Learn Synthesis with VCV Rack Series 02 Title Screen
December 11, 2023

Learn Synthesis with VCV Rack Series 02 Now Releasing

Taking a Look at the Free Modules for VCV Rack

This second series of Learn Synthesis with VCV Rack focuses on free modules that are available for the free and open source virtual Eurorack modeling software, VCV Rack. The different developers who make modules for VCV Rack list their modules in categories called “Brands.” In this series, each episode is a tutorial on the usage of the free modules from those brands that release them. There are a lot of brands, so the series focuses on those that seem to be the most popular and the most useful. The grands that are covered in this second series are Befaco, Audible Instruments, E-Series, and Sha#Bang!


Using monophonic modules in a polyphonic system

Befaco

The Befaco brand has a good number of modules that are very useful. They are based on the physical, analog modules by the same name. They have some unique sounds and there are modules in the collection that do things that VCV brand and other brands do not. Dr. Lawrence W. Moore certainly recommends downloading all of the modules in this brand. The video above shows how the modules can be integrated into the new system of polyphony that VCV Rack 2 uses. Just because some brands of modules are from the first edition of VCV Rack does not mean that they cannot be utilized effectively with VCV Rack 2.


The macro oscillators in Audible Instruments

Audible Instruments

Audible Instruments is a great brand of free modules for VCV Rack that are based on the Mutable Instruments brand of modules in physical, analog Eurorack. The episode above goes over the macro oscillators as well as some other modules from the brand. The macro oscillators are especially useful and give one a wide collection of sound making possibilities. The oscillators themselves build upon more complex waveforms and samples that give one a more robust starting point in designing sounds.


The E-Series Cloud Generator

E Series

The E-Series brand only has one module, the cloud generator, but it is a very powerful one. The module allows one to create semi-randomized clouds with controllable texture and density of sine waves and sawtooth waves. This allows one to implement everything from chorusing to thick chaotic masses of waveforms. This module is at the heart of Dr. Lawrence W. Moore’s 3 movement work, Determined by Whom, which can be watched and heard on the VCV Rack Patches music video page here at The Wayfarer Project.


The stochastic sequencer grid by Sha#Bang!

Sha#Bang!

There are a number of very inventive modules within the Sha#Bang! brand. The above video shows the stochastic sequencer grid that can be a log of fun to work with. One can assign 4 different sounds to varying paths around the grid in either e exact precision or chance ordering. Each step in the grid can be set to being a rest, an event, or a probability of being either. Each step can generate a gate as well as a CV signal. There are many other wonderful controllers in this brand it is also a definite download for VCV Rack users.


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