Crumar Trilogy

The Trilogy was 'three keyboards in one', Organ, Stringsynth and Synth. Organ was basic - about 5 drawbars but effective, strings were awful unless you were into Michel-Jarre, synth was pretty naff too. 8 presets (all adjustable by a set of trimmer pots under top panel) and one user patch using the controls. Making a patch was easy enough, even adjusting the internal presets to emulate a 'good' patch was painless enough (apart from you had to open the top up like a car bonnet/hood). Never had a manual.

It was reputed to be fully polyphonic and I guess it was but the action was simply terrible - if you banged out a full chord on a long sustain sound then, after loosing all notes, played a single note then all oscillators would cancel out!! Horrible. No effects. No expansion. No MIDI. No sequencer.

The 5 (or was it 6) drawbar organ sounded like a basic organ sound, effective enough but no C3 by a long chalk. The strings were ok for an ethereal haunting strigsy type thing but that's about it. The synth was just bland and incapable of producing anything like a good old gutsy synth stab or a full combed swoosh - not much point really. There was no aftertouch or velocity sensing and as stated above it big BIG letdown was the polyphonic managment, where a single note would cancel out a sustaining chord. Poor.

Again - like the Crumar Roadster (as mine was badged) it always worked and stayed in tune etc. But it had nothing else to be relied upon it was such a poor instrument. I did gig it for a few years and I have a hernia to proove it. I simply wouldn't use one again. Ever.

Never contacted them. They were Italian.

If it were lost I'd leave it lost, infact it is lost - forgot what happened to it - I may have abandoned it at some club somewhere. Sorry guys. If it were stolen I'd thank the thief. Been playing since 1983, own Korg and Roland gear in the main. I loved nothing about the Trilogy and I hate having to admit to owning one. If it had better polyphony management it might have gained a few extra brownie points but it didn't so I would compare it to a Trebant - served it's pupose in the most basic of terms.

Unit came with Presets erased. Manual isn't going to teach you how to make great sounds, but it shows the basic of using this instruments and it's bells and whistles.

Great polyphony. Look up Crumar clever polyphony tricks on an old Sound On Sound article you'll find Googling 'Crumar Trilogy'. The action is FANTASTIC, blows every MIDI synth I've ever owned away. No expansion capabilties short of hard core circuit bending. No sequencing, no velocity sensitive keyboard. I love the psuedo-sequencer effect of the octave shifting oscillators. Great early New Order / Joy Division wheeze.

Realistic isn't the goal here. Sounds unique, crappy, cool. Great for Experimental, New Wave/Goth, Prog Rock, Disco - use it Sine Wave out as Vocoder Carrier wave.
No crappy onboard effects.

The action is so snappy that the lack of velocity and aftertouch is forgiven. A synth like this needs to be played with (multiple) volume pedals (each instrument - Synth, Organ, Strings, Sine - has it's own Out: A FAVORITE feature for me.

The Organ is pretty weak as a Organ, but as a background coloration for your synth sounds, can be quite nice.
The Strings while quite asthmatic and unrealistic, have a hanuting quality that evokes images ranging from Genesis to Joy Division, again rally only when used as coloration on top of Synth patch.
The Synth is of course the important sound here. It's certainly not the best synth in the world, but it's unique, and nowadays, that's really all that matters. I love the Alternation Square and Sine waves, love the inverted Envelopes. Most people hate the weak sound generated from the Sync mode, but it's a key part of it's asthmatic charm.

I can really depend on mine. I think once I get it serviced once it will stay reliable. It isn't getting any worse. I would take this to a gig, it's big and heavy, but it ain't fragile. Most Crumar found in their natural state today seems pretty beat up. Not sure their engineering has stood the test of time. Architecture simple enough for any good repair to fix, even if they haven't seen one before.

You're joking right? Ain't gonna happen.

Love it, Love it. I'm a dork for owning obscure and quirky instruments, this is a classic in that category. High end users of this synth's generation looked down their nose at this synth, but that same cheap yet powerful cheese quotient is what lots of modern users are looking for.
I'd buy it again. I'd love to MIDI-ify it (as long as the snappiness of it's response isn't hurt.) A poor man's Oberheim is a reasonable thumb nail description. I use it in my music alot.