In 1977, Crumar introduced the Orchestrator (called the Multiman-S in Europe), a fully polyphonic orchestral string machine. It has five basic sounds: Brass, Piano, Clavichord, Cello and Violin. The keyboard is split in the middle allowing you to play one combination of instruments with the left hand, and another combination with the right.

All five sounds are available at all times, you simply adjust how much volume you want of each sound. Feature just a single instrument, or create your own orchestral ensemble—you are the Orchestrator! With the keyboard being split, there are five separate instrument volume sliders for the left hand (lower split) and another five for the right hand (upper split).

There is also a sixth sound: Bass. The Bass sound has its own volume slider as well, but it is assigned to only the bottom 27 notes of the keyboard. It is also not the greatest of Bass sounds either, and can sometimes muddy the sound.

There is a filter section but only for the Brass. It uses some pretty old-fashioned terminology: 'Emphasis' for resonance and 'Contour' for cutoff. There are also Attack and Decay controls for the filter. There is another filter for the Cello and Violin string sounds called 'Timbre' which can adjust between a 'Mellow' to 'Bright' sound—basically it's a highpass filter. There is a 'Vibrato' effect section, basically the LFO, with 'Speed' and 'Depth' controls. The only global envelope control is a 'Sustain' length slider.

The Orchestrator's best sounds are its Brass (probably because it is the sound with the voltage controlled filter) and the Strings. In fact the Strings sound very similar to the famous ARP Solina. Unfortunately there are no built-in Ensemble effects to really sweeten them up...but that's what outboard gear is for!

Like most synthesizers of its time, the Orchestrator was built with the performing musician in mind. It is its own flight-case! Its casing is very tough and durable, it has a handle and a cover/lid to keep it protected during transport. And if it looks heavy, it is! Additional options for the Orchestrator included an organ-like 13-note (G-G) Foot Pedal Board, Sustain Pedal, and a Foot Expression Pedal controller for the filter cutoff. There are no CV/Gate options, just connectors for the external pedal controllers.

Audity

May 21, 2012 @ 7:40 pm

That lowest octave of brass is just MEAN sounding, especially if you re-amp and mic it!!! Strings are also great (though a simple envelope would be nice). Piano/clav are painfully bad, but when mixed at low levels with the other sounds, they add a nice texture.
Not a very versatile synth, but it definitely has a sound and character all its own.

mark

February 4, 2012 @ 1:47 pm

Apparently used extensively by John Foxx and Benge on their last album 'Interplay'.

peterkeys88

January 19, 2012 @ 12:36 am

I got a Multiman-S, in the states somehow. You can get those big wide string machine sounds, as good as any ARP quadra or Solina IMO. Putting it through a nice chorus or phaser, w/ some delay or verb and this thing sings, copping those atmospheric M83 pads thats popular in the Chillwave genre. The envelopes are quite limited in their range: spongy maybe. But its great at what it does!

kenneth

August 10, 2011 @ 10:19 am

I recently bought one and I love it. just one thing: I noticed the photo above shows some switches on the left side of the keyboard. mine does not have these. what gives?

Japan

June 29, 2011 @ 3:01 pm

Mark Ronson pays tribute to the Crumar sound...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blZ4VJZkDL0&playnext=1&list=PL5BC E67ACCE1324E9

Great!

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