VCV Rack 2 Free and Pro released

Massive achievement Andrew. Well done and thanks for all your hard work and endurance! :clap::clap::clap:

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Congrats on being able to download any plugins! :stuck_out_tongue: And welcome!

Some of the early reports (before the server got just completely slammed) suggested that only a few plugins were being downloaded at a time, which sounds like what you’re experiencing. I suspect (without proof) that it’s another server issue where only a partial reply is sent; should settle down before too long. Definitely post back if the server calms down but you’re still experiencing the issue…

Thanks, I think i’ll just wait till tommorow to try it

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I can’t get it to authorize on either mac.

Hope the rest of you have fun :))

Hi! As to the first (AU, etc.), I’m nearly certain that new formats will be included for free; even if that wasn’t the industry standard (apart from unusual cases like HDX) I think Andrew’s said, or at least implied it. Obviously I could be wrong.

I haven’t heard anything about a trial version one way or another. I think @mosphaere’s suggestion to wait for detailed videos is good; obviously, hands-on trials in your own setup are the best thing, of course, but there will be some extremely detailed VST overviews coming soon. (For what it’s worth, I’ve had an extremely good first impression of the automation–as in, it may not work exactly as you’d expect, and it may of course get improved over time, but it’s so well-implemented and powerful that the exact details wouldn’t be a reason not to buy the VST version, esp. at the intro price).

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@doug.theriault , have you looked over here yet? Help is on offer for license issues.

Please for the life of my SSD can we have the option to disable the auto save and log?

Awesome @Vortico & crew!! The wait was SO worth it! I just purchased the BUNDLE! Great deal!

I love this community!! Happy Holidays everyone!!!

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Thanks for some context. Trying it hands-on is exactly what I was after. Videos are helpful, but no substitute for feeling how a plugin fits into a project directly.

The reason I’m asking about a trial is because I’m currently weighing a purchase of Softube’s Modular, which I’ve been trying for the past week or so. It works in Ableton and Logic. I’ve validated some ideas I had, and I would feel comfortable knowing what I’m getting with that purchase. With Rack Pro, I’ve tried version 1 stand-alone, and have a pretty good idea of how that behaves and what it can do, but I haven’t yet validated how it integrates with the setup. So, my choice is between something I’ve tried that works, but is perhaps less-flexible in the future, and more expensive, or something that I’ve partially tried but haven’t completely validated, and need to purchase in order to sort out that “it really works for my use cases”

“it may not work exactly as you’d expect” is a large part of the hang-up here for me. There’s so much music software that looks great on paper, sounds great on soundcloud, seems easy on youtube, and then you open it, and it just completely doesn’t gel with how you make music (or worse, it’s 95% perfect, but there are one or two giant issues that completely block you from achieving your desired results)

edit - I should add that a friendly refund policy would satisfy my use case here - I don’t mind putting the money up front if it’s refundable within some reasonable amount of time (in the EU for mail-order physical goods, that’s usually a minimum of 14 days). Based on the “Refund Policy” linked by Shopfiy, I’m guessing that all Rack Pro purchases are also final?

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Do you have a Rack2Pro.vcvkey in the licenses folder in your Rack folder?

There seem to be problems downloading the licenses automatically due to server load, but if you log into your vcvrack account on the website and click on “Account”, you can enter your machine ID and then it will generate the licenses there and you can download them save them to the licenses folder.

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Rack won’t work in Logic as there is no Rack AU plugin yet and Logic doesn’t support VSTs - although you could try it with an AU to VST converter plugin like Blue Cat patchwork.

It works pretty well in Live, but with a few limitations which are down to Live, not Rack (and you’d therefore get the same restrictions with Softube) - those mainly being that Live will only route midi generated from other plugins on one midi channel (although you can get round this using Max4Live devices apparently - Edit: no you can’t…), and native Live instruments only accept midi CCs from midi remote control devices (ie hardware) and not from plugins on other tracks. Some VSTs like Serum can accept midi CC from other plugins in Live, but that CC functionality needs to be built into the vst synth itself because it is not natively a function of the DAW.

It works brilliantly in Bitwig where you can send midi out of VCV on all 16 channels and route them to whatever tracks you like and you can also route CCs generated from Rack to modulate pretty much anything.

I’d say Rack now wipes the floor with Softube Modular and there really is no contest.

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Proper

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I didn’t do my research properly, I have deleted the link to the IRCAM-AX max devices in my previous post.

found the reference

Note: Live merges all MIDI channels to one channel when being routed internally from track to track. It is therefore not possible to send MIDI to separate tracks via separate MIDI channels.

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Yeah, I found that after struggling for an hour a couple of weeks back trying to get multi-channel midi out of Rack working!

This was the other gotcha from Live’s documentation:

Do Live Instruments and Devices respond to MIDI CC?

Individual controls in Live Instruments (like for example Filter Cutoff and Resonance) don’t respond to MIDI CC sent using Track messages. However all Live instruments and devices can be MIDI mapped to a specific MIDI CC if using MIDI remote control.

These are the two main reasons I bought Bitwig a few days ago as i see myself primarily using VCV to sequence/modulate VST synths.

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Regarding refunds, the potential issue is kind of the same as the issue for demos: Rack has very lightweight and efficient copy protection, which means it may be hard to roll back licenses for refunds–that kind of functionality is characteristic of heavier systems (and those systems historically cause all sorts of problems for paid users). So the tradeoff may be no demo but also no burden/annoyance. I’m sure Andrew has thought about this and will get back to you (once things settle down a bit!) if you email him…

Must be very nice when it is working…have bought pro not working at all…1126 plugins available…only. windows 11

It’s working but not all developers have submitted their plugins to the v2 library yet. More will arrive over the coming days and weeks although some plugins might not make it from v1 - that’s up to the individual developers and not in VCVs control.

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Hi @Shawn56–I’m interested, would that really make a difference to SSD life?

Feature requests go to VCV - Support and that would be an easy one to write up; you could ask for a command-line switch or something. You should also be able to turn it off permanently using file permissions; if you start a thread about this issue I’ll happily share the recipe.

i get…rack crashed during last session, possible due to a buggy module in your patch. clear your patch and start all over again…?

You can change how often the autosave occurs by changing the value of autosaveInterval in settings.json in your Rack user folder

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