Looking for plugin ideas

SeVeN was released in newest build!

I’m now working on drums module, though it will take me awhile. Stay tuned.

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Definitely a Basimilus Iteritas Alter clone would be awesome. The structure is described in the manual, but as it says it’s parameterized, I don’t know how one would find the parameters range/scaling…

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I´ll second that. A friend of mine just built a Basilimus Iteritas Alter clone in Reaktor (just the structure, not the sound) and i´m already “jealous” and wish one of the geniuses in here would feel inspired by it.

If you can please create a Plugin which enables Cable Mapping via MIDI Buttons.

these perhaps?

Being a retro computer geek, everything that would involve the sound of 8 bit chipsets would be awesome and very welcome! But I don’t know if that’s your cup of coffee… :wink:

It would be awesome if “someone” would convert the 8Mode SoftSNS machine, for example. Or rebuild it from scratch. It was a very awesome plugin…

Also, a C 64 SID emulator could be really interesting. There are a lot of VST plugins out there but no native plugins for VCV 1.x

Those are my 2 cents. Keeping my fingers crossed. :wink:

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Well, Langton’s Life is… Interesting as a random generator! And the background history make it “cool and interesting”! :smiley:

Take Boh!ngler from NYSTHI and gave it a way more “organic” background (does this sentence even make any sense?? LOL!)

Plus… Doesn’t it tickle your imagination to have tiny living cells to make “music” inside your computer??

A post was merged into an existing topic: PLUGIN AUTHORS: Help migrating existing plugins to Rack v1

Problem: When user loads patch with missing plugins/modules it is really hard to figure out what wires missing and where they were connected.

Solution: On patch load blank ‘missing’ module takes place, preserving connected wires, gives user a chance to reimplement patch with existing modules if possible.

Is this something that might be implemented in core, and not possible to implement in plugins?

Problem: High CPU utilization while user not using Rack, e.g. switches to another app like browser etc. and accepts that it can be muted.
Solution: Option to disable engine when Rack window loses focus.

update: lol. on my machine 20% cpu idle goes up to 100% when activating pause in menu, idk this is bug or what the duck.

ideas that come to mind:

A complex vco is missing from vcv rack. say a buchla 259. Further generator.

Ornament and crime module port to vcv rack.

A serge style NTO oscillator. In fact random source style euro modules.

Mutable instruments alt firm wares and parasites - linked to every module, or standalone modules.

Mutating Spectral Resynthesizer clone, or something similar.

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EDIT: I posted an updated version of this post in the pinned “Module ideas” thread


Hey, while I’m undecided whether I’ll ever get into VCV plugin development (my C and DSP skills are 95% nonexistent yet), I’ve been writing down half-baked ideas for modules as they occurred to me since I started learning VCV. Those ideas are generally more on the esoteric side than on the “how about making an oscillator but it sounds a bit different than the current ones” side, haha.

I figure this thread would be a great place to dump them. Sorry if I’m repeating an existing suggestion, I only skimmed the thread.

I am not sure all are feasible, or even useful to me, let alone useful to anyone else. Some of them can already be done in VCV with a bit of creative patching and lateral thinking, but there’s value in simplifying an already possible workflow. They’re sorted by increasing guesstimated difficulty to implement. And they’re just ideas, so they’re obviously free for the taking and the mangling, but since I might eventually make a few modules I’d love a heads-up if you choose to adopt one of 'em.

Okies, with the disclaimer out of the way, let’s start:

Quick reference

Blank panel that provides quick references about things you’d look up often in VCV, such as which Braids abbreviation means what, so you can look up stuff while you jam without ruining your flow. Change what it displays via right click. It should be small enough you can place it next to whatever module you need a reference for, and be done by an author who’s open to receive new SVG faceplate pull requests so it can all be bundled in a single convenient place.

2HP Poly Merge and Split

Fundamental’s Split and Merge in a single module supporting only four channels, in the smallest amount of space reasonable.

Tournament

16 signals go in. A trigger starts the lottery. One signal wins randomly. You can also get the winner of each bracket.

Faceplate (for a 8 signals variant, cuz i only had a small paper) would resemble a normal tournament chart:

The whole point is to make use of the winners of each brackets, not just the winner.

It’s a gimmick device meant to inspire ideas, not a necessary utility enabling a previously difficult workflow. It’d probably make for a great first module if I get into making them, it seems easy to implement.

Pitchbend Helper

Figures out the math to do a standard pitch bend, with advanced features: scale-aware, quantized glissando. For example, dial in the scale and make it so that pushing the bend to the max makes you end up 3 scale degrees above the starting position. Or make the pitch bend 24 semitones, quantized to F# Minor notes.

