Your favorite Random Module

[defalut]

For me it's the humble sample and hold.

As others have noted pure random rarely sounds musical, so it needs to be constrained in some way. When you buy a random module those constraints are decided (to an extent) by the manufacturer, not the wiggler. In random, as with most things in modular, if you want control over these things you need to start with the basic building blocks.

So if we're looking for something specific I'd rather have a Stages than a Marbles...

...which I do!

I agree; i´m not impressed with the musicality of randomized melodies in most cases but there are exceptions as always.

The Tuesday looks very nice and DivKid has a pair of good videos, since randomness can be applied to existing sequence in increasing amount or from scratch i think this would be a good thing to have, at least to get started when one runs out of ideas.
Controlled randomness can be a good thing; but for me personally i think it´s nicer on rhythmic parts or maybe in arrangements. Like, adding sound fx to a track at random intervals and random sounds to liven it up a bit maybe?

[SinkWhole]

For me it's the humble sample and hold.

As others have noted pure random rarely sounds musical, so it needs to be constrained in some way. When you buy a random module those constraints are decided (to an extent) by the manufacturer, not the wiggler. In random, as with most things in modular, if you want control over these things you need to start with the basic building blocks.

So if we're looking for something specific I'd rather have a Stages than a Marbles...

...which I do!

Not sure I agree. I mean yeah, if you buy marbles you’re going to have THOSE functions. But it’s the same as choosing/using multiple modules - You’ll still have THOSE functions. You’re always going to be hemmed in by your rack. Marbles plays nice with other stuff, in its own ways, so I’d imagine it’s equally as ‘only limited by modules that surround it and imagination’ as any other kind of option? Pros/cons as always, but I don’t see something like Marbles as being More constrained than rigging up a bunch of modules? Just rig up a bunch of modules ‘with’ Marbles and then ‘wiggler’ choice etc is still open/endless? But I’m a Euro newb so my thinking could be wonky on this

[cptnal]

I agree

Cool.

Not sure I agree

Also cool.

[Sync]

For me it's the humble sample and hold.

As others have noted pure random rarely sounds musical, so it needs to be constrained in some way. When you buy a random module those constraints are decided (to an extent) by the manufacturer, not the wiggler. In random, as with most things in modular, if you want control over these things you need to start with the basic building blocks.

So if we're looking for something specific I'd rather have a Stages than a Marbles...

...which I do!

Not sure I agree. I mean yeah, if you buy marbles you’re going to have THOSE functions. But it’s the same as choosing/using multiple modules - You’ll still have THOSE functions. You’re always going to be hemmed in by your rack. Marbles plays nice with other stuff, in its own ways, so I’d imagine it’s equally as ‘only limited by modules that surround it and imagination’ as any other kind of option? Pros/cons as always, but I don’t see something like Marbles as being More constrained than rigging up a bunch of modules? Just rig up a bunch of modules ‘with’ Marbles and then ‘wiggler’ choice etc is still open/endless? But I’m a Euro newb so my thinking could be wonky on this

One thing I've discovered about Marbles, is you can feed a sequence from another source and Marbles can then constrain it in several ways-- by quantization to a scale, and by randomly scrambling the ordering, capturing the sequence and then slowly mutating it, etc. And the "sequence" could be the output of another random module that has its own unique kind of constraints, at which point Marbles could essentially, inherit those constraints and add some new variations pretty much within those constraints. Once I realized it could do that, it became a lot more useful and a lot more musical.

It appears that at some point, MI actually considered implementing Markoff modelling, which would have been awesome for yet another useful form of randomness constraint, but it may be that memory requirements for that feature were prohibitive. That's something I'd certainly like to see in a random module tho...

[Foghorn]

I am going to post here again and say I really like the Ladik R-120 RND.
Ladik R-120 RND
This module has "center" and "spread" controls.
Center is the voltage that the output is centered around and spread is how much the output can deviate from the center setting, or kind of offset and gain.
The best part is that it is quantized with 16 different scales.
NO, the best part is voltage control over center and spread.
Wait, the best part is the inexpensive price.
Man, I love this thing.

Foghorn

[Jaypee]

Never used any random modules yet. What about subtle modulations?

When I found my sweet spot, I just want subtle modulation. Yeah I know VCA but...

[j259]

For me it's the humble sample and hold.

