Confused about how plugins work

Can someone tell me or point me to how plugins work? I have them all working and can add them on the Metamodule already. I’m a little more confused about how they work on the VCV for Windows side honestly.

I like to design my patches on the PC then just copy on a card and port to the Metamodule. How do I get all the plugin packs in my VCV windows program?

Is there a way to tell which plugins Metamodule supports and which they don’t?

Thanks!

what do you mean by ‘how do they work’?

generally, VCV Rack modules needed to be ported/converted to work on the MM.
4ms have provided an api, which does most of the heavy lifting of this work,
but there are some differences/limitations (due to hardware etc)
so, depending on the modules code, this may be easier or harder for a developer to do.

how do you know which VCV modules are available for the MM.
check : https://metamodule.info
in particular : MetaModule | ModuleFinder

this is useful, not only because you can see what modules are available (and filter to find things) but also the cpu used… as the MM has much less processing capacity compared to you pc.

if you are just using VCV for MM patching, then you could just subscribe to modules that are available on the 4ms MM.

there are some threads on this forum about how you can do this ‘automatically’, but I dont bother with this.

personally, Ive found with VCV in general (and this extends to MM), with so many modules available, having too many listed in the module browser leads to ‘choice paralysis’.
so, I actually like to manually curate what modules Im subscribed to.

so my process is…
if I need something I dont already have, then I might use module finder to look for some applicable modules - I’ll then subscribe to a few, test them out - and unsubscribe to the ones Im not using.
similarly, if I see a new module announced on this forum that may be interesting, I’l subscribe to it, test it out… and decide if I want to keep it or not.

this way. I get to know a few modules very well, rather than just have a sea of modules that I hardly ever use, or know… sometimes less is more.
it also feels a bit more like how I use eurorack hardware, Ive only a ‘few’ modules available - f I buy a new module then I get to know it well, and sell it if I dont use it :wink:

that said, we all have our own workflows / preferences. others, Im sure, like to have everything available at their fingertips. so you need to find a way that works for you.

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Hey thanks for the reply. You already answered some of my questions. So following that I guess my remaining questions are:

So the only way to add the plugin modules that Metamodule supports is to dive into the support database, look at those modules and go and individually add them to VCV? Then - as long as I have the plugin loaded in MM - they will load with my patches?

I’m not worried about having too many modules as options because I know exactly what I want to achieve with MM, I just don’t know the best modules to do it yet. So having them all installed and being able to easily switch out similar ones is what would be most helpful to me.

ah, I think I figured out what I was missing. There’s a “Plugins” section on VCV rack website that matches how the plugins are for Metamodule and I can just add them all there instead of having to pick out each individual one.

“Plugins” in the context of MetaModule and VCV rack a collection of individual modules made by a manufacturer.

In VCV rack, you add plugins to an associated email account. When you refresh VCV rack they are installed into your library.

In MetaModule, you can download plugins from this link: MetaModule | downloads and put them in a folder on your SD card labeled metamodule-plugins.

When you turn on your metamodule go to settings > plugins and click “scan disk”

Available plugins to load will be populated in a list. You can either individually click them to load them or you can scroll the bottom of the list and click “load all”

At the bottom of these menus there are two options to “pre-load” plugins. “pre-load current” takes the plugins that you just loaded and automatically loads them at startup. “pre-load none” loads no plugins at startup.

The more plugins you want loaded at startup, the more time it takes to boot metamodule.

When you make a patch in VCV rack and load it into metamodule, you need to have the corresponding plugin loaded into your metamodule for it to work otherwise you will get a “plugins missing” error.

Hope this helps

Yet I just used a VCV Rack (native?) module in my patch and I guess Metamodule doesn’t support those? Kind of surprised but I don’t see a plugin for the VCV modules anywhere.

Which module did you use? Most are on the MM, they’re listed as Fundamental, and you will need to load them from the System > Plugins page on the MM. There are currently 35, plus the rack core CV-MIDI and MIDITOCVInterface modules. None of the paid VCV Rack modules are ported, and a small number of others as well, A quick check looks like Audio 8, Audio 16, Merge, MIDI CC > CV, MIDI > Gate, MIDI Map, CV > MIDI CC, Gate > MIDI, REC, Split, SUM and VIZ, although I thought I saw some discussion about some of the other MIDI modules being added in the future.

Oh nice, that worked! It was the Rescale CV offset plugin

VCV rack modules are known as the “Fundamental” library in MM. It’s always best practice to check our working directory in the module finder, which automatically lists plugins that are available for metamodule prior to starting your patch:

Module Finder

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