OK, so I might do a few more of these as I’ve still got some patches I’d like to share. This one is an updated patch vaguely emulating the Microcosm pedal using multiple Simpliciters. I was having a lot of issues with Simpliciter crashing when inserted into new patches, but I dug out an old patch and changed it round, and just really love this sound. I can sit and play this one for hours!
Note: video is still uploading, should be ready in about half an hour. 
No guitar this time, but here’s a quick video showing how a synth sounds through my last guitar patch!
Nice. I love that Juno sound.
Thanks, I love the classic analogue pads from the Juno, but that’s the only thing I seem to use it for! Obviously it can do squelchy acid stuff with the filter resonance up, and a lot more but I always gravitate towards making the same thing. I actually prefer to do sound design with VCV most of the time because there are so many more possibilities. It does, however, have that sound that people still love.
In fact I’m not bothered with hardware generally, but I was lucky enough to buy the Juno way back in the 90’s for something like £150 and I’ve kept it because the silly prices keep going up.
Here’s another one, Taps isn’t in the library yet if you want the reverse delays, but there’s a thread on here with the beta available to download. Duplicating modules like this isn’t necessary now with polyphonic effects, but I haven’t found a delay yet with send/return loop which is also polyphonic so I just used 16 Chronoblobs and merged the sends!
sounds like Chronoblob should be updated to be polyphonic?
Hi. That sounds really good. Quick question, do you plug your strat into any pre-amp or directly into your interface? And what strat is it? It has a great tone. And works very well with the effects you’ve created, which are awesome.
@Squinky yep, a poly Chronoblob would be amazing! Although I just realised the update for Unfiltered Audio vol1 has hit the library so I do have a poly delay with feedback loop. It’s a commercial collection, but well worth the price IMO, sixteen channels of Instant Delay is incredible.
@auretvh thanks, this could be a lengthy answer! I have two strats, two interfaces and a few different plugin amp sims. In that video, I actually went straight into the laptop using a cheap Focusrite 2i2, via a hardware compressor pedal (TC Electronic Hypergravity) because I wanted a really clean sound. I bought the compressor to help with recording levels, but I find it does give a bit more tone as well. Usually on the laptop I’ll run an amp sim in VCV Host, I have a few but quite like the Brainworx ones (Buxom Betty or DS-40). Not free, but really cheap on the Plugin Alliance website if you see them on offer. Occasionally I try free ones too, Blacksun is OK but there are plenty of alternatives.
On the PC I use an Audient Sono, which is an interface with a valve stage built in (or ‘tube’ for our friends in the US ) and Two Notes amp/cab modelling. The idea is to save CPU by not having to run cab sim on your computer, which is fine, and it does have a nice tone. My only issue is Two Notes includes room simulation, which is impossible to turn off, and literally the worst reverb I’ve ever heard. It’s supposed to simulate the distance from the mic, and how much room sound gets though, but even turned down to zero distance you get a strange phasey resonance which annoys the tits off me. Guitarists seem to think that real valves do something magic, but honestly I’m not convinced it sounds much better than the simulations these days, especially once I’ve drowned it with effects.
The guitar in that video is an American Professional which I bought a few years ago, in the first lockdown. It was an indulgence really, but does have a lovely tone. The other strat is so old I can’t remember which model it was, it dates back to 1994! It had a DiMarzio humbucker, Floyd Rose tremelo and active electronics, which I disabled because it sounded too bright for my taste. It was a kind of metal orientated model, but I’ve never been into metal, I think I used to use a lot of whammy bar so just liked the idea of a locking tremelo. I replaced the scratchplate and a few other bits as a lockdown project, and dubbed it the ‘VCV Rackocaster’ ™ 
The Rackocaster has a nice feel, and is smoother for doing ambient swells with the volume knob. I find the tone slightly brittle, so the new strat has a more mellow sound but goes out of tune quicker. Swings and roundabouts really, usually I’ll just grab whichever one has fresher strings to record something.
