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Crumar Spirit: History, Overview, and the New Production Run

The Spirit Lives On: An Interview with Andrea Agnoletto

Chris Hadley · 07/30/24

Vintage synths offer a source of inspiration with a special character not easily accessible on a new instrument. Exploring an older instrument can connect us to another time, inspiring musical moves otherwise unavailable to the strictly modern mindset. Occasionally, there are qualities that can’t be replicated by a new instrument: instability created by component variation, artifacts from the inevitable decay of time, integrated circuits with no modern equivalent, engineering wisdom left undocumented, and so on.

However, this isn’t always the case. Despite the rarity, exorbitant value demanded by secondhand markets, and other clues telling us that certain instruments are simply irreplaceable, many vintage synthesizers could—at least theoretically—be recreated to their exact vintage specifications. Of course, manufacturers rarely do this. Older, market-proven designs often reemerge as components of new instruments, and official recreations mostly take the form of reissues and revisions, providing a faithful sense of the old instrument with modern conveniences that make it more palatable for the modern studio.

Understanding this, we were immediately excited by the announcement that legendary Italian manufacturer Crumar would be resuming production of one of the rarest and most historically interesting monosynths from their ancestral oeuvre. That synth is the Spirit, a peculiar 1983 keyboard monosynth with ties to both Crumar and Robert Moog himself. Synth-crazy as ever, we knew we had to get in on this.

Perfect Circuit is now offering a number of precious units from this very limited run of new Spirits. In celebration of the occasion, we strolled through time to trace the history of Crumar’s Spirit, and elucidate some of its exciting idiosyncrasies. With the necessary groundwork established, we then spent some time with Andrea Angoletto from Crumar to fill us in on the Spirit and their work with the Marche Synth Museum in bringing it back to life.

The Crumar Legacy

Crumar is an Italian manufacturer of electronic organs, synthesizers, and other keyboard instruments. The company was originally founded in 1971, offering both affordable alternatives to the instruments of industry giants like Moog and Roland, as well as unique designs that set them apart from the competition. Despite the time's public perception that they were a producer of cheaper and assumedly lesser synthesizers, instruments like the Crumar Performer, which offered 49 keys of full polyphony for controlling its excellent bass and string sounds, quickly proved that Crumar was capable of far more than a cost-effective alternative.

The Crumar Performer The Crumar Performer

Later in 1983, Crumar produced the Spirit monophonic synthesizer, designed by an apparently international Robert Moog and Moog engineer Jim Scott, alongside Tom Rhea, a Moog clinician and all-around synth expert and electronic music historian. The instrument was largely underutilized in its time, with only 100 or fewer put into production. Betraying its relative obscurity, the Spirit implemented some unique contributions to the architecture of the contemporary monosynth, delivering a highly expressive lead and bass instrument with plenty to offer to studios and performers. Despite these contributions, Crumar would cease company operations in 1986—during the peak of the digital synthesizer revolution, in which new (and more affordable) technologies made analog monophonic synthesizers a non-obvious choice for many musicians.

In 2008, the Italian firm VMConnection acquired the Crumar brand and began to produce instruments once again. Beginning with the Mojo line of digital drawbar organs, the modern Crumar has primarily focused on what made their early designs stand out, offering some of the best electronic organs and keyboards for synthesized acoustic instrument sounds. This strategy has worked well for Crumar, keeping a strong connection to their past while developing a modern image centered on what they do differently than the competition. The specter of the Spirit, however, would continue to follow Crumar.

Spirit Lives Again

As familiarity with the brand reasserted itself in the minds of synth and keyboard lovers, with interest and availability of information about rare instruments expanding online, questions of the Spirit’s reemergence were common. This spectral presence reached a critical mass in 2020, when in a meeting with the Marche Synth Museum, a collaborative effort to reverse engineer and resume production of the Spirit was officially proposed and launched. Alongside engineers working with the Museum, Crumar has now successfully revived the Spirit, committing to a limited production run of 100 instruments.

[Above: detail of an original Crumar Spirit; images via Perfect Circuit's archives.]

While a few of these long awaited instruments are now in the hands of musicians in Europe, they have only just touched down in the United States as of late July, 2024. Here at Perfect Circuit, we are grateful to have the chance to take part in offering this new production run of Crumar Spirits. In celebration of this occasion, we are taking the chance to revisit what made the original Spirit so worthy of resurrection, and spending some time with Andrea Agnoletto at Crumar to talk about this wonderful project.

