I am now accepting pre-orders for the next run of Benjolin V3 and Butterfly Benjolin chaotic sound instruments. Pre-orders will be accepted up to 05 MARCH 2016 with a 50% deposit required. Projected delivery of this run will be mid-APRIL 2016.

The Benjolin is a standalone synthesizer designed by Rob Hordijk from the Netherlands. It contains two oscillators (one LFO and one VCO), a voltage controlled filter and a circuit called a “Rungler”, which allows chaotic cross-modulation possibilities between the different parts of the circuit. Hordijk refers to the Benjolin as a circuit which has been “bent by design.”

These hand-made Macumbista Benjolins are officially licensed by Hordijk, and have been further customized with a patchbay, which can be used to interface with other modular synthesizers or to setup further control voltage feedback systems within the Benjolin itself, attenuators on the three control voltage input and LEDs displaying the internal state of the Rungler. The double version, which I have named the Butterfly Benjolin, allows incredible amounts of chaotic cross-modulation between the two halves of the instrument.

PRICE

The price of the Benjolin V3 is EUR 495 (incl. 19% EU VAT) / EUR 416 (shipped outside the EU), and the price of the Butterfly Benjolin is EUR 895 (incl. 19% EU VAT) / EUR 752 (shipped outside the EU), plus shipping.

Please contact me using the CONTACT page here, or through MACUMBISTA at-the-domain GMAIL dot COM.

BOX OPTIONS

Current wooden box options for the Benjolin V3 are natural finish and “hammered” green, blue and red (limited supplies of all “hammered” finishes!!!!). The Butterfly Benjolin comes in natural finish only.

PANEL DETAILS

As of the summer of 2015, all the aluminum front panels of my Benjolins and Butterfly Benjolins are engraved and milled by CNC machine at the FabLab Berlin.

CUSTOM OPTIONS

Additionally, there are a number of customizations available for PRE-ORDER ONLY:

CUSTOM TEXT ENGRAVING: rename your instrument with your own custom engraved text, up to approx 25 characters. EUR 15 (incl. 19% EU VAT) / EUR 13 (shipped outside the EU)

LOOP SWITCH: The LOOP switch locks the otherwise chaotic pattern of the Rungler into a loop. The UP position is a loop of 4 steps going forward, the MIDDLE position is the normal chaos of the Rungler, and the DOWN position is a loop of 4 steps forwards and 4 steps backwards. EUR 25 (incl. 19% EU VAT) / EUR 21 (shipped outside the EU)

EXTERNAL INPUT SWITCH: The external input 6.3mm jack on the back of this Benjolin allows a signal from another source to be sent through the Low Pass Filter of the instrument. Selecting “EXT” on the FIL INPUT switch sends this signal to the FIL input, where the cutoff and resonance controls of the filter can be used to affect it. When the FIL INPUT switch is in the “INT” position, the PWM signal, mixed with a small amount of RUN voltage, is sent to the FIL (this is the normal Benjolin signal path). EUR 25 (incl. 19% EU VAT) / EUR 21 (shipped outside the EU)

EXTERNAL RUNGLER CLOCK:: A jack of your choice (banana, mini-jack or 6.3mm jack) on the back panel of the instrument provides a switchable clock source for the Rungler of the instrument. The DOWN switch position clocks the Rungler from OSCILLATOR 2 of the intrument, the UP switch position clocks it from the external clock input. EUR 35 (incl. 19% EU VAT) / EUR 30 (shipped outside the EU)

RUNGLER BITS OUT: Three colored banana jacks on the back match the colored LEDs on the front, and give a +5.6V gate voltage when the corresponding LED lights up. These are the individual bits of the Rungler, which are summed together through a simple Digital-to-Analog Converter to provide the RUN control voltage. EUR 25 (incl. 19% EU VAT) / EUR 21 (shipped outside the EU)

VIDEOS

Duelling Benjolins from macumbista on Vimeo.

Two Benjolins cross-patched to modulate each other function identically to the Dual “Butterfly” Benjolin.

A Static Environment for Complementary Instabilities from macumbista on Vimeo.

This long-take shows an example of symmetrical cross-patching between the two halves of the Butterfly Benjolin, and gives an idea of the self-modulation possible with this dual instrument.

Thank you for your kind attention!