CVLights illuminate control voltage in your Eurorack

16 Jul 2019 by Robin Vincent | Approximate reading time: 2 Minutes

InclusiveTech CVLights · Source: InclusiveTech

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InclusiveTech has hit Kickstarter with a project to produce the CVLight. It’s a little patch socket plug with an embedded LED that responds to control voltage and gives you a visual indication of what CV is doing in your rack.

CVLight

It’s not a totally new idea but a very useful one. Plug one into any CV output and the LED will reflect the control voltage coming out. Each CVLight contains two colours, either red/blue or red/green, and fades between the two depending on the polarity of the CV. Stick one into the output of a slow LFO and it will fade in and out of both colours following the curve of the signal. Or with something a bit faster you’ll get the corresponding flashing light.

It can be both a handy indication of what’s going on as well as creating visual interest in your rack during live performance.

InclusiveTech CVLights · Source: InclusiveTech

The downside becomes obvious when you think about it. If you’ve plugged the CVLight into a CV output you can no longer use that CV output for patching. And so the use of mults could well become important. Or perhaps getting some of those TipTop Audio Stackables would be a good solution – in fact, that’s perfect!

The CVLights themselves are about 25mm high which a textured casing and are very grabbable. They certainly look the part.

InclusiveTech CVLights · Source: InclusiveTech

I am slightly concerned about the level of goal InclusiveTech are trying to achieve with this Kickstarter project. They are asking for $35,000 to get these manufactured. Buying a pair of CVLights costs a very reasonable $8 so they’ll need to sell well over 4000 to reach the goal. Or if everyone goes for the “Pro” pack of 5 pairs at $45 then they’ll need 777 buyers. Both of those are pretty tall orders in such a niche market as Eurorack.

CVLights is a well-executed and neat little product that has 21 days left to reach a lot of people – so tell your friend!