I’m completely new here and just starting to get to grips with Rack and having a blast so far. I’ve been trying to download new plugins from the library. When browsing the plugin details I can’t for the life of me find “Subscribe to X Plugin” - I can only find “Subscribe to Y Brand”, which then subscribes me to the entire set of plugins from that brand, rather than the specific plugin I want.
It seems that the plugin library has been redesigned lately (?) from what it was, so I’m not sure if this is just a new layout issue or if I’m just not finding something. Sorry if there’s a completely basic/obvious answer to this!
Right now, you’re only able to subscribe to entire brands, not individual modules. I think this might change in future versions, but I’m not sure.
If you really want to hide other modules you don’t want in the browser, you should be able to remove them from the plugin’s JSON manifest, though I expect updating the plugin will revert that.
Cheers! That’s fair enough - just wondered because it seemed different from most of the guides I’ve read so far and thought I was doing something wrong! It seems like a quick and decent way of adding modules to the library, but slightly overwhelming especially when starting out. Thanks anyway!
a plugin is a collection of modules of a brand, for instance, Vult, Vult Free and Vult mysteries, if you subscribes to one of them you are not subscribing to all the plugins of the brand
Sorry I meant “module” not plugin. But not to worry - it looks like the updated library instructions specify that adding individual modules is disabled for now until Rack V2 is released.
Some of the existing official documentation is indeed incomplete or not up to date.
That’s something the community could work on… but I’m personally not inclined to help fixing this, since it’s an effort that may be nullified by the supposedly upcoming release of Rack2 v2.
It’s not uncommon for new Rack users to get confused by the terminology and the difference between plugins and modules.
The Library layout was updated in March 2020, but it hasn’t changed recently.
FYI I’m editing the title of your post to reflect the contents of the discussion, and moving it to #Rack since it’s actually about Rack, rather than specific Rack plugins.
And two things to mention. First, it’s always been this way, it’s not due to a redesign of the lib. Second, the vast majority of devs do put all their modules in one plugin. So subscribe to brand is very close to correct in reality. I suspect most devs are like me; we have a single plugin because it’s much easier.
Ah thanks! I thought it was due to change in the library because manage plugins from Rack redirects straight there and didn’t seem to match what I was seeing in most tutorials/guides on adding new modules. Thanks anyway I think I’ve got it figured out!
I don’t know if this was ever answered to satisfaction but after finding my way here from being confused about the subscribe feature I figured I’d post how this works currently (11/22) for anyone following.
Go to VCV Rack > Library page.
Log in
Click the ‘Plugins’ link to the right of the Library header, next to ‘Reset Filters’
All subscribe options are listed out per maker and plugin.
And whats new in 2.2.0 is when unsubscribing in the library, your modules automagically disappear from the browser in VCV. They are still there but you can not find them in the browser. I don’t know if I like this.
Was this always the case ?
I just found out because in order to remove the red dot, I just unsubscribed Stoermelder, because I use his Nightlies, and although it loads the project with his modules in it, I could no longer find them in the browser.
I’ve lost count of the amount of people I’ve had to reply to today on Facebook, Reddit and Youtube who wondered why the new PatchMaster modules did not show up when they downloaded our beta. I’ve wasted hours doing it.
The reason is of course because they subscribed to individual MindMeld modules in the library rather than the entire plugin. That means the new modules won’t show up, because they haven’t subscribed to them… To fix it, they need to go back to the library, unsubscribe from MindMeld entirely then resubscribe to the plugin (NOT individual modules).
It’s hard to exaggerate how much this system Suuuuucks… from a usability and user experience perspective. Endless (understandably) confused and disappointed users and hours of developers’ time wasted explaining.
Surely an opt OUT system would work better than an opt IN system. Let users choose the modules they DON’T want from a plugin. Then, by default, new stuff would show up at least.
I can only imagine the pain this issue causes - it does sound awful.
A month or two after the launch of Rack 2, I adopted the policy of always subscribing to a plugin rather than adding individual modules because of the issue of new modules not showing up. The add system definitely does not work for me.
I think the “opt out” suggestion is perfect, and probably only needs to be in the rack browser, not the web library. It can be a corollary to the Favorite option. I would simply call it “Hide”
Yup, couldn’t agree more. That feature was bad from the beginning. For now, keep it simple and only subscribe to plugins. In the future, if an opt-out system appears to replace the opt-in, then you can re-evaluate.
By the way that’s a great argument supporting my little rant today about a missing Rack wiki.
I’m not sure that “opt in” is so bad. It might address the original complaints better. My confusion come from everything not being on the same screen/page. I have to remember to go to the plugin pages to subscribe. But for sure it’s a user learning issue. I just gave up on subscribing until I read how to do it.
