I'm in the process of building a similar project aimed towards beginners, so it's hopefully a bit less daunting than Cardinal/VCV Rack.
Cardinal – Virtual modular synthesizer plugin
11–20 of 48 posts
Re: Cardinal – Virtual modular synthesizer plugin
#12I'm a little torn on how I feel towards the Cardinal project. It claims not to be a fork on a technicality. It brings some improvements certainly and VCV dev has felt stagnant the last couple years, but it's also a little uncomfortably (to me) ideologically trying to GPL VCV. At least they are transparent about it. I like their community presence. I wonder if most users of Cardinal are aware how much of what they app…
VCV Pro has the DAW plugin feature as a paid extra. Cardinal seems to be taking the GPL version of VCV and using it to undercut the main income source of the VCV project.
Re: Cardinal – Virtual modular synthesizer plugin
#13It remind me Rebirth [0] (had so much fun epochs ago). Soo many buttons, but where the heck is play button ? I will leave it more experienced musicians :). Looks like great project [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReBirth_RB-338
Do you mean Reason? This was the first virtual synth with patching UI that Propellerhead released a bit after ReBirth.
ReBirth was amazing though and would love if someone brings it back. They had an iPad version that worked pretty well but apparently Roland forced them to take it down.
Re: Cardinal – Virtual modular synthesizer plugin
#14Programs like this and VCV Rack are great ways to get started on the road to building your own modular synthesizer [1]. Many of the modules in the program are based on real hardware, and while the hardware versions of these modules can cost hundreds of dollars, the software versions are using the exact same firmware. Whether you stay virtual or go out and build the hardware equivalent of your rack, it's a great way t…
>while the hardware versions of these modules can cost hundreds of dollars, the software versions are using the exact same firmware
firmware? so for the modules you are talking about, what you are saying is that they're virtual analog software synths anyway, and the "hardware" aspect simply provides some jacks for patching?
Re: Cardinal – Virtual modular synthesizer plugin
#15I'm a little torn on how I feel towards the Cardinal project. It claims not to be a fork on a technicality. It brings some improvements certainly and VCV dev has felt stagnant the last couple years, but it's also a little uncomfortably (to me) ideologically trying to GPL VCV. At least they are transparent about it. I like their community presence. I wonder if most users of Cardinal are aware how much of what they app…
VCV Pro has the DAW plugin feature as a paid extra. Cardinal seems to be taking the GPL version of VCV and using it to undercut the main income source of the VCV project.
That was never the intent.
There are some technical issues with VCV Rack, and the lead developer is ... gently resistant to accepting patches/fixes from anyone else.
Cardinal started as an attempt to do some things better than VCV Rack does. Most people involved think it would probably have been better if those changes had been upstreamed, but that's not VCV Rack's development model.
Re: Cardinal – Virtual modular synthesizer plugin
#16Also there is now a physical eurorack module where you can load and play VCV modules. https://modulargrid.net/e/4ms-company-metamodule
Wow. I guess I haven’t been paying attention to 4ms lately.. this feels wrong but right. I like it.
Re: Cardinal – Virtual modular synthesizer plugin
#17Also there is now a physical eurorack module where you can load and play VCV modules. https://modulargrid.net/e/4ms-company-metamodule
When can I get this module in VCV? :)
Re: Cardinal – Virtual modular synthesizer plugin
#18I'm a little torn on how I feel towards the Cardinal project. It claims not to be a fork on a technicality. It brings some improvements certainly and VCV dev has felt stagnant the last couple years, but it's also a little uncomfortably (to me) ideologically trying to GPL VCV. At least they are transparent about it. I like their community presence. I wonder if most users of Cardinal are aware how much of what they app…
VCV Pro has the DAW plugin feature as a paid extra. Cardinal seems to be taking the GPL version of VCV and using it to undercut the main income source of the VCV project.
We are using it to create a self-contained opensource plugin. How does this "undercut" VCV?
Their main model is based around having a "limitless" store where users can buy "premium" modules. And having a plugin-version that allows loading these dynamic modules. This is not something that Cardinal allows and goes straight into the philosophy of a "self-contained" audio plugin.
If anything it's an easy (and free) stepping-stone for users to try a plugin version of Rack and then buy "the real deal" when they want the full-on VCV Rack experience.
The two can easily co-exist. They can even load each other as plugins.
Re: Cardinal – Virtual modular synthesizer plugin
#19I'm a little torn on how I feel towards the Cardinal project. It claims not to be a fork on a technicality. It brings some improvements certainly and VCV dev has felt stagnant the last couple years, but it's also a little uncomfortably (to me) ideologically trying to GPL VCV. At least they are transparent about it. I like their community presence. I wonder if most users of Cardinal are aware how much of what they app…
What do you mean `trying to GPL VCV`? The Rack 2.0 project was always licensed `GPL3.0-or-later` so we are using it exactly as intended.
Cardinal also contains MIT, BSD and CC0 modules. As long as all the code is compatible to GPL3.0-or-later since everything is built into a single static binary.
A lot of work has gone into due diligence in order to vet all the resources that have gone into the project: https://github.com/DISTRHO/Cardinal/blob/main/docs/LICENSES....
The value proposition that Cardinal offers by being self-contained is one of stability, backwards-compatibility and being able to easily share patches with other users without having to download or buy anything additional.
See the differences document to better understand how the projects compare: https://github.com/DISTRHO/Cardinal/blob/main/docs/DIFFERENC...
Re: Cardinal – Virtual modular synthesizer plugin
#20This only includes a small subset of the VCV Library, some of the best modules aren't included in this and pretty cool. There's also some incredible paid modules in the library worth checking out.
You think over 1200 modules is small?
Definitely enough for endless hours of modular patching.