#1

Benjolis

A version of Alejandro Olarte’s Benjolis SC patch inspired from Rob Hordijk’s Benjolin.

A somewhat unpredictable synth that is highly enjoyable to interact with which can produce both the harshest of noise and some really tranquil sounds.

20191230_124140
20191230_1241404608×3456 3.62 MB

I’ve wanted to build a virtual version of a Blippoo Box for some time (after being introduced to it by Mark Trayle) but then found Alejandro’s SC version on the SuperCollider forum. I thought it would be perfect for the Norns so with his blessing I converted the patch to a Crone synthdef and added in a UI and some performance capabilities. This also served as a way to do a deep dive into some Lua UI stuff that I needed to get down. Thought you might all be interested as well!

There is an engine that is very usable in other projects and a UI for interacting with it from either the Norns encoders or from a MIDI device. I will need the ability to save MIDI mappings as well so that should come in an update later.

Thanks to Alejandro Olarte (Hyppasus) for creating the Synth!

Some background on the Benjolin

Documentation

use K2 and K3 to cycle through pairs of dials.

use E2 and E3 to adjust the left and right dials of the selected pair.

use E1 to control volume.

if you hold K1 (shift) and use K2, you will have a momentary mute.

if you hold K1 (shift) and use K3, you will have a mute that toggles.

SEQUENCING CONTROLS:

at the bottom of the params menu there are four MIDI mappings that you can enable.

first choose the external device.

then there are three options for each mapping:

  • enable mapping
  • MIDI channel
  • note mapping

enable mapping is, itself, MIDI mappable and simply enables this mapping or not.

MIDI channel sets the incoming MIDI channel for this mapping to listen to

note mapping sets which param this will be mapped to.

thanks to Alejandro Olarte for the SynthDef

Download or Install from Library

(reset your norns after install)

v2.0.1 - https://github.com/scazan/benjolis/archive/2.0.1.zip

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#2

bonkers! i love it! great work on this!

3 Likes
#3

Thanks! I’ve been improvising with it a bit and there’s actually a few other features I’ll probably try to add into the control portion. Namely, LFO controls and midi notes controlling the two frequency params.

4 Likes
#4

Those would be great additions. I’m going to hook it up to a MIDI Fighter Twister this afternoon and take it for a proper spin. Thanks again for this port!

1 Like
#5

This is awesome! Thanks so much for sharing, @scazan!

11 Likes
#6

I’ve added benjolis to the community catalog. Update the catalog in maiden, install, and SYSTEM > RESET to pick up the new engine.

5 Likes
#7

love the video! (and the sounds)

1 Like
#8

sounds fantastic! and faithful to hordijk’s original. i adore seeing/hearing circuits migrate between technicities.

4 Likes
#9

duet with a benjolin, for funsies (sorry about poor audio quality and highly disorganized “studio”!)

7 Likes
#10

Benjolis (playing from tape) and Circles

Dueling Benjolis

6 Likes
#11

AWESOME!

i can’t wait to try this out with my Blipoo Box and my Butterfly Benjolin!
:stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like
#12

Does the Grids work with the Benjolis?

#13

@scazan
i just assigned every single parameter with a FaderFox PC12.
super neato!

would it be possible to have the Benjolis display react to movement from MIDI controls?

4 Likes
#14

@scazan i can’t thank you enough for this!!! wowowowow

1 Like
#15

oh yes! I totally forgot to ensure that that was the case. I can fix that in an update. I’ll add in a couple of other things I am noticing and would like to have as well.

1 Like
#16

I’m not sure! I don’t have a grid and am not sure how it works in terms of communication. But the patch does support MIDI quite easily.

#17

really pleased to see some more experimental, unpredictable type noises and sound device scripts on norns - thankyou!

7 Likes
#18

I think I munged this with another demo I saw. It sounds really rungly! I’ve made a few and ported a few Benjolins and this is a wonderful patch

1 Like
#19

Thank you for this! Super playable and just what I needed at the end of the week.

1 Like
#20

2.0.0 Update! (install from the Maiden library)

Breaking changes

The params menu has changed (it won’t change again but hence the 2.0.0 designation)
*(If you have previously installed Benjolis AND have, at any time, mapped a MIDI controller to the parameters, please delete the file /home/we/dust/data/benjolis/benjolis.pmap [note that you will lose the previous mappings])

Updates

  • UI controls now provide feedback when modified from a mapped controller
  • Added 4 external MIDI-note input mappings for external sequencing (this can get pretty nuts)
    • MIDI notes can be mapped to either frequency or “CC” style params
    • Mappings can be enabled and disabled via MIDI mapping
    • Mappings can be MIDI Channel specific
  • Better spacing of UI
  • Simple delay-based panner

Most of this was in order to satisfy some features I needed as well (such as enabled and disabled external control per channel).

Also please be careful with the rungler filter and Q as this can be sensitive to explosions (especially if you are piping it through the reverb).

Let me know if there are any issues.

18 Likes