[sdiy] Crumar performer sustain mod

[JH.]

Ha, that brings up memories!

I did the same thing on my Performer. That was when it was my first and only 
keyboard - the only thing I could afford at the time.
The two buttons for Brass and Strings were somehow linked such that Release 
was shortened when both were activated.
An extra switch cured this.

But then I went one step further. I had a VCO-less modular back then (JH-1, 
home-built, mostly effects and filters), and I wanted to turn the Performer 
into a "oscillator bank". There was an output for the raw unprocessed sound 
already, and since that Brass+Strings "feature" made me look how the release 
times were handled, I had an idea. I added an extra switch that would 
further increase the Release control voltage, and a transistor that would 
suddenly turn down that voltage (like Brass+String as above), but only for a 
millisecond, each time a new key was played.
Now my Performer had a key-activated "chord memory": I hit a key, or a full 
chord, and it would sustain for minutes. I hit another key, and that 
"memory" would immediately be cleared, and the now notes being latched.
I ran fed this into my modular, and suddenly had a tool to creat real 
synthesizer-like sounds.

I don't think I have the documentation anymore, but I still may have 
recordings from that time.

JH.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Weigel" <sounddoctorin at imt.net>
To: "synthdiy" <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Sent: Saturday, July 18, 2009 7:18 AM
Subject: [sdiy] Crumar performer sustain mod


I can't recall if I posted about this already...doing a search I don't
see anything.  Anyway I know a lot of people still use these instruments
because of their fairly flexible analog string sound with the three band
eq resonators.  One thing that always bugged me is the hard rapid
release when the brass is engaged. It'd be nice to have an option there
anyway.  As noted in some of my videos the Siel Orchestra machines and
their variants did more sophisticated triggering tricks.  But anyway I
installed a couple small switches that allow the performer to sustain
either brass or brass and string or 'stock' hard rapid decay on
release.  It makes for some nice new options.  I'll post a video on the
process soon on the sounddoctorin site but heading out fishing for a
couple days here. -bob
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