| Create Digital Noise Forum Index » Hardware » Anyone have any experience of a Crumar Bit One? |
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| Tom |
 Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 3:41 pm |
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Well hello, thanks for building this great looking forum, Peter.
Very few posts at Music Thing this week because I've just been given a Crumar Bit One, which has been in storage for at least 8 years. It's a big, black, button-covered monster. I can make it sound cool by saying it was designed by the guy who did the Elka Synthex, and that it has the same filter chips as a Fairlight Series II. (Both true)
I've just downloaded the original program cassette, which certainly helps a bit.
Anyone else have one? |
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| PeterKirn |
| Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 3:47 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 03 Feb 2006
Posts: 822
Location: New York, NY
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Wow, awesomely arcane, Tom! I'm jealous, not that my apartment really wants to have a Crumar behemoth in it. Hope you'll post flickrs + sounds of that one.
Must be someone who owns one . . . how far have you gotten? |
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| Guest |
| Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 6:37 pm |
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Just got it home a couple of days ago (a director at work said 'I have something you might want), cleaned off years of crud and dust with baby wipes, bought a power lead and a replacement battery, then downloaded a wav file of the cassette-loaded factory sounds. It's pretty simple to program, but a horrible interface - type in the number of a parameter, then press + - keys to change it. Does sound good, has interesting two LFO structure, possibly slightly more flexible than a Juno, but some of those sliders would be very welcome.
Weighs a tonne, and has 4 big circuit boards insdide, proper old-school, dozenss of resistors and transistors, SSM filter chips, a big logic board with Intel and AMD chips on it... Super cruddy MIDI implementation - plug a cable into 'MIDI IN' and the keyboard switches off, as far as I can work out.
I love hardware! |
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| james |
| Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 11:57 pm |
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Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 10
Location: Reflex Galactic HQ
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Anonymous wrote: cleaned off years of crud and dust with baby wipes
Unscented, I hope. 
I remember a local music shop trying desperately to unload a Bit One at some point in the late 1980s (once everyone was into digital synths that made dismal tinklybell-ahhh sounds). It was so incredibly ugly that no one wanted it.
I noodled around with it for a few minutes but ultimately decided that anything with a silkscreened schematic of what looked like a nuclear power plant on the front panel was trying too hard to be taken seriously. Besides, the mod/pitch bend wheels are in a really strange spot. (one atop the other on the left side of the main panel - not even down by the keys)
Let us know how it sounds -- hopefully it's a treasure trove of quirky electronik magik.
BTW, Tom... you should book your flights for NAMM 2007 soon. And make sure you stay in the country for longer than a day so that the rest of us can find you. |
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reflex audio
retro thing |
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| simonsound |
| Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 9:48 am |
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Joined: 10 Apr 2006
Posts: 10
Location: Brighton
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I had one of these about 10 years ago and remember getting some pretty good sounds out of it. The programming certainly takes patience though.
Most of my memories around this synth are bad though - it was given to me by a record label boss who then went on to make my life hell for the next 4 years.
Still thats along way back in the past and I can laugh about it now.
You have fun with that synth Tom I'm sure you will make it sing.
S |
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| madhatter |
| Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 7:53 am |
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Joined: 19 Apr 2006
Posts: 47
Location: Bristol, UK
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| tom_music_thing |
| Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 5:25 am |
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Joined: 28 Apr 2006
Posts: 4
Location: Bristol, England
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| madhatter |
| Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 6:26 am |
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Joined: 19 Apr 2006
Posts: 47
Location: Bristol, UK
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| tom_music_thing |
| Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 6:20 pm |
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Joined: 28 Apr 2006
Posts: 4
Location: Bristol, England
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| thesimplicity |
| Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 6:27 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 122
Location: Tucson, AZ
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I love the parameter map screen printed right on it... I can't wait to hear some sounds from this. How much does this thing usually go for, out of curiosity?
Oh, and thanks for the board pics... I'm probably not the only person who gets off on that.  |
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| jpyle |
| Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 6:55 pm |
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Joined: 18 Dec 2006
Posts: 1
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Howdy, I just joined this forum.. I 'inherited' BitOne a few years back and it has been quite the dust collector! No sound on arrival due to the internal battery being dead, therefore zapping the 'prom.
I'm looking to unload it, but before doing so, I'd like to resurrect it, and get some sounds out of it. Can someone point me in the right direction as to where to find a replacement internal battery for this bewhemoth?
thx
josh |
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