Rack VS awesome-livecoding

VCV Rack - Modular Synth

> It’s haven’t bought any Modular’s yet but I’m really looking forward to getting into other on the new year.

http://cardinal.kx.studio

https://vcvrack.com/

The former is libre and gratis, runs as a standalone or plugin and in the browser!! and is based on the latter.

Ther former has a libre and gratis standalone version, the plugin version is non-gratis.

A music synthesizer. It's a pathway to learning electronics, music, and the nature of sound. There are cheap kits, cheap synths, lots of kinds of synths, and there are much more complicated and expensive systems you can grow into. You can get software synths also, VCV Rack is a free though complex one:

https://vcvrack.com/

However I'd recommend an inexpensive hardware one with real knobs you can turn, like one of the Korg Volca series:

https://www.korg-volca.com/en/

Recording the sounds can lead into exploring all the concepts and gear involved in recording and mixing music. It's not mutually exclusive with doing other things also, you can play with both synths and computers and being involved with something artistic can add dimensions to and an escape from the nature of classwork/work.

Some other suggestions: gardening, high voltage electronics (with lots of supervision), electronics, photography, movie making, ham radio (gnu radio), show lighting systems (there's more than disco lights, robotics is involved), robotics, acoustic instruments (guitar, piano, flute, drums), sensors (you don't necessarily have to know electronics, get a data logger with built in sensors), weather monitoring/forecasting, hydraulic systems (with supervision), wood working, metal working, 3D printing, bird watching, painting, minibikes/small engines.

What really opened my eyes was the Nord Micromodular; it taught me what I just described. It showed me how limited other synths were - but that limitation was a trade-off because it's much faster to make something on a fixed-structure synth than on a modular, in most cases. Nowadays, you can use https://vcvrack.com/ instead of a small limited box that needs Windows 98 to run the editor on.

Also I would suggest the paid version of VCV rack which works as a VST too ( the free version is just stand alone ) Expecially when experimenting with modular ( believe me, it can save you a fortune whilst you learn what different modules do ) I would also recommend Omri Cohens Youtube channel for learning this too.

and there is more: https://github.com/toplap/awesome-livecoding

The Awesome Live Coding list on Github would be a great place to start: https://github.com/toplap/awesome-livecoding/blob/master/REA...

https://github.com/toplap/awesome-livecoding

Live coding is how I learned to program and I am so glad that this type of computer music performance exists. I am currently doing my PhD on the topic! Programming as a performative act, with its own culture and music sub-genres. For those interested in helping / taking a look, I am currently trying to hack my own live coding environment based on Python asyncio mechanisms: https://github.com/Bubobubobubobubo/sardine I am a bit shy about it because I am light years behind the level of the projects that are posted on HN and that keep me inspired. I've taught myself how to do this basically by live coding ... a lot, with friends in France! Learning a bit of CS because of music.

* https://github.com/toplap/awesome-livecoding

Here's a list/overview of all things "live coding": https://github.com/toplap/awesome-livecoding

Check out the Awesome Livecoding list for similar things: https://github.com/toplap/awesome-livecoding/blob/master/REA...

Also, Algorave for live performances: https://algorave.com/

Without commenting on Alda specifically, people should understand that it's just one member of this list of highly overlapping (but also interestingly distinct) tools:

https://github.com/toplap/awesome-livecoding

"All things live coding : A curated list of live coding languages and tools"