Time: Thursday 20 October 2022, 17.00-22.00 and Friday 21 October 2022, 17.00-22.00
Price: NOK 2,000 including all materials
Location: Notam, Sandakerveien 24D, building F2, Oslo
In this workshop, with expert assistance from Notam’s own Thom Johansen, we build one of the strangest and most interesting analog synth circuits out there. The Benjolin was designed by legendary Dutch synth designer Rob Hordijk (1958-2022), who originally built it as part of his synth Blippoo Box. The Benjolin is a chaos synth with two oscillators, a filter and a feedback system. This gives a very characteristic sound, controlled by a built-in sequencer that operates according to chaotic principles.
The characteristic sound of the Benjolin is largely due to the chaos circuit at the heart of the module: the rungler. The rungler consists of a shift register chip with eight steps, which is controlled by the same two oscillators that make the sound on the synth. This produces very unpredictable tonal patterns, which balance between the random and the repetitive. It is also possible to lock these patterns on the synth as needed.
This edition of the Benjolin is for modular synths in the Eurorack format. The circuit board layout was created by Tseng Kweiwen with permission from Hordijk himself. The price for this workshop includes a full kit with all components needed to build a Benjolin. A Benjolin in the eurorack format usually costs twice as much fully built.
There is a limited number of places at this workshop. The workshop runs over two days. Most people may finish building on Thursday, but Friday is open for those who need a little extra time.
Registration is confirmed by payment via this link to Paypal. After you have paid, you will receive an email from Paypal. This is your confirmation that you have a place on the course.
Watch this video for a demonstration of the Benjolin:
In this video, Rob Hordijk talks about the Rungler circuit at the heart of the Benjolin:
More about Rob Hordijk (1958-2022) here: