More than just a 3-voice synth, CRUM HUM is a generative instrument with touch controls and knobs for dialing in aleatoric chords and melodies. It’s the latest boutique creation from Nyström, maker of the Crum Drum.
Swedish maker Albert Nyström has built on the generative features of Crum Drum for something more drone-y and ambient. And it sounds lovely. I should have a unit in to test and product some sounds with, just when we need some ambient soundscapes in the dark gray of Berlin winters and the darker news outside.
Features:
- 3 melodic voices
- “Dynamic” touch control (so those triangular metal plates aren’t just triggers but let you control volume and timbre expressively)
- Generative, randomized melodies and chords
- 12 adjustable scales (mostly 12-TET, but you also can quantize to the harmonic series, something called “microtonal,” or my favorite, unquantized)
- Delay, reverb, drive, LFO
- CV output
- Clock input
- MIDI sequencing and CC
And there are a lot of sound engines packed in there, too: saw/lowpass, square/lowpass, three wavetable, two FM, chords, bass/chord/melody with two variations, noise, and then when I start to perk up, “chaotic, glitchy, noisy FM.”
The randomization settings look quite subtle and unique, with different behaviors selectable for how it responds to clock pulses, and that tone control also changes depending on the engine. Combined with MIDI and CV interconnectivity, this looks like way more than a unitasker.
Crum Hum ships soon. Stay tuned. This seems to be the kind of soundscape maker the planet needs right now.
Oddly, CDM doesn’t have an actual link to the company or product page in their post so here it is-