BRENSO is Frap Tools’ primary analog source of articulated waveforms whose degree of entanglement can be precisely set by the musician.
Its concept developed from a reflection on the very meaning of the word ‘complex,’ which comes from the Latin verb plector, literally meaning ‘to weave.’ The purpose of BRENSO is to update the usual approach to ‘complex oscillator’ by offering many threads to be woven together, rather than a pre-defined weft of controls and waveforms: this to improve clarity, manageability, and to provide more sonic options to the artist.
BRENSO consists of three sections: two for the sound generation (yellow and green), and one for sound processing (white and red).
The generation sections allow control over the two triangle-core oscillators, which can be modulated and synced both internally and externally. The Frequency Modulation can be any combination of exponential and/or linear through-zero.
The processing section is composed of a Timbre Modulation section (white) and a final stage of Amplitude Modulation (red). The Timbre Modulation contains two parallel waveshapers with a PWM circuit, which are mixed with a crossfader and processed by a wavefolder. The wavefolder has symmetry control and can be pinged through a dedicated clock input with a shapeable, nonlinear behavior.
A four-quadrant multiplier further modulates the timbre-modulated sound with the green oscillator’s sine wave: it can perform Amplitude Modulation or Ring Modulation, and a crossfader defines the balance between the modulated and unmodulated signal.
The Timbre section CV inputs are semi-normalled to a Timbre Modulation Bus, which is, in turn, semi-normalled to the green sine wave. Many other modulation destinations are semi-normalled to the other oscillator’s sine wave, with attenuverters and attenuators to guarantee precise control. All the semi-normalizations can be ‘broken’ anywhere throughout the signal routing according to the musician’s needs.
Coarse Frequency Lock
No more tuning issues during a performance!
Every oscillator has a button that locks its coarse frequency to the current value. From this moment on, every twist of the ‘Coarse’ knob will be ineffective (but The Fine knob is still available, from small adjustments on the fly!).
Analog Thru-Zero Triangle Cores
BRENSO’s oscillators are exceptionally stable and provide rich harmonic content. This happens thanks to the two thru-zero triangle cores, which guarantee the most playable behavior and the best response to audio-rate modulation.
You won’t need to find a sweet spot because BRENSO is calibrated to sound ‘as expected’ in any setting!
Linear and/or Exponential FM
Many controls allow for complex and detailed FM sound shaping. It is possible to set the amount of exponential and linear thru-zero FM independently per each oscillator and control their amount of ‘deviation’ through two separate knobs or CV inputs.
(The green oscillator can also work at sub-audio rate, and can therefore become a super complex LFO!)
Four Expanded Modulation Buses
BRENSO’s ‘complex’ signal path is expanded on the front panel and grouped in four ‘modulation buses’: two for modulating frequencies, one for modulating timbre and one for AM and RM.
The green oscillator is always the semi-normalled modulator, but any other source can be used.
Original Timbre Shaping Design
The timbre modulation section has been designed from scratch and offers a versatile blend of two wavefolders, a waveshaper, and a PWM circuit.
A dedicated VCA controls the global amount of modulation to be sent to each modulation section, but the semi-normalization can be broken anytime.
Pluckable Wavefolder
We designed from scratch an analog circuit that, when excited by an external trig, opens the wavefolder above its maximum level and then closes it down with a non-linear slope, whose length can be manually regulated.
This solution can generate percussive tones with a very organic decay.
How much is my shipping?
Shipping is automatically calculated before you submit your payment information. Simply add items to your cart and proceed to the checkout page, where you'll be offered shipping options and their prices. In the UK it's normally around £4 for order values under £150, and free above that. Shipping to mainland EU is typically between £7 and £20, depending on the shipping method and the size and weight of the order.
Do you ship to my country?
Almost certainly - the site will give you an estimate of shipping costs if you add an item to the cart and then enter your country and postcode. If you have specific requirements (such as if you prefer UPS over FedEx, for example) then let us know in advance and we'll try to work something out for you.
