Get BenJack Forge

System requirements

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. A Mac version is planned.
• Disk space: about 550 MB.
• An audio interface to play your guitar through BenJack Forge live. Without one, you can still make effects, hear them on test sounds, and export them.
• An internet connection and an AI key to create effects (see below). Playing, refining with the knobs and exporting work offline.

Installing

1. Run BenJackForge-setup.exe.
2. Windows may show “Windows protected your PC”. The installer isn't code-signed yet, which is why Windows doesn't recognise it. Click More info, then Run anyway.
3. Follow the steps. BenJack Forge installs for your Windows account only. At the end it spends a minute or two preparing its plugin builder, once.

Your effects and exports go to Documents\BenJack Forge. To uninstall, use Settings → Apps; your effects stay where they are.

Getting started

1. Choose an AI

BenJack Forge uses an AI model to write each effect, with your own key for Claude, Gemini, Groq or OpenRouter. Some have free tiers, and you pay the provider directly for what you use. The app walks you through getting a key; open Settings to add one.

2. Connect your guitar

Plug your guitar into your audio interface, then choose the interface's input and output in BenJack Forge. Use headphones or monitors connected to the interface, not your computer's speakers, to keep the delay low.

3. Describe a sound

Type what you want to hear, for example: “a slow, deep tremolo that gets faster when I pick harder”. BenJack Forge writes the effect, tests it, and loads it. Then play, and use the knobs.

4. Refine it

Not quite right? Say what to change: “less bright”, “more sustain”, “make the echoes follow the tempo”. Every version is kept, so you can always go back. Save the knob settings you like as presets.

5. Export it

Choose Export and pick a format. Exports are saved in Documents\BenJack Forge\Exports.

• VST3 builds a .vst3 plugin folder. Either add the Exports folder to your DAW's plugin search paths, or copy the plugin into C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3, where every DAW looks (Windows asks for administrator permission). Then rescan plugins in your DAW. Exporting a newer version of the same effect updates the plugin, and your projects keep their settings.
• .tone makes a file you can send to other BenJack Forge users. They open it with Import.