VCV Rack defines standard signal voltages: ±5 V audio, 0-10 V or ±5 V CV, 10 V gates and triggers

VCV’s official voltage standards specify: audio outputs at ±5 V (before bandlimiting); unipolar CV at 0 to 10 V and bipolar CV at ±5 V; gates producing 10 V when active; triggers producing 10 V for 1 ms. Pitch uses the 1 V/oct standard with middle C (C4, 261.63 Hz) at 0 V, and Eurorack power rails supply -12 to 12 V. These standards matter because a module expecting 0-10 V unipolar CV driven by a ±5 V bipolar source behaves unexpectedly (only the positive half is used) unless an attenuverter rescales it.

Examples

An LFO set bipolar (±5 V) driving a filter cutoff sweeps both above and below the resting cutoff. Switching it to unipolar (0-10 V) sweeps only upward from rest.

Assessment

State the correct output voltage for a standard gate, a trigger pulse and its duration, and a bipolar CV modulator. Then explain what an attenuverter does to a ±5 V LFO fed to a 0-10 V input.