Shipping methods
We use a combination of Parcelforce, DPD, Royal Mail and UPS for the UK, and for international orders it's either Royal Mail, UPS, DHL or FedEx depending on where you are in the world. If you have a particular preference then try to let us know BEFORE you order so we can look into it for you. Please note that there may occasionally be additional shipping charges if you live in a remote area, depending on what surcharges are applied by the shipper. We'll get in touch to discuss this with you in such cases.
Dispatch times
For UK orders, we normally dispatch the same working day if we get the order before 15:00. If you have a really urgent situation then of course drop us an email before ordering and we'll always do our absolute best to accommodate you.
For international orders, we normally dispatch the same day if we get the order before 13:00 but again, occasionally it might be the next day before we can send it out, and sometimes FedEx or UPS may come a little earlier than scheduled which would also push an order into the next day.
Shipping times
Since April 2020 the couriers we use have suspended guarantees for shipping times, so even though we're paying them for priority services - 24-48 hours for most of the world - in practice it's often an extra day on top and sometimes it can be longer.
There is absolutely nothing we can do about this unfortunately. If you are outside the UK and it's a life-or-death situation where you absolutely MUST have that passive mult for the next day then... it may be better to find a local supplier.
Saturday shipping
If you're in the UK and you order before 15:00 on a Friday then we can send something for a Saturday delivery (NB: this applies to UK mainland addresses only). The success rate with DPD is about 95% so it's worth a punt most of the time. Please note that if you select Saturday shipping on an order placed earlier in the week, we'll wait until Friday to ship it.
Pre-orders
If a product is listed as a pre-order, it means we've ordered it from the supplier but it's not physically in stock yet. The product listing will include an estimated shipping date based on the best information we have from the supplier, but do bear in mind this is subject to change and is not a guaranteed date.
If you place an order containing a mixture of in-stock and pre-order items, we'll normally hold off on shipping anything until the pre-order item(s) have arrived, rather than splitting it into multiple shipments. If you need the in-stock items sooner, we'd recommend placing separate orders. As always, please get in touch if you have questions.
Product Overview
BRENSO is Frap Tools’ primary analog source of articulated waveforms whose degree of entanglement can be precisely set by the musician.
Its concept developed from a reflection on the very meaning of the word ‘complex,’ which comes from the Latin verb plector, literally meaning ‘to weave.’ The purpose of BRENSO is to update the usual approach to ‘complex oscillator’ by offering many threads to be woven together, rather than a pre-defined weft of controls and waveforms: this to improve clarity, manageability, and to provide more sonic options to the artist.
BRENSO consists of three sections: two for the sound generation (yellow and green), and one for sound processing (white and red).
The generation sections allow control over the two triangle-core oscillators, which can be modulated and synced both internally and externally. The Frequency Modulation can be any combination of exponential and/or linear through-zero.
The processing section is composed of a Timbre Modulation section (white) and a final stage of Amplitude Modulation (red). The Timbre Modulation contains two parallel waveshapers with a PWM circuit, which are mixed with a crossfader and processed by a wavefolder. The wavefolder has symmetry control and can be pinged through a dedicated clock input with a shapeable, nonlinear behavior.
A four-quadrant multiplier further modulates the timbre-modulated sound with the green oscillator’s sine wave: it can perform Amplitude Modulation or Ring Modulation, and a crossfader defines the balance between the modulated and unmodulated signal.
The Timbre section CV inputs are semi-normalled to a Timbre Modulation Bus, which is, in turn, semi-normalled to the green sine wave. Many other modulation destinations are semi-normalled to the other oscillator’s sine wave, with attenuverters and attenuators to guarantee precise control. All the semi-normalizations can be ‘broken’ anywhere throughout the signal routing according to the musician’s needs.
Coarse Frequency Lock
No more tuning issues during a performance!
Every oscillator has a button that locks its coarse frequency to the current value. From this moment on, every twist of the ‘Coarse’ knob will be ineffective (but The Fine knob is still available, from small adjustments on the fly!).
