One Synth Challenge #149: VeeSeeVSTRack (liqih Wins!)

[ELEX]

it's in the nysthi collection, so sadly not in veeseevst if you're using that. i haven't found anything in there yet with that functionality. and i now discovered that p2v in the same collection is apparently a more specialized module for doing exactly that without the tuner part, to save a little bit of cpu i guess.

I'd noticed , but it's no problem. I can easily route anything from Rack into REAPER if need be. Might not even use it this round, but I'm intrigued to see what it will do with a guitar. I was already drowning in VeeSeeVSTRack, tbh, let alone the stand-alone. Much like yourself, I never got around to having a good look at VCV ; it's nice to to do now.

[FrogsInPants]

a question, how do you all feel about using external audio as a cv source? the hot tuna module has the ability to convert pitch information to cv, and i always wanted to try hooking up a theremin to control something like a filter frequency... kind of like using it as a midi controller. might not be right for this particular project anyways, but i'm curious if it would be within the spirit of the challenge.

That's an interesting case. External audio is generally not allowed. External automation at audio rates is generally not allowed. But here you're only using the audio to generate CV for modulation below audio rate. I think it's technically forbidden, but it seems to me within the spirit for VCV.

[MilksterX]

I'm not using it for CV in vcv but Z's STFU plugin has CV out. I'm just using CV pulse audio out from my daw routed to clocked in vcv to sync vcv to the DAW. Seems to work really well just need to set the correct mode in clocked.

I did try Z's STFU to control pitch CV in voltage modular a few weeks ago. It required an attenuverter to reduce the range of CV from 5 octaves down to 2 but allowed for some nice pitch sequencing and sliding

[TheFrozenSea]

This was a tough challenge, trying to make a song in just one instance of VCV rack. I've watched so many Krell patch tutorials, like you wouldn't believe. Finally last night I found something that agrees with me.

Drawing inspiration from Schoenberg and his idea to use every note in the 12-note system only once before repeating, I made that the rule for the sequencer, even though it won't follow the rule since it's a 3-row 8 step sequencer. Sound generation is 4x MI Tides set to fixed intervals. Then some MI Branches and sequential switches to vary the note length and it does indeed sound like my first kind-of generative patch that I actually enjoy.

Would love to hear more about what other people are basing their songs on, how the process is coming along and so on happy patching!

[J.Ruegg]

Would love to hear more about what other people are basing their songs on, how the process is coming along and so on happy patching!

I've never really got into Modular Synthesis (apart from "modular" synths, like PhasePlant, Zebra...) I also never used sequencers or S&H modules, and such things., so this was a really different month.

I found some videos like these : https://youtu.be/MKuwwskQj6Y

And started to dig into generative music.

My plan for this month is to make a single instance patch, most of it should be generated from within VeeSeeVee, and maybe some sections will be Sequenced by midi (using multiple channels).

So far, I'm about 3% done, so, still a lot of work to do, but i'm starting to get confident with it and I also understand now most of the terms & concepts of most of the common Rack modules. But still don't have the necessary skill to make something generative that is good sounding enough .

PD : The Omri Cohen Youtube channel inspired me a lot.

[MilksterX]

I wanted to make a purely generative patch I still might give it a try but I opted instead to make lots of small patches trying to emulate various hardware synths after trying Omris Moog mother 32 and subharmonican which I struggled to get anything decent from so I've mostly been building my own patches from scratch and tweaking some of his patches for inspiration, First I tried making a basic prophet 5 for chords, then I made a Moog type synth with 5 oscillators for a string type lead.. I did try one of Omris patches - a rain and thunderstorm patch and that gave me some inspiration to take it further so I made another patch creating effects of being in a car in the thunderstorm which I'm quite happy with. I've got far too many audio stems now though and I'm In the process of making tweaks and doing retakes before I decide what to keep and what to get rid of. It's very tiring having to go back and re-record tracks especially when there's already too many recordings... my CPU is on its knees.

[EscapeControl]

I've had succes with the standalone VCV program working together with my daw via - DAW midi out > loop midi > VCVstandalone > asio link pro > DAW return mixer track. after that measure delay and apply delay compensation. sending cv audio from daw to VCV via asio link pro probably works, but haven't tested it.
I'll probably be going with the vst2 plugin tho, since it's powerful enough as it is and less of a hassle to set up

[emikaela]

Drawing inspiration from Schoenberg and his idea to use every note in the 12-note system only once before repeating, I made that the rule for the sequencer, even though it won't follow the rule since it's a 3-row 8 step sequencer. Sound generation is 4x MI Tides set to fixed intervals. Then some MI Branches and sequential switches to vary the note length and it does indeed sound like my first kind-of generative patch that I actually enjoy.

that's a nice idea. if you want more variation, see if you can figure out a way to set up inversion and retrograde of the series as well.

i keep finding new ideas and starting new projects as i learn. time to force myself to commit to something soon...

[FrogsInPants]

I gave up on making one big patch for my whole piece when I found it was eating too much CPU for that to be feasible. Instead, I'm using multiple smaller instances of VCV Rack stand-alone. I'm using Reaper to send MIDI messages to coordinate timing to start and stop, and record the audio to files within VCV, which I then import into the Reaper project for mixing.

