Imagine having access to a full original Moog modular system. Now imagine you could run the whole thing for free – and it won’t take up a wall of your home. Synthesizers.com has brought its MU East Coast-inspired modular to VCV Rack as freeware. It’s also a great place to begin with software modular synthesis.
Everything about this is great. “DotCom” is already a great modular maker, bringing a unique twist to the design ideas introduced by Bob Moog in his original modular system. That and a vintage Buchla 100/200 series were my first introduction to modular synthesis. The Synthesizers.com modules are, in turn, worth considering. But they’re a big investment. Going free in software means you could try first and decide how to build your system without the risk of buyer’s remorse. And it brings access to people who want to try these modules but lack the space, money, or both.
And they picked an ideal partner, too in Leonardo aka VULT. Those modules have been among my favorites, especially for the unique sonic character of the behavioral model he uses for a lot of his designs. What he chose to do was not a per-component precise model, but something that will generally function the same way – and a quick play illustrates they’re great fun to use.
Plus, this is a first: it gives us access to a 5U system in VCV Rack. I’ve only honestly ever messed with new 5U at Superbooth. As Leonardo puts it, “the 5U format feels enormous compared to Eurorack. It’s like moving from a studio apartment to a two-story house.”
There’s a wonderful guide to the behind-the-scenes work on this collection at the VULT blog. It’ll be a great read whether you’re curious about playing with these or even if you want to try coding yourself. (Leonardo’s VULT DSP language is great, and you can use it both with hardware and software.) As he points out, here you get single-function modules in comparison to the multifunctional approach of the VULT modules. Mixing the two works nicely.
Making the Synthesizers.com modules
Good stuff in there – some highlights:
- The classic CA3080 OTA filter, nicely modeled here
- Some tasty fixed filters
- Painstakingly modeled Q106 analog oscillator with its particular sound
- Slew limiter, ADSR envelopes
- Extra MIDI options with their Q174 MIDI interface (like re-trigger modes)
- Q173 Gate Math for generating rhythms – now accessible via an easy menu
- Q119A step sequencer
Sequential Switch, Gate Math, Quantizer Bank, LFO, Distributor, Clipper, Switch, Fixed Filter Bank, Signal Processor (attenuator/utility), voltage and frequency converter, sample & hold, reverb, 4-channel mixer, pan/fade, noise, VCA — everything is there.
This is just freeware, not open source – but it runs in the free and open source VCV Rack, and I’m not complaining. (If you’re a coder, you should still check out Vult’s code side!)
24 modules are currently available:
https://library.vcvrack.com/?brand=Synthesizers.com
Omri Cohen is back with a guide, this time focusing in particular on beginners – and a lot of those bread-and-butter techniques work great with this series. I’m already enjoying messing with these. Thanks, y’all.
And it’s been a good week for Rack and “free”: