It’s a hardware module. But it’s also a software module in the free (paid plug-in) host VCV Rack. The do-everything, clock-based multipurpose voltage-sending Pamela’s Pro Workout is the latest module from ALM Busy Circuits to make the hardware-software crossover. And it joins a number of modules there – many of them free (including some news there, too).
Pamela’s PRO Workout is $20, with the AXON-2 CV expander for additional instances. There’s also keyboard and mouse control shortcuts, which is good as this does look like something that was designed as hardware. (The same is true of VCV MFX.)
Advanced Euclidean cycles? Fancy triggers? Complex modulation? Bursts and beats, patterns and melodies and generative sequencing and looping? Everything is in that Workout. Check out the playlist, as now everything they describe in hardware works for a few bucks in software.
I’ve been using MFX and the Tyso Daiko 12-bit drum, and the latter I find especially invaluable and well worth your $15. It’s just an incredibly great-sounding percussion voice, unlike anything else. The MFX is also an exceptionally versatile tool, though it does feel a bit weird to be using its hardware interface on a screen.
The utility here is clear. No cash/space for hardware? You can do everything on the computer. Want to learn the module before you buy to see if it’s for you? Free or inexpensive modules make that possible. Got the module in hardware and want the added convenience of a software version? Done and done.
The free options, of course, are a must-have — and there is a big collection now:
- VCV Beast’s Chalkboard: Octave Switcher & More
- VCV O/A/x2: Dual Offset & Attenuverter
- VCV Tangle Quartet: Quad Linear VCA & Mixer
- VCV MCO: Compact Digital VCO (new!)
- VCV Pip Slope (mk II): Compact Envelope Generator (new!)
I’m especially keen on Pip Slope as, you know, never enough envelope generators, actually.
Add those freebies to VCV’s from earlier this week:
If anyone is in doubt, it’s clear that in the Eurorack world, offering a software version is a boost to sales, not something that cannibalizes them or diminishes the desire for the gear. But likewise, it is absolutely an option to go the all-software route or build a hybrid software/hardware setup, in contrast to the “walls of gear” you might see on social media that I know are inaccessible and even undesirable to a lot of folks. (They sure don’t work for me!)
Everything is here: