VCV Free 2.5.0 released

[Vortico (VCV - Andrew)]

VCV Free (formerly Fundamental) 2.5.0 has been released, with dozens of improvements and a brand new user manual.

VCV - Free Modules

[tonecarver (Bill)]

Very nice looking manual. Looking forward to trying out the modules.

[abluenautilus]

Manual looks great!

From the manual:

2.5.0 (2023-05-31)

• Fade
  • Add -3 dB pan law to settings.
• Quantizer
  • Add “Shift notes up/down” menu items.
• CV Mix
  • When mixing mono and poly signals, apply mono signal to all poly channels.
  • Improve performance with SIMD.
• VCA Mix
  • Add settings for exponential channel and mix VCAs.
• Sequential Switch 1 to 4 & 4 to 1
  • Add de-click setting to context menu. Disable de-click by default.
  • When mixing mono and poly signals, apply mono signal to all poly channels.
• SEQ 3
  • Generate step 1 pulse output when resetting from a different step.
• ADSR
  • Redesign envelope display.

[unity2k (John Wise)]

I’m not sure why I’d want to install Free when I already have Pro installed. When I opened VCV it showed updates and one of them was this version, can someone explain the benefit and how it compliments Pro or is this a temporary issue?

[cubistguitar]

This is not the whole software, but a rebranding of the Fundamental modules that come “free” in everyone’s rack regardless of paid or free version. You want to update, because these smartly designed modules have gotten a few tweaks and upgrades and will be pleasing and familiar already. The manual is the real feature to me, documentation was spotty and non existent for a number of modules.

[hemmer (A Forest Full of Sines)]

The manual is excellent, nice work.

[Loops]

@abluenautilus

Sequential Switch 1 to 4 & 4 to 1

• Add de-click setting to context menu. Disable de-click by default.

Oh yeah! Happy to have the option to turn the slewing on/off when switching now

[john_rose]

Yay! The manual is much appreciated.

I’ve updated John's "Gold Star for Documentation" Awards - #36 by john_rose with a new entry.

[LarsBjerregaard]

Thanks Andrew! Nice improvements. I’ll refrain from saying how the Fundamental manual was really embarrasing before, and just say that the new and completed manual is really great, nice work!

Edit: I think that perhaps you missed an opportunity to redirect VCV - Fundamental to VCV - Free Modules, if possible.

[steve]

@LarsBjerregaard

I’ll refrain from saying how the Fundamental manual was really embarrasing before

It’s great how you refrained from saying how the Fundamental manual was really embarrassing before. it’s probably best not to mention how embarrassing it was before at all.

The new manual is a massive improvement - looks like Pyer probably had a hand in it. Well done.

[steve]

@unity2k

I’m not sure why I’d want to install Free when I already have Pro installed

I fear this rebranding of the Fundamental modules to Free will cause a lot of this type of confusion, initially at least.

“Free” is how people tend to refer to the non-Pro version of the VCV Rack application - not the module set. Now as unity2k points out, Pro users are being asked to download the Free modules to use in the non-Free version of Rack. It’s… confusing.

When I first saw that VCV Free 2.5 was released, my initial reaction was “Huh? did I miss 2.4? I’m still on 2.3… and why release an update of the Free version but not the Pro version?” This was because we are all used to thinking of Rack Free as the application.

[dan.tilley (DanT)]

The manual looks amazing, great job!

[LarsBjerregaard]

@steve

I fear this rebranding of the Fundamental modules to Free will cause a lot of this type of confusion, initially at least.

I kind of agree. But it’s probably a “brand alignment” with the VCV Pro plugin, so there’s now a VCV Free and a VCV Pro plugin, that follows their Rack editions. Except of course that the Rack Pro edition also contains the VCV Free plugin But that’s not too unusual for an open-core product - the “free” edition contains the free components, and the “pro” edition contains the free+pro components. I think it’ll probably be alright.

Also, I’m not sure people are being asked to download the VCV Free plugin. When you install a new Rack now aren’t you then automatically subscribed to VCV Free? I hope so…

[steve]

@LarsBjerregaard

I’m not sure people are being asked to download the VCV Free plugin. When you install a new Rack now aren’t you then automatically subscribed to VCV Free? I hope so…

They are when that plugin is updated as it has just been. I’m in Pro, had the red dot, and was prompted to update VCV Free (the plugin) to v2.5. Meanwhile Rack Free (the application) remains at v2.3…

Now when people mention ‘free’ in the context of VCV, I predict a lot of ‘do you mean the plugin or the application?’ questions.

[LarsBjerregaard]

Me too, but that might only be because I was subsribed to Fundamental, and Fundamental was simply renamed to Free. In the beginning the Fundamental plugin was not in the library at all, and was only updated with Rack editions. Then at some point the Fundamental plugin quietly showed up in the library, and I only happened to notice it by chance, and I remember making a mental note that it was strange that I was not subscribed to it automatically. So without trying to make a clean Rack install from a new VCV account and verifying it, I would not absolutely assume that people are automatically subscribed to VCV Free. But I don’t know…

@steve

Now when people mention ‘free’ in the context of VCV, I predict a lot of ‘do you mean the plugin or the application?’ questions.

Yeah, I predict that too. But there’s a lot of that going around and people are terrible at names and concepts. Like plugins, collections, module collections, bundles, module bundles, etc. etc.

[Nik]

The manual is superb. Much impressed!

[Vortico (VCV - Andrew)]

VCV Rack Pro includes both VCV Free and VCV Pro modules.

VCV Rack Free only includes VCV Free modules.

See VCV Rack 2 - Virtual Eurorack Studio for a comparison between the two Rack variants.

[Vortico (VCV - Andrew)]

@steve

The new manual is a massive improvement - looks like Pyer probably had a hand in it. Well done.

Thank you! You are correct, @pyer designed the graphs and block diagram graphics.

[DaveVenom (Dave Benham)]

Yep - I think the ability to disable the de-click (crossfade?) for the switches may be my favorite new feature. I rarely used them before because most often I wanted the switch for CV, not audio. But I am worried that having the de-click default to off can “break” old patches. It would be better if the default was de-click enabled, so that old patches would perform the same. EDIT: false alarm - old patches properly default to de-click off - thanks Marc!

I also love the new ADSR display - it is fun and educational to watch the progression through the envelope. I still wish the ADSR timings were fixed to be precise, which probably would require a precision option in the context menu so that old patches are not broken. Or else abandon the absolute scale for the parameters and simply go from 0 to 1, without a time unit.

Like everyone else, I love the new documentation - it really is gorgeous and polished - befitting the quality of VCV Rack. I think there are missed opportunities for more details - especially polyphony behavior for example. But my heart no longer sinks every time I see the documentation for the Free (nee Fundamental) modules.

[marc_boule (Marc Boulé)]

@DaveVenom

But I am worried that having the de-click default to off can “break” old patches.

this should not be the case since:

VCVRack/Fundamental/blob/v2/src/SequentialSwitch.cpp#L175-L180