As others have noted pure random rarely sounds musical, so it needs to be constrained in some way. When you buy a random module those constraints are decided (to an extent) by the manufacturer, not the wiggler. In random, as with most things in modular, if you want control over these things you need to start with the basic building blocks.

So if we're looking for something specific I'd rather have a Stages than a Marbles...

...which I do!

I agree; i´m not impressed with the musicality of randomized melodies in most cases but there are exceptions as always.

The Tuesday looks very nice and DivKid has a pair of good videos, since randomness can be applied to existing sequence in increasing amount or from scratch i think this would be a good thing to have, at least to get started when one runs out of ideas.
Controlled randomness can be a good thing; but for me personally i think it´s nicer on rhythmic parts or maybe in arrangements. Like, adding sound fx to a track at random intervals and random sounds to liven it up a bit maybe?

The ultimate random melodic module for me would be able to take two or more inputs, say two lines of polyphony and then randomize them while keeping them harmonically coherent. Perhaps this could be facilitated through annotation of the phrases (bars would be more rudimentary) where coherence is most important, or to randomize within phrases of notes from more than one part, rather than across each part linearly, more or less (which means to keep musical cohesion you can only do one part with partial forward randomization a time or gate randomization).

They could have done this with Rene2 with coordinate linking across voices but you can't link the phrases per se so you have to do mode states, which is not as interesting and everything starts to sound the same (triplet runs) because you have only 16 coordinates not phrases moving through states. You can kind of isolate phrases through blanking coordinates but it's not the same thing. Really surprises me no one in the in closed beta testing thought of this coordinate linking or perhaps it was too hard to implement! Random to quantizer has ultimately the same basic shortcoming.

Marbles could probably be expanded to work with another Marbles, so you could for example at least link the Deja Vu sections and manipulated phrases manually, with one being slave and one master.

I tend to use Sapel, harmonics and sample and holds (like cptnal said, Stages), and am unaware of any solution like the above. I like Marbles for one stream and for random rhythms, but I haven't found a random module that can manipulate multiple parts as phrases with sections and musical development.

That said, you can sort of simulate the effect if you randomize one part through sections and carefully through-compose the other.

[BananaPlug]

Random is like salt or sugar. Too much is a bore but so is none at all. lasting favorites are an old Wogglebug #3 (especially the smooth for a wind/surf feel) and the Blacet Improbablilty drive's window comparator "digital" noise for random popping impulses.

More often, I use things that's not really random, but are obscurely related to something else. For instance a clock you're using can be divided and then used to drive a Euclid pattern. The result is not random at all though at first it can seem to be. If it's sparse enough it takes some time to realize it's somehow related to other changes going on.

[JakoGreyshire]

Random is like salt or sugar. Too much is a bore but so is none at all. lasting favorites are an old Wogglebug #3 (especially the smooth for a wind/surf feel) ~snip~

Smoothing out stepped S&H is cool, and can be done a few different ways...


In my last performance patch I had a surf break and tempest wind by patching noise through a Make Noise MMG. I needed to to use my Erica Synths' RND noise, LFO, and S&H outputs... Quite a cool patch I must say.. Anyway, the S&H was to sharp and was giving some abrupt transitions so I thought, "hey, I need to smooth this S&H out a bit... How can I do that??... "Well, lets use a vactrol!" So, I put a Mystic Circuits 0HP LPG in between the RND and the filter(MMG)... I also put a negative offset into the CV of the LPG. Not sure what that did exactly, but it made it sound better.. It all worked great because the Erica Synths RND is clockable as demonstrated with the video I posted earlier in this thread. I have a lot of fun using these building blocks to create things like wind, rain and shore breaks..

There are lots of cool things to do with noise and random elements.. Cool things that can be musical and/or other... I would recommend that if one finds themselves not liking random and noise, then dig deeper. Make it your own. There is a way for you to like it(tons of ways actually).

I guess it's also possible that this ownership could not be possible as well... A capacitor only has a certain amount of capacitance unless deconstructed and rebuilt. Are we not variable capacitors? Change is the only constant. Bend like the bamboo does with the wind, otherwise get snapped when the wind pushes past the resistance point.

Or not, whatever... I'll still like you either way...

[kindredlost]

Nice I really need to dig in to Marbles. Bought it recently at same time as a few other modules and been a bit overwhelmed due to lack of free time to learn them all.

Nice sounds in this track. What other modules were involved?

