Is VCV Rack still developed or "a thing"?

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Linuxmusician01
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Is VCV Rack still developed or "a thing"?

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

Finally upgraded my distro and I can now run VCV Rack (version 1.1.6). Surprised to see it's only a 5 MB download!

However, I read on their forums that a lot of people complain that version 2 is still not ready. Is it still being developed and do y'all still use it? When VCV Rack came out a lot of people were very enthusiastic, but now they complain about the enormous unclear amount of modules of which a lot aren't of the best quality.

In the official manual on their website the Filter still isn't fully described and the high-pass part of the filter is still not working (supposed to work in ver. 2).

Is VCV Rack slowly getting "a thing" of the past?
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sysrqer
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Re: Is VCV Rack still developed or "a thing"?

Post by sysrqer »

It's certainly not a thing of the past. The current version is mostly very stable and there are continually new modules being added (including Mutable Instruments ports being arranged by the VCV developer). Not sure which modules you are referring to about being low quality.

Rack is certainly still being developed. Yes, Andrew is very far behind what was planned but he has shown v2 in livestreams so we know that it does exist at least to a certain point. The community has not been very kind to Andrew and he is reportedly quite upset and dejected because of it.

Which filter are you talking about? This one - https://library.vcvrack.com/Fundamental/VCF ? It works for me in both HP and LP mode.
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Re: Is VCV Rack still developed or "a thing"?

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

@sysrqer: Thanks. Indeed, the high-pass section of the standard filter from the "Fundamental" library section does actually work. In the official manual for the modules in Fundamental (link) it still says that the high-pass part does not work. Good to know that the official forum members are a bit too harsh.

Anyway, it's been a while since I messed around with music and Linux and it took me a while to find out how to get a DAW (QTractor), VCV Rack, Midi and Jack to play nice together. Luckily one does not have to compile a special "VST version" of VCV Rack to operate it with a DAW via Midi signals (piano roll).

Trying to get my head around making a patch with a modular sysnth. Not trivial and not easy! But a lot of fun and knowing hat VCV Rack is here to stay I'm not doing that for nothing. :)
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Re: Is VCV Rack still developed or "a thing"?

Post by davephillips »

Linuxmusician01 wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 8:10 am ... I read on their forums that a lot of people complain that version 2 is still not ready. Is it still being developed and do y'all still use it? When VCV Rack came out a lot of people were very enthusiastic, but now they complain about the enormous unclear amount of modules of which a lot aren't of the best quality.
There are thousands of members of that community now, it's not surprising that there are also more than a few complainers. And yes, it is difficult to know which modules are the best, but that's just a part of getting to know how to use a modular synth, you test a lot of stuff and you ask a lot of questions.

Re: the quality of modules: I have a YT site dedicated mostly to work I've been doing with VCV Rack, you might enjoy some of the sounds there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Kw67 ... 2-g/videos

Also, if you're just getting into it, make sure you watch the tutorial videos from Omri Cohen and Artem Leonov. Hugely helpful. And join the VCV Rack forum, it's a good place to learn more about modular synthesis in general.
Is VCV Rack slowly getting "a thing" of the past?
Not here at Studio D. But then, I'm 70 years old, something of a "thing of the past" myself. :)

Honestly, I've been working with it constantly since shortly after its first release. I'm so far from exhausting the potential of v1 that I simply never even think about v2. It'll arrive when it arrives, hopefully I'll still be here when it does, but I've plenty on my plate to devour before then.

Best regards,

dp
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Re: Is VCV Rack still developed or "a thing"?

Post by sysrqer »

Linuxmusician01 wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 9:42 am
Trying to get my head around making a patch with a modular sysnth. Not trivial and not easy! But a lot of fun and knowing hat VCV Rack is here to stay I'm not doing that for nothing. :)
Exactly, that's what makes it rewarding! I find it painful going back to traditional daws now for writing/creating. Where's my probability, my euclidean, my randomness, my modulation for everything, the problem solving to achieve what you want?!
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Re: Is VCV Rack still developed or "a thing"?

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

davephillips wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 11:03 amHonestly, I've been working with it constantly since shortly after its first release. I'm so far from exhausting the potential of v1 that I simply never even think about v2. It'll arrive when it arrives, hopefully I'll still be here when it does, but I've plenty on my plate to devour before then.
I've been playing around with ver. 1.1.6 and it seems pretty stable. Some say that the modules in the 'Fundamental' collection (that comes standard w/ VCV) is enough for most people. Only thing that might deserve an update is the look of the application. It's a bit minimal, but that appears to be the trend nowadays with user interfaces (I can't get used to Android and Gnome 3 either).

I'm afraid, though, that I am gonna have to look for a faster computer, ha ha. ;) Sometimes CPU usage is 100% if I choose a low block size (low latency) in the Audio-8 module. Mabe using Jack instead of Alsa helps but I don't think so.
sysrqer wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 12:42 pm
Linuxmusician01 wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 9:42 am
Trying to get my head around making a patch with a modular sysnth. Not trivial and not easy! But a lot of fun and knowing hat VCV Rack is here to stay I'm not doing that for nothing. :)
Exactly, that's what makes it rewarding! I find it painful going back to traditional daws now for writing/creating. Where's my probability, my euclidean, my randomness, my modulation for everything, the problem solving to achieve what you want?!
It reminds me somewhat of Patchblocks (remember those?). You have to be very, very aware of the difference between an cable that has a control voltage versus an audio signal.
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Re: Is VCV Rack still developed or "a thing"?

Post by bhilmers »

davephillips wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 11:03 amI'm so far from exhausting the potential of v1 that I simply never even think about v2.
Agreed. I think people who have frustrations with VCV Rack simply want it to be something it's not. I still use the fundamental components in just about everything and I rarely need unique modules. I'm friends with people who are 100% hardware guys and they seem to have no trouble being creative with far fewer modules.
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Re: Is VCV Rack still developed or "a thing"?

Post by milkii »

they/them ta / libreav.org / wiki.thingsandstuff.org/Audio and related pages / gh

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Re: Is VCV Rack still developed or "a thing"?

Post by Largos »

More people that put FOSS licenses on their code but don't actually want people to use it fully?
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