I have the free VCV Rack version and I want to do something I can’t do with free modules. I’m wondering if I could do this with VCV Rack Pro.
I have a couple of compositions that are semi-improvised that I control with my MIDI Controller, an Akai APC 40 Mk2. I assign the MIDI knobs and buttons to PatchMaster, which is connected to the modules and parameters I want to control.
Is it possible to record on a DAW all the changes I’m making on PatchMaster parameters and then edit the result? I want to record the MIDI output from my controller that is associated to volume, filters, dry/wet signals, everything, dozens of controls. This way I could just edit the result with some adjustments where needed and then I would just have to play the timeline from the start and record the audio to have a finished version of the track.
I want to this but for the parameters on VCV Rack. Record them while playing and then edit them to create a “studio version” of the track.
My AKAI APC 40 Mk2 is connected to VCV Rack through multiple instances of MIDI-CAT controlling PatchMaster. I would have to keep this connection even with VCV as a VST, overriding the default association of the APC40 to Ableton Live. I’m guessing this must be possible.
Would it be possible too or better to use Entrian Timeline or CV to solve this? I haven’t tried any of them, I only have free modules.
I think the best way to do this would be to use the Rack Pro VST and map the controller to the VST inside the DAW, without using MIDI-CAT. It should also be possible to route the whole MIDI of the controller directly to the VST as MIDI and do the mapping inside Rack with MIDI-CAT, but I haven’t tried that.
You could also use Entrian CV, but you would need to route the MIDI-data into it as CV, so you couldn’t use it directly to move knobs and would have to work with CV inputs on modules to control them. Depending on how many controls you want to have ready for recording, this could get quite messy quickly.
OK I just tested it… in FL I can route the MIDI of my controller directly to the Rack VST and it works with MIDI-CAT the same way as in standalone. I don’t know how to record it, though, so you would have to find a solution to record any incoming MIDI data that is not mapped to a control via DAW (I think in ableton you can just use a MIDI track for that), maybe try to do that with a different VST that accepts MIDI data to see if that works out for you. The classic free Synth1 VST comes to mind, where you can assign MIDI CCs to anything, so you could try it out with that.
you always can record the CV as an audio file in a sample recorder and eventually reproduce it as CV and of course edit the resulting “CV .wav” in your preferred audio editor, you don’t need the pro version or external DAW (except the audio editor of course )
Theoretically you could also use a virtual (or physical) MIDI cable to route MIDI from your DAW to Rack free standalone, and record and edit it in the DAW.
They can probably not both use the same sound card at the same time, though, so your DAW might need to be switched to a different driver and stay silent. Definitely worth a try if that’s what you want to do without having to buy Rack pro - and running Rack in standalone gives you the advantage of multi-core support for single patches, so potentially much bigger patches in one instance.
in the procedure I describe you should use a MIDI- CC module using your AKAI or an external DAW depending of your OS the procedure will require install midi virtual cables but in all the cases is very simple
I got VCV Rack Pro and I’m trying this. I could control VCV inside Reaper with the regular controls from MIDI-CAT and I’m going to try to record the parameters, but on Ableton it is not working. I don’t understand what’s causing this, because I’m not using the default connection of the APC to Ableton, I’ve disabled it, and VCV identifies the APC.
Not sure why I chose MIDI-CAT, maybe because I was trying other devices from the same company at the time, but I never had any issue with that module. I think MIDI Map doesn’t do anything that Cat can’t do.
I would try to connect it with ableton and create a MIDI track, and then route the MIDI track to Rack. In Rack you can then select DAW MIDI as device and record and edit the MIDI on the MIDI track.
