Percussa has released a firmware update for their Super Signal Processor Eurorack uber-module, adding support for VSTs, adding a QuadVCA VST plugin and more.
The Super Signal Processor (SSP) is a sound synthesis platform in Eurorack format, based on a powerful quad-core ARM Cortex A17 processor. It offers 16 input channels and 8 output channels, USB host and device ports, and a micro SD card slot.
Here’s what’s new in the latest update:
- ST2 / VST3 Support + New VST module – The SSP can now host VST2 and VST3 plugins. The software automatically creates a “plugins” directory on your card where you can put VST plugins. Note that the VSTs must be compiled for linux / armhf, not the more common Mac/Windows platforms.
- QuadVCA VST Plugin – The Quad VCA has 8 input and 8 output channels. It takes channels [1,2], [3,4], [5,6] and [7,8] and multiplies the channels and then outputs the result through channels 1, 3, 5, and 6. Output channels 2, 4, 6, and 8 are the inverted versions of the output signals.
- BitCrusher module – the bit crusher has an input for the signal to crush, and one output. It has bits and rate parameters / modulation targets.
- Module Picker – If you navigate in the patcher grid and press encoder 1, you will now go to the module selection screen. You can navigate in the module picker using the encoders or cursor keys and press encoder 1 or 2 to confirm your selection.
Source code for the QuadVCA VST plugin is available via github, and can be used as a reference for building modules to run on the SSP.
Percussa’s Bert Schiettecatte shared this informal demo of the QuadVCA UI via Facebook:
Other recent updates include microtonal quantizing and more.
Details on the Super Signal Processor are available at the Percussa site.
No thanks. I got into Eurorack to get away from VSTs! What a joke
Some people like to have the best of both worlds.
This opens the door to letting you do about anything in Euro. I’d love to see Valhalla DSP’s plugins compiled so that they’d run on this.
Other than cost, I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t want to combine the best of analog hardware with powerful applications running in their modular synth.
A joke? Thats lame.
I understand why some people prefer hardware, but the ’DAW-free’ militants seem like luddites by another name.
Let’s make music, and embrace all the possibilities, even if they’re not ones you want to pursue.
This. I’ve been having a lot of fun with DAWless jamming and recording, but if there’s a market for this it’s because people want it. On the plus side there is a screen!
Totally agree, and considering the thing cost $2K, so the price of a really powerful computer, it really doesn’t make sense…
awesome!
Despite the naysayers, this opens up infinite possibilities !
This is certainly interesting, but be aware that very few commercial VST plugins also exists in a Linux version. Stiill, there are quite a few Open Source ones and also a couple commercial ones, as can be seen here: http://linux-sound.org/linux-vst-plugins.html
There’s a metric buttload of Linux-compatible plugins, both freeware and commercial.
The Muse Receptor runs on Linux and there’s a ton of stuff compatible with it:
https://museresearch.com/products/receptor-features.php
That said – somebody ought to make a list of the VST’s that people have tested with this. If the list is very long, I’d think that there would be a lot more people that might find a place for this in their rigs.
A native Linux version is different from being able to run a Windows plugin under Linux. That’s what Receptor does, I guess. That won’t work on an Arm platform. In most cases you probably have to be able to compile the plugin binary yourself.
Thanks for the clarification!
So it sounds like this opens up all types of potential – but that will be constrained by how many people are knowledgeable enough to compile ARM Linux binaries for the VSTs.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
My thought is that if Percussa could make a smaller, basic version of this, with maybe 4 in/outs, that just did VSTs, that it could be as big as things like Braids or Clouds – stuff that almost everybody has in their rack. Or the Audio Damage modules, which are essentially VSTs running on standard hardware.
“VSTs must be compiled for linux / armhf, not the more common Mac/Windows platforms.”
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please demo something like airwaves/wine linux VST bridge, which allows for the use of Windows 32- and 64-bit VST 2.4 audio plugins with Linux VST hosts
demo it using serum, sylenth or massive.
people will throw money at you, including me.
I totally agree! I’m not into eurorack. But if this could run Serum… it also acts as USB host. So with a small case that just fits this module and a usb midi controller, it would be a portable Serum synth to use live. (Or other VSTs of course). No laptop required! Only downside is the pricing. For that price you could grab a windows surface and run a VST host on that.. nonetheless I think its cool.
I thought the idea of Eurorack was to free oneself from tedious preset scrolling. This may help some but I can’t see it being a huge hit in the modular world. Most wigglers went into hardware to get away from plugins.
If you need to compile your VSTs for Linux, and thus can’t use most commercial VST plugins, or even free ones out of the box, then why use VST at all ? Aren’t there more open and better-suited formats ?
The most popular Eurorack modules (Braids, Clouds, etc) are already plugins running on dedicated hardware.
This module is just designed to do it better than previous modules.
Nope, sorry, these are NOT plugins. A plugin is a piece of software adhering to some control protocol and running on top of a multitasking operating system that feeds streams of data and receives transformed data in a strictly defined format, in blocks of samples, and shares the CPU time with other plugins and host tasks. This way plugin is compatible to a variety of hosts. There is a significant cost of all that compatibility which is latency. The software that runs of MI modules does not need to adjust to the requirements of the protocol, it is optimized for the particular hardware and does not need a multitasking OS underneath.
Ok. I can respect your opinions but using a VST in my Eurorack seems useless.
Do tell us about all the modules you aren’t interested in.
As someone who knows very little about modular synthesis, could I run audio from any synth or source through this and use VST effects processors? Assuming, of course, that I purchase a power supply and case?
How many Linux VSTs are there? 20? 30?
Why they not make something like a successor of the V-Machine for Windows VSTs in a decent price range, instead this 2000$ Linux player?
Just look at the page I linked in a comment above and you’ll see that there are a lot more
The VST support isn’t a main feature of this module – though a lot of people seem to be interested. It does all sorts of other things.
I think the vst support may have been a stretch goal in their kickstarter campaign.
If you could load maschine software and use Maschine mk3 hardware with it (and without computer) it would be awesome… but probably not possible because no support for Linux from NI, thanks NI
If you could load maschine software and use Maschine mk3 hardware with (and without computer) it would be awesome… but probably not possible because no support for Linux from NI, thanks NI