From cord@lance.colostate.edu Mon Jan 16 09:59:32 1995 Date: Sun, 15 Jan 95 07:10:07 MST From: Cord Mueller To: batzman@apanix.apana.org.au Cc: Tomy Hudson , Analogue Heaven Subject: Re: Future Music >> >There something called a Bit 99. Anybody ever heard of this one? >> > >The company was called "chase" but I thought they were British. > >NE way. Chase bit 01 and bit 99 expander. >The 99 was a nice sounding box 6 voice analogue in a 3u 19" rack. Only >ever saw one once but I was impressed. I'm not sure if it was >polly-timbral or not but very analogue. > >Batz Ok, here we go. The brand called CRUMAR (italien) and the bit 99 comes with 5 octave keyboard or as an expander. eight voice split or double velocity keyboard Midi polymode 2 DCOs sinus, sawtooth, pulse (width modulation), noise 1 VCF 24db/lowpass with resonance 1 VCA 2 LFOs sinus, sawtooth, pulse (1.: DCO1, DCO2, VCF, VCA) (2.: VCA, pulsewidths1 and 2, VCF) 2 ADSR fixed for VCF and VCA sound ???? (never heart some of these beasts) disadvantage: programmable with numberkeypad! (like POLY 61, KORG). Cord From georg@nlp.physik.th-darmstadt.de Mon Jan 16 10:04:56 1995 Date: Mon, 16 Jan 95 09:30:54 +0100 From: Georg Mueller To: ANALOGUE@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu, thudson@globalvision.net Subject: Bit 99/01 (was: Future Music) > There something called a Bit 99. Anybody ever heard of this one? Yes, read my message from 1992. Georg. ----- Begin Included Message ----- X-VM-Attributes: [nil t nil nil nil] Status: O Newsgroups: rec.music.synth From: georg@miro.nlp.physik.th-darmstadt.de (Georg Mueller) Subject: Vintage Synth : BIT 01 Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 12:25:36 GMT Distribution: rec.music.synth Nntp-Posting-Host: miro.nlp.physik.th-darmstadt.de Organization: TH Darmstadt, Institut fuer Angewandte Physik Content-Length: 3069 X-Lines: 75 A friend lent me his BIT 01 Rack Expander (serial no 67), so I'm able to give you sort of a review of this Crumar synth from 1986. The BIT 01 is the expander version of the BIT 99, which is the successor of the BIT ONE from 1985. The front panel The BIT 01 is a 19" module, 3 units high. On the left side there are 4 two digit 7 segment LED's labeled VALUE, ADDR/S.D.PROG No, LOWER PRG, UPPER PRG, a PARK/WRITE button(*), a tune pot with small knob. Next row OFF(-), ON(+) button, numeric buttons 1-5, COMPARE(*), STEREO OUT(*). Next row numeric buttons 6-7, SPLIT/LOAD(*) button. Last row two sliders LOWER/UPPER VOL, ADDRESS(*), LOWER(*), UPPER(*), DOUBLE/SAVE(*) and TAPE(*) button. The marked (*) buttons have an indicator LED. On the right side there is a block diagram of the synth engine, to remind you of the 73 possible ADDRESS values (cool light blue color). The panel is black, white symbols and green lines. Later they turned from black to white and symbols in black, red lines. There are two handles left and right (for this high-tech profi look) so you can carry the BIT with you easily. And not to forget the power switch. The synth engine The signal path is DCO1/2 - VCF - VCA plus LFO1/2, classical analog. The DCOs are almost similar. Range 32', 16', 8' or 4'. Waveform tri, saw, pulse or combinations. Tune in semitones, only up, only on octave. Pulsewidth. PW modulation by velocity. No PW mod by LFO. Now the only difference. DCO1: noise, DCO2: detune. Oh, 6 voices. The VCF has its own ADSR with attack modulation by velocity. Keyboard tracking, cutoff, resonance, envelope amount, modulation of env amt by vel. One can invert the envelope. (technical remark: the filters are CEM 3328, Four Pole Low-Pass VCF) The VCA has a ADSR with attack mod by vel, amt mod by vel and total volume. The LFOs have tri, saw and sqr as waveforms, one can mix them. They can modulate any combination of DCO1, DCO2, VCF or VCA. Delay, rate, rate mod by vel (funny isn't it), depth and wheel amt (that's common for both LFOs). The difference is 1 has saw up, 2 has saw down. Misc features MIDI - One can enable/disable pitch bend, mod wheel, rel pedal, prog change, omni mode and select the recv chanel. SPLIT/DOUBLE - Split point, lower trans, lower/upper vol. With the two seperate outs a glance of multitimbrality. The Rear Panel Memory Protect on/off Release Pedal in Midi in/thru Tape in/out Lower out Upper out Power in User interface What? Press ADDRESS button, type in the two digit parameter number, use +/- keys to change value. That's the harsh charme of the mid '80s. Sound Rich, warm, fat ... well ... analog. But the drawback of DCOs (Nick listen) CLOCK NOISE in the bass, thats bad. I miss the LFO PWM, OSC SYNC and RING MOD. There is a good piano over one octave :-). Another shortcoming of the digital ADSRs is, imagine a slow high resonance filter sweep by env, you expect to hear a DIIAAOOUUWW, but you get DIDIDADADODODUDUW. The fc decreases in steps, that can be heard. Thanks for reading, Georg. ----- End Included Message ----- From georg@nlp.physik.th-darmstadt.de Mon Jan 16 10:05:47 1995 Date: Mon, 16 Jan 95 10:04:38 +0100 From: Georg Mueller To: ANALOGUE@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Subject: Re: Future Music > The company was called "chase" but I thought they were British. > > NE way. Chase bit 01 and bit 99 expander. > The 99 was a nice sounding box 6 voice analogue in a 3u 19" rack. Only > ever saw one once but I was impressed. I'm not sure if it was > polly-timbral or not but very analogue. The BIT One/01/99 were all products of the italian company Crumar, later LEM. They were distributed in the UK/US under the UNIQUE or CHASE brand name. They called it BIT because they want to prevent the italian organ manufacturer synth syndrom, which allready prevented the ELKA synths from beeing big sellers. The 01/99 were bi-timbral in layer or split mode. The DCO waves were very coarse, only 16 steps for the saw wave. Georg. From atomic@netcom.comFri Jun 23 11:04:57 1995 Date: Fri, 23 Jun 1995 09:05:55 -0700 (PDT) From: atomic city To: jeanniel@merle.acns.nwu.edu Cc: ANALOGUE@hyperreal.com Subject: Re: Bit 1 vs Bit 99 vs Unique jeanniel@merle.acns.nwu.edu writes-- > >Hi! Hi yourself, bionaut. > Sorry guys, but I had to generate another question, > actually 4 closely related questions: > * what is the difference between BIT 1 and BIT 99? The Bit One's MIDI implementation is nightmarish. The Bit 99's is merely poor. Aside from that and different silk screening on the front panel, they're the same synth. Bit Electronics went under and was picked up by another Italian firm (I want to say Elka...?) who put out the Bit 99 with a few software tweaks and new silkscreens. > * which one of them was marketed in US under the name "UNIQUE"? Neither. The Unique keyboard was the DBK, and the rack was the DBE. They came after the Bit 99. > * was UNIQUE stuff any different from bit 1/99? The MIDI implementation was even more stable than the 99's; most folks who tried them say that a DBK is about as good as that particular design is ever going to get. > * how much are they going for? Cheap like borscht. They're too flaky and no one famous uses one. > I've heard BIT1 last week, and was really blown away. It sounded so soft > and gentle... Its sound is rather thin but not screaming thin, it is just > like clouds.... Now THAT is a lovely analogy. I owned one as a second master keyboard in 1987 or so, and ditched it in a tearing hurry. In terms of pure MIDI hell, it was the only thing I owned that ever came NEAR my Cyclone. I liked the sound, but trying to integrate it with my setup drove me nuts. Nowadays, if I had the room for one, I'd consider it, since my Studio 5LX makes a great MIDI firewall. I wouldn't pay more than $200 for it, and that's if it's in mint shape. mike -- DAC Crowell: "Optigans also can be tampered with considerably. The / ultimate Optigan nightmare could be in cutting new acetate disks /..Metlay.. and going berserk with a marker to create all sorts of aleatory / patterns and racket, then stacking that mess with one of the / Atomic City typical organ cheeze disks. Lots of potential for abuse here." / PO Box 81175 / Pittsburgh PA Mike Metlay: "And people wonder why I run this band." / 15217-0675 USA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- atomic@netcom.com * http://pd.net/atomic-city * Order our CDs directly from our Web site, or from INFINITE ILLUSIONS at 1-800-548-6724 (FAX 904-668-5825) From jupiter4@bt-sys.bt.co.ukSun Jun 25 11:37:19 1995 Date: Sun, 25 Jun 1995 15:50:03 +0000 From: Dave's Synth account To: analogue@hyperreal.com, ms20@wolfe.net Subject: BIT 99 (soft and delicate, WHATTT!!!!!!!) Hi, I've deleted the post about the BIT 99, But, I thought I'd better post seing as I've got a 99 and a rack 01r The post mentioned the BIT as being thin and something, any way it wasn't derogatory just praising its ambient character I think. Anyway I'd like to stick up for the Bit and say that I regul;arly use mine as a Bass end crippler!!!! Most of my patches for it are either SFX, Pads or crippling Bass Enders,. The arse end on this machine just shreds when it needs to. It did take a whiile to suss it out properly. I useually get an nice tight envelope : ) attack, 10 -20 decay and zero sus / rel. Same for VCA/VCF Whack the prog volumne value up to full. Dtune the OSCs. SEt oscs to bottom of range or one bottom and one an octave up. Then use square and Tri(optional) Set Pulse width to the middle Maybe make it velocity sensitive on pulse width. Then fiddle with the filter settings and the env depth amount alot until your ears bleed or 3 mojor emergency services arrive wanting directions to the nuclear test facility that has suddenly been reported detonating in the vicinity, (blabber etc..)dribble, !@?> Any ways, It blows the pants off my Cheetah MS6, my JX8P, sometimes my MKS7, but not my Matrix 6 although the BIT does tend to have a sound out on its own (Particularly a bit of a whine on the oSC's, but the filter can remove these for Bass soiunds.) I should also point out that an identical prog on both BITS does not always sound exactly the same. Anyway, just my 2cents on the usefullness of BITS... Cheers, Dave .....