My favourite way of using VCVRack is creating interesting effect chains and then sending sound from my other hardware into it, and recording the output while controlling certain parameters using midi.
I’m currently using an Akai Force, which has 4 outputs. I’m using an internal send effect channel that outputs to output 3/4 to send audio out from the Force to a mixer, which has an aux send channel that I have routed into a laptop running VCVRack. VCVRack takes the signal and applies a full wet FX chain to it, and send the output back into the mixer, which is connected to the input ports of the Akai Force.
This allows me to use VCVRack as a send FX “pedal” for any sound generated by the Force, as well as any sound generated by anything else plugged into the mixer.
Creating my own effects pedals this way is a ton of fun, and allows me to process sound in an unconventional manner. It’s like having a Zoia with a GUI.
Now I’m wondering if anyone else is doing the same thing? If so, could we get a thread going with the purpose of collecting links to patches like these? Or possibly create a standard for how to name patches like these on patchstorage? I tried filtering using the “effect” tag, but that really didn’t help at all.
I have thought of doing the same thing with my small hardware setup, but I’m not sure if I have all the cables necessary at the moment.
However, I did recently use VCV as a pedal with my brother’s new bass guitar, which produced some crazy sounds. (Bass guitar + Waveshaper = Epic bass.)
Collecting “Pedal” patches sounds like a good idea to me.
Yeah, right? I mean, I’m pretty sure that pedals that sell for hundreds of euros should be reasonably easy to replicate in VCV. Just look at Chase Bliss and Empress pedals. We have the tools, all we need is the knowledge and determination.
It’s not an “effect”, but I made a nice looper that syncs with the clock and allows your to save your buffer by combining Lilac Looper with a number of other modules. I find that the easiest way to save an effect or an instrument is with Stoermelder’s Strip module. I quite often find myself going down the rabbit hole of “destroying” my guitar sounds in VCV. I’d be happy share if anyone’s interested.
I’m super interested! I don’t work with guitars much myself, rather preferring to send percussion and synths, but most of it tends to work fairly well regardless.
Feel free to PM me and I’ll send the looper preset. I have a few instruments saved. Most effect chains I haven’t saved out to Strip presets but I’ll look at a few old patches and see if there’s anything worth sending.
Yes totally, this is my current obsession too! I play guitar a bit and spend most of my time with Rack designing modular effects patches. Slightly different setup, I use a USB interface which is also a preamp/cab simulator and that gets the guitar sound into a PC. Most patches have a few different effects chains which I then mix together using the Mindmeld mixer, with more effects on the send/return busses. It’s tricky to share this type of patch because everyone has a slightly different setup, interfaces etc. I’ve put the last one I did on Patchstorage though, it’s a chorus made from scratch using loads of delay modules and also has freeze/looping:
There’s a YouTube link to a demo too, I’m hoping to get a lot more content up this year. I’ve got loads more I can upload to Patchstorage too if there is any interest. Also, if you’re on Facebook there’s also a group called something like VCV Effects pedal or something. Worth a look but I usually post examples in the main group. Would like to hear what you’ve done with your FX mixer idea.
However, I did recently use VCV as a pedal with my brother’s new bass guitar, which produced some crazy sounds. (Bass guitar + Waveshaper = Epic bass.)
Collecting “Pedal” patches sounds like a good idea to me. 
