When searching it would be nice for more sorting criteria, results count

Overall I am glad modulargrid exists, but for a newbie like me it's a bit overwhelming to find my way through all this information
-- heartcore

There will be more search options soon, but I doubt that this will fix the overwhelming info problem.

My request would be to show a number that represents total usage, regardless of whether the rack that includes the module is public or private.

-- sempervirent

O.k. this was a simple fix, it's online.

My request would be to show a number that represents total usage, regardless of whether the rack that includes the module is public or private. Perhaps something like this, which would maintain the privacy of individual racks while providing a more accurate indication of a module's popularity:

-- sempervirent

I see, I will check this. (And fix this URL autolink function which seems broken)

Hey grieve, thanks for your input, it's very valuable for me to know what users want to see.
It's always hard to decide which features should be realized. I have to be very careful to not "feature creep" the ModularGrid, because every additional function makes the user interface more complicated and introduces potential new bugs.

I like the wishlist and grouping function idea.
Grouping would be cool, but it's harder to develop. I will put both to the to do feature list.

...Personally I signed up for a "Unicorn" account just to support the work the basic functionality requires.... and not so much for the additional features. I think a few more features like this and my other suggestion above would make the unicorn account a greater value from a practical stand point to those on the fence.
-- grieve

Thanks a lot for your contribution! If you are already visiting this site for a while you will recognize that a lot of the functions where done on user requests. I can not promise to implement everything instantly but I am constantly working on the site to make it better in progress.

Best Knut

Fixed some issues on the Rack and Patch browsers pagina which prevented to go back to page 1.

Unicorn Accounts and 500 series universe is online

I think what you are offering is more than fair. For the information and service you provide it is easily worth what you are charging. While I could probably get by with a free account, I'll pay the small fee just to support this excellent service.

Thanks!

I applaud you for not thinning out the screenshot database. I hate seeing broken links in forum posts.

Yes. Key strategy here is to slow down the growth of screenshot data through the limits in the standard account..

Please add the modules as "Other/unknown". I can reassign them later.
Category for compressor is Dynamics for now.

To address the above bullet points, won't you need to clean up some of the "Main (copy) (copy) (copy) (copy) (copy)" entries?
I would think something like deleting ">10, not accessed in 1yr" racks would be acceptable.
-- Sleipnir

That's always a little problematic. Many of the racks screenshots are embedded in forums. Deletion would result in a lot of broken images which does not look good.
I delete older empty racks and unused anonymous accounts though.

The ModularGrid Unicorn Account

Today I introduce the Unicorn Account which is a payable upgrade for registered ModularGrid users.

Before you unpack your torches and pitchforks please read on:
In the last three years I have understand that a complete free an unlimited webapp comes with some significant problems.
And that's not only me doing an unpaid fulltime job.
The main problem is the excessive accumulation of digital garbage which eventually spoils the fun and value in use for everybody. You have mods in forums to care about such but that does not work on a web-based modular planner.

The Unicorn Account should address these:

• Satisfy the calls for even bigger Racks for the Pros while preventing the polluting of the database by some Newbs
• Keep the amount of Racks at a healthy minimum, make browsing through the Racks interesting again.
• Prevent the webspace been eaten by zillion rack screenshots of final_system(copy)(copy)(copy)(copy)
• Better statistics, tame the need of users to build another Math-only Monsterrack
• Better server performance for everyone. Better protection from DOS.
• Bring in some cash, obviously.

Chances are you won't notice

The standard MG account will be always free and still lets you create 10 racks, each of the size of a massive Doepfer monster case! That should be more than enough for 95% of all MG users.

(Remember you can always copy modules in two opened browser windows with the c,p,x keyboard shortcuts.)

You won't lose what you already got

I thought a lot about to make this change happen without taking away what users already have.
The solution: If you already have a large or a lot of racks, you can still use them for free!
You just won't be able to resize your big rack and you can not create new ones if you are over the limit.

