Ideas for any interested developers

Plugins & Modules
182

I know that I myself am a developer, but I had an idea today that could be really cool, but there is no way I can even consider it right now, so wanted to get it out there just in case.

So today I fell into one of those internet rabbit holes when I discovered Algodoo, this is right up my street being a physics sandbox, you can create all sorts of strange contraptions in this, and people do… mostly marble run type things on YouTube set to generic EDM (not a dig, I’m sure it has it’s fans, but I can’t stand this type of music).

Algodoo seems past its prime now though, a lot of the makers have moved on to using Unity, and the Algodoo subreddit has a post from someone remaking an open source version. But you can still download Algodoo and tinker with it to get started.

I downloaded it and made some simple stuff, but one thing that caught my eye was the Plot function which shows you various information about a physics body. My very next thought was, it would be so awesome if there was some way to transmit this data to VCV Rack

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Algodoo does have its own scripting language, but I couldn’t find anything about sending data externally, so not sure how this would work.

And there is the question of how the data could be translated/formatted in a way that is useful.

Then I remembered the Holonic Source module, and had a look at how that imports the external data, and obviously it uses midi, doh!

So, in a nutshell, the idea is to build some sort of plugin or script, for some sandbox engine/application that can output midi based on simulated physics bodies.

I would love to be able to make a generative piece in VCV where the sound syncs up with a physics simulation, greenscreen it into a video. (kinda like a super powered version of this old iPad app)

2 Likes
183

Use case:

  • I have polyphonic melody A carried by pitch cable A and gate cable A
  • I have polyphonic melody B carried by pitch cable B and gate cable B
  • I want melodies A and B to control the same synth (a single polyphonic oscillator and single polyphonic VCA)

Current solution:

  • Add four VCV Split modules to my patch
  • Add two VCV Merge modules to my patch
  • Split pitch signal A
  • Split pitch signal B
  • Merge mono pitch signals A and B into pitch signal C
  • Split gate signal A
  • Split gate signal B
  • Merge mono gate signals A and B into gate signal C

That requries six modules and quite a bit of patching. If I decide to change the polyphony of melody A or B, that requires even more patching.

I may be making things more difficult for myself by insisting on voicing both melodies with a single synth. But indeed this is the use case I have been thinking of.

184

Give this a try:

You will need three Bogaudio ASSIGN, and one Venom Multi Merge.

Send keyboard 1 through ASSIGN 1 set to 8 channels. Send keyboard 2 through ASSIGN 2 set to 8 channels.

Each ASSIGN will then output polyphonic Gates and V/Oct with 8 channels each.

Use the Multi Merge to combine the 4 outputs of ASSIGN 1 and ASSIGN 2 into 2 polyphonic outputs of 16 channels each.

Send the Multi merge outputs to ASSIGN 3 set to 16 channels.

This should provide for up to 16 notes being played simultaneously, never more than 8 from one keyboard at the same time.

I suppose a new module could be created that would allow all 16 simultaneous notes to come from either keyboard, but that is not something I am interested in doing. Perhaps some other developer will take it up.

2 Likes
185

This works well, thanks for the idea. I wasn’t aware of Venom Multi Merge. I appreciate the flexibility of the groupings.

1 Like
186

Of course there is a Multi Split corollary. That one allows you to right mouse click on an output and specify how many channels you want on that output. So you can split a poly signal in any arbitrary manner.

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187

Here’s a very simple idea. I don’t even believe nobody did it… i don’t remember if anyone proposed it, I think maybe at some point someone did… Or maybe someone actually made it, but I missed it. If so - please tell me!

Anyway, stereo-poly and poly-stereo. So a bunch of simple merge/split modules for two cords (stereo) on one side and one cord (poly) on the other side. I think it would be best to have a simple single merger and maybe double or even quadruple mergers and one big split for mixers. Probably 8 channels would be the most usable or popular, but it could be a big array, like a matrix (not functionally, but visually) 16 poly to 16 stereo or even more. 32 maybe?

I imagine it being like this:

image

1 Like
188

I think this is relatively easy to do with the existing Venom Multi Merge & Multi Split modules:

darchillus_stereo_merge_split

In this example, I bundle 2 stereo pairs in a poly-4 cable, and a single stereo pair in a poly-2 cable, add different offsets to them (1V & 2V), and split them out again into different stereo-pairs with a single Venom Multi Split module.

Is this like what you want to achieve, or did you have some other functionality in mind?

1 Like
189

Yeah! I mean, you overdid it, haha. I was thinking about something really simple: two cords into one cord. So in case of 3 stereo pairs, that would be 3 poly cords. But I guess this module can do that too, so yes, that’s what I was thinking functionality-wise, but maybe a bit more simple design-wise: like there’s no need for such a huge merge module… But I am just cherry picking, haha. It is functionally what I had in mind - thank you!

1 Like
190

There’s a couple modules that will merge and unmerge stereo signals:

The Lindenberg one is part of a paid collection and, although the Grande MergeSplit4 has 4 channels, it will still perform the stereo-poly-stereo function.

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191

yeah, the closest one to the merge module I had in mind is a Lindenberg’s one, but yeah, it’s not free. Not that it should be free, but… it wouldn’t hurt. As for MS4, it has too many ports… I am thinking about an exclusively stereo to poly and poly to stereo thing. So, the Lindenberg’s approach. But out of free modules MS4 and some other modules with 4 ports – I think I saw some other ones too – are the closest ones to merge and Venom’s split is the closest one to split the poly cords. Anyway! Thanks! I wasn’t even aware of Lindenberg’s module. really sad this collection is too expensive… But whatever.

192

A bit like Mindmeld Meld and Unmeld?

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193

Yes! Like stereo input and poly output (like Meld), but for for each module (unlike Meld) and then in different direction, so it would work with different mixers, not only with Mindmeld mixers…

194

I came up with an idea that might be useful, a variable clock divider/multiplier. You give it a clock, then you’ve got I dunno 8 to 10 outputs with a dedicated knobs, you can set each output differently of course, but divided/multiplied with 0.25, 0.5, 1, 1.5, etc, etc.

195
3 Likes
196

Heh, thanks.

2 Likes
197

and for a riot of rhythms it will rotate the dividers/multipliers

1 Like
198

poly to stereo exists:

Not sure that does what you want though

199

That’s not it though. What I mean is what apparently Lindenberg Research has. That’s not a polyphonic spreader, that’s a module that combines left and right stereo channels into one poly cord and then splits this cord into two channels again. That’s what i mean.

200

So there are only ever 2 channels?

201

Yes, exactly! Instead there are more space to fit like 2-4 or more of these stereo-poly merges/splits

Kinda like Venom’s Multi Merge and Split, but specialized for stereo pairs