multiple CreateRandoms producing identical patterns of numbers?

[bruno-f-cruz]

The following question was asked in the Bonsai Users - Google Groups
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Hi,

I am using CreateRandom-->CreateContinuousUniform to generate random numbers. I find that when I initialize multiple of these at the same time, the random numbers they produce, follow the same pattern (see plots--even if the range of the distribution is different).

This behavior goes away if I set a tiny delay to force different randomizers to be initialized at slightly different times, e.g.:

Also seems to go away if I connect all my distributions to a single CreateRandom.

What would be the "correct" way of doing this for a whole bunch of randomizers that I require? a) What if I need randomizers in different parts of the bonsai script and cannot connect them to the same single CreateRandom? b) Or should I try to add some jitter to the time-dependent seed (how?) for each CreateRandom?

Thanks!
-Edmund

[bruno-f-cruz]

Hey Edmund,

As stated in the description of the operator: "If no seed is specified, a time-dependent value is used". Unfortunately, as you have concluded, if the two values are initialized in close proximity the function call will output identical values (relevant reference).

Two possible ways to solve this issue are:

1. Use a different timestamping strategy that does give you different timestamps
   

2. Randomly generate the random seed

Cheers,
B