Read more about the Unicorn Account:
http://www.modulargrid.net/e/users/pro_index

... and tell me what you think

Fixed the "frozen module" bug in the planner on iOS8 devices.

No, sorry, there is no undo function available at the moment.

Flagged as private

Flagged as private

I want to refer to the thread title and give you a general explanation, why limits are necessary.
Many users asked me why there is such a limit at all.

The main reason for the limitation is to ensure an acceptable server performance and keep the system save.
Without limits the consecutive duplication of huge racks could easily bring the server down.
This can happen without a bad purpose in mind but it also can be used in an attack scenario (This is no fantasy, it happened already).

The main problems:

1. Heavy SQL processes slow down the server
2. Database grows non-linear over time and slows down every other query
3. Screenshot generation needs a lot of RAM
4. Screenshots will be huge. If people embed those 3MB+ shots in Forums, other users won't be happy to load the thread on their mobile plans.
5. Also server traffic increases. This will cost money at some point.
6. The general Planner, SketchAPatch and TrueGrid rely on client side JavaScript. The bigger the rack, the bigger memory consumption, the slower the drag'n'drop performance, etc. This can lead to Browser crashes in extreme cases or on low-end computers like phones and tablets.

I increased the limit for rows and columns many times and I think this is maxed out.
I know many of you guys will find this unacceptable so I am thinking about a solution.

PS. I would like to say that this is one of the coolest sites on the net, free too.
-- gwpt

The keyword here is free.

Will you guys freak out if I introduce some kind of paid account for "Pro" users, which will expand those limits?

This would solve some (but not all) problems and of course would give me some revenue.
What are your thoughts?
Best Knut

EDITED Aug 16th 2014, 11:19

Somehow the Core API Team of Chrome/Google decided to change the WebAudioAPI. This broke TrueGrid.
I am not angry , in fact they did some necessary refactoring of the code.
I tried to migrate all the changes and at least TrueGrid is working again.
And amazingly it also works in Firefox, now (well, kind off, but promising).
Btw, I played a bit with TrueGrid today and browsed through the patches and had a lot of fun.
Some of them are really nice!
Note to myself: I should definitely spend some time to improve this part of MG.
It had such a good start but stalled a bit ...

For those of you who experienced problems:
TrueGrid is working again.

Thanks for kind words!
My pleasure, best Knut

Thanks for reporting!

Yo, Knut!

The Update=>Screenshot function is no longer working.

I keep getting the message "Image not found," and the error:

Error: The requested address '/img/racks/modulargrid_??????.jpg' was not found on this server.

The Command Center => Update Screenshot Preview is also malfunctioning.

Something screwy with CakePHP?
-- Adminius

Screenshots are generated by a "headless XServer".
This Mofo likes to crash every once in a while, it's a bug since day one.
My professional solution so far is the IT Crowd approach: switch it off and on again.
There you go, works again :)

As much as I like this product, it is not a module and should not belong here. Flagged as private.
-- modulargrid

My bad. It is mountable as a module. Removed flag.
Someone can upload a better "2D" image of this?

As much as I like this product, it is not a module and should not belong here. Flagged as private.

It's basically the right-click menu. I activates on mobiles when you long-press a module ...
-- wiredearp

O.K., now I think I get what you mean. The menu which reads "Save image/Copy" ?
Strange thing: I can not reproduce it on my iPad (iOS 7.1). The contextual menu only shows up, when I am hovering about a module in a rack of an other user where I have no editing rights.
On my own racks I am not able to trigger the contextual menu (?).
Your code looks good, but I have to been able to reproduce the error. I will investigate further ...

I rated a module that I don't own, just to see how it feels to own a module. I now regret it. Can I remove my rating? I'm sure it's a good module though, so I gave it a fair rating.

That's not possible for users at the moment, sorry. I have deleted your rating with super admin powers.

Another thing: How can you see a modules rating on Modular Grid? You can see it in the Google search results, so it must be somewhere on the page. I can't find it.

