Re-Amp from VCV to DAW

VCV Rack
1

Hello, so if you don’t want to read the detailed description below, essentially I want to do what this guy does in this video except replace his modular synth with VCV Rack, and the question is how ?

Detailed explanation :

So I want to output from my DAW to VCV Rack and back again, essentially like outputting from your DAW to a hardware synth and back in again. Not complicated, use one output on your I/O device and 1 input on your I/O device for the return signal and bobs your uncle job done.

However, VCV Rack doesn’t have its’ own I/O device, so it’s sharing the same audio interface that my DAW is. Which means I have to essentially divide my I/O device into 2 virtual ones.

Lets take mono for starters as it is easier, I will need 2 outputs and 2 inputs. 1 ouput to send the signal out of my daw, 1 input to send it back into my I/O device and into VCV Rack, and then a second output from VCV Rack into a second input of my I/O device to get it back into Pro Tools (My DAW).

Is there any better or easier way to achieve this to avoid using so many I/O and cables ? Maybe with a virtual audio interface that I can dedicate to VCV Rack ? Am I dumb, am I missing something here ?

Your help would be much appreciated.

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Why not just buy rack pro and use rack as a plugin in your daw. Then use your internal daw routing to set up the topology you want

Alternately use something like loopback or black hole to make an expanded virtual device. Don’t know what the windows equivalent of that is. But that result will be more fragile in that your daw session won’t contain the rack patch etc

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Exactly what I was going to say @baconpaul! You could also record stems in your DAW and play them back in standalone VCV to process.

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AFAIK Pro Tools runs AAX only, no VST/CLAP/AU. Rack2Pro is not available in AAX, just ask the support email found on the website.

there are workarounds by using internal routing on every OS, both for MIDI and Audio, but if you could use a different DAW it would be a walk in the park

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Jack might be a solution, it allows routing audio from one application to another.

Jack is available for Windows, Linux and MacOS.

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I always got Jack to work on Linux, never tried on other OS…but honestly not something I would explain lol

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As far as I understand using vcv rack pro as a plugin, would change nothing in terms of routing, the way vcv rack works, the routing issue is the same, unless there is something I’ve misunderstood again ?

And exporting stems is the exact opposite of what I want. I want to be able to play the vst live into vcv rack and record the audio back into the DAW.

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This is exactly what VCV Pro allows you to do. When you launch the plugin, you can choose the instrument version, or the FX version. The FX version takes audio from your DAW and allows you to process it through VCV. It basically works like any other effects plugin.

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If you use Reaper, you could use ReaRoute as your interface in Rack and record directly into the DAW.

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you could try this plugin: VST wrapper for AAX
to use the VCV VST plugin inside Pro Tools

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as other users said, the Pro version allows you to use it inside the DAW. i.e. trigger from midi, audio process and so on

furthermore, multiple AUDIO modules are allowed in Rack 2 (even if only one can be the “master one”). this thing means that you can send/receive cv/midi directly from inside a track (audio is possible as well but there are better routing choices)…and multiple instances are allowed as well…think about it…

what really makes the difference in the end is your DAW’s routing capabilities and how deep you know your DAW (I have chosen Reaper because it’s light, powerful, solid, reliable. when I first saw its routing abilities years ago I purchased it instantly)

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I think there is still a subscribe option for the price of a couple of pizzas…and you have one month to try it out

I don’t know if there are refund options for the perpetual, probably other users here can confirm it

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This! And the fact that you can take a large patch and break it up into smaller patches inside the DAW, having more control, but they are still connected to one another.

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Sorry for the beginner question: do you mean, that splitting a bigger patch into smaller parts in different vcvrack instances all inside the daw? how do they communicate? via vcvhost? how are particular cv connected between them?

thanks

Karl

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Hi Karl, not a beginner question at all. Its just my workflow, I would create a patch in standalone, and if it’s worth pursuing I would break it apart into smaller patches or voices in the DAW. I can then automate any parameters easily. I usually run at the tempo of the DAW, so that keeps everything neatly lined up. I use the CV to Midi, and midi to CV modules to communicate, but you could probably do it with the audio modules sending CV across, I haven’t gone that deep yet. I also remember something about Little Utils teleport modules being able to communicate to different instances of the VST, but haven’t tried it yet.

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Teleport is the answer, it allows separate instances in your daw to exchange signals.

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thank you, but i must say that i do not understand how the sending teleport in one vcvrack instance knows the all the other teleport modules in other vcvrack instances… but anyway, i’m not a developer.

does it work with venom bay also? @DaveVenom i ask, because i use them a lot.

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No. I don’t remember why, I think because it would not be thread safe, but I actually added code to prevent that. From the manual:

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Ah,ok. thank you.