A VCV Rack 2 oscillator that encodes the 2023–2026 Strait of Hormuz conflict as a dual-closure square wave. The waveform is always +1 (OPEN / free transit) except during the two programmed closure windows, where it drops to −1 (CLOSED / blockade). Every knob name is a pun on the Strait.
Default parameters reproduce the real conflict timeline at data-accurate proportions — 947 days from Oct 7 2023 to May 11 2026 — with all knob defaults set so the unmodified module plays the historical square wave exactly:
| Phase | Days | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 0.000 – 0.200 | 189 | OPEN |
| 0.200 – 0.223 | 22 | CLOSED — Iran seizes MV MSC Aries (Apr 13 – May 5 2024) |
| 0.223 – 0.926 | 666 | OPEN |
| 0.926 – 1.000 | 70 | CLOSED — Renewed blockade (Mar 2 2026 – present) |
The panel waveform graphic shows these proportions accurately: the first closure appears as a hairline notch (~1.5 mm at panel scale); the second as a solid block at the right edge.
| Tool | Notes |
|---|---|
| VCV Rack 2 | Free or Pro |
| VCV Rack 2 SDK | Extract so that <path>/plugin.mk exists |
| MSYS2 | Windows build environment |
| MinGW64 toolchain | Run in the MSYS2 shell: pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain |
Platform note: The plugin currently builds on Windows only. The CRT heap bridge at the top of
src/WaveOfHormuz.cppis Windows-specific (see Windows build notes below). macOS/Linux contributors can remove that block and build normally against the Rack SDK.
# Auto-detects the SDK if it is in a standard location.
# Override with RACK_DIR if needed.
RACK_DIR="$HOME/Documents/Rack-SDK" ./build.sh| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
./build.sh |
Compile plugin.dll |
./build.sh install |
Compile and copy to the Rack 2 plugins folder |
./build.sh clean |
Remove all build artefacts |
./build.sh dist |
Build a distributable .vcvplugin zip |
install copies plugin.dll, plugin.json, and res/ to:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Rack2\plugins-win-x64\WaveOfHormuz\
Restart VCV Rack to pick up the updated plugin.
Before running
install: close VCV Rack completely. Rack holdsplugin.dllopen while running; the copy will fail with a "device busy" error otherwise.build.shwill detect this and print a clear message.
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
install fails: device or resource busy |
VCV Rack is running and has plugin.dll locked |
Close Rack, then re-run ./build.sh install |
jq warnings during build (pipe: No error) |
jq is not installed; plugin.mk tries to read SLUG/VERSION from it |
Safe to ignore — build.sh passes both values directly via MAKE_FLAGS; install jq with choco install jq to silence it |
Silent Error 1 compile failure, no diagnostic shown |
make found Git's sh.exe as its shell; that shell's PATH excludes MSYS2, so g++ can't find its own standard-library headers |
build.sh now passes SHELL=/c/msys64/usr/bin/bash to make automatically when MSYS2 is present — always build via ./build.sh rather than bare make |
| Compiler errors don't appear in terminal output | On Windows, make's stderr from g++ can be swallowed by the Git shell |
Run the failing g++ command directly in PowerShell (& g++ ... 2>&1) to see full diagnostics |
| Module crashes Rack on load | Wrong CRT in the build toolchain (UCRT vs MSVCRT) | Use the MSYS2 MINGW64 shell, not UCRT64 or Chocolatey MinGW. build.sh prefers /c/msys64/mingw64/bin |
| Closure windows overlap | C1 always takes priority over C2 in the DSP when the windows share a phase region | Intended — dial the windows apart; opening ceremony + strait jacket must not overlap sanctions |
16 HP. One module: The Wave of Hormuz. All panel labels are lowercase.
All 10 knobs are the same size. knot speed and gulf / dry share the top row.
