The Spirit was developed in 1982 by Bob Moog, Jim Scott and Luciano Jura and was produced from 1983 to 1985. Approximately 250 units were made, not too many...
1983
was not the perfect time to produce an analog synth and the Spirit had to share the same fate as many other great instruments, such as Elka Synthex, OSCar, RSF Kobol and many more. As we all know, low interest in analog synths at that time was only because of its old-fashioned sound character - and not due to weak features or bad sound itself, not at all...
The last monophonic Crumar synth is one of the most powerful and mabe the most flexible monophonic synth ever made. Sadly its hardware suffered from the bad financial situation of Crumar. This fact means that you end up with a brilliant sounding instrument that has brittle knobs, a cheap keyboard and cheap fader. So it's not that easy calling the Spirit a nearly perfect monophonic synth: its sound IS very good, the hardware not really...
The Crumar Spirit features 2 VCOs (A+B), 1 LFO (Y), arpeggiator / sample&hold (X), 2 filters (lower+upper), 2 envelope generators, ring-modulator, noise.
Oscillators
Two oscillators offer six waveforms each:
- OSC1 - saw, triangle, pulse 6% / 15% / 30% / 50%
- OSC2 - saw, triangle, pulse 3% / 10% / 20% / 40%
As both oscillators offer pulse in a slightly different shape you get quite powerful and interesting pw(m)-sounds out of it. OSC2 is allowed to be pitched in the following way (quite similar to the OSCar): -1, +1 and +2 octaves above/below OSC1. In its position BASS it serves as LFO, while WIDE puts it in high-frequent area ... very powerful!
Scaling range of both OSC1 and OSC2 is 32', 16', 8', 4'. As with any good monophonic analog synth, they may be synrchonized.
Filters
Two separate filter give you real fire-power:
- filter 1 (Lower) is a LPF, used either with 12 dB or 24 dB
- filter 2 (Upper) is a Multimode-Filter, offering extras like OVERDRIVE (again a similar feature to the OSCar), BANDPASS and HIGHPASS.
Envelopes
There are two independant ADSR-envelopes for VCA and VCF.
Modulation sources
Shaper X and Shaper Y are a littlebit confusing. Nevertheless they're extremely powerful modules. They offer not only an "ordinary" LFO, but also SH/, arpeggiator, "Red Noise" etc. You're able to control modulation routings quite flexible via two of the three (!) wheels...
No matter if you really understand the philosophy of Shaper X and Shaper Y (I don't): the sounds coming out of the Spirit are sometimes not only perfect analog ones, they're simply brilliant.
Mixer
There are two mixer: one offering the direct signal via FILTER/ADSR, the second giving you the more flexible tone colours via SHAPER Y PATH. This part of the mixer also includes a very cool sounding ringmodulator...
Das Auslösen der Modulationen selbst erfolgt manuell via Mod X Wheel bzw. Shaper Y Wheel.
Controls and connections
Like the rest of the Spirit: comprehensive! Three Wheels, Glide including different variations. Even the connections are a delight: independant audio-outs for both mixer sections, CV/Gate IN and OUT, Audio-IN, OSC B IN and finally FILTER-IN. What else do you need?
Sound
One fact is interesting: this is an unexpected flexible beast. The Spirit sometimes sounds very similar to the marvellous OSCar, sometimes it's an SH-5, another sound is just like Moog (almost, you're right), and there are many other characters combined in this compact instrument. Shaper X/Y controlled via the wheels bring out some unbeatable FX-noises, the filter-section is a delight as well. When running the neat arpeggiator you can play the synth for hours and hours - tweaking its filter potis and making the instrument scream... Certainly you get nice vocal sounds out of it too, therefore the filter-combination is strong enough, no doubt.
The sound is extremely flexible, sometimes absolutely unique, it's a cool sounding vintage machine.
| MP3s - Spirit lead and bass sounds |
 |
Lead 1 |
Starts with pitch mod, then evolves into a soft PWM
|
Theo Bloderer
|
|
Lead 2 |
Sensitive solo sound
|
"
|
|
Bass 1 |
The Spirit may sound very aggressive
|
"
|
|
Bass 2 |
Interesting bass with filter modulation
|
"
|
|
Sync 1 |
Oscillator synchronization, colourful
|
"
|
|
Sync 2 |
Oscillator synchronization and LFO modulation
|
"
|
Hardware
Finally there's a less positive side of the story: the Spirit's hardware is quite cheap. It's not really a nightmare, but almost it is.. cheap keyboard (again very similar to the OSCar), brittle knobs, some non-linear working fader etc. This means that it's sometimes simply not possible creating a sound exactly as you want - at least sometimes. In my opinion good quality hardware is part of the musical inspiration and of the musical satisfaction.
Not to be found on the Spirit, what a shame.
There's so much room between the chassis and the knobs that it's no wonder they wobble quite a lot. Further dust gets easier into the instrument. The fader sadly don't work exactly linear (at least on the model I'm playing on). So it happens that you move the fader without any changes in sound. Suddenly - within only a few millimeters or so - sound changes dramatically. You can't adjust them exactly, at least some of the fader work non-linear...
Conclusion
Considering sound the Spirit is one of the most beautiful instruments you can think of. In some ways it's a class of its own, no doubt. Flexible filter routing and unusual modulation-possibilities combined with nice controls and well-equipped connections... it has got the lot! Therefore it's worth looking out for a Spirit. On the other hand you get medium-quality hardware. Whoever needs precise knobs and fader to work with won't be happy on the Spirit (unless the instrument is upgraded with better hardware, but that might be quite expensive).
However: if you're not willed to do without those wonderful musical textures coming out of a Spirit, keep on observing the vintage market. Sometimes Spirits are offered at human rates, and let me tell you: this unique sound is worth every Cent...
Review, pictures, sounds: Theo Bloderer
Translation: Joan-Marie Bloderer
