I have had the same thoughts. I enjoy watching videos of other people’s creative process, but I like manuals more for learning new modules. I know that when I read your manual that I can keep it by my side when I’m playing around with a module.
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While I agree in general and understand your argument completely, I sometimes like the fact that I can do something different while watching a video because it does not need my full attention and moves forward slowly 
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It’s funny because a few friends of mine were like, “You should make videos explaining how to do what you’re doing in your music, if you explained it’d be so much less intimidating to get started” but lmao, you really don’t want to start out by learning my more esoteric devices.
If I were to record video I think I’d make one long 30mn tutorial where I use my entire collection to create a song, rather than explain the discrete parts. I think enough pieces of the puzzle are in place people can understand the general theme of what I’ve been doing. The video format would also be good to help people understand that aleatoric processes are often more musical when their randomness is subdued and anchored in repetition & call-and-response structures, than when using aleatoric sequencers as chaotic random number generators.
On a more personal note, working with video means I have to voice them over (or use a terrible speech synth or captiopns, and everyone hates that). Voicing things over has a way to immediately derail anything interesting I could say into a pointless, obliquely framed, and exhausting conversation about how transgender voices sound the way they do.
I don’t expect significant bigotry from the modular synths crowd (good luck building a halfway functional rack if you rule out module creators for that reason lol), but still some, which I’m not sure I care to deal with on an unpaid hobby project thing. Operating via text alone lets me control when and how the topic comes up.
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The root being lower than all the rest would make more sense to me, but I probably haven’t thought of all the edge cases of what you’re trying to achieve.
The plan for Poly External Scales is to interpret the voltage on a channel as a measure of importance and probability rather than as an ascending order
“Liking” this post seems inadequate; and I think it deserves a response.
I certainly don’t “like” the fact that you have to consider how your voice (and by extension, your person) may distract some from what you choose share of yourself or that you can reasonably expect to encounter any measure of bigotry in this or any community. But I certainly do appreciate your willingness to tell the truth about your experience, and that this truth does not stop you from sharing on your own terms.
I absolutely “like” your modules, your humor, your perspective as an artist, technologist, thoughtful critic, and valued member of this community.
On a very personal note; as the parent of a transgender musician, I deeply appreciate that through your visible participation, you and the other non-gender-conforming members of this community have helped establish this forum as a safe space. If my daughter were to develop an interest in VCV Rack, she could engage with our community here with confidence that her voice would be welcome - no matter what it sounds like. I am grateful to this community for this fact and to you for helping to prove it.
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FWIW I would love to see a 30 minute video showing how you use your modules.
One possible way to mitigate your concerns regarding voiceover might be to make the video Unlisted on Youtube (meaning it won’t show on your channel or search results), turn comments off for it on Youtube and then embed the video here on the forum and keep all discussion here with clear instruction that any discussion about your voice will not be welcome.
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Thank you! Family support is absolutely crucial, and I’m very glad she can count of the support of someone like you.
In other circumstances, I would disengage from this conversation, since I treat my gender identity as something that’s neither a secret, nor something that has any relevance whatsoever to operating blinky toys that make bleeps. It might come up as a topic in my songs, but it’s not relevant to the practice itself.
But since you’re mentioning this community being safe, having a direct interest in it, let me react:
I remember seeing on this forum a few tiresome meta-discussions about welcoming women, about adopting a “code of conduct”: this stuff is just a red flag that I’m entering a safe space for upper-middle-class performative social climbers. It conveys zero useful information whether I’m actually welcome to take part in the community, or whether I will be treated like a stranger by hypocrites who know they will be banned if they call me slurs.
And I’m French: I don’t want to be a liberal’s fashion accessory to prop up to the front lines of American civil wars that have nothing to do with me.
What matters is that acted earnestly in the community, came to the scene with a different skillset and outlook than most, but had no difficulty being treated as a peer. I didn’t face inappropriate comments, and compliments about my work don’t seem to be forced on account on my identity. If it was all cheap talk, nobody would have availed themselves of the discreet donate button, after all.
What matters is that the artist who introduced me to VCV is trans. She isn’t active in the community, and no longer advertises her identity, so I will regrettably not link to her work. She was instrumental in encouraging another LBGT person I know to create modules present in the library. (They do not broadly advertise their identity, so once again, I will not name them).
