Create and manage song structure in Rack?

VCV Rack
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Hi. New Linux VCV Rack user and first post. I hope I’m in the right place. If not please let me know.

I’m loving VCV Rack and getting good sounds but, as primarily a guitar player, I’m finding I want to create patches that aren’t just grooves but have recognizable song structure to them. Are there any plugins or general patches that are good for counting measures and keeping track of where the machine is in the song? For instance, an intro of 16 bars, then a 16 bar verse, another verse, an 8 bar chorus, another verse, etc.?

I’m experimenting hooking in a DAW (In Linux Rosegarden, Ardour, etc., or Pro tools from Windows) and driving it via MIDI, but it would be nice to be able to rough out changes just in Rack by itself if it’s not too cumbersome to do so.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I’d be potentially open to purchasing plugins or modules if they did a great job in this area.

Thanks,
Mark

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Hi Mark ! welcome to the community :slight_smile:
Ok so i guess i can give a few tips that worked for me when i felt the same as you.

  • having a midi controller which you can use to Mute/Fade things will greatly help you, you can build a structure this way
  • Improptu modular sequencers are really good for creating “Songs”. I don’t use them a lot, but they are perfect for what you want !
  • Also check Omri’s videos especially one of the last ones, (i’ll give you the link)
    Have fun ! I’m here if you have any question :wink:
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Hi Mark!
Welcome to VCV :slight_smile:
You should check out the sequencers from Impromptu - https://vcvrack.com/plugins.html#impromptu
There are the Phrase Sequencers, which let you build whole songs, and also Foundry, which is a sort of a 4 Phrase Sequencers in one module, which is also very powerful and deep. You have also one for gate, the GateSeq.

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Cheers, Olival! I also recommend Impromptu…

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NYSTHI wins the day again for me, that video is amazing and exactly what I’ve also been looking for since coming to vcv. The trouble now for me is that I create something, decide to sequence it, and realise that everything has weird lengths and beats and it sounds abrupt/wrong when sequencing the changes with janneker.

Then again I just noodle around until something sounds good so maybe if you put some thought into structure from the beginning then it might be much easier to actually structure a song.

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Thanks Olival - I’m subscribed to Omri’s channel and actually watched this last week. It was the best one I’ve seen in this general topic area but it felt like it was over my head. However I’m making headway and will return and view it again.

Cheers!

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Thanks for the reply Omri and thanks for all you do on your channel. I haven’t plugged any of those in yet but will give it a shot.

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Cheers! The Jooper video is really a bit too much I guess, but let me know if you need some help with the Impromptu sequencers :slight_smile:

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An alternative to the Jooper Janeker approach (which is pretty good) is to use GateSeq 64 to control ASAF-8. This can give you some structure and is a little easier to set up. I don’t have a turtorial but I do have this video that uses the approach:

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Weird, I was looking at some of my videos and I was getting corruption. Sort of a bit concerned that my GPU is messed up but it doesn’t appear to be effecting anything else. I wonder if it’s just Youtube being screwy?

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Thanks to this I’ve added the top row to my template :slight_smile: Cheers, Omri!

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Excellent! Have fun :slight_smile:

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It depends on the browser if it only appears on the video windows not on the whole screen.

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