
VCV Rack – Open-source virtual modular synthesizer - vortico
https://vcvrack.com/
======
SwellJoe
This is gorgeous. I love how simple and clean the UI is; so many music and
audio tools are just skeuomorphic hell (and don't support scaling so are even
worse on HiDPI displays). This looks great without trying to look like a real
device. It very effectively simulates a modular synth experience, without the
limitations. It even simulates the quirky waveforms found on analog synths in
a pretty convincing way. This is just impressive as hell on many fronts.

I don't see how to use it as a VST, though I see VST mentioned in the docs as
a thing that will be implemented as a plugin, so I guess it's on the radar. It
looks like it'd be possible to hook it up to an existing sequencer/DAW as a
MIDI device, though I don't currently have any MIDI software or hardware on my
Linux system, so can't test that theory.

All around, though, I can't believe I'd never heard of this. It's a great
piece of work and sounds great ("great" in the sense of, "it's fun to tweak
the knobs and the sounds that result are roughly what I would expect based on
my experience with real analog synths and modular synths) in the few minutes
of tinkering I've done. I love it.

~~~
wdfx
Your comment on skeuomorphism no sense. All of the modules shown there are
replicas of real hardware ??

~~~
SwellJoe
They are clean and simple; the problem I have is with UI like this:
[http://cdn.mos.musicradar.com/images/Product%20News/Tech/May...](http://cdn.mos.musicradar.com/images/Product%20News/Tech/May16/best-
vst-synth-plugins-1200-80.jpg)

Specifically the ones with fake metallic coloring, tiny hard-to-read numeric
displays, etc. So, while VCV Rack does use rotary knobs (which is a little
questionable), it's not an offensive attempt to look like real hardware.

I guess complaining about skeuomorphism while praising a UI that uses
simulated cables _is_ sort of weird, but I can't think of how else one might
represent those connections in a clear manner. So, I guess I should just say
it isn't skeuomorphic in ways that I find offensive, while many VSTs are. I
find a lot of VSTs and audio software, in general, _horrible_ to look at and
to use because so much of it goes to such great lengths to pretend to be
hardware, and it all looks different from every other piece of software, so
every new tool has a huge new learning curve just to wrap your head around
what the new weird colorful shapes mean. VCV Rack is consistent across all
modules; all of its user interface elements are used the same way and there's
only a few of them. I knew what I was looking at within seconds of starting it
(though admittedly that required me to have used real-world modular synths in
the past).

~~~
thatswrong0
It’s funny because a lot of those synths are considered best in class..

Massive was the first widely popular wavetable synth and was considered quite
usable.. until Serum came out. I personally think despite the knobs, it’s one
of easiest to use and understand synths out there. It shows you visually how
the filters, wave tables, and various parameters are being modulated in real
time, and you can easily add new modulations and customize the LFOs to
whatever shape you want.

Sylenth was and still is a go to subtractive synth, and Spire is considered a
spiritual successor to it..

Diva itself is a virtual analog synth intended to accurately replicate the
sound of actual hardware synths, so it of all the synths pictured there should
look like them.

I suppose that maybe I’m just used to the way softsynths look and feel, but I
see nothing inherently wrong with using knobs and a metallic look. The main
problem I have is when synths give you no indication as to how things are
being modulated in real time, which is why Serum is my favorite synth - it
does a fantastic job of that, knobs or not

~~~
SwellJoe
Yes, they're all popular and well-regarded. And, even though I've used real
synths for decades, I don't generally find the UI on these synths to be a nice
experience. Some are better than others, but they're nearly all much harder to
read than a UI that adheres to OS UI guidelines would be. Most are not
scalable, and so are literally unusable for me (my eyesight isn't what it used
to be, even with corrective lenses, and it's never been great), unless I
change the resolution of my display. Even at 1080p many are too small on my
15" laptop, and I usually run at and prefer to run at 4k.

The type used is often abysmal. Pretending to be a squinty little LCD panel,
for example, when we have infinite pixels is just plain stupid. The only
reason old synths had those little panels was because big panels were
expensive and graphical displays (CRTs) were too big to put into a keyboard
form factor. It makes no sense to use the beautiful displays we have today and
use them to reproduce all the compromises of a former era, but it is almost
universal. Nearly all of the most popular VSTs impose these kinds of ugly
restrictions on their UI.

In short: A lot of VSTs are barely legible, ugly, utterly inaccessible, and
just all around stubbornly wrong on usability for the sake of looking "cool".

There's nostalgia for a simpler time, which I understand, and then there's the
sadistic UI abuses found in many VST plugins (and audio software in general),
which I abhor.

Obviously, I have strong opinions on the matter.

