I’m a little fuzzy on CV still. How versatile is a gate signal? I know you typically use these to trigger ASDR envelopes but can it be used for anything else? Can it be used as CV trigger to turn buttons on/off? How is a Gate In different from just a CV in? Can you send gate signals through the regular CV inputs?
In VCV Rack, a gate is a voltage rise to 10V, held for a period of time, then a fall in voltage. Some modules (virtual and hardware) have a different threshold level, but in VCV Rack it is recommended to be 10V (see linked docs).
A trigger is a rise quickly followed by a fall.
Both can be represented in CV, but keep in mind the voltage at the top of the voltage rise and voltage offset.
Adding to this, Dan noted the other month on the topic " danngreen
The gate jacks can only see “high” or “low” while the audio jacks can see any voltage between -10V and +10V.
You can use the audio jacks for gates if you want. But you can’t use the gate jacks for audio (unless it happens to be square waves!)
The gate inputs can also be used as clock inputs from external legacy products that produce clocks, like hardware sequencers and such.
I use them for clock/reset input.
I love putting sample and hold through them to get some nice random gates for sequencing!!
Are you familiar with DC coupling? It too is an important concept especially if you are integrating with external gear.
Just read up on DC coupling and now trying to figure out what the takeaway is in regard to the Gate Ins. So Gate Ins are DC I assume? And they could take most control CV signals but aren’t meant for audio frequencies (AC)?
As a rule of thumb, the six CV/Audio inputs can accept any signal in modular range. The two Gate inputs are meant only for CV, not audio, and you can think of them as binary — they only register two states, on or off (more precisely, high voltage or no voltage). That makes them useful for things like clocks, gates, and triggers, which have lots of different functions in a modular environment (including triggering envelopes but also syncing a delay to a clock, or using a VCA as a mute, or determining the output of a switch), but not for, say, a sine-wave LFO.
If you want to bend the rules a little bit, try a pulse wave LFO, or even a square wave audio signal. Or try anything you like (as long as it’s between -10 and +10 volts)! But be aware that you might not get the results you’re expecting unless you’re sending in a gate or trigger high/low type signal.
Ah nice. Okay, my main thing currently is that I was hoping I could eek out another 2 inputs by using these as CV trigger receivers so that totally answers my question!
Yes, that’s the kind of thing they’re meant for!
i just thought I’d throw that out there for the curious. Some hardware will trigger on a simple non-0 volt. So in hardware I have been able to use an audio module that is sending volts along with the audio, attenuate it down to create a threshold which results in trigs that follow spikes the music. After I posted, I read that gates in VCV are 10V. I myself may try to attenuate up my Quadnic (DC coupled) into the MM trigs to see what might come of it.
we should be a bit careful here, inputs and outputs are not the same! (by design)
within a vcv module, you’ll output 10v for a gate / trig.
but typically, for gate/trig input you will use a much lower threshold ( circle 1-2v)
in eurorack hardware there is no standard,
on output, they’ll likely use highest voltage they can , so might be 10/12v or as low as 5.
however, likewise, the input threshold will be much lower.
e.g. mutable used 0.7v, but many use quite a bit higher.
as for MM, we could check with dann what threshold is used on the digital input, or test by experimentation.
but once its gets into the ‘vcv side’, it’ll just be digital, so will be no doubt be output as 10v to internal modules.