Sound Test

A visualizer that looks like old videogames’ sound test modes, with many piani on top of each other. Getting the aesthetics right is crucial here. It needs the many keys closely stacked on top of each other. Good visual references: Knuckles’ Chaotix, FMDSP, Hoot Player, Vanbasco’s Karaoke Player, TMIDI Player.

Text Chat to CV

The module offers a few triggers and continuous -10/+10v CV outputs. When connected to an internet chatroom, such as Twitch chat, viewers can send commands such as !trig1 or !signal2 6.4. While it might be better implemented outside of VCV (as a separate program sending data over a virtual MIDI device), it’d be fun for viewers to see their input given a physical presence in the streamer’s patch, and hear the performance react to their choices.

Mario Paint

A sound module taking V/OCT and gates for each of the 15 original instruments (meticulously sampled from real hardware or Higan). That’s it.

Sampling those sounds is a gray area. Ethically, they are single notes meant to be used in music composition in software meant to foster creativity, so I will argue it’s no different from sampling a classic synth. Pragmatically, Nintendo has never sent their lawyers after Mario Paint Composer, a PC program that takes graphics and sounds directly from the SNES software. Using the “Mario” trademark is what they’d be the most likely to object to. A fun module name suggestion I received when mentioning it was “Bowsette Paint” (a fan-made character, so Nintendo can’t object on trademark grounds).

Web Radio

Grab a live webradio stream to infringe copyrights in real time. I think antN already can do that, and modular80’s Radio Music lets you load files, but I’d like instead to have built-in URLs curated for quick operation. Just dial in CLASSIC ROCK, ANIME, POLITICS, DEATH METAL, DAD RAP, ITALIANO, DOO WOP, etc., and let the DJ spin the good jams for you.

Rubato Orchestra Conductor

Interpolate beats to turn them into a clock.
Send a trig to signify a beat, have the module interpolate and serve as a clock. This is not a “set and forget” BPM detector nor a system for sudden changes in tempo (tapping on the beat has too low a level of granularity), this is to humanize the energy of a sequenced song.

You could also use the velocity at which you tap with a slew limiter to alter the intensity of the performance, but this probably shouldn’t be that module’s concern.

Progression-aware magic chord dispenser

Grids, but for chords. Set the key, move knobs, send a trig, and the black box picks evolving chord progressions that sound good on a polyphonic V/OCT jack. You can then patch it to a poly oscillator, but the real fun happens if you also split the channels and generate melodies from chord notes. Progressions should not be crafted at random, but chosen and repeated in ways that would please intellectual theory nerds. But I don’t know aout those ways, I’m a theory illiterate idiot who barely understands what a “scale” even is.

Sticker Box

How about messing up your super expensive modular rig by slapping a bunch of stickers all over it? Think how Reason places a bit of console tape on every rack device for you to name them, for example. I have zero clue how feasible it is, but since I saw examples of modules drawing outside their boundaries, maybe it can work, I have not looked up the API details yet. The module could be modal, switching the current sticker being edited, comprised of an input box to edit the text, navigation buttons (Previous, New, Edit, Delete, Next), and knobs to change the X/Y offset, rotation, scale, opacity, and template.

Auto-Tune

I imagine the basic algorithm behind autotune and melodyne is well documented by now, and it might be easy to re-implement the basic concept, especially if you’re not after studio quality natural-sounding correction but after the very artificial “autotune effect”, making the attack very fast to obtain a vocoder-like choppy glissando.

Turntable

Fun skeuomorphic multi-module turntable sampler system, meant for scratching. The main module is a turntable with a spinning record that you can grab and scratch. It could sound realistic, and also enable creative uses that are impractical on real turntables. Similar to things you can already do with Nysthi’s Jira Jira echo & Complex Simpler but with live sampling & time travel.

Here’s a very very very naïve first draft how it could work:

  • You can load a sample or record a rolling buffer from the audio in.
  • You can use a rolling buffer of arbitrary length. There is a small crossfade at the point the buffer rolls back to the start. If you’re sending it sounds perfectly synced to the beat, then scratching bidirectionally will probably sound natural.
  • You can also activate a delay: by sending sound to the rolling buffer one or two bars before you want it played, you can time travel, scratching both directions, and cue back to the present.
  • You can use a mouse or midi controller to grab and scratch.
  • The turntable could be represented as follows:
    • Torque: Sawtooth LFO with acceleration & deceleration.
    • Hand pressure: How much force is applied by the scratching hand vs. torque.
    • Hand direction: If any pressure is applied, it interprets movement in CV as relative motion applied to the disk.
    • Cue: Send it a value + a trig to send the needle to that position. The value is absolute relative to the length of the buffer.

