Branca Series

Nineteen VCV Rack 2 modules for massed tone, harmonic density, microtonal beating and feedback structures. Free, MIT-licensed, and buildable from source on any platform.

Named for the massed-guitar tradition — many voices, tuned against each other, played as one instrument. The modules share a design language: CV and an attenuverter on every knob, V/OCT pass-through everywhere, and gestures that operate on a whole mass rather than one voice at a time.

A patch that shows what it is for

1. Harmonic Pressure — COUNT 8, TUNING JUST. It emits a polyphonic V/OCT where every channel is one partial of the harmonic series. No quantiser, no scale table, just the ratios.
2. String Mass Core — take that poly V/OCT in, MODE HARM, MASS 8. Eight channels, each carrying eight voices. Sixty-four oscillators, tuned to each other.
3. Wall Conductor — feed it in and sweep DENSITY slowly. Channels arrive one at a time. Hit COLLAPSE; set RECOVERY to decide how long it takes to come back.
4. Feedback Governor — insert between the output and the input. DECAY makes each pass quieter, so the loop dies away instead of building.

Add Street Grid Clock to drive it all, Drift to move a parameter you would otherwise have to hold, and Collapse Saturator at the end for edge.

The set

DroneCore

8 HP · Oscillator

Two-voice detuned core. The cheapest way to add mass — stack several, or run one polyphonically.

DroneClone

22 HP · Oscillator

Eight-voice string wall. Sixteen poly channels × eight voices = 128 oscillators. JAWARI adds bridge rattle.

String Mass Core

16 HP · Oscillator

Sixteen voices distributed by tuning: unison, odd-harmonic sections, Ptolemaic just intonation, or microtonal shimmer.

Harmonic Pressure

14 HP · Pitch CV

Harmonic series as polyphonic V/OCT. JUST, EQUAL or MICRO. The tuning source the rest is built around.

Drift

12 HP · Modulation

Slow random walk with three simultaneous views: smoothed, stepped, and a gate on each step.

Street Grid Clock

12 HP · Clock · AF-02

20–300 BPM, swing, and BROWNOUT — a mains-sag model that only ever slows the grid and always recovers.

Pulse

12 HP · Percussion

Sixteen steps on a 4×4 grid. One noise voice, four knobs, no samples and no pitch.

Sitar Grid

42 HP · Sequencer

Three sequencers on independent lengths driving a Karplus-Strong string through a jawari bridge. Six ragas, JHALA breakdown.

Swarm Core

18 HP · Sampler

Recorded insects as an instrument. One voice, or eight scattered and detuned into a chorus.

Send

12 HP · Routing

2×2 cross-send with a hidden third path — a one-sample bus that lets it self-oscillate without running away.

Choke

18 HP · Mixer

Four channels with fixed pan positions. Where a signal sits is decided by which jack you use.

Wall Conductor

22 HP · Mixer

One knob sweeps four channels in and out. COLLAPSE drops everything; RECOVERY decides how it returns.

Mass Driver

32 HP · Mixer · AF-01

Sixteen channels. Separate drive and output level, plus a pre-drive AUX pair for parallel saturation.

Collapse Saturator

12 HP · Distortion

Tube, tape or fuzz. COLLAPSE slams drive to maximum; a sidechain input raises it by another signal's level.

Feedback Governor

12 HP · Effect

Feedback you can play. Filter it, make each pass quieter, and kill it instantly.

Formats and requirements