------
mortenjorck
VCV Rack is the most exciting thing to happen in the open-source audio world
in years. The community support has been incredible: just do a search on
Github for VCV Rack and you’ll find a wide variety of modules that have sprung
up in just the past few months since VCV Rack's public debut.

If you're new to VCV Rack, I would definitely start with the included modules,
but when you’re ready to branch out, take a look through the directory at
[http://www.switchedonrack.com](http://www.switchedonrack.com).

~~~
Fnoord
I managed to crash it on macOS by having a second audio interface. After that,
there was no output signal anymore (even after I deleted the second). I was
about to give up, but impressed that the project I made was saved pretty much
till the state before I added the second interface.

Do you know if its possible to get instruments like TB-303 and TB-808? Does
anyone know a multi-platform MIDI keyboard to accompany this synth?

~~~
vortico
Multiple audio interface support is experimental. This is a feature even AAA
DAWs do not have, and if so, they are "amalgamated interfaces" rather than
separate simultaneous connections.

If you get into a crash-on-boot loop, remove the "autosave.vcv" file (or edit
out the Audio Interface modules from the JSON with a text editor) and relaunch
Rack.

For TR-style drum machines, third-party company Hora has released a set of
modules at [https://www.facebook.com/Hora-
Music-1826383014249093/](https://www.facebook.com/Hora-
Music-1826383014249093/) and
[https://gumroad.com/horamusic](https://gumroad.com/horamusic).

~~~
mycall
ASIO4ALL has had multiple audio interface support for a long time.

~~~
vortico
That would fall under the aformentioned "amalgamated" interfaces. In Rack you
can (theoretically) plug or unplug new interfaces with a different sample
rates and block sizes without rebuilding your virtual interface, since they
are treated as individual streams (one per Audio Interface module) instead of
being multiplexed and synchronized. But I haven't reviewed the source for
thread-correctness and tested carefully enough to deem multiple interfaces
stable, so in _practice_ , you might get jitter, crackling, crashes, etc. if
you use this feature. Some interfaces work flawlessly though.

------
djaychela
This is a nice surprise for Thursday evening! Just spent 15 minutes playing
around with this and making some sounds; very good indeed - when the VCV
bridge to VST hosts appears then it will be really useful (although I think
there are some downsides to such an approach as I believe this will mean that
patches will need to be saved in VCV as well as the host song setup, which is
a bit of a pain?) - if I was still teaching Music Tech this would be straight
in as a teaching tool as it's so flexible and you can make as simple or
complex a synth as you want, pretty much.

Registered and downloaded other plugins simply and seamlessly; I have a new
Macbook arriving tomorrow, so I'll get it on there and have a play with it
over the weekend with any luck.

------
SN76477
It is a lot of fun.

0.4 was flawless and worked well. I do not know about the current 0.5 version
since it refuses to work on my system.

I applaud the eurorack/synth community for creating such an awesome tool.

If anyone is asking, VST support is coming in the future!

~~~
1001101
A little easier on the pocketbook vs. Eurocrack :)

------
badosu
I could not find how this can be used within a DAW (LV2, VST or AU).

Seems like a great project and very finely polished! However it's too
cumbersome to have to route the audio to be recorded.

For another open source modular synthetizer, there's ams:
[https://objectivewave.wordpress.com/ams-
lv2/](https://objectivewave.wordpress.com/ams-lv2/),
[https://github.com/blablack/ams-lv2](https://github.com/blablack/ams-lv2)

You can also extend it outside of regular emulated voltage controllers:
[http://drobilla.net/software/ingen](http://drobilla.net/software/ingen)

~~~
vortico
See
[https://vcvrack.com/manual/Core.html](https://vcvrack.com/manual/Core.html)
for VCV Bridge information.

~~~
badosu
You mean future VCV Bridge information?

~~~
vortico
Yes, and here are the relevant Github issues to follow.
[https://github.com/VCVRack/Rack/issues/31](https://github.com/VCVRack/Rack/issues/31)
[https://github.com/VCVRack/Rack/issues/44](https://github.com/VCVRack/Rack/issues/44)

~~~
badosu
Thanks!

------
shams93
It's exciting to see things like this come to Linux, Ubuntu studio out
performs windows 10 by a wide margin so it's great to be able to play with
this outside the os duopoly where usually only Mac and windows are supported.

------
splitdisk
Thank you for this! I'm trying to get deeper into open source audio software
and programming, looking forward to spending some time with this on the
weekend.

~~~
vortico
Here's a tutorial and template project for creating your own plugins.
[https://github.com/VCVRack/Tutorial](https://github.com/VCVRack/Tutorial) The
other resource is the collection of header files in Rack/include/.