Most features could be split off to smaller modules. A possible system:

  • Single turntable, placed vertically, the record taking most of the space on the module.
  • Motor (dual sawtooth LFO powering two turntables, with acceleration/deceleartion when powered on/off, taking hand pressure input)
  • Crossfader
  • Cue point memory
  • Hand movement memory, with pre-loaded bank of common turntable motions
  • An interally hardwired module containing the full system ready to go, both in single turntable and dual turntable configuration

TBH, I don’t think this idea has much of an audience, with the modular synths and hip-hop worlds having so little overlap, so it would have no success as a paid module, and is a crazy amount of effort to do for free unless it’s a true labor of love.

Voice cloning as a module

That one seems really hard to implement, I haven’t looked into details.

MIDI recorder with Drag & Drop file out

Because of my interest for semi-aleatoric composition, I’d like to use my modular environment as a pure composition tool: if I get it to generate a composition I like, I want to be able to record it to MIDI, rather than to audio.

It’d be great if it were possible to drag and drop a MIDI clip from the module directly into a DAW, without an intermediary cable or loopback device, in the same way that some drum VSTs allow you to craft drum parts and drop the clips directly in the host’s timeline. I have no idea about the feasibility of it, probably depends whether the VCV API exposes enough to plug in a library abstracting out file drag and drop for each OS.

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Some really good stuff in there. I really dig Tournament, Pitchbend helper (I have a strip preset with +/- 2 semi-tone bend setup but a module would be great), and Progression-aware magic chord dispenser.

Here’s my quick list:

Chorder+Quantizer
Start out with something similar to VCV chords - I can program some chords, have a poly output if I want those chords going to an osc, send a different root note in to transpose the chords, save them as presets, then send CV signals to jump between chords. Nothing special yet right? It’s basically VCV Chords.

Now…add a Quantizer + CV input/output. The idea being, I can generate a sequence using something like Seq-3, have some chords happening in this new module, and take the Seq-3 CV output and route it to the Quantizer which quanitzes any CVs to a note in the chord. So I can setup a bassline, then have the bassline transpose or arpeggiate with the chords.

Shape Sequencer
With apologies to Urs Heckman, the Shape Sequencer in Hive is lots of fun. A shape sequencer in VCV rack would be cool. I’d prefer U-he just ported it over, but not sure if that’ll happen any time soon.

Value Sequencer
I envison a 16-step sequencer where you’ve got two sets of knobs and corresponding LEDs. The top row sends notes, and the LED’s tell you exactly which note the sequencer is currently tuned to (notes would be quantized to a chromatic scale, multiple octaves). Then a CV row below that where you can send exact voltages, with the voltage value per step displayed in the LED. Now add a clock in, reset, and gate outs. Maybe an LED to enable/disable each CV note/gate.

The use case that spurred this idea was simple: I want to trigger different chords, and different preset addresses in VCV Chords, but I want to do that from a single sequencer and set exact notes and voltages separately. But this could do a lot more than that in a very simple interface.

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There are some great ideas in that post, thank you for sharing !

I won’t comment on most of them as I’m still scratching the surface of VCV API so I’m not sure what would be possible to implement or not. So just droping a few thoughts :

  • Quick Reference : I think that’s a great idea ! Especially for Braids/Plaits, having some kind of expansion module that will display the details of each algorithm and what knob does what would be extremely useful to me.

  • 2HP Poly Merge and Split & Tournament : These two modules would be indeed a good starting point for you to get into VCV development. Even with just a little knowledge of C++ you could build them in a relatively short time.

  • Text Chat to VCV : Tom Cosm has made something similar for Ableton Live. Max4Live based I guess but could be something worth looking into : Tom Cosm twitch channel

  • Midi Recorder : I like this idea; never tried to record midi using loopback yet, as we only had Midi Out in VCV for a few months, so i’m not sure how much of a hassle is it to setup. Such a module would be definitely be useful, probably a lot of coding involved tho.

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Oh! I didn’t think of that, but yeah, (ab)using the Expander API means the module could display a quick reference for any module that requires the user to memorize something, without menu diving to select what to display.

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Suggestions for 2 modules.

1- A multi channel midi out patchbay (midi mixer) with omni channel option.
2- A module to convert BPM/Ms output´s (AS modules) into a clock with reset in/out and run input.

Thanks

I picked up this idea, added some features on my own an created module 4ROUNDS. It is now available in the library in “PackOne”.

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!! :smiley:

Love the space-efficient circular design, gonna have to try it out immediately!

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Just watched a video on a Cubase plugin I never new about - a multiband envelope generator - and thought it might be neat to have one in VCV Rack. Unfortunately, it’s beyond my coding skills, but here’s the video in case someone gets interested.

Cubase Multiband Envelope Generator

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