Software Alternatives & Reviews

Csound VS VCV Rack

Compare Csound VS VCV Rack and see what are their differences

Csound logo Csound

The Csound Community

VCV Rack logo VCV Rack

A cross-platform modular synthesizer.
  • Csound Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-21

Csound is a sound and music computing system which was originally developed by Barry Vercoe in 1985 at MIT Media Lab. Since the 90s, it has been developed by a group of core developers. A wider community of volunteers contribute examples, documentation, articles, and takes part in the Csound development with bug reports, feature requests and discussions with the core development team.

Although Csound has a strong tradition as a tool for composing electro-acoustic pieces, it is used by composers and musicians for any kind of music that can be made with the help of the computer. Csound has traditionally been used in a non-interactive score driven context, but nowadays it is mostly used in in a real-time context. Csound can run on a host of different platforms including all major operating systems as well as Android and iOS. Csound can also be called through other programming languages such as Python, Lua, C/C++, Java, etc.

One of the main principles in Csound development is to guarantee backwards compatibility. You can still render a Csound source file from 1986 on the latest Csound release, and you should be able to render a file written today with the latest Csound in 2036.

  • VCV Rack Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-06

Csound videos

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VCV Rack videos

VCV Rack vs Hardware: is there a difference? Testing Mutable Instruments Clouds, Rings and Elements

More videos:

  • Review - 10 awesome FREE modules in VCV Rack (Review with techno patches)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Csound and VCV Rack)
Music Generation
18 18%
82% 82
3D
18 18%
82% 82
Music Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Email Marketing
9 9%
91% 91

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, VCV Rack seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 112 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Csound mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Csound yet. Tracking of Csound recommendations started around Mar 2021.

VCV Rack mentions (112)

  • Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment
    > 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. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Ask HN: Whats the modern day equivalent of 80s computer for kids to explore?
    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... - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • I love synthesizers, but I suck at synthesis and sound design?
    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. Source: 10 months ago
  • Long time Cubase user who is leaving a more traditional electronic workflow to modular hardware... Bitwig seems to be the DAW more for this style possibly? Any opinions first hand?
    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. Source: 11 months ago
  • Recreate boutique pedals in DAW?
    Would be way easier with VCV rack than a DAW as there's already almost 3k modules including a lot of granular and other complex ones that blow away a lot of pedals: https://vcvrack.com/. Source: 11 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Csound and VCV Rack, you can also consider the following products

SuperCollider - A real time audio synthesis engine, and an object-oriented programming language specialised for...

Pure Data - Pd (aka Pure Data) is a real-time graphical programming environment for audio, video, and graphical...

Sonic Pi - Sonic Pi is a new kind of instrument for a new generation of musicians. It is simple to learn, powerful enough for live performances and free to download.

SynthEdit - Visual programming software to build your own synthesizer.

ChucK - A strongly-timed music programming language

Vital - Vital is a spectral warping wavetable synthesizer with drag'n'drop modulation workflow and animated preview of the synth's inner workings where needed. Comes with many modulation sources (including audio-rate), MPE support and FX chain.