DS-1 Drums is an analog Drum Pack based on the vintage and ultra-rare Crumar DS-1, a rock solid dual-oscillator mono synth capable of generating impressive drum/fx sounds. Less than 200 units produced in 1978.

Released in 1978, the DS-1 (the first Crumar full-fledged synthesizer) was designed to compete against the popular Minimoog. Rightly called “the Italian Minimoog”, the DS-1 can easily generate big analog basses & leads and an unexpected range of exotic, solid and distinctive percussive/FX sounds. But Crumar released this beast years after Korg and Roland began their domination of the low-cost arena. Consequently, and despite its cool sound and features, everybody overlooked the DS-1 and less than 200 units were sold.

The Fake Digital

The Crumar DS-1 implemented one of the earliest digitally controlled oscillators (DCO) – if not THE earliest. In those days this was enough to mark a synth as “Digital Synthesizer” but actually the DS-1 is a fully analog monosynth with analog controlled digital oscillators. The DS-1 implements a 24dB/octave resonant low-pass filter (inspired by the Moog Ladder), one LFO (assignable to oscillators, VCA, VCF and PW) and very fast analog envelopes that make it possible to generate punchy basses, leads and drums.