MI Clouds, Z-DSP (Halls of Valhalla), and Strymon Blue Sky. I used a few MegaOhm Audio LFO's and three synthesizers.com Q106 vco's and Q109 EG's. There is also an Oakley Audio Ring Modulator for a couple of the vco's. It is a similar clone to the Arp Odyssey RM. Very tasty.

I am just getting started with Marbles as well. It takes a bit of time to grog the wide array of things that are possible with the module. It is one of their more intuitive designs though (IMO). I found it a little intimidating to start off but after a few minutes the basic feature set became easy to find things which worked in a satisfying way. Cant go wrong here for finding the perfect balance between random and inventive linear melody and rhythm sequences.

[Bostich]

Hard to choose because I still haven't explored either PNW or Marbles enough but the simplicty of Pam's set-and-go is very appealing. Sometimes working with Marbles I'm not sure it's working (vs. me not working ot properly - which is what is actually happening)

[Multi Grooves]

Beyond SSF URA, I used the AS RS380 for a relatively controlled random. But the formers pulse burst is great for rhythms. I've not really taken the time to hook it up with a scope and mess worth it's numerous cv ins. I will set some point.
I'm really looking forward to SSF Quantum Rainbow 2 arriving. I saw it was highly recommended for use with the URA but I've not seen any pointers. Anyone else?


*Edit * nearly forgot: ADDAC 506
It features their much used min/max range idea for kicking out cv. Early impressions are, "meh." But some of my fav modules started like this before that deep appreciation came about later.

[ZenitSar]

I am going to post here again and say I really like the Ladik R-120 RND.
Ladik R-120 RND
This module has "center" and "spread" controls.
Center is the voltage that the output is centered around and spread is how much the output can deviate from the center setting, or kind of offset and gain.
The best part is that it is quantized with 16 different scales.
NO, the best part is voltage control over center and spread.
Wait, the best part is the inexpensive price.
Man, I love this thing.

Foghorn

That sounds really good. I'm very interested in some of the Ladik stuff.

[fosferus]

Wogglebug / NLC Hypster

hypster is great. combine that with a little s+h module and you've got a chaos turing machine.

[matttech]

How can it be my favourite if it's random?

[Jaypee]

No love for cwejman RG-6?

[jjterbeek]

Probs for the Tuesday from TINRS. Very nice module!

[perplx]

No love for cwejman RG-6?

It looks nice, but is it even possible to get one?

For stepped random things, the Doepfer A-149-1/-2 has basically displaced the Wogglebug V1 for me. 4 outputs, each with different characteristics, all designed with musical intent in mind - 1 output has random octaves, the other random semitones, etc. with CV-controllable changes in range / distribution.

I would not want to use it without a quantizer, and a mixer to have intervals from multiple outputs, or combine some random with manual control.

Honourable mention for the Ornament+Crime in Low-rents mode, the chaotic attractors - don't use it much since I need the O+C as a quantizer, but it is definitely cool.

[BTG]

No love for cwejman RG-6?

I found it very hard to use and confusing. Much happier with Marbles (or even Sapel) and A-149-1. RG-6 do show up from time to time for sale though.

[PietroC]

I have not tried any other Random source other than Make - Noise WobbleBug which is perfect for me and my needs

I have been looking into the Harvestman / IME -Zorlon Cannon MK2

4 individual random gate outputs plus a mix output of all four outputs with External Clocking

Plus the same for noise generation

So 10 different random sources

Am i misunderstanding?
and
Is there something comparaitive to this?

[Skilling]

Make Noise Wogglebug v1.

I have Verbos Random Sampling in my plans and have high hopes on that one too.

[BLogic12]

I gotta go with my mutable marbles.
It’s been the center of every patch.
I also love my Sapel and expanded Turing machine mk2.
And I miss my wogglebug mk2 will probably buy one back someday!
But marbles wins imo! So much control of the random, and the bias relationship between Chan 1 and 3. It’s just too good!

[Buttons ARE toys]

I am going to post here again and say I really like the Ladik R-120 RND.
Ladik R-120 RND
This module has "center" and "spread" controls.
Center is the voltage that the output is centered around and spread is how much the output can deviate from the center setting, or kind of offset and gain.
The best part is that it is quantized with 16 different scales.
NO, the best part is voltage control over center and spread.
Wait, the best part is the inexpensive price.
Man, I love this thing.

Foghorn

How have I not come across this before?! That's the one problem with Ladik. He has so many damn modules that it's easy to miss gems like this when looking at all his designs.