• Quick Start
  • Installing & Running
    • System Requirements
    • Installing Rack
      • Installing on Mac
      • Installing on Windows
      • Installing on Linux
    • Installing plugins
    • Installing plugins not available on the Plugin Manager
    • Running Rack
      • Running on Mac
      • Running on Windows
      • Running on Linux
      • Command line usage
  • FAQ
    • I found a bug.
    • I have a feature request.
    • The graphics are rendered incorrectly, not at all, or Rack doesn’t launch because of an “OpenGL error”.
    • Where is the “Rack user directory”?
    • Will Rack be ported to iOS or Android?
    • Why does VCV Audio consume so much CPU?
    • Is VCV Rack available as a VST/AU/AAX plugin for DAWs?
    • Does VCV Rack work with touch screens?
  • Menu Bar
    • File
      • New
      • Open/Save/Save as
      • Save template
      • Revert
      • Quit
    • Edit
      • Undo/Redo
      • Clear cables
    • View
      • Parameter tooltips
      • Lock modules
      • Zoom
      • Cable opacity
      • Cable tension
      • Fullscreen
    • Engine
      • CPU timer
      • Sample rate
      • Threads
    • Library
      • Login
      • Update all
    • Help
      • Manual
      • Open user folder
  • Core
    • Audio
    • MIDI Interfaces
      • MIDI-CV
      • MIDI-CC
      • MIDI-Gate
      • MIDI-Map
      • CV-MIDI
      • CV-CC
      • CV-Gate
    • Blank
    • Notes

Plugin Development

  • Plugin Development Tutorial
    • Prerequisites
    • Template Plugin
    • Inputs, Outputs, Parameters, and Lights
    • DSP
    • Panel
    • Component Widgets
    • Naming
    • Versioning
    • Licenses
    • Building
    • Releasing
    • Maintaining
  • Panel Tutorial
    • Setup
    • Designing your panel
    • SVG limitations
    • Adding components
  • Voltage Standards
    • Levels
    • Output Saturation
    • Triggers and Gates
    • Timing
    • Pitch and Frequencies
    • NaNs and Infinity
    • Polyphony
  • DSP
    • Signals
      • Fourier analysis
      • Sampling
      • Aliasing
    • Linear filters
      • IIR filters
      • FIR filters
      • Impulse responses
      • Brick-wall filter
      • Windows
      • Minimum phase systems
        • MinBLEP
        • PolyBLEP
    • Circuit modeling
      • Nodal analysis
      • Numerical methods for ODEs
    • Optimization
      • Profiling
      • Mathematical optimization
      • Compiler optimization
      • Memory access
      • Vector instructions
  • Migrating v0.6 Plugins to Rack v1
    • Prerequisites
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
    • Phase 1: Using the rack0.hpp compatibility header
      • 1.1
      • 1.2
      • 1.3
      • 1.4
      • 1.5
      • 1.6
        • 1.6.1
        • 1.6.2
        • 1.6.3
      • 1.6.4
      • 1.7
      • 1.8
      • 1.9
      • 1.10
    • Phase 2: Updating your code to the Rack v1 API
      • 2.1
      • 2.2
      • 2.3
      • 2.4
      • 2.5
      • 2.6
      • 2.7
      • 2.8
      • 2.9
      • 2.10
    • Phase 3: Adding new Rack v1 features
  • Plugin Licensing
    • I want to release my plugin under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPLv3).
    • I want to release my plugin under a different open-source license or freeware.
    • I want to sell my plugin commercially under non-GPLv3 terms.
    • VCV Plugin Ethics Guidelines

Rack Development

  • Building
    • Setting up your development environment
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
    • Building Rack
    • Building Rack plugins
  • ABI/API Version
    • Symbol additions
    • Git branches and tags

Appendix

  • Communities
  • About VCV
    • Mission Statement
VCV Rack
  • Docs »
  • Menu Bar
  • Edit on GitHub

Menu Bar¶

File¶

New¶

Clears the patch and loads the template patch (<Rack user dir>/template.vcv).

Open/Save/Save as¶

Opens/saves the patch from/to a .vcv file. Patches use the JSON format and can also be viewed with a text editor.

Save template¶

Saves the patch as <Rack user dir>/template.vcv so it is loaded when creating new patches.

Revert¶

Restores the patch from the last saved state.

Quit¶

Autosaves the patch to <Rack user dir>/autosave.vcv and closes Rack. Rack also autosaves every 15 seconds to prevent losing work due to a crash, power failure, etc.

Edit¶

Undo/Redo¶

Rewinds and plays back all actions that edit the patch.

Clear cables¶

Removes all cables from the patch.

View¶

Parameter tooltips¶

Enables/disables tooltips when hovering over parameters (knobs, sliders, buttons, etc) which display the name, numeric value, and optionally description of the parameter.

Lock modules¶

Locks/unlocks modules from being moved by the mouse. Prevents accidentally dragging modules.

Zoom¶

Adjusts the zoom level for the rack from 25-400%. Double-click to reset to 100%.

Cable opacity¶

Sets the transparency level for patch cables. Double-click to reset to 50%.

Cable tension¶

Sets the relative length of patch cables. Double-click to reset to 0.5.

Fullscreen¶

Expands Rack to fill the screen with no window borders.

Engine¶

CPU timer¶

Enables/disables the measurement of time for each module to generate each sample (see Sample rate). This displays a meter on each module with the number of microseconds (μs) and the percentage of time spent in the module’s assigned thread (see Threads).

If running in single-threaded mode, the total percentage must equal 100%, with “blocking” modules like VCV Audio consuming the remaining time by “sleeping” until the audio device is ready for more audio. If multi-threading is enabled, the total percentage may equal up to \(N \times 100\%\), although this number is a bit less in reality due to multi-threading overhead.

Timing takes CPU power itself, so it is recommended to disable the CPU timer when it is not needed for best performance.

Sample rate¶

Sets Rack’s engine sample rate.

Rack’s engine works by repeatedly stepping the state of each module by 1 / sampleRate seconds, producing 1 new sample for each output. A higher sample rate decreases the timestep, resulting in more accurate analog circuit modeling and digital algorithms, while a lower sample rate decreases engine CPU usage.

Threads¶

Sets the number of cores to be used in Rack’s multithreaded engine.

To minimize power usage and CPU resources for other programs to use, disable multithreading by selecting 1 thread. Using more threads increases CPU usage but increases the maximum number of modules you can use in the rack.

It is recommended to begin with 1 thread, and if you experience audio hiccups, try increasing the thread count by 1. Continue adding threads until no hiccups occur. The maximum recommended number of threads is the number of physical cores in your machine. For example, a quad-core machine would likely maximize the number of modules by using 4 threads.

Due to simultaneous multithreading such as Intel Hyper-Threading, you may attempt to use up to twice as many threads as physical cores in your machine, but typically this results in worse performance with higher power usage.

Library¶

Login¶

Logs into your VCV account registered at vcvrack.com. Email contact@vcvrack.com for account assistance.

Update all¶

Updates and downloads all new plugins and plugin versions added to your VCV account. Rack must be restarted to load new plugin updates.

Help¶

Manual¶

Opens this manual.

Open user folder¶

Opens the Rack user directory in Windows Explorer, Apple Finder, etc.

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