Most musical Synth randomizer

Gavinski

Which synths with randomizers do you find often produce good (however you define that) sounds when using the randomise button? Which ones are you not impressed with?

Samu

Two apps with (for me) very good patch randomizers come to mind TB Flowtones and Yonac Magellan 2 (Spawn Function)

nickneek

TB flowtones is great. I've never managed to get many good results randomising Bleass synths, or their effects for that matter.

Prog1967

@Samu said:
Two apps with (for me) very good patch randomizers come to mind TB Flowtones and Yonac Magellan 2 (Spawn Function)

+1 I would add Magellan 1 too. Excellent randomizer. To me those are the 3 best synth randomizers

Poppadocrock

TB Flowtones is one of the better ones. I’m a huge fan of synth randomizers.

I’ve uploaded like 4 AUM presets to Patchstorage that are synth randomizers. All use Mozaic with free scripts also on Patchstorage.

STRNG
Mononoke
Lagrange
Spectrum, Modal, & Resonator Randomizer for the free Spectrum by Mutable Instruments

Here’s the AUM Patchstorage link.

https://patchstorage.com/platform/aum/

NeuM

Another vote for TB Flowtones. Probably has the best set of randomizing parameters of any synth.

Poppadocrock

These are drums, but drum synths.

Drum Computer is great, it’s basically a synth/Sampler.

Fac Drumkit is great too which is a synth sampler as well.

All the Bram Bos ones are nice, Ruismakerfm, Noir..

Also Phasemaker by Bram.

Gavinski

Enjoying all the feedback.... So we can definitely say synth randomisation is as much of an art form as actually just creating a synth. If it's purely random it will often create unmusical results. I'm very interested in what goes into the algos of those synths which mostly create very pleasing results. I love the Silver Jews song 'Random Rules'. But when it comes to synths with good randomising capabilities, they basically need to have rules before random 😂

amusing_Grace

@Gavinski said:
Enjoying all the feedback.... So we can definitely say synth randomisation is as much of an art form as actually just creating a synth. If it's purely random it will often create unmusical results. I'm very interested in what goes into the algos of those synths which mostly create very pleasing results. I love the Silver Jews song 'Random Rules'. But when it comes to synths with good randomising capabilities, they basically need to have rules before random 😂

Your mention of Silver Jews threw me right back to the early 90‘s. Oh the memories…
Thank you!

anickt

I had patch librarians with randomizers for several of my synths back in the hardware days. No matter how much time I spent on synth programming, I always got better results starting with the randomizer and tweaking the results. I would never have gotten many of the patches I used without having started with a randomized result. It was also a great time-saver.

Gavinski

@amusing_Grace said:

@Gavinski said:
Enjoying all the feedback.... So we can definitely say synth randomisation is as much of an art form as actually just creating a synth. If it's purely random it will often create unmusical results. I'm very interested in what goes into the algos of those synths which mostly create very pleasing results. I love the Silver Jews song 'Random Rules'. But when it comes to synths with good randomising capabilities, they basically need to have rules before random 😂

Your mention of Silver Jews threw me right back to the early 90‘s. Oh the memories…
Thank you!

Oh man, don't even talk to me about the Purple Mountains album.... 'Nights that won't happen'...

robosardine

Poison and iMonopoly have also got good patch randomisers.

Poppadocrock

Poison is definitely above average.

Poppadocrock

The Kai Aras synths (Volt, Shockwave) have the option to randomize based off the relative amount of the current preset or randomize absolutely.

The best ones have some parameters to either select or a slider to adjust the amount of randomness or both that way you can randomize the parts you need or control the amount of randomization.

Oh man I forgot

ApeSoft apps!

Electric
Mood
Accordian

All have excellent randomizers…

Poppadocrock

There are several reasons I love preset randomization so much.

1. More Presets - to help build up a patch bank, especially if synth is low on presets.
2. Learn - it’s like a puzzle to reverse engineer or deconstruct the synth patch to see what’s going on to create that sound. You tinker you learn.
3. Discovery- it sometimes creates results I wouldn’t have done on my own, similar to learn, but discovering new things in a synth.
4. Quicker - I don’t always feel like building one from scratch so randomize and tinker
5. Original patches - randomized and tinkered patches help you create a unique sound for tracks
6. Provides Another option- another Avenue to be creative. I don’t always feel like creating something new or mixing or managing samples, or sound design from scratch, etc.. this provides another option, and another type of creative outlet in the same arena.

Poppadocrock

@Gavinski said:
Enjoying all the feedback.... So we can definitely say synth randomisation is as much of an art form as actually just creating a synth. If it's purely random it will often create unmusical results. I'm very interested in what goes into the algos of those synths which mostly create very pleasing results. I love the Silver Jews song 'Random Rules'. But when it comes to synths with good randomising capabilities, they basically need to have rules before random 😂

Agreed.

audiblevideo

Crystal Synth XT < = best patch randomizer
DRC is good too

Poppadocrock

I forgot DRC

Also

Moog Model D
Animoog Z

Poppadocrock

Sunrizer but it’s just ok.

cramdog

@Poppadocrock said:
Moog Model D

I was very surprised as I did not know this. Thanks for telling us. (Or was I the only one who didn't know about it?)
I tried it and if I am not mistaken, it has the feature to automatically generate patch names just like Animoog Z.

Jer4

I’ve had very nice results with the randomiser in Tera Pro

Poppadocrock

@cramdog said:

@Poppadocrock said:
Moog Model D

I was very surprised as I did not know this. Thanks for telling us. (Or was I the only one who didn't know about it?)
I tried it and if I am not mistaken, it has the feature to automatically generate patch names just like Animoog Z.

