The free modules for VCV Rack are coming fast and furious. The latest is Bastl’s awesomely versatile Crust drum voice. Just in case you need something to, you know, distract yourself today/tonight/the rest of this week.
Okay, I don’t want to make CDM identical to refreshing the VCV Rack library page, but this one is just too good. Bastl’s Crust drum voice – the pairing to their Pizza FM/waveshape oscillator – is one I always wanted to play with. And it’s brilliant. It’s the usual story with VCV modules. If you’re broke, you get modules for free. If you’re toying with buying a module, these are amazing advertisements. And you might even duplicate hardware and software in your rig if you’re addicted to a design.
There’s a lot to explore on Crust, too. It’s a layered drum voice with both a noise source and dual oscillator tone component, which you can fade through or adjust toward body or transient. There’s a built-in shaper, too (hence the connection to Pizza), plus clip distortion phase. And there’s quite flexible modulation, control, and patching, including envelope out, so it fits well into your VCV Rack patches and live sets just as it does in hardware.
The software recreation functions 1:1 as the hardware does, so you can refer to the hardware video manual:
But now I do kind of want this module. And some pizza, come to think of it.
This joins a bunch of other great drum and percussion modules available for VCV Rack. In addition to original Rack creations from Vult, Hora, SV Modular, and AS, plus a full range from VCV – and I recommend looking through all of those – there’s also a decent set of hardware recreations, pictured here. Befaco, ALM/Busy Circuits, and Erica Synths are all represented. The Tyso-Daiko is worth comparing to the Bastl – same basic idea, very different sound – and even worth paying for. The others are free.
Note: I forgot the free 4ms modules, which includes Drum and the FAUST-based Djembe! Via a tip from Jim Aikin, though, trying these I’m finding some issues with modulation input, so they may be not ready for prime time. I’m investigating.
And this joins one other freebie from Bastl for VCV, the Compass probabilistic clock/signal/pattern navigator, which I have to admit I slept on:
Find them at the VCV library – they’re free as in beer, not open source, but no complaints here:
Bastl Instruments @ VCV Library
And if you fancy a Crust of your own:
Pizza Crust Drum Voice @ Perfect Circuit
If you buy something from a CDM link, we may earn a commission.
In other good news in VCV Rack module land recently, Venom just updated their stuff with a polyphonic crossfader, the ability to use your mouse as a CV source, plus a Mutable Instruments Blinds-inspired polyphonic VCA/mixer, in addition to some other updates.
Enjoy!