One thing I looked long and hard for was a handy module to display status lights, and a way to switch things on and off either manually or using external control (from MIDI). I got something hooked up using RJModules TriggerSwitch, but in order to toggle the switches on and off from external triggers took a mess of 6-8 additional utility modules to manage the state and send a single-cycle pulse to toggle the switch states without flickering. I wrote a VCV Prototype script to do all that in one module that's easier to copy to other patches, and ended up just ditching the TriggerSwitch module and using Prototype as a bank of 6 switches/lights on its own. May as well share that here, in case anyone else needs something similar.

I'm also including a simple bank of low-pass filters for CV using a critically damped harmonic oscillator model. It's like an exponential decay follower, but smoother because it doesn't react instantly to changes in the target voltage. Down to about 8Hz it's more efficient to just use the LPF of VCV's VCF, but this goes to a characteristic decay time of about 5s. Maybe there's some other module that does something similar, but I didn't find it and got fed up with looking.

VCVPrototypeScripts.zip

[TheFrozenSea]

J. Ruegg, Yeah I'm with you, generative music is hard! But the learning process can be quite rewarding in itself Yeah I've seen quite a few of Omri Cohens videos, they're great!

Milksterx, I hear you, technical hassle like that is no fun. Hope it doesn't stifle your creativity too much

Emikaela, well actually I'm using the VCV 8 step sequencer. So it's only a series of 8, then the last four on row 2 and then a new series on row 3. I have a sequential switch that switches rows but that's fixed to whole-notes, and depending on the Branches I get everything from half-note to quarter-note per note. So it's nowhere near a repeating sequence, Schoenberg wouldn't approve hope you find something to finish in time for the deadline

Frogsinpants, very cool with your own custom modules! I plan on switching things on/off with mouse clicks, but being able to map it to physical buttons would be great

[gorgorgathgorgorgor]

So a quick note from the Gor. I will most likely not submit anything this month, but I have had immeasurable fun playing with VCV rack as a result of this month's comp. I have it controlled through reaper, and have the audio routed back into Reaper, and everything is functioning properly, but my machine just doesn't have the juice to do it justice. I'm getting glitching past a certain density of modules, and I've hit a wall. Having said that, I intend to continue to learn it and use it (one patch at a time) in future projects, because this thing is epic.

[gorgorgathgorgorgor]

Yeah, so, I guess I am in fact entering something... not my best work, but representative of the fun I've had playing with VCV Rack.

This track was made with one instance of VCV Rack, with MIDI arranged and driven by Reaper through Loop MIDI.
Modules used were stock VCV, Bogaudio, and NYSTHI. I also used the MindMeld Mixmaster for mixing. I didn't use any sampling modules.
The track was mixed entirely within VCV Rack, with no processing in Reaper. I did re-route the VCV mixer back into Reaper with ReaRoute to record the mix.
The Title Image presented is of the VCV Rack used in the recording.

Special thanks to Omri Cohen for his videos, I was dead in the water without him.

I hope y'all like it!

https://soundcloud.com/gorgorgathgorgor ... r-runs-out

[miau]

Hey, what you think about using bitwig's random modulator in this month challenge? It's not in audio range, so it's not against the rules, I'm using it as the simplest sample and hold triggered by every note. The thing is, I started the track putting it on macro oscillator's model knob, intending to replace it later with some vcv sample and hold device, it was just much more quicker to start this way than to search for proper vcv device, routing and stuff. And then I realized that macro oscillator doesn't have cv input for its model Macro oscillator 2 has it, but it has different set of sounds, and at that moment the track already was built around the sounds of macro oscillator(aka braids). What do you think? I can replace random modulator with automation, but I think in this month challenge it's much more in the spirit of the synth to leave it at random than to write bunch of semi-random automation. The track is kinda finished, just wanted to be clear and ask for your opinions on that.

[liqih]

For parameter modulation/automation (with rate from 0 to ~25 Hz)
you can use whatever you want. That's my take on the rules.

Hey, what you think about using bitwig's random modulator in this month challenge? It's not in audio range, so it's not against the rules, I'm using it as the simplest sample and hold triggered by every note. The thing is, I started the track putting it on macro oscillator's model knob, intending to replace it later with some vcv sample and hold device, it was just much more quicker to start this way than to search for proper vcv device, routing and stuff. And then I realized that macro oscillator doesn't have cv input for its model Macro oscillator 2 has it, but it has different set of sounds, and at that moment the track already was built around the sounds of macro oscillator(aka braids). What do you think? I can replace random modulator with automation, but I think in this month challenge it's much more in the spirit of the synth to leave it at random than to write bunch of semi-random automation. The track is kinda finished, just wanted to be clear and ask for your opinions on that.

[FrogsInPants]

That seems perfectly legitimate to me. If you would rather do it entirely in VCV, stoermelder has a couple of modules, like CV-MAP or 8FACE, which can modify parameters of other modules that lack CV inputs. I don't know whether those or anything else like them are available in VeeSeeVST, though. But I really don't think there's a need for you to bend over backwards to have all your automation within VCV, especially if you have a working solution already.