| Label | Range | Default | Pun | Function |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| knot speed | −4…+4 oct | 0 (C4) | nautical knots | Base pitch; adds to v/oct and swell CVs |
| opening ceremony | 0…1 | 189/947 ≈ 0.200 | strait opening | Phase start of closure 1 (C1) |
| strait jacket | 0…1 | 22/947 ≈ 0.023 | straightjacket / strait | Width of closure 1 (C1) |
| sanctions | 0…1 | 877/947 ≈ 0.926 | international sanctions | Phase start of closure 2 (C2) |
| embargo | 0…1 | 70/947 ≈ 0.074 | embargo duration | Width of closure 2 (C2) |
| oil slick | 0…1 | 0 | oil-tanker spill | One-pole LP smooths hard square edges |
| choke point | 0…1 | 0 | strategic chokepoint | Tanh soft-clip; drive 1× → 10× (gain-compensated) |
| persian tilt | −1…+1 | 0 | Persian Gulf | Shape inside closures: 0 = flat, +1 = triangle peak, −1 = rising ramp |
| tanker | 0…1 | 1 | oil-tanker cargo | Output level (1.0 = ±5 V peak) |
| gulf / dry | 0…1 | 1 | Gulf of Oman | Crossfade: 0 = plain 50% square, 1 = dual-closure wave |
12 inputs total. All parameter CVs add 0.1× per volt and are clamped to the knob's valid range, except tilt (0.2×/V, clamped ±1).
| Jack | Location | Signal | Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| v/oct | I/O row | ±5 V | 1 V/oct pitch CV |
| tide | I/O row | Gate/Trig | Hard sync — rising edge resets phase to 0 |
| swell | I/O row | ±5 V | FM — adds ¼ V/oct per volt to pitch |
| dry cv | I/O row | ±5 V | CV for gulf / dry mix |
| open | Closure CV row | ±5 V | CV for opening ceremony (C1 start) |
| jckt | Closure CV row | ±5 V | CV for strait jacket (C1 width) |
| lock | Closure CV row | ±5 V | CV for sanctions (C2 start) |
| emgo | Closure CV row | ±5 V | CV for embargo (C2 width) |
| slck | Effect CV row | ±5 V | CV for oil slick (LP filter) |
| chok | Effect CV row | ±5 V | CV for choke point (tanh drive) |
| tilt | Effect CV row | ±5 V | CV for persian tilt — applies to both C1 and C2 |
| tnk | Effect CV row | ±5 V | CV for tanker (output level) |
| Jack | Signal | Function |
|---|---|---|
| eoc | 0 / 10 V | 1 ms trigger at the end of every cycle |
| c1 | 0 / 10 V | Gate — high while inside closure 1 (yellow LED) |
| c2 | 0 / 10 V | Gate — high while inside closure 2 (red LED) |
| passage | ±5 V audio | Main oscillator output (green LED = level) |
libRack.dll (shipped with VCV Rack 2) is compiled against MSVCRT (msvcrt.dll), which uses its own private heap. Modern MSYS2 MinGW64 defaults to UCRT (ucrtbase.dll), a separate private heap.
At runtime Rack calls delete on widgets our plugin allocates with new. Because new used UCRT's malloc but delete reaches MSVCRT's free, the two heap handles don't match and RtlFreeHeap crashes with signal 11.
The fix at the top of src/WaveOfHormuz.cpp overrides global operator new / operator delete to load msvcrt.dll at startup via LoadLibrary and call its malloc/free directly. All plugin allocations then live on the MSVCRT heap that Rack expects.
NanoSVG (the Rack SVG renderer) silently discards all <text> elements. The res/WaveOfHormuz.svg file contains <text> nodes for layout reference only. All visible text is rendered programmatically via the PanelText widget in src/WaveOfHormuz.cpp.
ui::Label was tried first but also crashes: its constructor (in libRack.dll) initialises a std::string text member using MSVCRT's allocator; assigning to that field from plugin code calls the UCRT-based copy of std::string::operator=, which tries to free the old buffer through the wrong heap. PanelText avoids this entirely by holding only a const char* to a string literal.
WaveOfHormuz/
├── plugin.json manifest (slug, version, module list)
├── Makefile standard VCV Rack 2 Makefile
├── build.sh build helper (build / install / clean / dist)
├── src/
│ ├── plugin.hpp shared header (Plugin*, Model* declarations)
│ ├── plugin.cpp init() — registers the module
│ └── WaveOfHormuz.cpp all DSP, widget, and label code
└── res/
└── WaveOfHormuz.svg panel artwork (16 HP, dark-navy / teal / gold)
MIT — free to use, modify, and redistribute (attribution required).