Crumar Bit99 Demo 

I bought the Bit99 from my music teacher in 1997 for around 80$ because I couldn't afford a "real" keyboard. I loved playing around with it, but I was a bit embarrassed of my recordings because the other students had new, shiny instruments like Nords and Korg Tritons. This demo makes me realise that I should have trusted my ears: it sounds awesome! I'm going to get it out of storage now!

This souds a LOT fatter and cooler than I expected, could easily rival the other analogue polys of the time, and still sounds fresh for modern stuff, this synth is a lot more underrated than I thought.

Beautiful

The vintage Crumar synths Bit and Trilogy have some magic, like the OB Matrix, Cheetah, Rhodes Chroma, ELKA EK 22 and Roland JX

Bonjour, Cette démo du Bit99 est vraiment impressionnante. Merci beaucoup

One of the best sounding bass synthesizer I have ever owned. You may have to change the battery a lot and sometimes it needs fine-tuning. But I still love it.

Beautiful sequences and a great demo. Brilliant!

Very cool synth. In my opinion, the Bit stuff was way underrated.

This instrument has been at the back of my mind for a long time. With this demo, you brought it forward. Many thanks!

what a bassline! wow

Superb sounds! Thanks for sharing

WOW! Makes me want one, man. That second soft detuned square/pulse-ish arp thing at 0:30 is wicked phat.

Some really wonderful sounds here, great!

You are the rason that eBay prices rise all the time. Your sequences and patches makes this synth sound like heaven.

Be far one of BEST Bit demos here to find @YT Some years ago i own a Bit01 Rack mount, but the midi implementation was not very well done. In my midi-setup the Bit01 crashes very often, due to many midi data (five synth in row and sync data as well) So I sampled all my faforites to my S2000 (all together 6 stereo sets and about 200MB sample data)and sell the machine afterwards.

Danke :-) Ich war echt überrascht was man alles aus dem Ding zaubern kann.

Excellent sequences, really let understand the gammas. Wonderful, great

Nice and heavy waveform manipulation. Fantastic!

Thank you :) Yes, made most sequences with Logic, else played by hand.

5:07 makes me shed a tear of joy

Ok… that’s a good demo ! Thanks !

very cool. Now I understand what another one synthesizer I want

Nice sounds! :)

Wow ! I haven’t seen one of these things in years! It still has an ARP kind of thing about it too! Just as I remembered it! Wow! Peace 🛸👍🏻👽🔦🕺🕺👏🏻Christo

0:30 perfect sequence = ]

Schöne Demo, auch die Fotos sind super!

Awesome ! Wonderful Patches ! Got. my white Beauty Last Week ! Do you please Share the Patches ? Thanks in Advance !

great, didn't yet manage to get the same amazing sounds out of it. But its a very underrated synth, thats for sure

The arrows shouldn't come out of the oscillators. The arrows are showing the control signal from the modulation routing not the audio output routing. So the arrows go from the two LFO's to the DCO's VCF and VCA. Showing you what you can modulate with the LFO's. This is very flexible indeed. Much more so than the very fixed routing on a Juno106 or a JX3P JX8P. Bit99's do have some glaring deficiencies (Oscillators interact strangely sometimes) But generally I love the sound of my bit 99.

there is an editor for this, its called bitcontrol, its a vst plugin, can't make changes while holding a note, but its a lot easier to program than from the front panel, it works on a mac too.

Okay, thank you =]

Super Demo!! Ich hab auch dieses ding.

4:20 and 6:32 blew me away. Great sound

Can anyone point me toward a patch list or even a patch editor for PC? I find the sounds on my Bit99 are a bit thin and lacking bass.

@DrSqu Is there anyway I can grab them from you?

@Cutrexxx Das ist ein Vergleich von Äpfel mit Birnen :) Der Bit99 hat nie den Ruf eines analogen Monsters wie zBs Oberheim Matrix12. Aber er bringt ganz klar den analogen Sound welcher durch Lebendigkeit und Fülle in einfachen Sounds besticht. Der AN1x bietet um Welten mehr Möglichkeiten, kriegt es aber bei einachen Sounds kaum hin so analog zu klingen, aber bringt ansonsten unendlich gute Sounds. Bei der Stichwahl würde ich den AN1x wählen. Ich vermisse aber den ergänzenden Bit99-Sound.

After hearing this, I really want this ugly one. Great demo!

