VCV Rack

VCV Rack is a modular analogue synthesizer, more precisely a Virtual Eurorack DAW. It uses a plug-in systems to add more Eurorack emulated modules. As hardware Eurorack, it can be connected to midi, audio sources and destination, and other Eurorack modules. See also Wikipedia:VCV Rack. VCV Rack allow input from computer keyboard too, via the rack module MIDI-CV (included in "fundamental" modules pack).

The main principle of a modular analogue synthesizer is to add several module in the rack, and connect the different modules with wires, here by clicking on a connector and dragging in into another connector. Buttons on the modules allow you to change specifics parameters of the module.

Installation

There are currently two possible ways to install VCV Rack as an Arch package, choose the one that meets your requirements:

vcvrack

vcvrack^AUR builds completely from source code with some selected libraries like GLFW linked dynamically and includes minor patches for better system integration:

Supports system-wide plugin packages which can be used without an online account. These are installed to /usr/lib/vcvrack/plugins from the vcvrack-plugins package group.
Adds a custom MIME type for .vcv files downloaded e.g. from Patchstorage which allows opening patches from the file browser
Native Wayland support through system GLFW library
aarch64 support (you may need to build plugins manually or from AUR)

It's also available as a binary package through Unofficial user repositories#proaudio, which gets you automatic updates through pacman and lets you install all available system-wide plugin packages using pacman -Syu vcvrack-plugins. Since it's not officially supported by VCV Rack developers, please contact the package maintainers for help first.

vcvrack-bin

vcvrack-bin^AUR installs the official binary to /opt/vcvrack and only supports plugins installed from the library. Since this is the official binary, you should get support from VCV Rack developers.

Plugins

After logging in, free and commercial plugins (or "modules") can be installed from the library. These are installed to the Rack user directory, i.e. ~/.local/share/Rack2.

Debug logs

Rack writes logs to ~/.local/share/Rack2/log.txt, make sure to provide relevant logs when reporting issues.

Using computer keyboard Input

To use computer keyboard Input:

add the MIDI-CV module in your virtual Rack
Click on the middle line on the screen of the module.
Choose QWERTY keyboard for virtual piano keyboard
Choose Numpad keyboard for virtual percussion keyboard

You can add two (or more) times the module, to have QWERTY part controlling some part of your setup and Numpad controlling some other part for example.

Using computer audio input and output

The Audio-8 (8 channels) and Audio-16 (16 channels) modules, from the VCV Free (formerly Fundamental) modules pack, allow to input and output audio to JACK, PulseAudio, ALSA or (MIDI) Bridge Output. To set the desired Input or Output:

Choose the desired sound library on the first line of the screen of the virtual module
Select the Input or Output port on the Second line.

For using audio Input source into the modular setup use the "From device" connectors For using audio Output destination, from the modular setup, use the "To device" connectors.

Oscilloscope

The Scope module can show you the signal from any part of the setup; allowing you to debug your patch.

Compiling plugins

You can find open source plugins in the Library.

Manual build

If you're using vcvrack-bin^AUR, follow the manual making sure RACK_DIR is set to the SDK path. Plugins can only be installed to the user directory, system-wide plugins are not supported.

With vcvrack^AUR, RACK_DIR should implicitly be set to /usr/share/vcvrack or you might explicitly set it when building.

export RACK_DIR=path/to/Rack-SDK  # or /usr/share/vcvrack
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/codygeary/CVfunk-Modules
cd CVfunk-Modules
make dep
make install

PKGBUILD template

System-wide plugin packages are only supported by the vcvrack^AUR package, not by vcvrack-bin^AUR or when manually downloading Rack from the website. Find the full template here.

PKGBUILD

_slug=Example # from plugin.json
_name=example # e.g. repo name
groups=(pro-audio vcvrack-plugins)
depends=(gcc-libs vcvrack)
makedepends=(simde zstd)

build() {
  cd $_name
  make SLUG=$_slug VERSION=$pkgver RACK_DIR=/usr/share/vcvrack dist
}

package() {
  cd $_name
  install -d "$pkgdir"/usr/lib/vcvrack/plugins
  cp -va dist/$_slug -t "$pkgdir"/usr/lib/vcvrack/plugins
}