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This is gorgeous. I love how simple and clean the UI is; so many music and audio tools are just skeuomorphic hell (and don't support scaling so are even worse o

This is gorgeous. I love how simple and clean the UI is; so many music and audio tools are just skeuomorphic hell (and don't support scaling so are even worse on HiDPI displays). This looks great without trying to look like a real device. It very effectively simulates a modular synth experience, without the limitations. It even simulates the quirky waveforms found on analog synths in a pretty convincing way. This is just impressive as hell on many fronts. I don't see how to use it as a VST, though I see VST mentioned in the docs as a thing that will be implemented as a plugin, so I guess it's on the radar. It looks like it'd be possible to hook it up to an existing sequencer/DAW as a MIDI device, though I don't currently have any MIDI software or hardware on my Linux system, so can't test that theory. All around, though, I can't believe I'd never heard of this. It's a great piece of work and sounds great ("great" in the sense of, "it's fun to tweak the knobs and the sounds that result are roughly what I would expect based on my experience with real analog synths and modular synths) in the few minutes of tinkering I've done. I love it.

wdfx 9y ago
Your comment on skeuomorphism no sense. All of the modules shown there are replicas of real hardware ??
- SwellJoe 9y ago
  They are clean and simple; the problem I have is with UI like this: http://cdn.mos.musicradar.com/images/Product%20News/Tech/May16/best-vst-synth-plugins-1200-80.jpg http://cdn.mos.musicradar.com/images/Product%20News/Tech/May... Specifically the ones with fake metallic coloring, tiny hard-to-read numeric displays, etc. So, while VCV Rack does use rotary knobs (which is a little questionable), it's not an offensive attempt to look like real hardware. I guess complaining about skeuomorphism while praising a UI that uses simulated cables is sort of weird, but I can't think of how else one might represent those connections in a clear manner. So, I guess I should just say it isn't skeuomorphic in ways that I find offensive, while many VSTs are. I find a lot of VSTs and audio software, in general, horrible to look at and to use because so much of it goes to such great lengths to pretend to be hardware, and it all looks different from every other piece of software, so every new tool has a huge new learning curve just to wrap your head around what the new weird colorful shapes mean. VCV Rack is consistent across all modules; all of its user interface elements are used the same way and there's only a few of them. I knew what I was looking at within seconds of starting it (though admittedly that required me to have used real-world modular synths in the past).
  - rzzzt 9y ago
    I liked Reason's approach, where the connections could be adjusted on the "back side" of the modules (skeuomorphism strikes again). Reaktor also keeps the wiring separate from interactive elements.
    - wdfx 9y ago
      But the springy animation was/is sooo amusing! (Not least because audio cables are completely non elastic)
      - rzzzt 9y ago
        Right! :) The only thing missing was the cables getting hopelessly tangled.
  - wdfx 9y ago
    Gotcha. I agree non scalable 'photorealistic' design on audio plugins and apps in particular do hinder usability. And yes, rotary knobs on screen are not always great.
  - thatswrong0 9y ago
    It’s funny because a lot of those synths are considered best in class.. Massive was the first widely popular wavetable synth and was considered quite usable.. until Serum came out. I personally think despite the knobs, it’s one of easiest to use and understand synths out there. It shows you visually how the filters, wave tables, and various parameters are being modulated in real time, and you can easily add new modulations and customize the LFOs to whatever shape you want. Sylenth was and still is a go to subtractive synth, and Spire is considered a spiritual successor to it.. Diva itself is a virtual analog synth intended to accurately replicate the sound of actual hardware synths, so it of all the synths pictured there should look like them. I suppose that maybe I’m just used to the way softsynths look and feel, but I see nothing inherently wrong with using knobs and a metallic look. The main problem I have is when synths give you no indication as to how things are being modulated in real time, which is why Serum is my favorite synth - it does a fantastic job of that, knobs or not
- vortico 9y ago
  "Photorealistic" might be a better word for what SwellJoe means.
teilo 9y ago
> I don't see how to use it as a VST, though I see VST mentioned in the docs as a thing that will be implemented as a plugin, so I guess it's on the radar. Correct. For the time being, it is possible to do some audio/midi routing to make it work in a DAW using 3rd-party utilities. (Easier on a Mac which already comes with the ability to create virtual MIDI devices, and composite audio devices.) From there you can set it up as an "external" instrument in most DAWs.

wdfx 9y ago

Your comment on skeuomorphism no sense. All of the modules shown there are replicas of real hardware ??

SwellJoe 9y ago
They are clean and simple; the problem I have is with UI like this: http://cdn.mos.musicradar.com/images/Product%20News/Tech/May16/best-vst-synth-plugins-1200-80.jpg http://cdn.mos.musicradar.com/images/Product%20News/Tech/May... Specifically the ones with fake metallic coloring, tiny hard-to-read numeric displays, etc. So, while VCV Rack does use rotary knobs (which is a little questionable), it's not an offensive attempt to look like real hardware. I guess complaining about skeuomorphism while praising a UI that uses simulated cables is sort of weird, but I can't think of how else one might represent those connections in a clear manner. So, I guess I should just say it isn't skeuomorphic in ways that I find offensive, while many VSTs are. I find a lot of VSTs and audio software, in general, horrible to look at and to use because so much of it goes to such great lengths to pretend to be hardware, and it all looks different from every other piece of software, so every new tool has a huge new learning curve just to wrap your head around what the new weird colorful shapes mean. VCV Rack is consistent across all modules; all of its user interface elements are used the same way and there's only a few of them. I knew what I was looking at within seconds of starting it (though admittedly that required me to have used real-world modular synths in the past).
- rzzzt 9y ago
  I liked Reason's approach, where the connections could be adjusted on the "back side" of the modules (skeuomorphism strikes again). Reaktor also keeps the wiring separate from interactive elements.
  - wdfx 9y ago
    But the springy animation was/is sooo amusing! (Not least because audio cables are completely non elastic)
    - rzzzt 9y ago
      Right! :) The only thing missing was the cables getting hopelessly tangled.
- wdfx 9y ago
  Gotcha. I agree non scalable 'photorealistic' design on audio plugins and apps in particular do hinder usability. And yes, rotary knobs on screen are not always great.
- thatswrong0 9y ago
  It’s funny because a lot of those synths are considered best in class.. Massive was the first widely popular wavetable synth and was considered quite usable.. until Serum came out. I personally think despite the knobs, it’s one of easiest to use and understand synths out there. It shows you visually how the filters, wave tables, and various parameters are being modulated in real time, and you can easily add new modulations and customize the LFOs to whatever shape you want. Sylenth was and still is a go to subtractive synth, and Spire is considered a spiritual successor to it.. Diva itself is a virtual analog synth intended to accurately replicate the sound of actual hardware synths, so it of all the synths pictured there should look like them. I suppose that maybe I’m just used to the way softsynths look and feel, but I see nothing inherently wrong with using knobs and a metallic look. The main problem I have is when synths give you no indication as to how things are being modulated in real time, which is why Serum is my favorite synth - it does a fantastic job of that, knobs or not
vortico 9y ago
"Photorealistic" might be a better word for what SwellJoe means.

teilo 9y ago

> I don't see how to use it as a VST, though I see VST mentioned in the docs as a thing that will be implemented as a plugin, so I guess it's on the radar. Correct. For the time being, it is possible to do some audio/midi routing to make it work in a DAW using 3rd-party utilities. (Easier on a Mac which already comes with the ability to create virtual MIDI devices, and composite audio devices.) From there you can set it up as an "external" instrument in most DAWs.