VCV Library

You can now subscribe to free plugins or purchase premium plugins while browsing this website.

The old VCV Library at https://vcvrack.com/plugins has been removed and will redirect to the new website. Eventually, the rest of vcvrack.com will be replaced with a new layout/design (consistent with the new Library design) while Rack v2 and other upcoming projects are being developed.

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I’m not sure if this is ready for primetime yet, if I’m being honest. I’m finding it very difficult to use.

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The trick (pre-V2) is to go to “Plugins” in the upper right. That will take you to the analog of the plugin library.

ETA: @Vortico renamed “My Library” to “Plugins” (see down-thread)

What difficulties are you having?

Think the start page should show the old condensed style of the modules by brand. Then there should be the possibility to select the single module display. Starting with 1896 single modules makes the users really confuse with all this scrolling and page selections, 38 pages by the way in the moment.

Too late for massive changes like that. Should’ve spoken up during the alpha or beta version.

The philosophy with the new VCV Library is that we’re abstracting away the notion of “plugins” since most users don’t understand them. They see a module they want, click Add, and start using it in Rack.

The old VCV Library didn’t sort by brand (it didn’t even display the plugin brand). It sorted by plugin name.

very very good job :+1:

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one thing that is a bit confusing and uncomfortable imho,
when I’m in “my library” and I click a module,
I can’t go back from that module to “my library”.
I would expect to come back to “my library”

Use the back button in your browser…?

Thanks gc3, that gets me closer to what I’m after - though some filtering and ordering choices would be a big help! Of course, my user story may not be typical. It’s very simple, and goes pretty much like this:

  1. Go to the Library every few days
  2. See new and updated plugins, with the newest at the top
  3. Find out what’s changed
  4. Subscribe to all free plugins
  5. Evaluate new and existing premium plugins that I haven’t purchased

The key part of this story is step 3:

  • For plugins I already have, it’s a driver to fire up VCV and start exploring.
  • For premium plugins I haven’t bought yet, it’s an opportunity to sell - knowing about improvements or new features may help me reverse my previous decision to not buy those plugins.

So, for me, having that information front and centre is pretty important. I’d like to be able to get to that with no page navigation, which Old Library did provide (via Website, Manual and Source links).

Additionally, I think it would be worthwhile for the Library to have Changelog links in the same class as Website, Manual and Source links. Alternatively, Changelogs could be embedded in the Library entry itself. I know some developers don’t even provide a Changelog, and others bury them in manuals or Github comments, but IMO it’s really important information, and a key sales driver for premium plugins, especially if those plugins are well established.

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…Of course, then I see that there are Changelog links already! :kissing_cat:

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Nice work !

I experienced some slow page loading, but it’s probably due to everyone testing it at the same time… :slight_smile: Will check later

What is “slow”? 500ms per page load? 5s?

Nice work Vortico!!

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I rarely use the library anyway and I’m less likely to use it now. Not a problem for me, I already know the difference between a module and a plugin. :slight_smile: Wrt the new design: It’s not so bad, definitely slower for me, but I can see how/why the design decisions were made. It may well be of greater service to newbies, maybe not so much for long-time users who already know the major collections.

Was more like 5s +.

Just tried again and it didn’t happen again, probably server was under some heavy load.

(might be worth to log SQL queries, depending on the framework used, complex search can generate pretty heavy request if not optimized)

You still didn’t really answer my question about what difficulties you’re having. According to the “VCV Library Instructions” at the bottom of all pages, you find a module you want, go to its plugin page, and click Subscribe. When Rack v2 is released, you’ll only need to click Add on the module page or module “box” in the index page. I cannot fathom how it can be simpler than that.

First of all, I like the new library. Would it be possible to include an option to disable the pictures? Most of the time I don’t need them, because I know how a module looks, maybe as a feature where we can choose between this big picture view, a list view with small thumnails and one without any thumbnail?

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I might be able to implement some of the small-to-medium sized suggestions in 1-2 years.

I too find the new interface confusing at first.

As a first impression suggestion, and as the concept of 'plugins’is still fundamental to the functionality (and should stay in v2 imo as well, that one can decide to add/subscribe to the plugin/pack as a whole or to the single module one is interested in…), so this should be be more visible/prominent on the main page. i.e. what I see ( in https://library.vcvrack.com/ examplary for a single module):

  • Name:TriggerFish Slop
  • Functionality:+Add
  • Description(?):Slop
  • [Noise]

What I would expect/hope to see would be:

This (hopefully maybe) simple change would make this much more transparent & less click intensive (for me).

Also, but this might be too late/fundamental - a top menu button (eg a tickbox next to [Updated] [Name] [Random]) to hide the tags from the modules altogether from the library would be neat, as there’s lots of visual noise being introduced by the blue, pill shaped tag object if there’s more than 1 tag (which subjectively am not a fan of as clarity would be a priority for the default view… again, imo…)

Me few centimes.

c.