Before we dive into our talk with Andrea, you may be asking yourself—what exactly is the Crumar Spirit anyway? Have no fear and search no terms, your overview awaits!

Crumar Spirit Overview

[Above: video demonstration of a vintage Crumar Spirit.]

At its core, the Spirit is a two oscillator monosynth, with a sound palette not far from what you’d expect out of similarly-classed instruments of its era. Primarily designed around CEM chips for its VCOs, VCFs, and VCAs, the Spirit represented the increasing cost-efficiency of integrated synth circuits arriving on the market in late 1979, making established synth topologies more accessible without the need for entirely discrete designs. Diverging from its commonly-cited parallels in the Minimoog or ARP Odyssey, the Spirit features a unique modulation section optimized for use of its two assignable mod wheels (in addition to pitch bend), two simultaneously accessible signal paths, as well as an adventurous implementation of dual filters for the time.

If you’ve been paying attention, two things should stick out to you about the Spirit: Bob Moog, and an interesting filter section. While a classic and simple Moog ladder filter would surely sound great in the Spirit, the development team—that is, Moog, Scott, and Rhea—chose an alternative approach using the CEM filter chips that gives the Spirit a highly flexible set of spectra-shaping tools. An upper and lower filter are available, though don’t be fooled...these names refer to panel positions rather than a simple high pass/low pass topology. The upper filter is a dedicated low pass with 12dB and 24dB slope variations, while the lower filter offers high-pass, band-pass, and an “Overdrive” mode which adds saturation to the band-pass filter.

Cutoff controls feature a master knob for both filters, as well as a “lower only” control. Resonance may be controlled for both filters on a single knob, or you can set the upper filter to a low setting while adjusting resonance for the lower. Both filters can dynamically track the keyboard, or create a fixed “Formant” with the lower filter. The filter section also may be controlled by the modulation sources, with multiple gating options and inverting envelopes. Using this flexible combination, you can achieve a very dynamic and performative parametric EQ, with plenty of sculpting options for sound design.

Modulation on the Spirit takes the form of two ADSR envelopes for the VCA and VCF, plus the addition of “Mod X” and “Shaper Y” sections. Mod X gives you controls for a multimode arpeggiator and selectable modulation sources including LFOs, sample and hold, noise, and Oscillator B, with rate control for relevant sources. Shaper Y creates simple envelope shapes that may be triggered in numerous ways, as well as an additional LFO in “Free” mode. Both of these modulation sources really start to shine thanks to their dedicated mod wheels, giving you satisfying and effective control over modulation depth and a wide range of modulation destinations.

The mixer section is typically not something to write home about with a two oscillator monosynth, and yet the Spirit continues to defy such paradigms. Two separate signal paths are available with independent output jacks when both jacks are used, one for passing through the Filter/ADSR circuits and another controlled by the Shaper Y envelopes. The Shaper outputs give you a mix of both oscillators, alongside ring modulation and a noise source. A simple 6dB brightness filter provides slight timbral treatment for these Shaper path sounds.

Outside of these main oddities setting the Spirit apart, a few other features are notable. Frequency settings for the oscillators feature a drone mode for Oscillator B, allowing you to set it at a fixed frequency unaffected by keyed playing, providing a droning low pad beneath more active notes in Bass mode, or a wider frequency range in Wide mode. With quick retriggering and multiple simultaneous gating options for envelopes, the synth can be played very responsively, making it a joy for shredders everywhere looking to “play like a machine gun” (as the original manual insists).

The Original Crumar Spirit, with unused space for MIDI input The Original Crumar Spirit, with unused space for MIDI input

While not wholly different from its early-80s contemporaries, the Spirit’s unique filter and performance-focused modulation section make it an incredibly versatile instrument from studio to stage. The limitation of two oscillators may not propel basses and leads into quite the same thickness as the Minimoog, but it’s not a Minimoog—it’s something different, wonderful, and assuredly useful. While original Spirits emerged at the dawn of MIDI, with a placeholder back-panel slot for a 5-pin jack that never came, Crumar’s new production has added MIDI input capability—one of the very few deviations from the original specs.

As newly produced units start to get into the hands of users, it’s clear that this is the best time there has ever been to get acquainted with Crumar’s friendly ghost. Here in the states, the Spirits have finally made it to our Burbank warehouse, ready to go out and inspire a new generation of synth lovers. Ceremoniously celebrating the Spirit’s arrival, we took some time to talk to the folks at Crumar about this exciting phase in the company’s long second wind, uncovering even more to love about the Spirit.

An Interview with Andrea Agnoletto

Perfect Circuit: Thanks so much for taking the time to answer a few questions as we prepare for the first new Crumar Spirits to arrive stateside. It is rare that an instrument like the Spirit gets revitalized this faithfully, which is a testament to both the legacy of Crumar as well as the importance of organizations like the Marche Synth Museum, with whom you were able to reverse engineer this rare instrument. Can you tell us more about the relationship between Crumar and the Museum, and whether this fruitful friendship will continue to produce new synths?

Andrea Agnoletto / Crumar: Thanks for the question. The relationship is very deep, we really share a lot. I personally started as a musician and keyboard enthusiast (my musical skills were poor actually, technical part was better) and I think that almost everyone started in this way. Then life takes different paths: I was lucky that my passion for gear matched very well with my passion for electronics, mechanics, design and creation so, in my case, the step was easy.

In the end it is a matter of personal skills and what you like to do most. In my case it is creation, in their case it is organizing and doing non-profit work. But the common seed is passion. However, their contribution was also technical: to restore their vintage keyboards and synths for the museum they needed very trained technicians, and the same technicians helped us with the new Spirit. We have plans for the future, Crumar DS-2 is a nice candidate but…maybe it is time for a DS-3?

PC: While the Spirit’s webpage covers some of how this collaboration was started, can you tell us more about how that first meeting went in October 2020? What were the deciding factors in moving forward with resuming production?

AA: The most important factor was the help from the technicians. We, at Crumar, consider ourselves “digital” people, meaning that the digital keyboard and digital electronics have no secrets for us. Of course we know analog electronics and synthesizers, but let’s say that it is not our comfort zone. For a project like that, we absolutely needed a “team”—but not the usual one, a very specific and trained one.

When the people from the Museum told us that two technicians would support us in the initial phase of the project and that they would always be available even afterwards, we accepted. Basically we are talking about two people: Marco Molendi and Mirco Trentin. They both have their specific skills. Marco is one of the most meticulous and precise people I know; Mirco is able to think outside the box and he has a long term experience with cloning and building synths.

PC: I understand you had a few Spirits available to reference in the process of redesigning new PCBs with the original circuits. What shape were these units in, and were there differences between them? If so, how did you go about arriving at a specific target for what a new Spirit should sound like?

AA: The real problem with vintage Spirits is that they are rare and not very easy to find! Both the units we had the possibility to check were in perfect shape. One belongs to Marche Synth Museum, and another one was lent to us by a repairman from Northern Italy, even if for a short period of time. Basically they were identical, soundwise let’s say 95%, the differences were the usual acceptable differences between two analog instruments. Repairs had been done over the years. At the end, the base of the project was the Spirit owned by Riccardo Pietroni, president of the Marche Synth Museum. We performed a deep internal re-check, test and cleaning before starting everything.

PC: So, this new production run of Spirits addresses one of the only problems with the originalsthat there simply aren’t enough of them! Considering the already rare status of the original, what was your reasoning behind limiting their production to 100 units?

AA: The reasons are basically two. First of all, these instruments, made in this specific way (almost identical to the way they used to be assembled in the early ‘80s, besides the connectors) have a lot of manual work behind them…we need time to assemble them! And for a company like we are, based in Italy, and not so big: 100 pieces were enough. The other reason is for giving importance to the instrument. Starting from how legendary it is, a limited run is giving importance to it.

A comparison of vintage and new Crumar Spirit assembly. A comparison of vintage and new Crumar Spirit assembly.

PC: In the process of research and reverse engineering, I imagine you may have encountered a lot of Crumar history surrounding the instrument aside from the circuits themselves. Do you have any insights or anecdotes from your research into what the culture around Crumar was like at the time, or how Robert Moog, Jim Scott, and Tom Rhea got involved in the project?