It's on the module detail pages. The last entry in the Specs list. Ratings will only show up if there are any available, which is not the case on many modules.

Another thing, for the Modular Grid developers: I suggest we can event.preventDefault() the "contextmenu" event on mobile devices so that you can drag and drop modules on the iPad without triggering the contextmenu every second time. And thanks for doing this site.
-- wiredearp

Not sure what you mean with "contextmenu". If you mean this speech bubble thing with the specs:
You can click on the Popover on button above the rack to prevent the display of the popover.

O.k. that's an Android phone I guess. Sadly I don't have access to one and the simulators don't work with the touch stuff. I will try to borrow one and look into it.

So I frequently use modulargrid on my phone

What kind of phone are you using?

Oooh, idea: mobile app?

There will be no dedicated native mobile app. I try to make sure that MG runs in most mobile browsers, therefore your bug report is greatly appreciated.

Makes sense and actually already works this way.
If there is a thread to a module then you can find the link to the forum at the very bottom on the modules detail page (and also the latest comments).
If you add a comment to a module without a thread on the modules detail page you automatically add a new thread to the forum.
Hope that makes sense too

Sometimes "improvements" do the opposite thing and do not work for everyone.
In favor of the new streamlined comment function the private comment feature is gone, sorry.
It will only come back if I am forced by a wave of angry MG protesters.
Until this happens consider to flag your rack as public and maybe share the enjoyment of your planning with some other users.

• Switched Module Detail pages to Markdown
• Switched Manufacturer pages to Markdown
• fixed a Bug where comments on private racks leaked in the forum

The goal is to merge discussions into the forum in a way 90% of MG users won't even notice while given the other 10% who care better tools to use.
-- modulargrid

This happened today!
Since the comments from the individual module/patches/rack pages will be aggregated in the forum I had to change the forum structure to make this happen. That means:
No more format specific forums

As 1 or 2 other people have said, and I have mentioned privately, I really think that there should be a section where one can talk about more general music related topics - whether about more philosophical issues, or about compositional methods, etc, etc.
-- Nelson Baboon

I agree with nelson, a composition forum would be cool!
-- Wiktorion

Since the Forum is still very weak by now can we use the Modular Discussion Index for that? Perhaps I can just find a better name for it?

Merged Discussions into the Forum

Discussions are gone. Two commenting sections where overkill.
You can still comment on module/patches/racks but everything will be piped into the forum.
This keeps the code base slim.

And also every feature of the forum is now available in the former discussion pages like the search function, media embeds, emoticons and quotes.

I can see that you have unpacked some more bubble wrap!Wish you good fun with this machine!

No problem, but if someone watermarks an image, they do it for a reason.

By coincidence I bought a VCO-2RM lately. I will make a photo and upload a better image.

Also this image is clearly watermarked. Flagged this module as private.

Looks cool and I think you have showed me this already.Besides the UI the main problem is in the tracking of versions for multiple graphics.I did some wrong choices with database model design in the beginning and it's complicated to update this without breaking stuff. But it's still on my list.

I did not have figured out a simple and proper way to assign multiple panelgraphics to one module specification. That's the main problem. Now we have to deal with compromises. I understand both of your arguments. We have this problem with multicolored panels too.

Database capacity is no issue, but redundant search results are.Also, we have to keep severel database entries up to date, which never works in the real world.

The statistic features (Top Module/Popular Module) do not work with splitted module info anymore (see Math).So until I am able to implement a solution with the multiassign of panelgraphics I am taking sides to the "let's keep it unique and clean" fraction.I suggest to make use of the private flag function.

This site already has a fair level of integration with Muff Wiggler, and to be honest I think that Muff's has already established itself as the de facto website for modular synth discussion.

No doubt about that. And the MG forum is not meant to replace Muff, which would be a ridiculous and hopeless effort anyway.

MG already had a kind of basic forum functionality for a while with the discussion/comment section where you could comment on unique modules/racks/patches, so the idea behind the forum isn't exactly new.

