Novation Circuit Patch Editor Mod Adds Random Feature

AudioCookbook’s John Keston (who has a new album out) let us know that he’s created a mod to the Novation Circuit Editor designed to create randomized synth patches.

Here’s a quick video demo:

“Anytime you randomize a synthesizer, you’re going to end up with lots of laser sounds,” notes Keston. “But who can have too many laser sounds?”

This video illustrates Novation Circuit synth patches randomized via custom modifications to the Max for Live version of the Novation Circuit Editor from Isotonik.

An added drop down menu has choices to either “randomize all” (not quite all parameters), or randomize one of seven sets of grouped parameters like the oscillator section, mod matrix, or LFOs.

Here’s what Keston has to say about it:

Isotonik Studios published a free Max for Live editor in partnership with Novation. Max for Live patches are inherently editable, so I decided to start there.

It took me a couple of hours to get into the guts of the editor and setup a drop down menu for randomization. The drop down has choices to either “randomize all” (not quite all parameters), or randomize one of seven sets of grouped parameters like the oscillator section, mod matrix, or LFOs.

At his stage I haven’t included the EQ section, voice controls, or macro controls. I probably won’t add the EQ, but the macro controls might offer some interesting possibilities. The image above shows a simple subpatch I made that takes a bang and outputs the random values for the oscillator section.

Unfortunately, I can not legally share my mods based on Isotonik’s and Novation’s EULAs. However, you’ll need little more than a basic understanding of Max to do this yourself. Checkout the video and let me know what you think in the comments.

Check it out and let us know what you think of this mod. Should Isotonik add a random patch feature to the official editor? Or release an open source version that others could modify and share?

Update: See the comments for Isotonik’s plans for an Intelligent Randomization Engine in the premium version of the Circuit Editor.

17 thoughts on “Novation Circuit Patch Editor Mod Adds Random Feature

    1. You can initialise the patch to the standard settings, or begin with one you like the sound of, that’s the point of the Editor… We’ve got plenty of patch packs in our store if you need starting points…

      1. I was just trying to start from scratch setup in stand alone and was not finding any cool sounds to start.
        Probably during oliday (english style) I can get more time to play with it

  1. I was writing some patches last night and I have to say – one thing that needs to be added to the matrix is other matrix slot strength and macro control – so that you can apply things like lfo over lfo routing and such

  2. I might wait and see how Isotonik handles it in the pro version of the editor, but at some point I may just go ahead and develop a Max for Live patch randomiser / hybridizer / degrader similar to what I did for the TX81Z (http://audiocookbook.org/tag/yamaha-tx81z/). If I decide to put in that kind of effort I’ll probably try to make it modular enough to repurpose for other synths like the PreenFM2.

    Patch “degrading” is what I’m most interested in. The way I’ve been doing that is by interpolating new values for parameters based on time units (clocked or unclocked). This way patches morph over time into something unexpected. This can be particularly effective when clocked with other layers.

    1. Nice work , I have just done a patch variance tool for lemur it can be used with any lemur template , just drag it from the library into the template , it always goes to the top of the hierarchy , and will vary any values below it by a pre determined amount. It works particularly well with the lemurs circuit editor. I also have a standalone .exe near completion , which will take the current circuit patch and vary it in a similar way to that described above

  3. I would definitely like to see some patches made by ghostradio that were focused on the styles he used in his videos specifically.

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