Greetings !
Thank you to everyone who listened to my little music and replied to my
post. I'll cover your questions and issues here.
Louigi Verona wrote:
Went through many of your patches on your YouTube
channel. Amazing stuff.
I do have one question, though. How do you make VCVRack run on Linux? I
Thanks for checking out my YT channel, Louigi. Much of what's posted
there is experimental and/or tutorial for my purposes. There are some
"compositions" but I find that the environment favors exploration of
synthesis methods, generative music concepts, and some unique
performance aspects.
I can't imagine what's happening with Rack on your system. I know that
you run a configured system, so there must be a missing piece somewhere.
For the sake of comparison here's my hardware specs:
AMD FX6300 6-core CPU
16 GB memory
fast large HD
M-Audio Delta 66 audio interface
UA25 (for MIDI interface)
nVidia chipset graphics board
And the software specs:
Fedora 23
Planet CCRMA rt kernel
nVidia proprietary driver
CPU governor set to full performance
Rack wants a specific level of support for OpenGL but I don't think it's
an uncommon or unusual version.
Paul Davis wrote:
Just for reference, I installed the prebuilt version
from the
website. Works flawlessly here unless the DSP load (or some other system
load) is very high.
Note that the internal engineering of VCV Rack is utterly and
completely wrong,
but nevertheless manages to be one of the best pieces
of audio software (and certainly among the very best open source pieces)
from a user perspective.
Nevertheless, the internal engineering issues are
going to make it
more likely to glitch than your average JACK client,
Probably the most glaring problem is its "reliance" (for lack of a
better term) on a single CPU core. Yes, it supports multicore, but
unlike Ardour or the u-he plugins performance takes a hit when multiple
cores are selected. I still find my best performance capacity by staying
with a single core. I'm reading bits and pieces that imply tyhat v2 will
have a rewritten engine with much better latency and better all-around
performance. V2 is expected by early 2020.
Btw, the result of the limited core performance is a restriction on my
patch size/complexity. I've hit the wall many times, something you might
not expect from a 3.5 GHz CPU. Meanwhile users with Intel CPUs report
much better performance, apparently due to the Intel architecture.
Jeanette C. wrote:
I love the sound that meanders between the metallic
bell like tone and
the almost format timbre. What sweet sounds!
Thanks, J ! I confess I'm totally fascinated by the sonic variety
available on the Rack. Which is a good thing, I guess, since typically
there are no presets for the modules, i.e. I have to program just about
everything. Like Csound. :)
I've tried a number of strategies for making music with the Rack. I've
sync'd it with DAWs, routed external instruments and vocals into it for
extended processing, used it as a standalone synthesizer under external
MIDI control, and I've written a short-ton of generative patches for it.
It is a fascinating environment, and it has the great virtue of being
eminently affordable when compared to its hardware counterparts (and its
software competition).
Again, my thanks to all who have listened to the piece and to those who
have replied to my note. If you'd like to hear more of my music made
with VCV Rack please visit my YouTube channel at
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Kw67XwyKACygelcd-D2-g.
Best regards,
dp