Stress in English words is somewhat random, and based on common use.
A problem with "common use" is that word stress can be different in American English verses Commonwealth English; "mythology" AE=mythOLogy, CE (sometimes)=myTHOLogy.
Even in just American English, stress can be different depending on whether the word is a noun or a verb, and even then it is not consistent. You mentioned "record." It is pronounced reCORD as a verb and REcord as a noun. "Register" is pronounced the same regardless of its part of speech.
Then there is different stress depending on pronunciation, especially as pertains to words borrowed from other languages. Even words borrowed from French differ depending on when the word entered English. "Buffet" came to English from French in the 1400s to mean repeated hit, especially by wind and is pronounced BUFfet. It then re-entered English, again from French, in the 1700s to mean a spread of food and is pronounced bufAY.
Then, of course, people constantly invent pronunciations for words they've only read and haven't heard. I personally thought "diaspora" was pronounced DIAspora before I heard it (correctly) pronounced diASpora.