Entrian Free: VCV Rack Plugin

Entrian Free is a free plugin for VCV Rack.  It includes four modules:

Entrian Player: Timeline / Melody / Drummer

These are free play-only versions of the sequencers in the commercial Entrian Sequencers plugin:

When someone with Entrian Sequencers uses those sequencers to build a patch, they can save their patch for use with the Entrian Player modules instead. That lets people with the Entrian Free plugin play those patches without needing to buy Entrian Sequencers.

Importing MIDI files

You can import MIDI files into the Entrian Player modules.  Here's a 4-minute video demo:

See the Entrian Sequencers manual for more information on MIDI import.

Entrian Pitch and Envelope Follower

This module converts sound into pitch and volume CV signals, by analyzing it in real time to determine the fundamental pitch of the sound.

It takes the sound from a real instrument, or your voice, or a sample, and lets you drive oscillators and VCAs in real time to produce sounds that follow the pitch and level of the original sound.

The Lowpass knob controls a lowpass filter on the input.  You'll need this for any sound that contains unwanted high frequencies, eg. a human voice, where sounds like "ss" and "ff" will be detected as high frequency sounds and produce squeaks.

The Smooth knobs smooth the output pitch and envelope signals respectively, removing spikes and adding a slide effect, in the case of the pitch, and a fade-in / fade-out effect in the case of the envelope.

The Gain knob adjusts the level of the output envelope, displayed as the height of the displayed envelope graph.

The latency is displayed along with the pitch - this is the lag in milliseconds between a change in the incoming pitch and the corresponding change in the display and the outgoing V/Oct value.  It's typically in the mid-tens of milliseconds; quicker for higher frequencies and slower for lower ones.

Here's a two-minute video that demonstrates using Entrian Pitch and Envelope Follower with a singing voice, a saxophone, a synth, and a speaking voice:

 

Download and Support

Entrian Free is available from the VCV Plugin Library.

If you have any questions, comments, or bug reports, please don't hesitate to email support@entrian.com.

Release History

Version 2.2.1: 21st September 2023:

  • Don't leave "notepoints" files in the working directory.  That was a debugging feature that was accidentally left enabled in the production build.

Version 2.2.0: 20th September 2023:

  • macOS arm64 is now supported.
  • Entrian Follower no longer hangs when the sample rate is below 44.1KHz or there is no active Audio module present.  Thanks, yellowmastodon.  #90

Version 2.1.25: 3rd July 2022:

  • Don't crash when importing a MIDI file with channel volume or channel expression on track 17 or higher.  Thanks, Alain.
  • CV clips in a sequencer set as a playhead follower now play smoothly.  Thanks, Alain.

Version 2.1.24: 12th January 2022:

  • Added support for Rack V2.  #84
  • Added Swing.  #57
  • Fixed a crash-on-exit bug.  Thanks, Drew, Ewen, and Vortico.  #73

Version 1.1.22: 24th May 2021:

  • Added the "Delay Clock" context menu commands.  Thanks, spectromas.  #76

Version 1.1.21: 3rd April 2021:

  • Fixed a sequencer bug whereby a Reset could get out of step with other sequencers.
  • Sequencer modules: Pointing at the module and pressing Backspace once again deletes the module.

Version 1.1.20: 30th March 2021:

  • When a Drummer module is set up as a Playhead Follower, it no longer occasionally drops notes.  Thanks, Gretchen.  #67

Version 1.1.19: 26th January 2021:

  • Increased the CV range to ±10V.  #47.  Thanks, Ewen and Latif.
  • Added channel rotation.  #53 and #60.  Thanks, Serge and ROGAVKA.

Version 1.1.18: 24th September 2020:

  • Support for multi-instrument Type 0 MIDI files.  #49.
  • MIDI import pitch bend range control.  Thanks, Espen.
  • The editor window no longer loses its resizeability after you've launched a VCV-Host editor window.

Version 1.1.17: 5th September 2020:

  • MIDI import in both Entrian Sequencers and Entrian Free.
  • "End of phrase" output (Melody, Drummer, CV) and "End of clip" output (Timeline).  Thanks, Jue.  #31.
  • Hold Ctrl while dragging a scrollbar thumb to zoom rather than scroll; the opposite thumb mirrors your movements.
  • You can now pin the editor window so that it stays on top of other windows.  #14.  Thanks, Coirt.
  • There are now Run / Reset buttons in the editor and corresponding outputs on the panel, so you can control your clock from the editor.  #22.  Thanks, Eurikon.
  • The playhead and repeat markers now appear on the panel, so you can move the playhead and control the repeat range directly.  #1.
  • Shared playheads: connect the playheads of multiple sequencers together, so moving the playhead in one of them moves it in all of them.  #46.
  • Reduced CPU usage with complex songs.

Version 1.1.16: 22nd June 2020:

  • Right-clicking a scrollbar in the popup editor resets its position.  #2
  • The Melody editor can now scroll vertically by semitones rather than only by white notes, and the piano keys now line up with the editor underlay at all times. Thanks, Phil.  #13
  • Fixed-channel Melody notes now have coloured corner tags according to their channel. Thanks, Phil.  #33
  • Added a Clear button to the right of the Record button. In Melody and Drummer this clears the phrase; in Timeline it clears the armed clip. Thanks, Jean-Sébastien.  #34
  • The bar lines for very long songs now paint properly in the editor. Thanks, Ken.  #44
  • The panel buttons now trigger on any value greater than zero, making them easier to control with µMap etc.
 

Version 1.1.1: 1st July 2019 

First public release.

This article was updated on September 21, 2023