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2. Building a simple drone patch with VCV Rack

1 Let’s start by clearing out any modules we might have patched up (saving your work beforehand, of course). Go to File at the upper-left and select New from the available options. This provides a blank slate in which we’ll right-click, open the Core category and choose an Audio module. This allows us to get our sound to the outside world. 2 Select your interface of choice in the Audio module. Now, let’s consider our patch. We’ll obviously need a sound source, so let’s bring up the VCO-1 module from the Fundamental category. We’ll be controlling its pitch with a modulation source, so we needn’t worry about tuning it for now. 3 We know that we’ll be routing the VCO through a filter, so let’s grab a VCF module from the Fundamental category. Patch your VCO’s Sqr (square) wave into the VCF’s In jack. We know, too, that we’ll want some echo, so let’s stick a Delay module in as well. This can also be found among the Fundamentals. 4 We haven’t got any signal passing through to our Audio module, so let’s take care of that next. Run a pair of cables from the Delay module’s Out to Inputs 1 and 2 on the Audio module. Next, patch the VCF’s LPF (Low Pass Filter) jack to the Delay module’s In jack. 5 You should now hear a filtered square wave. It’s pretty boring! Time to introduce some modulation. First, though, let’s tune our oscillator to a lower pitch. How about cranking it down to a low E? It doesn’t have to be perfect – in fact, ours is a bit sharp. It makes a nice rumble, though. 6 Now for the LFO. We’ll use the plain ol’ LFO-1 module from the Fundamental category. Patch its Sin( e) wave output to the VCO’s FM input, and set the VCO’s Freq CV knob to around 1 o’clock. This gives us an old-school sci-fi film electronic pulse. However, that’s just the beginning...