Hi!
I’ve started developing plugins for VCV Rack and created Distortion.
Now I’m thinking of doing more plugins.
Are there plugins you really want?
I found brass voices idea, which seems really helpful, but quite intimidating.
And game of life, which seems cool and interesting, but not very practical probably.
The only thing I can think of is a sampler that can load SFZ or SF2 files.
Hi!
I was thinking about proposing an idea, so I’ll just share it here now:
I think it would be great to have 3 types of drum modules. that can be combined to create really sophisticated drum and percussion sounds.
I built a drum synth in Reaktor a while ago, which I think would translate very well into the modular world and gives loads of options for great synthesised drums.
You can check it out here:
https://www.native-instruments.com/de/reaktor-community/reaktor-user-library/entry/show/9995/
I would suggest:
-1 drum body module, consisting of oscillator (with phase control - !important), pitch mod with decay (preferably with some control of the curve, which I haven’t impemented in Reaktor yet), amp mod with attack and decay. FM input is also really useful, especially when connecting a second drum body module to the FM input for great FM-drums.
-1 filtered noise module with different noise types (can of course be achieved easily with other modules, but might still be nice to have a “percussive noise” module with just a few controls) - and:
-1 metallic noise module, consisting of 6 individually detunable pulsewaves, maybe with overall pitch, spread and pulsewidth control - this is a great source for hihats and cymbals in itself, but also very nice to use as FM-modulator to “metallize” snare drums or other percussion.
-maybe 1 small (like really NYSTHI-small) trigger duplicator/delayer
Since I already have this in Reaktor this is not a request, but I think this would be a really good idea to synthesize some sophisticated drums in Rack.
To build those kind of drums you would now need to use a lot of modules just for some drums, while with this you could have just a few modules next to each other and have the same amount of detailed control.
PS: these modules should be relatively small, like in my Reaktor-ensemble, to not take away too much screen estate for drums.
This one might be a bit boring compared with the examples you already mentioned, but I would really like to have a kind of ‘precision adder’ with the following specifications:
(1) a two-way switch that switches between adding/subtracting the corresponding input signal.
(2) a mute button that switches off the signal entirely.
(3) unconnected inputs default to adding/subtracting a voltage that can be set with a knob (from 0v to 1v).
What comes closes to this is probably the mtsch SUM module (and that is what I am using now). However, that one uses a 3-way switch (minus/off/plus), which is sometimes a bit tedious to use in Rack. Also, it does not have the default voltage on the unconnected inputs. Southpole’s modules also allow for this stuff with some creative patching, but then requires multiple modules for a relatively simple task.
I have been saying a couple of times I would develop something like this myself, but realistically speaking I don’t really have the time required for that.
Sounds straightforward and doable. I’ll ping you if I’ll get down to it.
Wow, thanks for detailed description. I’ll think about it.
Thanks. It also seems doable, though needs digging into technical stuff about SFZ.
That would be amazing!
I should probably add that the idea comes from this Eurorack module: http://www.doepfer.de/a1852.htm
Might be important in terms of reference and making sure that everything’s okay licensing/copyright and so on.
A module that can load Pure Data library objects in their native format.
As stated in another post from a while ago: “… an actual Rack module that uses libpd to process blocks of audio and CV”
But since no one tackled this yet, i would assume that it is not something that is easy to do.
It’s just an idea I wanted to get out there.
If you (or someone else) thinks it would be good to develope somthing like that, I would suggest just starting with the metallic noise module (6 detuned pulsewaves in one relatively small module), this would probably be the easiest and just a universally usable oscillator/tuned noise module.
I second this. I feel like we’re short on some more flexible percussion plugins. There are some decent sample-based solutions out there, there are of course the noise generators that can be used to great effect, and there is the Hora Hi-Hat module that also does some decent metal-sounding stuff, but without a lot of flexibility. Having a metallic noise module that can be tweaked in various ways would be a very welcome addition for me!
Would be worth looking into https://github.com/schellingb/TinySoundFont
Eurorack modules I miss in Rack: NE Zularic Repetitor, NE BIA, NE Loquelic Iteritas, NE Sinc Iter, O_c w/ Hemisphere, TT Hats909, Varigate, and Voltage Block.
Seconding the Varigate.
A Mellotron-like voice 
I searched for Drum in plugins. I see 2 free plugins and 3 paid.
DrumKit: I lack of customizability bothering you? It has quite good sound of bass, snare and hi-hat. But only bass drum is customizable.
PCM Drum Free: Looks pretty solid to me. What’s the problem with it?
If you have any ideas about paid modules - I would also like to hear them.
Those are good modules and are wave/sample based drums.
There is a need for synthesized drums / physical modelling:
Oh, I see. Basically synth solves equation, and knobs control equation parameters. Interesting.
not necessarily as design example, but more meant as an example for the type of sound.
Welll for me it’s a bit of an obsession to synthesize my drums… I like to have everything under control and get happy when I “make” good sounds… and I hate browsing for samples, I prefer turning some knobs.
The most useful thing would probably be the metallic noise module, other options can already be achieved with the combination of a few other modules… although I’d also really like a small oscillator with phase control and FM for my drums, and in general.
Phase control for Fundamental VCO2 and a versatile metallic noise module and I would be set up for druming in Rack. (NYSTHI LFOMultiphase can be used as a good oscillator for that, although for frequencies abov 100hz you have to type in the frequency or use an external module for tuning…)