In the latest WMDevices video, host Alex “Nasty Nachos” Anderson offers an introduced to control voltages in modular synthesis.
In modular synthesis, control voltages (CV) are low-voltage electrical signals used to control parameters of the sound, rather than carry audio.
A CV can tell an oscillator what pitch to play, open or close a filter, change an LFO’s speed, adjust envelope times, control amplitude, or automate almost any other function that accepts modulation. This is what makes a modular synth “patchable”: instead of fixed internal routings, you connect CV sources—such as keyboards, sequencers, envelopes, LFOs, random generators, or touch controllers—to CV destinations with patch cables.
Some CVs are continuous and smoothly changing, while others act more like on/off signals, such as gates and triggers, which are used to start notes or fire events.
CV is the language that lets the different modules in a modular synth communicate “talk” to each other and shape the sounds that you make.
What would you tell someone trying to get started with control voltages in modular synths?