Review of new features in Rack 2

VCV Rack
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This is my attempt at listing all the new features of Rack v2.

It may be incomplete, outdated, or inaccurate. The VCV Rack changelog is more complete, but I didn’t know it existed until now. You can get the newest version of Rack 2 from the bottom of the Rack development blog. This isn’t really organized, I’m just typing it in the order that I think of it.

Module selection, export, and import

In Rack v2, you can now select multiple modules. You can also copy/paste (but not cut, annoyingly). Right-clicking on selected modules lets you export the selection to a .vcvs (VCV Selection) file. The option for importing these selections is Edit->Import Selection (I would have put it in the File menu…) Duplicating modules also lets you duplicate the cables.

Cable colors

There are several interesting updates related to cable colors.

  1. There are now purple cables as well as the old reddish-pink, yellow, green, and blue.
  2. You can now right-click on ports and actually select which color the cable will be, as well as a few other options.
  3. VCV Scope’s display now matches cable colors! If you connect a red cable to it, the scope will draw the input in red. 2 and 3 only work in v2.beta.1 and are shown in this image. image|350x499

Updated modules

  1. All VCV modules now look more realistic
  2. As of v2.beta.1, most modules have been improved.
  3. Three new modules: WT VCO and WT LFO (WT for wavetable), which let you use wavetables. Obviously. Also, AUDIO, which has 2 outputs instead of 8 or 16.
  4. It seems that multiple audio interfaces can be used in a single patch, although I only have one so I can’t verify that.

WT VCO and WT LFO are only available in v2.beta.1.

Lighting effects

You can now turn down the lights in your Rack. Omri Cohen (ModularFungi) had a Lights Out module that did basically the same thing, but now it’s built-in, and it looks great. It’s under View->Room Brightness. With the brightness down, your cursor becomes a light, dimly illuminating nearby modules. You can also adjust the light bloom, so lights will look more like lights and less like brightly colored shapes.

More tooltips

Plugins can now have tooltips on lights, inputs, outputs, and controls. These can show the current value of things. For instance, hovering over a light will show the current brightness of each color that light can have (I think).

Choosing which modules you get

This doesn’t exist yet, but it has been promised (scroll down to the bottom of any page in the VCV Library). Apparently, you will be able to choose which modules you want from each plugin, so instead of the entirety of large collections, you can just get the particular modules you’re interested in. My guess is that this will happen when the VCV library is updated to v2, which will probably be when the beta is over.

New module browser

Personally, I prefer the Stoermelder v1 mod browser to the new one. The way it uses dropdowns for almost everything just annoys me. It’s basically getting some free space, but requiring twice the clicks. It doesn’t even allow Ctrl+scroll for zooming. It’s good enough, and it does give the modules more space, and it also obeys the current lighting setting. Also, the Favorites list has returned, which is nice.

If you know of anything else, reply for the benefit of other users.

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I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure WT VCO and LFO are the old VCO-2 and LFO-2 respectively with added features (importing wavetables is a massive win) and a name that reflects more accurately what they’re doing.

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I suppose that would make sense.

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-when you copy modules you have the option to also copy the cables input to them to the new copied modules.

-the favorites list is back in the module browser.

-multiple audio interfaces in a patch can be a thing.(i have not tried this yet though)

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Adding that now.

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Did you get my message?

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I guess you could say the WT VCO is “the same” as VCO-2, I would say it’s a new module. The method of generating sound is completely different. VCO-2 mixed waveforms of of a minBLEP VCO, WVCO uses wavetables.

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Okay, that wasn’t my understanding from what Andrew explained, but I could have got that wrong.

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I could be wrong, too!

Oh, but I’m not. the old VCO-2 definitely uses the same minBLEP osc that VCO-1 did. Just with a little lower quality setting:

	VoltageControlledOscillator<8, 8, float_4> oscillators[4];
	dsp::ClockDivider lightDivider;

	VCO2() {
		config(NUM_PARAMS, NUM_INPUTS, NUM_OUTPUTS, NUM_LIGHTS);
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One of the new features that I have a liking for is the ability to write expressions when adjusting the values for knobs and sliders.

image
image255×538 46.4 KB

I don’t know to what extent this feature has been implemented or how complex the expression can be, but for simple math operations, works like a charm.

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You’re welcome to review and editorialize Rack 2 features, but please don’t advertise your opinions as a factual list of all features. (For example, there are hundreds of new features, not 7.) I’ve edited your title to portray this.

For a full unbiased list of new features in Rack 2, refer to Rack’s changelog.

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What message?

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It does say right at the top that it “may be incomplete, outdated, or inaccurate.”

But I will add the changelog link.

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