How do you actually MAKE new modules to submit to the VCV Library?

shawnbortree19 · December 15, 2025, 4:52am

Wondering if there’s a way to easily program a new module and submit it to the VCV library, if there’s like an sdk you can download like how Voltage by Cherry Audio has a module development app or something? And how one would test a new module before uploading it to the library? If there’s a good way to potentially make my own module or tinker with an open source module already available I’d like to know, I could possibly discover a future with module development or something…

Ahornberg · December 15, 2025, 6:40am

Just follow the Official Plugin Development Tutorial.

LarsBjerregaard · December 15, 2025, 8:37am

You can also take a look at these dev notes:

pachde · December 15, 2025, 8:36pm

Thanks for the reference!. There, I recommend you start with GenericBlank: a Template for a VCV Rack Blank module. Which, for the dev environment setup and preparation refers to the Rack tutorial previously mentioned in this thread. I also recommend building Rack in preference to using the SDK.

FiroLFO · December 16, 2025, 11:14am

This video and Bret personally helped me a lot at the start. But the video is almost 3 years old now…

dan.tilley · December 16, 2025, 12:05pm

If you are on Windows and are happy to use the SDK rather than building Rack, then I have a guide to dev env setup, as with others it is now old and maybe has parts that are out of date, but should still have some useful tips.

github.com/Miff-Real/vcv-dev-dant-method

step_1.md

main

# Step 1 - Install & Configure

## Install VCV Rack

* Can be **Rack 2 Free** or **Rack 2 Pro**, but Pro is required to test your plugin in DAWs, the
  [download page](https://vcvrack.com/Rack#get) has the latest version. When there is an update,
  simply download the new version and [install](https://vcvrack.com/manual/Installing) on top of the
  previous version.
* You will need to [create a VCV Rack account](https://vcvrack.com/login) and login to use Pro or to
  subscribe to plugins (including your own if you choose to publish it in the official library).
* Run the VCV Rack app and check that it works correctly, remember a patch needs to have an Audio
  module with a selected audio device, many modules and/or controls will not function when there is
  `No device`.

## Install Windows Terminal

* I use [Windows Terminal](https://aka.ms/terminal) to interact with
  [PowerShell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerShell) (for Scoop) and MSys2.
* Once installed, the only config you need to do for now is to set the `Appearance` and
  `Color Schemes` settings, I use the `Light` Application theme and the `One Half Dark` Color

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codyge · December 16, 2025, 12:32pm

Yes! And best of all, it is totally free to develop for VCV (unlike Cherry) and we have a great community here that can help you if you get stuck at some stages of the process.

You can develop your own modules and cross-platform compile them in github for free. You can also decide if you want to release them to the VCV library or just use them personally. When you compile the plugin in C++ you just get a VCV plugin file that you drop into your VCV plugin folder to install.

If you can do basic coding, the SDK does a lot of the heavy lifting. And, since it’s C++ the sky is the limit if you want to do things on your own.

I suggest checking out the source code of the VCV Free modules, and also of other developers that have open-sourced code, to get some ideas of what is involved. Some simpler modules can be made in just a few lines of code.

cosinekitty · December 16, 2025, 1:45pm

On top of the wonderful advice above, once you get going, one of the best resources is the abundance of other people’s source code. You can look at source code for VCV Rack itself, all of the VCV Fundamental modules, plus source code for any open source module you are interested in.

If you see an open source module that does something interesting, and you want to know how you can do it too, the source code link is available right in the module’s “Info” menu option. An example from my Sapphire Elastika module:

Click that and it opens the Sapphire plugin’s GitHub repo in your browser. It works the same way with all the open source plugins.

clone45 · December 19, 2025, 1:33am

Maybe I’ll update that. If I have time tomorrow, I’ll post a new tutorial. I need to shamelessly plug my new project as well. (Not synth based, so I won’t do that here.)