cyma forma - RND synth

RND Synth is a synthesizer with one button. That's it. Press it and up to four instruments appear, each drawn from one of eight synthesis engines and running its own Euclidean sequence. Press it again and the whole thing is replaced — new sounds, new sequences, new settings, and the previous one is gone. Calling RND minimalist doesn't quite cover it; Cyma Forma have taken away almost every conventional way of operating a synthesizer and left you with the simple decision of whether you like what just happened or not.

The great thing is that random here doesn't simply mean chaos. RND works within one of 20 selectable scales, keeps your chosen tonic between button presses and generates complete little arrangements rather than isolated noises. The engines range from subtractive, FM and acid synthesis to speech, Karplus-Strong, supersaw, additive and noise, while the number of active instruments and even whether a voice is mono- or polyphonic can change with each generation. There are 4,294,967,296 possible seeds — although with no recall, that number feels beside the point. Hear something wonderful? Record it. Otherwise, press the button and off you go again.

But RND isn't completely hands-off. MIDI lets you take over individual instruments while the remaining sequences continue, solo a voice, or control all four yourself — in which case the button can be reduced to randomising their timbres. The generated sequences can also drive external MIDI gear, while four separate pre-reverb audio tracks are available over USB. So underneath one of the most wilfully sparse interfaces we've seen is actually a surprisingly capable little system. Cyma Forma already made a rather unusual instrument with ALT; RND pushes that appetite for odd ideas somewhere considerably further out. Strange, extreme, and rather lovely.

Features:

• One-button random synthesizer
• Up to four simultaneous instruments per generation
• Four independent Euclidean sequences
• Eight synthesis engines: subtractive, FM, acid, noise, speech, Karplus-Strong, supersaw and additive
• 20 selectable scales
• Selectable tonic retained between generations
• 4,294,967,296 random seeds
• Instruments may be mono- or four-voice polyphonic
• MIDI response to note, velocity, pitchbend and aftertouch
• Nine MIDI modes for global, individual and solo control
• Individual tracks can be played manually while the others continue sequencing
• Four-channel MIDI output for generated sequences
• Four-channel MIDI input via USB-C and TRS MIDI Type A
• Four-track audio output over USB-C, pre-reverb
• Stereo post-reverb mix output
• Per-track volume and reverb control via MIDI
• MIDI clock input
• Analogue sync input and output
• USB-C powered, 5 V / 1 A
• Collaboration between Cyma Forma and Bambounou