A series of VCV Rack modules built around emergent systems — cellular automata, shift registers, iterated processes — that you watch evolve on screen and patch as control voltage. Each module is a small generative world: set it running, nudge it, and harvest the patterns it produces as pitch, gates, and modulation.
Lucida is in final preparation for release. Follow SHLabs for availability.
Shipping in the SHLabs-Colony plugin; more Lucida modules are planned.
The flagship. A 24×16 toroidal cellular automaton evolves on screen and emits CV. SPREAD biases the birth/survive rules, MUTATE injects per-cell noise, and FLOW clock-multiplies or -divides the simulation step. Paint cells with the mouse, sweep the scan position with SCAN_CV, freeze the simulation while keeping outputs live, and choose scan-and-tap, polyphonic-row/column, or quadrant-mix output modes.
A 16-bit looping shift register in the Music Thing Modular tradition. LOCK slides between full randomness and an exact repeating pattern; LENGTH sets the loop (2–16 bits). A built-in quantizer (10 scales × 12 roots) puts the output straight onto a melody. Outputs: quantized V/OCT, raw bipolar analog, a write-position gate, polyphonic per-bit gates, and a clock pulse. The display shows the live bits above a scrolling history, so the lock pattern becomes visible.
The idea. Lucida modules are generative systems you can see. The on-panel display is not decoration: it is the state of the process, and watching it is how you learn to steer it. A change to a knob propagates visibly across the grid or the register before it ever reaches a cable.
Patchable emergence. Every module turns its internal dynamics into useful CV — scan taps, polyphonic rows, quantized pitch, gates — so a self-organizing system becomes a playable sequencer and modulation source.
Aesthetic. Lucida inherits the SHLabs industrial panel grammar — gunmetal field, header strip, clear signal flow — with a creep-green family accent that ties the series together and sets it apart from Mashina's red.
Status. Colony and Turing are functional and in final preparation; further Lucida modules (iterated maps, reaction–diffusion) are planned. Release details and a cross-platform build are on the way — watch this page for availability.
Lucida is built for VCV Rack 2 and is in final preparation for release. This page is an early look at the series; details on how to get it will be posted here when it ships.