There is, it’s here in v2.5.0:
- Allow stacking cables on input ports. Cable voltages are summed.
Yes, that would be nice.
I was talking about ctrl-drag changing behaviour.
The color choice is kinda secondary, no? If I understand the behavior right (have I?), “duplicate to source” and “duplicate to target” respectively, might be a more pertinent description?
Yes, I was originally thinking more along those lines, although from a cable perspective, I generally think of outputs as the source and inputs as the target. But Ctrl-Drag always anchors from the clicked port, and Shift-Ctrl-Drag anchors at the opposite end, regardless of input/output designation.
Ctrl-Drag now acts no different than simply Click-Drag except it always creates a new cable, even if one already exists at that port. Put another way, you don’t need a pre-existing cable to get the same result. Duplicate implies a pre-existing cable must exist for the function to work, and it does not.
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Curious if this might create interesting new interactions with the network sequencer glass pane from path set, the patchable devices sequencer, and others like it…
Definately feel that the original behavior should remain the same and the new hotkey should add the feature.
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I think the reason it feels weird to me is because I would almost always grab from the output end, and then I would be ‘holding’ that new cable by the end I grabbed. I most often would use it to duplicate a cable across multiple outputs, by continual grab->drop->grab->drop->etc.
But now the hotkeys are sort of absolute decisions of grabbing either “input end” or “output end”, regardless of which end you’re actually pointing at.
For people that had the habit of duplicating from the input end, the new update probably feels more natural, but maybe Ctrl+Drag should be context aware, and duplicate a cable in such a way that whichever end you “grabbed” is the end you’re now holding, and Ctrl+Shift+Grab reverses it?
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From the end user perspective, it’s infuriating when an input that I use all the time suddenly does something completely different. And this was intended, not a bug? That’s rather frustrating. Not only do I need to learn the new technique for how to do the thing I do all the time, but I need to learn to not do those input actions out of habit any more.
It’s more challenging than learning from scratch.
That does not fill me with enough confidence that I would want to put money into this software. Hmmmm, should I buy this thing that has a track record of suddenly working differently?
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For those instances, I remember mixers are free in software.
Sorry. That reads snarky, and I didn’t intend that. It’s more “dang, a stackable input would be good here. Oh yeah, I can put it all through a mixer, then send it to the input! duh.”
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I find UMIX by BOG is a better solution than getting a kinked up workflow. And I’ll put my files where I like thank you.
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I really do like mixing V-octs from multiple sequncers together in the quantizer input to get shifting polymetric sequences. Outside of quantizer I can imagine it being used in V-oct inputs to sequence octave offsets for example (those are easier without quantization because it’s just integers).
mixing V-octs from multiple sequncers together
I usually do this with ADDR-SEQ which has very flexible control over output range, but in general even if you need scaling/offsetting before mixing, you can add BGA OFFSET module and with this feature it will still often make it one mixer module less. The only CV mixer I found which has both offset and scale features is 8xatn from Catronomix and it takes almost as much space as 4 BGA OFFSETs.
Yes indeed, and I do that too, just not often without changing the range of the different sources beforehand, because they add up quickly… Octaves would be the only exception for me.
The answer is obviously Rack 2.6 which will add little attenuators to the ends of each patchcable. When you patch the cable, hold the mousebutton down and slide up and down to attenuate the input. I wonder if someone could make a module that does that… seems like anything is possible in eurorack.
BTW I was joking!! joking!!
ha ha. it’s already a thing, of course. Just look how ridiculous this looks
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OT but the Koma Attenuator Cables are much more elegant/ergonomic then whatever those are (very useful for managing modulation in front of a passive mult like the Plankton hubs):
You can try any of my Venom mixers (MIX 4, MIX 4 STEREO, VCA MIX 4, VCA MIX 4 STEREO) coupled with my MIX OFFSET expander. It provides two offset controls for each of the four inputs channels plus the overall mix. One offset is applied before the scale, the other after.
Like all Venom expanders, the base module (the mixer) directly accesses the expander without messaging, so there is no extra sample delay added.
Mix 4 + Mix Offset is only twice as large as two Bogaudio Offsets, yet gives you 4 channels of mixing, each with its own offset and scale control.
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Especially annoying when changing something that’s been a certain way since the first versions (afaik).
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If the real life version has a ring that want around a jack… it would not need to be more ridiculous .
Imagine this type of bike lock circumference control, smaller diameter, one ring, in line.
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From the VCV Rack news item on the Rack 2.5 release, here’s Andrew’s words about stackable inputs:
Stackable inputs
Since Rack 0.4, users have enjoyed stacking multiple cables on output ports to copy signals into multiple inputs. Now in Rack 2.5, you can plug multiple cables into the same input port.
Voltages are summed, which is useful behavior for all types of signals:
- audio is mixed like a unity mixer, so you can hear both sounds simultaneously.
- CV is combined linearly, so each signal equally offsets the modulated parameter.
- 1V/octave pitches are added, so you can offset a melody or chord with a changing root note to transpose.
- gates/triggers are logically combined with an “OR” gate.
Combining polyphonic (fat cable) signals works as expected by summing each channel’s voltage. A monophonic signal stacked with polyphonic signals copies the monophonic voltage to all polyphonic channels.
Note: If you use real hardware synthesizers, we don’t recommend stacking/combining multiple physical cables into the same input port, unless supported by the manufacturer. In some cases, this may damage your hardware. It is perfectly safe to do this in VCV Rack though!
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I get the last two bullets, and it’ll save you a module. But simple summing/unity mixing CV and especially audio… I would think that mostly you would want to scale those first, or they just fly out of the normal range with sometimes funky results. I dunno… I’ll probably continue using a simple mixer for that.
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It does save on the 1-sample delays
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