MAUDLIN: A Eurorack Module for Controlled Randomness in Ubiquitous Music

This paper presents the MAUDLIN Eurorack module, inspired by the “drunk” object in Cycling 74’s Max/MSP. MAUDLIN introduces a novel interface for generating controlled randomness for ubiquitous music (ubimus) practices. We leverage an unconnected Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) pin as a natural entropy source to augment the production of pseudo-random sequences that are constrained within user-defined boundaries. Designed for modular synthesisers, the module integrates control voltage (CV) inputs, potentiometers, and an OLED display for real-time interaction and feedback, aligning with ubimus principles of accessibility and creative flexibility. This paper details the overarching design principles of the module, its use of envi- ronmental (EMF) noise to seed and perturb randomisation, and its potential to enhance musical creativity through the constrained random walk output. As an open-source hardware and software development, MAUDLIN aims to democratise access, fostering collaborative development within the ubimus and Eurorack synthesis communities, serving as a model for embedded system creativity in broader creative technology contexts.