VCV paid-for modules: Why is there almost no mention of them here?

I’ve been eyeing a few of VCV’s own paid-for modules, particularly Router, Pulse Matrix, Parametra, Spectra, and I’m surprised to find hardly anything mentioned about them on this forum. I was hoping to see some reviews or opinions on the good/bad things about them. What gives?

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I have all of them and they are all really nice, and love supporting VCV development, but I’d say I use Parametra the most just to eq a mix or a certain voice or use it as a fully modulatable filter. I think VCV Rack Ideas has a nice tutorial on its features and applications too. This module could be a bit smaller but I love it.

Spectra sounds amazing and I’ve never heard any complaints about it. I need to use it more.

Octal Router is really cool, and there’s a excellent tutorial on it by Omri Cohen. But it can be deep and I feel like you need to specifically map out an idea in your head before you try it. I’ve had luck sending shift register output of notes to it or various modulations and sending them out to different voices. The scan knob is a killer feature I really love.

Pulse Matrix is really cool but there’s been a lot of discussion on Facebook about the resets and not being able to set step lengths like you can with the “Gate Sequencer” module.

There’s been so many nice patches made with all these modules on YouTube and the Facebook group that probably easily searchable.

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I would highly recommend Parametra. You can create some really interesting sounding stuff. It’s extremely useful even if you aren’t using the CV inputs - the spectrum pre/post display along with the visual click/drag interface for configuring your filter is really nice.

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I love programming my sequences with the Pulse Matrix modules. Clocking them with the Impromptu Clock is the most effective setup I use for beats or event triggering.

Router is great as well. I have not used the Octo all that much, but the 4 I/O switches are a pretty regular use of mine. They expand on the Fundamental Sequential Switches really well.

I have not used Spectra.

Parametra is a great sound design tool as the others have stated,

Scalar is a nice quantizer with a lot of options. I know there are free modules that do scala files well (NSYTHI, for one), but I really enjoy the UI of the VCV Scalar.

Console was one of my first purchases after the free mixer I used was unavailable for a bit. It is just a classically well designed mixer that also supports Andrew’s development of VCV Rack.

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I saw somewhere that Floats by friedrichsaudio was on sale and noticed it is not available through the plugin manager. Is there another directory which lists paid/free plugins that are not in the vcv plugins manager?

I guess the general feeling is that there’s almost no barrier to entry for the free modules so you can expect people to have them. The paid stuff has a small barrier so it’s maybe less fair to start, say, a competition requiring people to use them. I myself have no funds to spend on plugins, though obviously I would support VCV in that way if I could.
Also consider that there aren’t actually that many paid pluggins to actually discuss.

News Of The Rack, which Norbert makes every week, has such a listing in every issue. You can also find all the issues on github:

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This convinced me, finally :slight_smile: