PREDICTABLY RANDOM

Electronic music has a lot going for it but a highlight is how you can magically discover phrases or beats that, although you set up their parameters, you would never have written yourself. More and more devices come with tools to aid in this experimental part of the workflow (see last month’s FM!) and Korg have done a fine job. The SQ-64 patterns have a stochastic mode, which is a chance-based pattern modulation. You’ll either get a skipped step, a step repeated, the previous step or the next step, chosen in a coin toss kind of way (if the coin had four sides). Stochastic mode is a real treat for finding something extra, while retaining the original flavour of your pattern. It’s a solid way to stay in the ballpark you have already set but to explore new variations on the theme. Similarly there is a random mode that broadens the play even further, randomly selecting any step from within the pattern. This could possibly be a little extreme for some; but when played with for long enough it can absolutely provide some golden moments that you might have otherwise overlooked.