Controlling patch-cables connections through MIDI

I don’t know enough to answer your questions, but have you looked through the development tutorial or the Rack API docs?

https://vcvrack.com/manual/PluginDevelopmentTutorial

This topic has been discussed multiple times before.

Thank you Ben for the references. I started this topic because I couldn’t find any posts about this issue. I will read them as soon as I can

These solutions are really good and is already good enough for my first prototypes, but I was thinking how hard would it be to implement a more structural solution similar to hardware MIDI synths that can control any parameters through MIDI. It would be amazing if the VCV Rack could have a SysEx Id where the data could be organised with specific values for each manufacturer and for each module and each knob, button or patch connection could be controlled through a unique SysEx message that could be directed in both ways. It could open new possibilities for hardware products that could be made specifically for each module.

I believe each manufacturer and product already have IDs that could be used for that, and I know each knob and button is already ordered by the system so it would be easy to implement such a protocol, wouldn’t it?

This could lead to the invention of many completely new interfaces for Modular synths that could then be appropriated back to the hardware modular synth World. Interfaces like the Reactable for example could be programmed to control VCV Rack, wouldn’t that be amazing?

I don’t think designing some sort of MIDI protocol should be too hard. The main challenge will be how to address specific input and output ports of modules that can change any minute. Even if you could answer this question from the technical side, how would an user know which port on his hardware device is mapped onto which port in Rack? This is already a challenge right now with parameter mapping and would be even more hard to handle if ports and cables are involved.

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You may want to look at these two projects:

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Nice! I will check these out

The idea would be to develop specific hardware MIDI interfaces for each (or a group of) specific modules. The idea of SysEx messages for controlling parameters is to have a specific set of controls that are Exclusive to each functionality of each system.

This wouldn’t be a solution for a general purpose MIDI controller to control the parameters of a module in VCV Rack.

If you want to use generic MIDI controllers as a VCV interface you would have to pre-program each setup as you usually do with the Midi Mapping module and the matrix switches.

The SysEx implementation would be to stimulate hardware interface developers to create specific modules for each (or a group of) VCV Modules, which is a lot!!

hey @tragtenberg, did you get any further with this? I think it’s an interesting concept.

Hey @spacepluk, sorry for the late reply, I am now looking for a way to get email notifications on this thread… About this idea, I haven’t put forward yet. I have rethought that it may be more interesting to use the regular MIDI-MAP approach. The whole SysEx standardization in VCV Rack will require an immense effort without being useful. Even if it would be implemented, to use a MIDI Controller connected to Rack through SysEx, it would also be necessary to load the modules the first time. The MIDI Mapping to each parameter could also be done just once, so I don’t see why to use a new SysEx standard with one standard message per module parameter. I also saw that there were a lot of replies in this thread (also without email notifications…) 14 bit midi in 1.0?, where @stoermelder has just done an implementation of high res CC in MIDI-CAT, which is already the best midi interface module in the Rack. I will test it and as soon as it works I will gladly carry out this idea. The modules could be made to look just like the software interfaces, but maybe it would be more interesting if they could be remapped to different uses, being able to have presets on the controller to play different patches.

This might be interesting for you:

I have just had an idea about this. Uh oh. I’ll prototype it and start a new thread if it pans out, but in the meantime I’m wondering if @stoermelder T7 is still at the forefront of programmatic Rack cable MIDI control. Does anyone know of anything else (in the Library or under development?)

Edit: It looks like Midilar has made some progress in this direction. Anything else?

at 0:29 the added hardware cable appears on the screen

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Yes, Jakub of Midilar is using my modules for his hardware. I do not know of anybody else developing something for cables and MIDI.

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But if @Omri_Cohen hasn’t made a video of it, does it actually exist?

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@Omri_Cohen already made a video about this topic:

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Thanks, all! And good to confirm that Jakub is using T7 on the software side.

In the context of working on a completely unrelated problem, I hit on an approach with what may be some neat possibilities. There were three potential technical show-stoppers and I’ve resolved two of them in my prototype; if the third falls down too, and it’s as efficient to use as I think it will be, I’ll be pretty happy about it.

This is of course going to use unstable APIs which probably means there won’t be an official V1 release, but I’ll probably do something Pack Tau-like with it and then consider more public development as of V2.

More to come soon!

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It’s working!

Write-up and demo sometime this week in a new thread once key features are in place.

Hoping to recruit some alpha testers by mid-month.

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Here we go!

Demo recording and writeup in progress; consider this the official teaser:

TapPatch_Proto_Demo1

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Looking good, My dream, if I find the time is to make myself a hardware controller similar to the one seen in the Midilar videos, first demoed a year ago, although my progress is currently limited to a couple of breadboard designs, and I received my first pcb’s for a 12 bit cc controller yesterday.

If you are looking for testers, or I can aid in another way, please let me know.

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