Building Sequencers in VCV to use within Logic Pro or Ableton as Midi FX AU/VST

Hi all-

Firstly, my apologies if this topic has been covered. I’ve tried using the search function and also looked through Patch Storage, but I’m not finding what I’m specifically looking for.

I really love modular sequencing and would like to focus on using VCV as a way to create complex sequencers that can be used to send midi to AudioUnits in Logic Pro. My understanding is that this should now be possible in the last few iterations of VCV.

I’m not seeing anyone building out devices for this purpose and I’m struggling to succeed to do it myself. My hope was to find a few devices that more skilled users had built and then reverse engineering them and going forward from there, but everything I find tends to be part of a larger system in VCV that’s designed to send to sound sources in VCV, which isn’t my current goal.

My question is, does anyone know of patches that share this sort of focus on AU-based Sequencing for other DAWs and, if so, could you please let me know where I might find them?

I’m very happy with the sounds I get from my AU’s but I’m always looking for new, inspiring ways to arrive at sequenced results I’d have never thought of on my own. I think VCV would be amazing for this purpose.

If anyone has thoughts, I would be grateful.

Thanks-

Lee

The trick is to use VCV Pro as a midi plugin in logic, pull in a midi output, and patch both gate and v/oct. Here’s a simple patch which makes surge go bleep and bloop.

You need to patch both gate and v/oct otherwise midi doesn’t get generated it seems.

I didn’t explore how to do this polyphonically but I presume poly inputs → poly outputs.

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yeah poly inputs lead to poly outputs. This plays two bleeps and bloops.

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@baconpaul, thank you so much! That got me headed in the right direction.

So I copied your initial setup and used Arturia’s Pigments as the AU sound source. What I saw was that, without a clock source, tempo and stop weren’t being communicated to the VCV sequencer after the initial starting of the sequence. So it would start, but not end when I hit stop on the transport in Logic.

I tried a few ways to deal with this and it seems that simply using the VCV Midi to CV plugin to just clock the sequencer is enough to communicate start/stop and tempo to the sequencer. I’ll copy/paste a picture of a my sequencer that seems to be working to make it clear what I mean.

I’m curious if you have any thoughts why more people aren’t creating stand-alone sequencers to use in Logic or Ableton. It seems to me that a lot of what can be accomplished by 3rd party AU sequencers can be made with VCV. I’m just surprised I don’t see any of them on Patch Storage. I’d download them all to try them out.

If I get this one into a form I like I’ll upload it to patch storage and perhaps see if I can tag it in a way that makes it black and white it’s to be used inside a DAW as a stand-alone sequencer. I’m all ears if anyone has a better naming convention. I have zero desire to reinvent the wheel. I’m just really excited about being able to build out sequencers for Logic and Ableton now. I’ve wanted to do this for ages.

Thanks again for the help!

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I’ve continued to play with this idea for several hours today. Several of the attempts I made failed. I’m finding I don’t quite understand if the VCV Midi-CV module is really the proper module for this task. It lacks run and reset outputs that I’d expect on a master clocking device, but my attempts to use other clocks never work properly.

At the moment I’m getting satisfactory results using the VCV Midi-CV module and only using the Clk/N output with the divider set to 16ths. It doesn’t feel like the best solution, but I’m not sure what else to use in it’s place.

This newest iteration of the sequencer I put together is using the Bidoo dTrOY sequencer, which is very similar to the Metropolis, which I use in my modular system, so there’s some familiarity there. I’ve also included a few modulation sources that are routed to some of the CV inputs on dTrOY to change up the sequence as it plays. The dTrOY has Gate outputs, so I didn’t have to use the Bog Audio DGATE in this patch.

I’ll attach a screenshot so you can see what things look like. I’d be happy to upload it, but it feels very primitive, so that sort of feels premature. If I’m wrong and there’s interest, please let me know.

I’d love to folks to explain how this can be improved in terms of Clocks that could be used or perhaps more appropriate modules to use for various jobs.

I know this isn’t rocket science, but I’m pleased to be getting some results. I’ve wanted to get this working for a long time and I’m excited to see that it’s actually happening now.

Thanks for the help.

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