#1

How many Benjolinist here? How do you like your Benjolin, stand alone instrument or integrated in your system… nice discussion and maybe audio/video

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#2

I fear I might be a Benjolin fanatic… though I’ve been going with the term Runglist, more because it rhymes with Junglist : )

I have a DIY euro benjolin, as of a year or so, but oddly I came to the process first through Max patches. Here’s a snippet of Benjolin controlled AV performance piece I developed as part of an MA a few years ago:

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#3

I’ve got a couple of diy smt eurorack benjolins, with added gain cells to bring the ouput level up to eurorack levels. Great fun using them with eg Clouds, modulating them and sequencing them with all the eurorack goodness etc :slight_smile:

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#4

This is an amazing job

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#5

I love Benjolin and have a Macumbista Butterfly. I usually play it solo but sometimes play it with others.

Also, I built out a Benjolinalike eurorack system last year. It sounds very bonkers.

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#6

This is my happy little Benjolin box. Close to a Blippoo, but not exactly the same. The Benjolin and Twinpeak are best friends. (Edit: Obviouslyt the Sloth + delay are not part of the Blippoo equation, but are great addons to the two Epoch modules which could easily stand on their own. This is a box that rewards the method of “setting up a patch and hitting record and letting it go for a couple of hours to see what happens”.)

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#7

Lovey!

Does this Benjolin have eurorack output level problems?

#8

I see this comment quite often. The answer is yes, the filter outputs from the Benjolin have a lower output. Is that a problem? Definitely no.
Not every output in Eurorack is on the same level but there are so main gain stages in a system that you can any weak signal go loud.

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#9

I love mine, got a DIY Euro Benjolin. It excels at the usual blip-blops, but I struggle to get lush sounds from it, like what is heard in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0gZuv5lziQ

It looks like he has a lot of modulation and effects going on (patch is described in the video describtion), but what i’m wondering most is how he is able to get “tuned” sounds from it. Does the Epoch Modular version track V/Oct? I can’t find any info about this online.
If anybody has any suggestion on how to obtain such sounds I’m all ears.

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#10

I took an awful long time to build this:

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image3024×3024 1.72 MB

And a lot less time to build this for a friend:

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image3024×3024 2.58 MB

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#11

Yes, the filter output on the Benjolin is very low. There’s an easy mod to bring the output up, it’s posted over at MW. Can’t look it up now, but I’ll link it later. That’s what I did to mine and it works great.

#12

No, it doesn’t unfortunately.

#13

That looks great. I am planning on doing something similar down the road with the euro board I got, but adapting it for banana and putting it in a hammond box.

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#14

I recently took delivery of Macumbista Benjolin (V5 / 2019) and have had a lot of fun with it so far. It’s great for just turning on and twisting knobs. It also sounds great through FX. I’m looking to add a headphone amp to the box, just to have the option, but haven’t gotten around to that yet. I’ll keep an eye on this thread. I want to keep exploring this awesome circuit more, but I’m worried it might end up being too esoteric or lead to “samey” results. I love the concept of chaotic modulations and interactions, and this box from Macumbista is really nicely built. If nothing else, I guess it could be one of those things that I can hold on to indefinitely, bringing it out whenever the mood strikes. Here’s one example (there are more if you click through):

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#15

I have an Epoch Benjolin and I love it. I don’t see myself ever selling it.

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#16

The only issue with changing the resistor value is that it changes the filter response (there’s a comment by Rob Hordijk about it somewhere !!!) so I just added an opamp to boost the gain post-filter.

(I also normalled Osc T1 to Osc 2 cv input, Osc T2 to Osc 1 input and OSC T2 to The filter cv input. I also made additions to the power supply to ensure both rails always come up - there are issues with using eg eurorack power supplies in that the linear regulators on the benjolin can come up at different times, effectively shorting one of the +/- 9v rails, depending on the power on slew rate)

569-modular_benjolin

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#17

Power is a bigger issue in my experience. I’ve had two and they’ve both been very finicky about their power source. Mine have not been happy in cases that don’t have a large abundance of extra power.

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#18

Blippoo is a very different animal. Awesome setup nonetheless! :slight_smile:

Cheers,
Lukasz

#19

I had a Macumbista Benjolin for a few years, and I loved it! I lost it when I was reentering the Euro world, which I regret (selling my Benji, not going back to modular :slight_smile: ). I’ve got an Epoch Benjolin now, which I like very much, but I’m thinking of selling it, because I rarely explore its full potential – I mainly use it as a drone/plonk machine. I was much more courageous with the standalone unit.

I’d LOVE to have a Butterfly (dual) Macumbista Benjolin at one time.

Overall, it’s a very rewarding and versatile instrument. Highly recommended.

Cheers,
Lukasz

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#20

One of two things is going to happen. EITHER I get lucky enough to buy a Benjolin from Rob OR Meng Qi’s Wing Pinger ships. Both are Benjolin-y.

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