Yea like this

Beautiful synth and I could buy one, but I hesitate, because I read the comments and everyone says it's difficult to program good sounds, so I don't know, I'm no expert...

I have one sitting around at my mother's house back in Germany. The detune settings seem mixed up e. g. if I set detune to 0 both oscillators are completely out of tune but when I set it to max, the oscs are perfectly in tune. Anyone know what might be going on there? A mixed up connection during maintenance perhaps?

I-F -> Black Dog jam. . . I haven't rocked out to one of those in over 15 years! Really nice playing and sequencing. And of course, fantastic sounding synth with infinite character.

Any chance you know where to get parts from like OS chips besides eBay, I have the bit one expander rack.

Hi, Some great sounds there. Would you be willing to share the patch setups? I have just fixed a Bit One SSM so should be able to get a similar sound? Many thanks...

are there a editor with i can control the synth ? sorry for my english ^^

for those who are interested, I used a bit99 for most of the synth parts in these tracks soundcloud.com/ectomusicpdx/everyman-has-a-woman-who-loves soundcloud.com/ectomusicpdx/tear-of-snow-in-a-hollow-hand

@Stakker I used editors, but i wasn't lucky with those... The problem is the Midi-spec of the Bit99. After any parameter change, the editor must send the whole patch, and activate it. So i decide to make all manually on Crumar itself. There are not a lot of parameters ;) I've got a backup of the sounds and layers i made, as mid or syx.

Best BIT99 demo so far. I have 1 black and 2 white BIT99's and rediscovering them after years of storage in the attic. 2 FAST LFO's make for good FM-like or ringmodulator sounds. The velocity sensitive keys are a dream to play. If your BIT is out of tune you can adjust it on the internal board. Hit the DOUBLE mode to make EVEN MORE FAT sounds. And yes, I own and play *21* analog synths, so I know what's fat or not .... But it does it 'outfat' my 4 OSC MOOG Prodigy? Hmm. .... and will it blend?

I had a Crumar BIT99. It didn't sound anywhere near as good as this. So much so that I sold it. It always sounded "coarse" and muddy compared with the other synths around it.

the pad at 4:20 is just amazing!! any programming hints and tips for that???

@DrSqu Danke für die Info. :) Bin auf der suche nach einem Analogen Synth, für Bässe und evt. reece sounds. Speziell aber für druckvolle Bässe. Kannst du mir da was empfehlen ?

@DrSqu danke für den tipp. Bei Ebay wir leider kein ENSONIQ ESQ1 angeboten. Wo könnte man den sonst her bekommen ? Würdest du sagen das der Sound vom Matrix 6 nicht so fett wie der vom ENSONIQ ESQ1 ist ?

Hallo DrSqu, ich habe zwei Crumars je mit SSM2044 und CEM3328. Beim Einschalten gibt es manchmal komische Effekte. Die unteren zwei C's spielen das gleiche Ton oder das ganze Keyboard spielt die Töne um eine Oktave höher. Solche negative Erscheinungen treten nur dann auf, wenn man nach dem Einschalten des Synthesizers sofort spielt (also man lässt den nicht ca. 5s starten). Falls man da eine Weile wartet, dann funktioniert alles OK. Macht Deiner Bit One das Gleiche?

5:32, gorgeous

Hello, When you say "there are not a lot of parameters", do you mean that you cannot access all of the parameters from the synth itself (which would be obviously quite bad) or do you just mean that it is not too hard if you don't have an external editor because there are not many parameters to change anyway? Thanks :)

@DrSqu Ok danke für die Infos :) War grad mal auf deiner Homepage. Nice Equipment ^^. Den an1x der vor deinem Bildschirm steht hab ich auch. :)

Anyone got any idea what these are worth in 2018? I've got one in near-mint condish... (the card holder thing came unglued and there's slight scuffs on the side panels) Not that I'm looking to sell right away, just curious.

I mean, the Bit99 haven't got a lot of sound-parameters. So it's a easy synth, not a complex one.

@narki86 The Sawth is poor, the Envs not really fast, the programming on the panel little bit hard. But if you find and know the good sides on the Bit99, the you can bring all the powerful sounds of it. On it a point of view is the fast LFO. Very interesting for metallic like sounds, remember to a piece of FM. Finally in summary it really sounds analogue :) Good synth ... i also was surprised.