The context sensitive discussion made absolutely sense but the implementation wasn't as good as I liked.

The new forum engine just tries to expand this functionality by adding a search function and a more common thread hierarchy and the possibility to add threads which are not bound to modules/racks/patches.
In my view this is evolution not revolution.

The goal is to merge discussions into the forum in a way 90% of MG users won't even notice while given the other 10% who care better tools to use.

Unfortunately I rushed the launch so the migration isn't ready yet (what bugs me).

I mean sure this new forum "doesn't look like an Excel® Spreadsheet" (personally I like the vBulletin look), but I really don't see anything here that Muff's doesn't already offer.

In short, making multiple general-purpose modular synth forums is kind of like making multiple modular databases; different distributions of people can yield different results. This can be a good thing, but I think the community around modulars is small enough as is.

When I started MG 3 years ago a lot people told me there is no reason to do it, because of the already established options available. If I had listen to them what would have happened?
Probably nothing!

People would still happily use their JAVA planners just because others told them that's the way to do it.
And most would accept that and wouldn't care about it at all.

I just try to improve things. This doesn't work in 80% of all times, and I never now if it will work or not.
I am sure that somewhere a kid is building the next Über-Planner, not because it makes sense, but because he wants to do it.

• Fixed a potential bug for the autoLogin feature
• Renamed Discussions to Comments to make the separation from the forum clearer
• placed a link to corresponding Forum Help pages from the Planner, Sketch a Patch and TrueGrid

Click on View post page on a Vine video. Find it as a option marked with three dots "...".
This leads you to a single page for the video.
Copy paste the URL of this page in the markdown editor.

https://vine.co/v/MKYAt1Z6tOF

This is Rack No.1 on ModularGrid, the first Rack that started it all!

EDITED Jun 20th 2014, 17:06

Some feature is missing? Post your idea.

Discovering any Bugs? Post here!

How to use Markdown

The ModularGrid Forum uses Markdown for formatting purposes.
It's like HTML but feels more natural to write because in general you don't need closing tags.
Additionally you can read Markdown even if it's not formatted.

Below the Markdown Editor Form is an inline link Markdown Syntax which lists most of the useful formatter options.

This is heading 1

A hashtag before a text block creates a heading
#This is heading 1

This is heading 2

Two hashtags before a text block create a heading in hierachy 2
##This is heading 2

Text Decoration

• Emphase *Yeay*. This results is Yeay.
• Strong **Yeay**. This results in Yeay

Lists

Just prefix * or numbers 1.to a textline and create numbered or bullet lists.

1. Rolf
2. Piere

• Petra
• Gloria

Embed external Images

![alt text](http://modulargrid.net/img/static/mg_robot.jpg)

will do

ModularGrid Racks

Just post the link of your Rack in the Editor. The Rack will be embedded end linked.

Media

Same functionality applies to Soundcloud, YouTube and Vimeo media.
Just post the URL from the browsers address bar in the editor!

EDITED Jul 14th 2014, 16:53

Rules for using this Forum

The Forum is about modular synthesizers.

be nice

Don´t flame, don't shout, be nice.

stay on topic

Don't hi-jack threads, don't cross-post.

no porn, no violence

Don´t embed porn or violent media of any kind.

no politics

This is not the place for discussions about politics or society.

no racism

No blunt racism

no trade in the forum

Use the marketplace for that

Moderators are always right

EDITED Nov 23rd 2023, 13:19

What is it?

Sketch a Patch is very basic idea to quickly write down a patch you have created to use it later or share it with other users.

Create a new Sketch

To start with a sketch you first have to build a rack with your modules in the planner. After you have added all relevant modules open the Sketch a Patch Drop Down Menu in the secondary navigation of the planner and click on New Patch.
A screenshot of your rack will be generated and you will be redirected to the Sketch a Patch editor.