Yea, it is kind of hidden but it generates a patch with a random name as well.

Poppadocrock

Fractal Bits
Teraverse
SynthScaper LE
ID700
Addstation
Bleass Alpha
Bleass Monolit

Poppadocrock

Skiiid - drum and drone synth

db909

Glad we’re talking about this. Every synth should have one in my opinion. Also I love Kauldron for its randomizer(yonac spawn in general) AND the ability to choose a random PRESET, which is just that extra icing on the cake.

Anybody know of one that lets you specify the amp envelope before randomizing? Nothing worse than holding a key down and waiting for eternity while the randomly long as hell attack finishes

Really it would be great if iOS daws/and grooveboxes could generate a collection of random sounds on different tracks. Like you open up your daw and hit a menu and say “I want 5 tracks: a drum kit, a bass, a pad, and two leads and then you can just keep generating random instrument sets. Basically it’d be nice to just quickly try out combinations of multiple sounds right at the get go before you start composing/recording. One of the reasons I like mpc-style pads. You can sort of hear the way the track is going to sound before you make it.

markk

@Samu said:
Two apps with (for me) very good patch randomizers come to mind TB Flowtones and Yonac Magellan 2 (Spawn Function)

Took the words out of my mouth.

ecou

I find that removing LFO, Mod matrix and effects, generate more usable patch. You can add those manually, once you have a good base.

lukesleepwalker

@Gavinski said:

@amusing_Grace said:

@Gavinski said:
Enjoying all the feedback.... So we can definitely say synth randomisation is as much of an art form as actually just creating a synth. If it's purely random it will often create unmusical results. I'm very interested in what goes into the algos of those synths which mostly create very pleasing results. I love the Silver Jews song 'Random Rules'. But when it comes to synths with good randomising capabilities, they basically need to have rules before random 😂

Your mention of Silver Jews threw me right back to the early 90‘s. Oh the memories…
Thank you!

Oh man, don't even talk to me about the Purple Mountains album.... 'Nights that won't happen'...

That song is so chilling, it’s like burning your retinas staring into the void. I much prefer “Snow is falling in Manhattan”. The verse snuck in the middle about songwriters creating rooms for listeners to live in is absolutely sublime:

“Songs build little rooms in time
And housed within the song's design
Is the ghost the host has left behind
To greet and sweep the guest inside
Stoke the fire and sing his lines”

Tip of the hat, Mr Berman. I smile every time I listen.

Philippe

Drambo has a randomize function in track menu and racks menu.
I lately found myself creating synths for randomization purpose and it’s quite inspiring. I put a flexi sampler after them, hit record and hit repeatedly randomize + note until flexis recording limit is reached, I slice and BAM! A unique synth drum, and harmonized if you want to.

Since exposed parameters of Audio units can be mapped in Drambo, any AUv3 with exposed parameters can be randomized, and it takes a few seconds to do.

Great stuff!

craftycurate

@Gavinski said:
Which synths with randomizers do you find often produce good (however you define that) sounds when using the randomise button? Which ones are you not impressed with?

Definitely a fan of randomisers for many of the reasons posted above ... mostly to general a fresh and surprising starting point, rarely a finished patch, and I wish more synths had them too.

GOOD

Tera Pro - have had some rich and varied sounds ... sometimes they need a bit of work (e.g. to assign an ADSR to master output) but definitely one of my top randomisers

Bleass Omega - I've often been surprised and delighted by how much personality the sounds made by the randomiser produces. They tend to be more in the abstract sound effect category, but patches that begin life with the randomiser keep ending up being useful musically, esp to add a bit of movement or texture to ambient tracks, so definitely one of my best.

TB Flowtones - Have got some very useful results out of this. The variable control, is quite unique and kind of does what it says on the tin, plus the ability to select which aspects of the sound are to be randomised.

Animoog Z - it's kind of hidden in settings, but it's possible to use controlled randomisation by selecting only those parameter groups you want to randomise. All unselected parameters remain the same. The weird thing is that these settings also affect loading patches! If I've told the randomiser only to randomise the timbres, and I don't reset this, then when I load a patch, only the timbres of the selected patch will be loaded, which really confused the heck out of me until I worked out what was going on.

ID700 - I can often hear something useful in the randomised patch, though they usually need work to tame the random envelopes into something more useful. Good that it has a whole patch randomiser as well as an envelope randomiser.

Factory & Aparillo - not randomisers in the classic sense, but the Orbit in Aparillo and the Mod Matrix in Factory are built to surprise us, and I often find they generate very useful variations of something I was working on. A full patch randomiser for both would be great but happy with what they offer.

Some synths have partial randomisers which I find useful e.g. AddStation.

Gavinski

@Poppadocrock said:
There are several reasons I love preset randomization so much.

1. More Presets - to help build up a patch bank, especially if synth is low on presets.
2. Learn - it’s like a puzzle to reverse engineer or deconstruct the synth patch to see what’s going on to create that sound. You tinker you learn.
3. Discovery- it sometimes creates results I wouldn’t have done on my own, similar to learn, but discovering new things in a synth.
4. Quicker - I don’t always feel like building one from scratch so randomize and tinker
5. Original patches - randomized and tinkered patches help you create a unique sound for tracks
6. Provides Another option- another Avenue to be creative. I don’t always feel like creating something new or mixing or managing samples, or sound design from scratch, etc.. this provides another option, and another type of creative outlet in the same arena.

Great list of points Poppa!