Crumar Bit One, any thoughts?

Post by **nsbhp2** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 2:06 pm

Hey all! Just wondering if anyone here owns/has owned one of these. Your thoughts?

Peace!
Scott

the Pink Noise · Post by **the Pink Noise** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 3:24 pm

Hi. The Bit One is one of the best sounding and versatile synths I have ever owned/played with. A lot of people complain about the editing interface, but it allows you to come up with interesting, unpredictable results. The Bit One can sound silky, bubbly, buzzy, or however you want it to sound if you spend some time with it. Its a unique beast of the synth world, owing to its Italian heritage maybe, and even though mine has a broken key and no memory anymore, I'll never part with it.
PS the editing interfaces on the analog/digital hybrids of the mid-80s never bothered me, but some people hate them!

Composition86 · Post by **Composition86** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 3:45 pm

Only this:
http://www.synthmania.com/bit_one.htm
Bass demos are great.

vcs3 · Post by **vcs3** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 5:45 pm

I have one from 1985.

It's better than the Juno 106, fat sound.
I'm looking for a Bit01.

The links from my collection:

http://www.enricobassi.it/crumar.htm

http://bitcontrol.berlios.de/
http://www.pierregander.com/bit/index.html
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug98/a ... rumar.html
http://www.geocities.com/jeremyalansmit ... bitone.htm

Bitexion · Post by **Bitexion** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 4:40 am

I tried the Bit-99 in a store long ago. It struck me as very Juno-ish soundwise. And that is not a bad thing. Very similar architecture, but alot more tedious to program because of the "enter parameter and adjust with data dial" style.

murphf · Post by **murphf** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 6:10 am

Bitexion wrote:I tried the Bit-99 in a store long ago. It struck me as very Juno-ish soundwise. And that is not a bad thing. Very similar architecture, but alot more tedious to program because of the "enter parameter and adjust with data dial" style.

Editing used to be tedious indeed. But it no longer is, thanks to this little VST editor:
http://bitcontrol.berlios.de/ The link is also in a post above.

Now editing the Bit (I have a Bit01, the rack version) is as hard as editing any softsynth.

Go here for a nice review of the Bit99,One,01 family: http://www.bluesynths.com/ You have to subscribe (for free) but it is worth it.

VCO · Post by **VCO** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:03 am

Had a Bit One a while back and I hated it. The filters broke one after another, programming was tedious and it didn't sound as good as a Juno. And the MIDI implementation is a joke, it would've been better if they leaved it out so people didn't have to suffer trying to get it to work properly. Got a Juno-60 one year later and I was both shocked and surprised people honestly said the Bit One was better than the Juno - I say no way, José! Well, that's just my opinion

tombola · Post by **tombola** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 10:39 am

I was given a Bit One a year or so ago, really tried to love it, but couldn't. It's posslbe to get some weirdness, but the interface is just so primitive, it's got really irritating stereo outs (3 voices in one channel, 3 voices in the other, if I remember rightly). Very thin, buzzy DCOs. I had a Juno 60 many years ago, and it was way, way nicer.
I guess if the bit 99 has a data dial, that would be a 100% improvement on the Bit One, which is enter parameter, then stab up and down buttons.

MrFrodo · Post by **MrFrodo** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 2:41 pm

I haven't played anything by Crumar yet, but I've done some research on those boards. From what I've gathered, the Bit series is like the Italian answer to the Roland JX series.

Post by **madtheory** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 8:12 pm

I had a Bit One keyboard, I really liked it. It died though. I would very much like to replace it, but they're hard to come by here.

I think it's better than the Juno series because it's more flexible, however, the Juno series is much easier to use, is better at pads (because of the onboard chorus) and far more reliable. The Bit beats the c**p out of any Juno for bass and spiky sounds, it can do bells, and overall has a much more unique tone to it, not a million miles away from a Synthex actually.

Those synthmania demos give a good idea of the sound. Those are the presets- it's easy to make them sound a lot better than that.

JJQ · Post by **JJQ** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:51 am

I had the Bit-99 and swopped it for the Bit-01, thought it was better to have it as a rack synth...bad idea. Even though it practily the same I made much less use of the rack.

Good synth but no match for a Juno-60.

solderguy · Post by **solderguy** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:31 pm

Thought the Bit-99 was OK, except for three things - no way to manually sweep the filter, no portamento, and poor frequency resolution which made it quite noticeably out of tune on the upper two octaves of the keyboard at the highest oscillator settings. Digitally stable but out of tune by almost 24 cents on some notes. The Alphajuno has excellent freq resolution so sounds properly in tune and is able to do smooth sounding portamento. Filters sound a lot better on the Bit-99 though IMHO.

JJQ · Post by **JJQ** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:46 pm

Ok...versatile...some realy good sounds. But all the Roland polys have some strenght and I realy love the JUno-60 sound.

But perhaps your right...The Kawai SX-240 smokes the Crumar anyway.

godmcgarvey wrote:Can't agree, if you ignore its unreliability and its lack of a chorus (who really needs that built in?) the Bit 99 is far better and more versatile instrument than any of the Junos

Post by **madtheory** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:04 am

solderguy wrote:no portamento, and poor frequency resolution

Ya, I hate the lack of portamento. And the pitch bend is stupid too. However, the pitch issue you had/ have is due to mis calibration. Granted, the things are unreliable and an absolute pain to tune, but when set up they do remain in tune!

I have to say, given a choice between a Bit 01 (the rack) and any Juno, I'd take the Bit, no question about it. I've never used the kawai.

the Pink Noise · Post by **the Pink Noise** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 4:01 pm

Oh Yeah, the Bit One does have chorus... the detune up/down slider... its sounds as good as a juno chorus... maybe not as good as a polysix chorus though.