One thing I’ve been doing that works out for me is to make a clear separation between rack construction, jamming, and using VCV Rack as sound source for songs written in a DAW.
I keep a main “fixed system” emulating a hardware system: an always-evolving curation of modules that’s powerful enough to do a lot, but simple enough my CPU can keep up and I don’t find myself paralyzed with too many options I don’t know well.
Then, when playing, I don’t add or remove modules - I just patch things and figure out solutions with what I have available.
It changes all the time, but this is what my system looks like right now (MIDI and Audio I/O devices are shoved to the side, not depicted):
It has a deliberate focus on ephemeral, tonal, live, generative techno, hence the lack of sequencers that are difficult to tweak on the fly, and the abundance of aleatoric / unpredictable CV sources.
I’m trying to understand this system inside-out, and get its MIDI mappings to muscle memory, instead of doing jams by adding modules as-needed.
I’m using Submarine WM-101 to color the cables: the white ones are the hardwired parts of my system, the colored ones are parts of the jam. When I’m done playing, I do not reload the template - I manually unplug the colored cables, and do not reset the devices. I just pick my system up how I left it the last time. When a module gathers virtual dust for too long, I trash it and fill the space with something new.