What matters is that lmao if bigots don’t realize they pulled up to the wrong neighborhood when they’re playing an instrument pioneered by Wendy Carlos. Lmao if they get into hardware and learn about the identity of the person behind of one of the most popular brands (if you know whom I’m talking about, you also know that person has been discreet about it, so no names please).
I’d like this state of affairs not to change, and for the topic not to overshadow my work.
Nah, this conveys weakness and invites trolls. If I’m to record spoken videos, I’m the kind of person who’d show my face and open up with a joke about the topic, then let idiots get shouted down in the comments section. I’d just prefer if I didn’t have to deal with it at all.
Anyway, I don’t want to suppress conversations about the topic, but if they must happen, I’d like for them to be split off my thread, so I can excuse myself if they turn into American politics and shouting contests.
Here’s a good conversation derail: have you looked at my future plans page? I’ve documented many of them! Do they inspire any reaction?
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The Alien Communication Device certainly sounds interesting!
I’m working on fixing a bit my own component library, as it’s a mess. While I’m at it I’m trying to improve Lights Off compatibility, but it’s not a priority and I’m not sure I can get the lit Darius knobs to work.
As you know, I use lit jacks extensively to convey info. For now, only my jacks that are capable of changing colors are visible in Lights Off, but in my mind, if it were real hardware, all my jacks would be backlit (some blinking, some not), so I’m thinking I should make them all show up in Lights Off. Thoughts?
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there would be knots. Lots of knots! I guess this is not feasible in Rack or you’d have already released your Komically Komplicated Kable Knotter 
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@xandra-max sent me a DM about how Lights Off is supported in Algomorph. The explanation was, to say the least, quite the epic, and taking a whole day to implement this when I could be making new modules instead didn’t feel like a very good use of my time.
Still, I went with partial support: I draw on the light below knobs a little segment at the same position it is on the knob. That segment is only visible in Lights Off mode. It doesn’t look perfect at every opacity, but should be satisfactory. Up to Lights Off to provide a better API!
Here’s how it looks:
You can still operate it with the mouse while in Lights Off mode, which is what matters.
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Well, there we go.
I’d still like to light up the piano, buttons, and the indicators on the MSR segment displays.
I’ve removed halos, as they are slated for removal in VCV 2.0, and because of the size of my jacks and their density, they were a bit too distracting (especially on Aleister). Cf:
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Every aspect of making this work is way harder than it has any right to be, and I have a crash I have no clue how to elegantly resolve without complexifying my code a lot. Plus, the MSR display is gonna be a real pain to retool.
Aria, you might know that I’ve written the Lights Off module for Modular Fungi, and I assume we agree that it is a ugly hack of Rack‘s drawing system. I think you are wasting far too much time and creativity on making this work!
That been said, if I can do anything to make your life easier in this matter, please let me know. I know some C++ but it is not good enough to create some API in one plugin with is usable in another plugin…
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Ideally, I would be able to just have
bool emitsLight;
bool overlapsLight;
float luminosity;
in any widget, but as for how it could be technically achieved, I have no clue.
Anyway, I have solved most of the problems by now, and my code doesn’t seem too nasty, so future widgets will be easier.
And there we go.
Be sure to try it out and let me know if there are any issues!
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Looking very cool Aria!
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Looking good on linux! Thank you.
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The more I’m thinking about it, the more obvious it is that I can’t make the QQQQ series work elegantly with scales/chords optionally having a root note.
Adding buttons to set the root note manually on QQQQ would be confusing, as QQQQ would do nothing with information, merely forward it to future modules that don’t exist yet. That’s as non-user-facing as it gets. Very few people understand yet how my collection fits together, and mostly use separate elements. Almost nobody realizes that Poly External Scales even exist. People also don’t realize just how many different sources can program QQQQ (piano keys, key/scale knobs, scene slots, Poly External Scale input, and expander) - resulting in a lot of potential for confusion. And most people think of quantizers in terms of scales, not chords.
I’m thinking of removing all knowledge of a tonic from QQQQ altogether, and leave it to a dedicated chord/scale programmer. That one would think in terms of actual pitches rather than positions on the scale. In effect, once PES tonic information reaches QQQQ, it would be discarded.
It’s all a very hypothetical thing since there are no modules that make use of this information yet - I just have plans for it. I’m not really sure yet - feel like I kinda designed myself into a corner on this one.
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