Draw and remove Cables

Now you simply can double click anywhere on the screenshot to create a new cable.
Drag and Drop the jacks of the cable to the desired positions (that's probably over the socket of a module).
Jacks will NOT snap to sockets, Sketch a Patch is really just a kind of a freehand drawing board.

Double Click on a cable to remove it from the sketch.

Don't forget to save your sketch! (Click on Save Patch)

Add Knob Markers

To mark knob positions switch to Knob Marker Mode via the top left button menu.
If you double click on your sketch a white circle appears you can use to mark knob positions or enabled buttons or anything else you want to point out.
You can freely move the marker via Drag and Drop.
Double click a marker to remove it.

Patch Options

Cable Color System

You can select two available Color Systems for your cables

1. Doepfer
2. Stackcable

On Eurorack modulars the color of the patch cable will change in relation to the length of the cable depending on the chosen cable system.

Spaghetti

Just for fun. Try it out.

You can save your Patch Options settings

What if my Rack changed?

If you have added or removed a new module to your rack you have to generate a new screenshot for Sketch a Patch in the planner. Else you will always see the old rack screenshot.

To create a new screenshot click on Show->Screenshot in the planner. After that got to the Sketch a Patch Editor and if you still see the old screenshot hit the browser refresh button hard (while holding SHIFT).

Be aware that if you move a lot of modules your older sketches will be all over the place.

EDITED Jun 27th 2014, 13:57

Modular Web Synthesizer

TrueGrid is an experimental modular web synthesizer which let's you create, listen and share modular synth patches.

How to use it

TrueGrid works like a real modular synth in a way that you have to wire up different modules to generate useful or not so useful sounds.
It needs some experience to get something predictable out of this synth, but thats where the whole fun starts: Discover what is possible

Start from Scratch, find playable modules

Create a new empty rack and name it "My awesome Truegrid Synth". More creative naming options will work, too.
With the search function of the module browser you can enable a checkbox Playable in TrueGrid.
This lists all available playable modules for TrueGrid.

Add some modules to your rack. As a start you should add an Oscillator, VCA, LFO and VCF to create basic subtractive building blocks.

... or copy an existing Synth

If you have found a cool TrueGrid Patch from an other user you can copy the Patch and alter it as you please. Just click Save as a new Patch in TrueGrids secondary navigation.

Wire up

Sockets of the modules are color coded.

• green for outputs
• blue for inputs
• no color == not implemented

To connect two sockets:
Drag a cable from an output to an input till the cable snaps.
To disconnect:
Drag the cable away from one socket or simply double click on the cable.

To turn the knobs, hover over a knob, click and hold the mouse and do a vertical movement.
ProTip: if you hover over a jack the corresponding jack on the other side of the cable will light up.

Authentic modules?

No, they are not. The modules are carefully modeled after their originals but since all coding is done in JavaScript they can not achieve the sound of their originals. Sorry, you still have to buy the real ones.
The intention is that you can experiment with the settings of a module and get somewhat familiar with the interface.

Record Audio

• Click on the red record button of the small tape recorder right hand side. Your patch will be recorded
• You can even twist knobs and record a whole performance
• Click again on the record button and recording stops
• Scroll down the page and you should see a web player with the option to download a .wav file of your recording

MIDI Implementation

This is even more experimental. You can play TrueGrid via MIDI!
To make this work you have to take care that your MIDI interface is connected and switched on before you start your browser.
More detailed information can be found here.

Limitations

You need a reasonable fast computer and as of today TrueGrid works best in Chrome.
Safari should also work, and since more and more Browsers implement the required WebAudio API it should be widely supported in near future.

EDITED Jun 27th 2014, 13:51

Using the planner should be self-explanatory. Just some things to point out which might be not obvious:

Keyboard shortcuts

You can use keyboard shortcuts to edit your rack.
First you have to hover with your mouse over a module until the info icon appears.
This activates Module Select Mode.

