How To Start Out?

Hi everyone! I do not wish to sound lazy or rude, but, I am new to Modular Synthesis and VCV Rack and so I was wondering if any of you knew a good way to start out and learn. Also, if you could recommend some tutorials that would be great. If not, do not worry. Thank you for your time. Have a great day and stay safe.

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hello and welcome

Have a look to the VCV manual and OMRI’s tutorial but also VCV Rack Ideas and more. It’s a good start and you will see, easy

have fun

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Thank you for your advice @spontex.merlin, I will check out the VCV Manual now.

Thank you for your time.

Please see the Beginners guide to VCV Rack.

Edit: Also, if you are totally new, take some time to understand the template patch that is loaded the first time you run Rack. Unplug things, plug them back in again. Tweak some knobs, see what happens. You can’t break anything, so mess around.

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Omri Cohen’s channel has a few beginner series patches that are really nice for starting out :slight_smile:

Another channel i would recommend is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6KKEoBfUAL8xMCSd1DamsA/videos

There haven’t been new posts for a while, but since the patches are small, they should be easily reproducable and understandable :smile:

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask ! we all were beginners at some point :wink:

Have a good one, and enjoy playing with VCV :slight_smile:

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Heed this advice by The Creator: “I personally recommend that you attempt to push the Fundamental modules to their limits before moving on to other official or third-party plugins.” The amount of free third-party plugins is overwhelming. You may get lost in them.

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As one of the many third party module makers, I agree. You can learn a majority of what you need with just the fundamental modules. These modules are also pretty clear in their functions and less quirky than some. You can do a ton with these modules and learn a huge amount.

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Here’s a nice set of basic tutorials Prof. Mark Foley did for his students at Wichita State University. The coverage is not large, but I think his style is wonderfully clear and worth emulating. I wish he’d extend this.

Jim Aikin’s (former Keyboard magazine editor) written introduction and videos are nice places to start: https://synthandsoftware.com/2019/08/introducing-jim-aikins-modular-synthesis-for-beginners-ready-to-rack/

Gordon Reid’s (Sound on Sound) synth secrets is a great place for general notions of synthesis: https://www.soundonsound.com/series/synth-secrets

By far my favorite channel for VCV Rack tutorials. Succinct and thorough.

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I love how he’s teaching his students to only use the left output of their speakers.

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Compared to the practical content, that’s a small thing. I’m sure that got handled during labs. Those were part of a university course. Maybe they weren’t going to stereo amplification. (Does a Strat or Les Paul have a left and right?) The important thing is the quality of the pedagogy. Aside from waving his hands a bit at filter resonance, he’s spot on.

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It’s too bad SOS never covers VCV. I assume it’s because VCV doesn’t generate any ad revenue for them. As a subscriber of 20 years I sent them a message complaining about that, didn’t hear back. Other than no VCV coverage, it’s still are really good magazine.

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I think as the visibility of VCV as a serious musical instrument increases, the likelihood of SOS coverage will get better. I know that Sonic State’s Nick Batt has done a number interviews with various VCV developers. Computer Music is taking the bit in their teeth. SOS might just need a bit of nudging by circumstance to come on board.

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Thanks you for pointing me at Federico’s channel. My youtube/google searches hadn’t found him yet. He’s a bit looser in presentation than Prof. Foley, but from my quick initial gander, he seems very very good. Again, thanks so much.

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I would highly recommend checking out Chris Meyer’s stuff as well. https://learningmodular.com/

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