one more sound (the piano has exactly three). No midi no nothing except for a pitch changer (which mine always was fritzing) which I guess you could use to slide the pitch if it was working. Mine was reparied twice and never worked properly.

Limited to three sounds--regular piano, honky-tonk, and clavinet/harpsichord

very reliable--except as noted above.

Back then customer support was good--don't know about today

I have a Wurlitzer now, so I would not use this keyboard unless given to me or picked up dirt cheap. too limited, and not a real good electric piano sound. I have a cheap Casio 100 sound bank keyboard which does way better than the Crumar! I had a chioce between this and a Korg portable organ (birthday present when I was 15, I stupidly chose the Crumar.

No software here baby! This is a great thing. Just plug and play. The on-board chorus sure makes you go from Venus to Mars in nearly five seconds! Its looks are great,too. Never seen anything like it. Just simple and easy to carry. When you're looking for a nice Rhodes or Hohner sound, don't buy this thing. It's sounds like anything but definately NOT like an electric piano. Nevertheless, the sound it makes is very cool I think. If you're into "dub" music, try this one. Your bandmates will also love the Crumar for its crappy noisy sound. Add some distortion to the Roadracer. This will give a nice effect, along with the Chorus which more sounds like a flanger. You can split the keyboard to a bass and a melodie section. The "chorus" can also be edited on this bass-notes. Crazy stuff!

Don't know, but you can use many notes at the same time...

Sounds a little bit like an old analogue. Especially when the chorus is added.
There are three different "piano" sounds. Some a little bit warm, others more like a Hohner clavinet. If you like this crappy sounds it's great!

This thing is always going. Never played at the Northpole, but I guess it even works over there!

No customer support here....

PLease check point 1.

It's a piano (in the loosest possible sense) with three settings and one effect. So dead easy. Switch it on and bingo.
I haven't got a manual.

Not sure how many notes the Roadracer can play at once, but it's a good few. The keyboard is touch/pressure sensitive! Amazing for a keyboard this age.
It has a built in chorus, which is more like a flanger/phaser. At it's higher settings, it's almost an LFO.
No MIDI of course, no sequencer. But it did come with a Crumar sustain food pedal, a Crumar sportsbag, and a Crumar duster.
A great feature is the bass pedal input socket. Oh yes it is. You can put anything into this! and through the onboard chorus/flanger/phaser it goes! Anything! I've put stylophones, Casio VL-tones, human voice, guitars and especially drums through it. My favourite method is to split the drum track. Put a clean signal into the mixer and let the other go through the Roadracers effects and then into the mixer. Can't describe the finished effect other than it sounds expensive.

The piano sounds (low/mid/hi) are nothing like a piano, more like a basic analogue sound. By varying the settings, the chorus, and the way you play, it does actually produce an array of sounds. The keyboard, although it clicks noisily, allows for quite a bit of expression.
It's a great funk (clavi) or reggae keyboard. It really reminds me of the keyboards used on the 1st UB40 and Weapon of Peace albums.
Anyone who's owned a modern quality keyboard would probably hate and ridicule it. But for someone who loves the forgotten instruments of the recent past, it's cool. Let's just say it is so basic, it makes you use your imagination. I love what it makes me play on it.

The external input is a great thing. There is no end to what you can put into it, though only the one (variable) effect awaits it.

It's robust and 25 years old. I would gig with it, but I wouldn't be very shocked should it begin behaving strangely or give up the ghost entirely. I think one key gets stuck. Cosmetically; the housing is a little ugly.

No Crumar anymore, and the only mention of the Roadracer on the internet suggests it's shit.

Having found mine for #5 at a village church jumble sale (including pedal, sportsbag and duster) the very same week I had to part with my old beloved Crumar DS2, I doubt whether I would find another one again.
I have an entirely MIDI set-up, but the old Crumar just sits there, and tempts me to let it join in. Recently I had a day-long session where the idea was to write and record as many new tracks as possible. Though I had 4 MIDI synths (Roland, Korg, Yamaha and Casio) involved, the Roadracer ended up being played on every track. I couldn't help it. On one track it's the bassline, on another the chords and others the rambling solos and leadlnes etc. It's only a piano, but I seem to like it more than perhaps I should.
The truth is though, if I haven't paid only #5 for it, I might not have the same opinion. I saw recently a 'classic analogue' Crumar piano for sale on the internet, that sounded suspiciously like it, - for #100. Frankly, that would be a ridiculous price for such an outdated awful sounding piano. But he thinks he's some kind of synth and I let him believe it. A reluctant low overall rating then, but it deserves more for sheer effort and character.