Analog Thru-Zero Triangle Cores
BRENSO’s oscillators are exceptionally stable and provide rich harmonic content. This happens thanks to the two thru-zero triangle cores, which guarantee the most playable behavior and the best response to audio-rate modulation.
You won’t need to find a sweet spot because BRENSO is calibrated to sound ‘as expected’ in any setting!
Linear and/or Exponential FM
Many controls allow for complex and detailed FM sound shaping. It is possible to set the amount of exponential and linear thru-zero FM independently per each oscillator and control their amount of ‘deviation’ through two separate knobs or CV inputs.
(The green oscillator can also work at sub-audio rate, and can therefore become a super complex LFO!)
Four Expanded Modulation Buses
BRENSO’s ‘complex’ signal path is expanded on the front panel and grouped in four ‘modulation buses’: two for modulating frequencies, one for modulating timbre and one for AM and RM.
The green oscillator is always the semi-normalled modulator, but any other source can be used.
Original Timbre Shaping Design
The timbre modulation section has been designed from scratch and offers a versatile blend of two wavefolders, a waveshaper, and a PWM circuit.
A dedicated VCA controls the global amount of modulation to be sent to each modulation section, but the semi-normalization can be broken anytime.
Pluckable Wavefolder
We designed from scratch an analog circuit that, when excited by an external trig, opens the wavefolder above its maximum level and then closes it down with a non-linear slope, whose length can be manually regulated.
This solution can generate percussive tones with a very organic decay.
Technical Specs
Shipping Details
How much is my shipping?
Shipping is automatically calculated before you submit your payment information. Simply add items to your cart and proceed to the checkout page, where you'll be offered shipping options and their prices. In the UK it's normally around £4 for order values under £150, and free above that. Shipping to mainland EU is typically between £7 and £20, depending on the shipping method and the size and weight of the order.
Do you ship to my country?
Almost certainly - the site will give you an estimate of shipping costs if you add an item to the cart and then enter your country and postcode. If you have specific requirements (such as if you prefer UPS over FedEx, for example) then let us know in advance and we'll try to work something out for you.
Shipping methods
We use a combination of Parcelforce, DPD, Royal Mail and UPS for the UK, and for international orders it's either Royal Mail, UPS, DHL or FedEx depending on where you are in the world. If you have a particular preference then try to let us know BEFORE you order so we can look into it for you. Please note that there may occasionally be additional shipping charges if you live in a remote area, depending on what surcharges are applied by the shipper. We'll get in touch to discuss this with you in such cases.
Dispatch times
For UK orders, we normally dispatch the same working day if we get the order before 15:00. If you have a really urgent situation then of course drop us an email before ordering and we'll always do our absolute best to accommodate you.
For international orders, we normally dispatch the same day if we get the order before 13:00 but again, occasionally it might be the next day before we can send it out, and sometimes FedEx or UPS may come a little earlier than scheduled which would also push an order into the next day.
Shipping times
Since April 2020 the couriers we use have suspended guarantees for shipping times, so even though we're paying them for priority services - 24-48 hours for most of the world - in practice it's often an extra day on top and sometimes it can be longer.
There is absolutely nothing we can do about this unfortunately. If you are outside the UK and it's a life-or-death situation where you absolutely MUST have that passive mult for the next day then... it may be better to find a local supplier.
Saturday shipping
If you're in the UK and you order before 15:00 on a Friday then we can send something for a Saturday delivery (NB: this applies to UK mainland addresses only). The success rate with DPD is about 95% so it's worth a punt most of the time. Please note that if you select Saturday shipping on an order placed earlier in the week, we'll wait until Friday to ship it.
Pre-orders
If a product is listed as a pre-order, it means we've ordered it from the supplier but it's not physically in stock yet. The product listing will include an estimated shipping date based on the best information we have from the supplier, but do bear in mind this is subject to change and is not a guaranteed date.
If you place an order containing a mixture of in-stock and pre-order items, we'll normally hold off on shipping anything until the pre-order item(s) have arrived, rather than splitting it into multiple shipments. If you need the in-stock items sooner, we'd recommend placing separate orders. As always, please get in touch if you have questions.