------
tibbon
This is really fun to play around with. I've got a pretty large eurorack, and
while I can't see myself going 100% digital again anytime soon (I've done the
MAX/MSP and Csound thing in prior year) it's a really cool playground. I bet
some people could do some really great things in this eventually with VST
support

------
DigitalJack
This is pretty awesome. I had recently bought the moog model 15 app, and had a
desire for something like vcv but I didn’t know it was out there.

I’d been playing with the idea of making physical control plates that would
interface the a sonicpi via osc.

I hadn’t decided on how routing would work. I mean patch cords are nice and
satisfying to plug in, but they get in the way too.

------
theon144
This was super fun to play with, but I just wish at least the Fundamental
modules were documented :(

I know jack about synths, so I kind of have to gleam what each module does by
what it looks like, it'd be nice if there were a description of some sorts.

Also, how the hell do I connect a single output to a scope AND my audio
device?

~~~
vortico
Yes, documentation is needed, so I'm collaborating with a few people to get
everything documented.

You can hold Ctrl while clicking-and-dragging on an output to create a
stackable cable on top of it, or drag from an input to the output, whichever
you prefer.

------
jasonkostempski
The volume! If I had had my headphones in when I tried it, I'd be deaf for
sure. I now have my system volume on the lowest notch and the mixer channel on
the lowest notch. It's still pretty darn loud. Am I doing something wrong?

~~~
vortico
Turn it down with a mixer module then?

~~~
jasonkostempski
I did, it's almost at 0 before i get a tolerable level.

------
grsblk
Just awesome to see this in open source. Can't wait to learn from the source.

------
bravura
For someone curious about synthesis, but intimidated by modulars:

Is this the right place to start for a beginner? Or is modular more for
advanced folks? How do you learn about the world of synthesis to start?

~~~
vortico
Yes, IMO. Modular is advanced, but it's the purest, most fundamental way of
synthesizing sound. Many people complain that they never see modular artists
make normal subtractive patches (the typical VCO > VCF > VCA, modulated with
ADSR envelope generators), but the truth is that you can make subtractive
patches _all day_ with modulars if you want, but they only comprise about
0.0001% of the sonic design space, so poeple usually explore other patches
instead. So yes, you can use the modular format to learn synthesis and build
easy or hard patches all alike. VCV Rack simulates at a voltage level, so you
can "debug" patches with the Fundamental Scope if you're confused about
exactly what a signal (CV or audio) is really doing.

------
IAmGraydon
Utterly amazing, but why did you not develop this as a VST? It's of little use
to musicians otherwise. If you are planning on a VST in the near future, count
me as extremely excited!

~~~
vortico
As an answer to "why", if you are curious:

Technical limitations of being a VST/AU plugin: Sparse support of window
resizing, lack of multiple simultaneous DAW integration, ability to only exist
on multiple channels, ability to output/input its own audio/MIDI, limited
number of automation parameters, ability to remain playing without hiccups
after a DAW has been closed, future ability to exist on a completely different
computer. Compare Rack to something like Reason instead of a single
synthesizer, which has no plugin version.

Philosophy of a standalone application: VCV Rack attempts to emulate not only
the technicalities of modular synthesizers but the entire mindset and
workflow. Most modular artists consider their instrument to be a composition
tool rather than an element of a song, which more aligns with the title of a
DAW. Eventually the need to use Rack in a DAW will nearly disappear, as more
modules are added to compose and record a song from scratch to finish.
However, many DAWs have ways of communicating with other DAWs, and Rack is no
exception after the release of "VCV Bridge", scheduled to be included in Rack
v1.0. More information:

[https://vcvrack.com/manual/Core.html](https://vcvrack.com/manual/Core.html)
[https://github.com/VCVRack/Rack/issues/31](https://github.com/VCVRack/Rack/issues/31)

~~~
teilo
Kudos for going the route of a VST bridge on this. I can see this becoming a
necessity as this project grows. This is the route the Hauptwerk took for
their pipe-organ software. They used to have a VST-version of their platform,
but it was just too unwieldy, particularly if the DAW ever crashed, taking
Hauptwerk down with it.

------
adv0r
how is it different/better from [http://zynthian.org/](http://zynthian.org/) ?

------
htor
hey, this is really cool and stuff, but it eats my ram for breakfast and it's
kind of glitchy.

~~~
vortico
I've never seen it take more than 100MB of RAM. What is your OS and amount of
RAM reported by your OS?

~~~
htor
sorry, i meant cpu, not ram. my specs are OSX 10.11.6, 3 GHz Intel Core i7 ,
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3. i'm using an external audio interface Scarlett 2i2 as
well.

with only a couple of modules in my rack going, the rack process is hogging
50% of my cpu. about the audio glitches - they seem happen whenever i use my
os regularly outside of rack (switching between apps, scrolling and clicking).

~~~
vortico
Ah, yes. It uses nanovg and libsamplerate, which are very CPU heavy.

