Random is a mysterious plugin, and if there’s something I like when creating sounds, it’s the unknown factor. In a sense you’ll never be able to predict or plan exactly what kind of sound this plugin delivers, other than it’s going to be tilted towards a certain kind of physics and very hard materials.
To call RANDOM a physical modeling synth might be a stretch, at least it’s not modelled on any material or instrument we know, rather it works through fields of “matter” by means of the X and Y axis. But sounding real is not really the point either. The sounds you can create with RANDOM are often spaced out, dark and heavy – or piercingly brittle, enough to want to slap a limiter at the end of your chain. So if that’s what you’re looking for in your sound design, this could be worth your time.
Taking control, sort of
BEATSURFING have created a range of peculiar plugins, in each case they deliver something out of the ordinary, RANDOM being no exception. As the name implies, RANDOM can randomly morph it’s own sound source, but there are ways of controlling the output by disabling the randomizers, and actually take control over the “matter”, the physical material, and slowly work your way towards a playable patch.
The built in patches are great, but there aren’t that many, and this sort of forces you to get creative and work from what is presented. It’s quite addictive and engulfing to fiddle around in the X-Y field, while switching matter type and adjusting various degrees of aggressiveness or softness using the left hand knobs.
Interpreting the interface:
- Random Wheel and Deviance – Both create motion by fluctuating the values of the synth and the resonator. They can be turned off, for more precise control over the matter field (X-Y). I mostly turned these off.
- ADSR-section (envelope on) – Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release of your played note, an industry standard.
- Stress and Spike – These two knobs, as well as the Gain knob, combine something like attack, input volume and transient velocity, affecting how hard hitting the sound is, how much of the matter will be scooped onto your hit.
- Bleed and Fluid – These two knobs work with everything happening after the attack, most noticeable if the sustain, and or decay/release are at a certain length.
- X-Y field of matter – This is where the real fun is. Move the cursor around this huge square to get a myriad of sounds. Can be modulated, automated or just plain pulled around on the spot.
Wanted a kick, found a flute!
I’m going to say it straight: Creating a certain sound using RANDOM cannot be planned beforehand. I would be lying if I said I had created the sounds in the videos of this article by knowing exactly how to get there. Rather, I found them and fine tuned each by playing around with the built in presets, turning everything down and going up, or starting at an extreme, dialing back – it’s just going to take some time to make sounds you would want to use. So if you want to create a heavy kick drum, you might end up finding something that would sound great played as a wind instrument.
The learning curve for RANDOM is not really there, since the plugin is so non-linear. The different matter types are the core of the plugin sound design wise, and I could easily wish for even more of these to play around with in a future update. I find myself switching matter type and doing X-Y navigation more often than modifying the knobs. Also, when you’re creating a sound, don’t turn on the random wheel at the top left corner until you have the base sound. It’s a cool feature though, if you want variation along the way.
The learning curve for RANDOM is not really there, since the plugin is so non-linear.
Final thoughts
RANDOM can be used for a lot of things. Drum hits, fx, smooth and fuzzy pads, weird instrumental patches, pure chaos and distorted hell. You will get a little extra by adding some sort of reverb to many patches – especially drum hits can get a pretty real sound when placed in space.
BEATSURFING have stated that the focus when creating RANDOM in collaboration with Phazz, was an instrument capable of delivering inharmonic, aliased, resonating, flanging, and hard percussive tones. I agree with this, but also find the plugin capable of sounds described with softer words, flute for one. You will hardly be able to make a fraction the sounds that RANDOM churns out with any other softsynth, unless you really know how to Serum / Falcon / Phase Plant / Synplant etc. So if you’re looking for something special with an immediate one page layout, and like to work a little to make your sounds stand out, RANDOM is waiting.
RANDOM retails at 129 Euros, but is quite often on sale by itself or in a bundle.