Wow, that is quite a setup you have there, which explains the lovely tone. I’m busy taking notes 
. TBH, I thought it might have been an American Professional. It has such a unique, clear sound. I’ve always been eyeing that guitar out, it’s kind of my “when I’m grown up” guitar 
.
BTW, I absolutely love the VCV Rackocaster!!!
Please keep these videos coming, I’m really enjoying them, and inspiring me to pick up a guitar again.
Lovely work ! 
Thanks, really appreciate it and you’re welcome to shout if you want any advice on combining guitar and Rack. I still make electronic stuff sometimes too, but 9 times out of 10 when I load up VCV I plug a guitar in and work on effects, so plenty more videos coming whenever I get time to make them!
That scratchplate is amazing! The “VCV Rackocaster” - one of a kind 
As an old frippertronics fan I say: Keep it coming…
Thanks Lars, the scratchplate is legacy now because it’s v1.6! One day I might make a new one for the other strat. Maybe when v3 is out
Anyway, this week I have been mostly drinking ales and making a crazy demo of the new Unfiltered Audio Volume 1.
LOL - the last guitar I bought was a 1971 les paul custom I got used in 1985!
Nice! Do you still have it?
My strat is an '87 Japanese model. Which is good since I modified it many years ago to install a Roland GK-2A MIDI pickup to control my Roland GR-55 Guitar Synthesizer and my Kurzweil K200RS. Actually, the Roland hardware is the 2nd generation that I had and used.
My Les Paul is a 2014 signature edition. But, I should have bought one in my youth when I had more strength to handle the weight
The Strat and Les Paul are a matched pair of white on black.
Edit: By the way, your video is inspiring my to combine guitar playing with Rack. I really like what you are doing along those lines.
Very nice! The Japanese strats from that time are pretty good.
Was just about to ask if you’ve used the MIDI pickup with VCV, and saw your edit. I’d love to see more people using guitar or other instruments. You’ve got a few options, either using the GK-2A to play VCV modules via MIDI-CV, or taking the audio from the GR-55 and processing it through filters/effects, or maybe both at once? I’d be interested to see what you do with it.
I’d also quite like a Les Paul at some point…and a tele…and a decent acoustic…maybe some valve amps instead of using simulations…basically a lot of stuff I can’t justify buying! The great thing about making modular effects is there seems to be an endless amount of things to discover for free. New modules such as Taps reverse delay, new techniques like patching effects polyphonically (is that even a word? The spell checker doesn’t think so!), it’s basically limitless.
I should also mention that my first musical instrument love was the guitar and that when I built my PAIA modular synth in 1973, mostly what I did was run my electric guitar into the analog inputs in the modular and do all sorts of analog sound manipulation.
So, your current work takes me back in time half a century and triggered off some Hendrix psychedelic memories. I really like what you are doing.
Thanks, that’s fantastic! I’m the same really, started playing guitar aged 9 but by the time I was a teenager I realised I was more interested in sound design than regular guitar music. I used to do all sorts of things to make different noises, like pointing the TV remote at the pickups with the gain cranked to make bleeps, turning up a distortion pedal until it picked up shortwave radio and recording it through delay, using my dad’s old reel-to-reel to do sound on sound and changing the tape speed so I could get parts an octave up or down, sticking headphones next to the pickups to get high pitched feedback through a flanger, stuff like that. Later on I saved up for a couple of cheap rackmount effects, which I used to feed back through the aux sends on a 4-track to make noise experiments. People thought I was insane at the time, now it’s a hipster thing called ‘no-input mixing’.
Looking back, I suppose I wanted to make electronic sounds but didn’t have any synths, so most of what I did was trying to make the guitar sound completely different. In fact, I had an idea in the 90’s for a modular analogue guitar pedal (similar to what Throbbing Gristle used, although I didn’t know about that at the time) but I was lousy at electronics and never got it working. The idea was to have resonant filters/effects in one section then modulators in another section, so you could patch an envelope follower or S&H into a flanger for example, instead of a regular LFO which is what most pedals used. This is exactly what I’m able to do now, so VCV is allowing me to try ideas I’ve had for decades! It’s incredible really, so huge thanks are due to everyone involved.
Yes, I practice on it most days.