• Cursor: cycle through module selection
• d: duplicate module
• DEL: delete module
• ENTER: enter Module Move Mode
• ESC: leave keyboard mode and hide edit buttons
• c: copy
• v: paste
• x: cut.
  You can copy/paste in different browser windows!

In Module Move Mode:

• Cursor: move module
• ESC: Cancel module move, back to Module Select Mode
• ENTER: drop module on new position

Power Ratings

The power consumption per rack is calculated by the values users add to the module data.
Those ratings are error prone. Don't rely exclusively on the values when choosing your power supply! Always check manufactures specs from the manuals.

Hide Price Display

You can disable the display of your accumulated rack prices in the user settings.

I see no link to edit or upload modules

If you can not edit modules or reply to discussions or threads in this forum you most likely missed to click on the link on the confirmation email you received when you registered to MG. Probably this email is hiding somewhere in your spam folder.
You can request this confirmation email again in your user settings.

I can not write replies to discussions or threads!

See above

Miscellaneous

• You can zoom in and out with your standard browser zoom function.

EDITED Feb 27th 2018, 18:22

Features of the Forum

Typography

• big readable responsive Typography for the Generation Ponytail 40+
• The size of the Typo adapts to your monitor/device
• You can always zoom in/out with your appropriate Browser command

Optimized for Mobile Devices

• You will see a significant improvement to table based forums.
• From the Editor to Video Embeds, everything is fully HTML5
• No "pinching" and "doubletapping" neccessary to resize the posts.
• No "Apps" required

Advanced search without Advanced Settings

• no panels, checkboxes, additional searchoptions
• just type in the searchterm in the searchfield on any Forum page and the search engine will try to get the best results

It's kind of context sensitive, so if you are on the Thread Index Page of a specific Forum the search will only return results from that Forum. If you want to search all Forums go to the Forums index page first.

The entries in the search fields are preserved. If you enter a search term and you click through the forums you will always see only threads which include the search term on the index page until you reset the search field.

Markdown Syntax

The Forum uses Markdown Syntax to format text. This keeps the Database very lightweight and allows semantic representation of text.

A link Markdown Syntax below the Editor explains the most common used syntax.
If you don't care about it, just ignore and start typing right away.

Inline Preview

Before you submit your post click the Preview button below the Markdown Editor and it will render your post inline.

Emoticons

• Find them below the Markdown Editor
• Emoticons are categorized by feel and labeled as such for the autistic audience, so if you are feeling happy, click on Happy-Happy
• There is a Freddy Mercury Emoticon

Sorry, double post!

No, you can always delete your last post if there is no reply to it.

Automatic Timezone Detection

Regardless where you are in the world, publication times of postings should adapt to your current timezone. No manual settings necessary. Daylight Saving settings might not work though.

Embed Media

You can embed Media like

• YouTube
• Soundcloud
• Vimeo
• Modulargrid Racks

by simply pasting their URLs into the form.
No need to fiddle with sharing options, no embed code necessary.

The exception are album embeds from Bandcamp. You have to copy the Wordpress.com code from the Bandcamp share options and paste that in the form.

Easy Quoting

Click on the Quote Button to quote an author, you don't have to mess with any HTML or proprietary Markup code. Those missing closing tags should be a thing of the past.

You can also quote multiple authors at once if their posts are on the same page! Just click and click and click on those Quote buttons.

Reference users

To highlight a user prepend an @ to the username. A link to the users profile page will be generated.
Like in @solitud.

Avatars

Upload your Avatar in your general ModularGrid user settings. No animated gifs, sorry.
If you do not upload an Avatar your Avatar from Gravatar will be used.
If you do not have an Avatar at Gravatar a unique Retro Image will be used.

... and Signature

Also in the general ModularGrid user settings. Links will be parsed, no Media Embed like Soundcloud is allowed in the Signature.

Miscellaneous a.k.a Pro Tips

• On the Thread Index Page you can click the entire row to get to a post.

EDITED Aug 10th 2021, 15:40