AA: This is going to be a very long reply! Because we bumped into many anecdotes, before, during, and after the development of the “new” Spirit. There were two fronts: the Italian one (the production in Italy) and the American one (the project side). Unfortunately the information regarding the Italian production was really small, we have to imagine a big factory, like it was Crumar in the early ‘80s, thousands of instruments produced every month, organs, string machines, TOS based keyboards, in one word, the usual production.

But then, probably for a short period, in a corner of the factory, the Spirit was produced…we tried to find someone here with memories of this but we were really unable to. There are only unofficial “legends” about all the trips that Dr. Moog did to Italy to take care of production and, of course, for the initial contacts with the owners, apparently he was in love with Italian food and he usually was taking some home…but, technically speaking, Crumar decided to follow the original project very carefully, same parts, same design.

On the American side, in 2020 the people of “Museo del Synth Marchigiano” tried to contact Mr. Jim Scott explaining that we were going to start with this, asking for an interview or something similar but, then, as you can imagine, Covid happened and everything stopped. Luckily, when the project was finalized Jim Scott and Tom Rhea contacted me directly. They were offering support and additional information if needed. But, their contribution was more to clarify the birth of the instrument. This is the timeline of the project.

Jim actually gave us a lot of original documentation as well as the original project handwritten! We have photos of the prototypes, fax documents, letters, schematics, ideas…a lot of materials and, most important, we can publish them! So…when the commercial side of the new Spirit will be over, our plans are to turn the webpage into a dedicated page that will host all the documentation about this important piece of history.

PC: The Spirit is often considered similar to a Minimoog, most likely because Moog was involved in its design, despite some huge differences in the architecture of the instruments—Spirit has 2 oscillators instead of 3, a much more advanced and performative modulation system, CEM chips vs discrete components, etc. From your own perspective, how would you describe the Spirit’s strengths, and what does it offer to modern musicians and studios?

AA: The strength of Spirit is 100% the modulation and routing capabilities, and I agree with you when you say that the similarities with the Minimoog are more in the name. What I can say for sure is that, the amount of sounds you can reach with the Spirit is unbelievable, but, it is not an instrument for newbies, when you power on the instrument for the first time you have to think about, there must be a direct connection between your brain, your fingers and your synth knowledge.

My personal opinion about the Spirit is this one: when they designed it, the future of keyboard instruments wasn’t completely clear. Mono was still something, Poly was growing, digital was appearing…no one would have imagined that monosynths would practically disappear within a few years…no, wait, a few months! This happened super-quick. So, when they designed the Spirit, they decided to create the definitive monosynth, the most advanced both from a technological (CEM chips) and musical point of view.

PC: What was the public response to the new Spirit like during the initial announcement and preorder phase?

AA: The public response was amazing! It is an object of desire, something like the missing ring in the chain. Lately many companies have reissued the most iconic synths ever produced…honestly, Spirit was missing. Now this gap is filled.

PC: With the first of these instruments now out in the wild in Europe, what is the response you’ve received from folks starting to get the first new Spirit units? Are musicians taking to it as you expected?

AA: Yes, people that purchased the Spirit are actually musicians, collectors, or both. Videos and audios are appearing on social media and YouTube…I hope for more in the future!

PC: The most interesting thing to me personally in the Spirit are its modulation and shaper controls, which both route to performative mod wheels that seem fantastic for quick and wild gestures. Are there any fun musical tricks on the Spirit you’ve come to enjoy, having spent so much time revisiting the instrument?

AA: Yes, a few…I must say that there are sometimes two or more ways to reach the same sound. This is something that is not very uncommon with complicated synths. For the rest, I would like you to find the instrument's hidden trick…does it sound like a challenge? Additionally, besides the musical, let’s say “positive” tricks, Spirit also has some weird stuff…I can’t say “project faults,” but in my opinion they are more choices they made back then probably based on the circuit design and also the musical requirements of the late '70s…can you name two? I can give you a small help: arp and internal keyboard gate vs external gate…please explain in details… [laughs]

PC: The roll out of this new run of Spirits will likely have some people wondering what’s next to come out of the Crumar vault. Are there plans for more analog synths—old or new—in the future from Crumar?

AA: There are plans but nothing decided yet…the team is here, is available. Not sure what the future will be like.