Crumar

"The Italian musical instrument industry is based, like a more famous Italian organization, very much on family lines. The founder, and namesake, of Crumar was Mario Crucianelli, and Piero Crucianelli [Mario's brother] was the president of Elka until it was sold to GEM." Crumar started out manufacturing electric pianos and string synthesizers, combining the two in 1977 with the Multiman. Crumar started working on polyphonic synths toward the end of the '70's, producing the Stratus and the Trilogy. In 1983, they started producing synthesizers under the name of Bit, which were marketed in the US under the name Unique.

In the early '80's, Crumar "formed a design/distribution collaborative with the New York-based Music Technology. Crumar and the MT designers worked in conjunction with some respected names in electronic music to produce the GDS (General Development System) and the Synergy. These leviathans, which used additive synthesis technology and phase modulation, were bulky and cumbersome, but they were state-of-the-art in 1981."

"Crumar ceased trading in 1987, just as they were about to launch a high-quality sampler at the lower end of the market."

[excerpted with permission from the book Vintage Synthesizers by Mark Vail, copyright Miller Freeman, Inc]