@Cutrexxx Sorry, äi känt tschörmen ;) Ich glaube da war Sounddiver und Midiquest. DAS Problem ist aber die minimale Sysex-unterstützung vom Bit 99, da können nur ganze Sounddumps hin+her gesendet werden, welche dann im Bit wieder via Programm angewählt werden müssen. Also nix mit einzelnen Parametern steuern, macht nicht so Spass. Jedoch ist der Bit eigentlich ja easy manuell zu editieren da es nicht viele PArameter sind. Ging für die Demos gut.

Ich habe den Bit99 nicht mehr. Ich hatte diesen nur für ein paar Tage geliehen. Ich habe nichts festgestellt, dass irgend etwas nicht stimmen sollte. Ob ich in den ersten 5s den Crumar anspielte, kann ich mich nicht erinnern. Analoge Geräte sind mit dem alter etwas anfälliger, zeigen Fehler. Beim Crumar habe ich aber nichts falsches gefunden.

First three seconds: *Violently smashes upvote button*

@Cutrexxx Es gibt eigentlich viele, fragt sich welcher Sound gefällt. Wenn es perkussiv knackig sein soll, dann fallen einige weg, auch nicht jeder Analoge ist schnell genug, zBs Bit99 ist zu langsam. Wirklich Wumms kann ich bei Oberheim Matrix-6(R) und Ensoniq SQ-80/ESQ-1 bestätigen. Moog war immer für Bässe bekannt. Knackig nagelnd sind Stärke von FM-Synths und aber auch zBs Clavia. Bei VA funktionieren Waldorf und Acces generell fett & schnell. Dann noch die Softwaregeschichte tw....

How does this synthesizer do so much? The only unique things about it are the fact that you can combine the waveforms, and there are audio rate LFOs

Ummm... I'm pretty sure that the Moog Prodigy has two oscillators... or do you have two? :)

Hi :) ! please tell me how can you have this incredible bass at 30 sec .. I have one since 5 yeas I'm so sad I don't even close of this sound, i bought it because I saw your video, please can you sell me your patch ?? HELP :,(

@Cutrexxx Das kann ich jetzt nicht mehr definitiv entscheiden. Matrix-6 und SQ-80 klingen aber definitiv fetter als Kawai K3, Roland Juno-106, Siel DK70 und Korg DW8000. Ein kleiner Tipp: Nimm ein 2. OSC als Sinus mit absolut gleichen Tuning dazu. Gibt mehr Druck und ist besser als Bässe im EQ anzuheben. Dieser Trick funktioniert mit jedem Synth. PS: Alte Sampler wie Ensoniq Mirage und Sequential Prophet 2000/2002 klingen auch fett und dreckig. PS2: Bei mir auf deepsonic.ch in Hardware sind mp3.

1984 for the BIT1 and 1985 for the Bit01 and Bit99.

Does it have arpegiator?

@DrSqu perkussiv knackig muss es nicht sein. Tiefe druckvolle Bässe suche ich. Wenn du Zeit findest, kannst du ja mal die Sachen auf meinem channel anhören. Welchen würdest du mir dafür empfehlen ?

@Cutrexxx Wenn ich Deinnen Sound höre, denke ich eher an was dreckiges brachiales was passen könnte. So nenne ich wieder Ensoniq SQ-80 und ESQ-1. Klingt fett und lässt so manche anderer Analoge links liegen. Die Oscillatoren sind Digital, was keinen Nachteil ist. Im Gegenteil lässt sich auch manch eben schmutzige Dinge machen, Wie eben auch die Dinge mit Sync und AM. Oberheim Matrix-6 kann auch sehr krass klingen, fett garantiert.

Is this the SEM or CEM version? Kind regards Alieu Stian Samateh

Stell mal ein vergleich auf an1x gegen bit99 ^^ was kann der bit99 besser, was kann der an1x besser, welcher ist breiter im sound.... usw :)

I prefer this to Moog synths, thanks for the demonstration!

Supersound. Forget Moog and CO !!!!........

Sehr unterschätzt ... ist halt zu spät in die Welt gesetzt worden Akai AX73 Sounddemo - Polyphoner Analogsynthesizer von 1986

why the fuck did I sell my bit 99

Cherry audio should take notes

Very unreliable synth line, they act weird sometimes: higher octave keys playing lower octave notes, some keys playing louder than others while using same velocity, hising voices, dropping notes via midi, short lifespan of internal battery. But the sound is awesome it's like fully polyphonic poly800 ( sound of oscillators) with DX7 aggressive velocity response.