cyma forma has put its latest synth onto pre-order. The RND synth is a box with a single large button — every time you press it, every onboard parameter is randomised and then output as audio.
A collaboration between cyma forma and the French artist Bambounou, it entirely removes the ability for the musician to create, shape and tweak sounds and make presets — you press the button, and what it outputs is one of over four billion possible soundscapes.
RND synth uses up to four instruments layered together, with each one drawing from one of eight synthesis engines and running its own random musical sequence.
It means the instrument generates effectively unrepeatable, non-storable sounds — once the button is pressed, there’s no going back. The only way to capture it is as it is, is via the audio outputs. So you’d better be recording if you want it back.
It does offer MIDI, meaning whatever the current soundscape is can be controlled to some extent by input from a keyboard or other device. It also has MIDI output, so there’s the possibility of controlling other instruments or capturing the data — but not the essence of the generated sounds themselves.
In one of the comments beneath the intro video, someone suggested this would be ‘killer’ if someone created an editor for it. Perhaps, but that’s almost certainly missing the point of the device.
“Stop playing, start listening.”
That’s not to say the device won’t be developed, but there’s something almost ethereal about how it operates now. Sounds are unpredictable, unplanned, fleeting, inspiration-giving.
Specifications
- 8 synthesis engines: subtractive, fm, acid, noise, speech, karplus-strong, supersaw, additive
- 4 simultaneous instruments per patch, individually mixable
- 4 simultaneous euclidean sequences, playable over MIDI
- 20 scales
- 5 filter types
- 4-track audio output over usb-c (one track per instrument, pre-reverb)
- 4-channel MIDI in and out (usb-c + mini jack)
- 9 MIDI modes: global transpose + individual track sequence take over — with the other tracks playing (4 modes) or solo (4 modes).
- MIDI clock in and out (usb-c + mini jack)
- analog sync in and out (mini jack)
- stereo mix out (mini jack / post-reverb)
- 4,294,967,296 sounds (random seeds)
It’s available now direct or from selected global partners for around $150. Check availability on Reverb.
