The Benjolin - Build your own electronic fun-box - second edition

by Rob Hordijk & Joker Nies

20 May 2010
20 May 2010
  • STEIM
  • Utrechtsedwarsstraat 134, Amsterdam

In a one-day workshop conducted by legendary synth builder Rob Hordijk and circuit bender Joker Nies, participants will build the Benjolin, an analog sound-device that is very different from what you usually will find with other DIY-kits. This kit will ONLY be available through the workshop, it is not for sale separately. The class cost is just €70, plus a materials fee of €80. You will bring home an analog synth, and you can tell everyone that you`ve build it yourself!

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The Benjolin - source

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The Benjolin is a ‘noise box’ that is ‘bent by design’, meaning that it always has a definite amount of unpredictability while it is still intuitive to play. The Benjolin features two eighteen-octave range voltage controlled oscillators that drive a ‘rungler’ circuit, circuitry that in essence uses a special interference technique feeding back into the oscillators to force them into wild chaotic behaviour. A special slightly chaotic filter is both excited and modulated by the signals from the rungler circuitry processes, producing sounds between fat drones to grungy noise havoc. The kit is somewhat challenging to build, but with a little patience and accuracy a beginner in DIY can definitely do it successfully.