English Novation A division of Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd. Windsor House, Turnpike Road, Cressex Business Park, High Wycombe, Bucks, HP12 3FX. United Kingdom Tel: +44 1494 462246 Fax: +44 1494 459920 e-mail: sales@novationmusic.com Web: www.novationmusic.com Trademarks The Novation trademark is owned by Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd. All other brand, product and company names and any other registered names or trade marks mentioned in this manual belong to their respective owners.
English CONTENTS COPYRIGHT AND LEGAL NOTICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Key Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . About This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
English THE DRUMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Playing Drums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Expand View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Selecting Patches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
English INTRODUCTION Thank you for purchasing this Novation Circuit: the inspirational grid-based Groovebox. Circuit is a great electronic musical instrument based on two Novation MiniNova synth engines, four drum parts and a 6-track, 16-step sequencer. Circuit has been designed to let you create music fast: getting great rhythm patterns together is quick and easy. It’s both a compositional tool and a live performance instrument.
English Key Features • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Combines two MiniNova synth engines and four drum parts 32-button multi-colour grid for playing and displaying information Split grid displays sequence steps and notes simultaneously Velocity-sensitive pads 64 synth Patches 64 drum sounds Tempo range from 40 to 240 BPM, plus tap mode Adjustable Swing Patterns can be chained together Pattern Nudge and Length adjustment 12-octave (-6, +5) range Eight macro controls for further “tweaking” of
English Abbreviations, conventions, etc. Where top panel controls or rear panel connectors are referred to, we’ve used a number thus: 6 to cross-reference to the top panel diagram, and thus: 1 to cross-reference to the rear panel diagram. (See “Top View – controls” on page 12 and “Rear View – connectors” on page 15). We’ve used Bold text to name physical things – the top panel controls and rear panel connectors, and smaller Bold italics to name the various Views that the grid can display.
English Power Requirements Circuit can be powered either from AC mains via the AC adaptor supplied, or from AA batteries. It cannot be powered from a computer or other device via a USB connection. Using the AC adaptor The AC adaptor supplied with the unit is a 12 V DC, 1.5 A type, and can operate on mains voltages from 100 V to 240 V, 50 or 60 Hz.
English Using batteries Circuit will also operate from six AA-size R6 Alkaline or high-capacity Lithium batteries. A set of suitable batteries is supplied. The battery compartment is on the right-hand side of the unit. Slide the compartment cover downwards to open it; note the cover has a retaining strap.
English HARDWARE OVERVIEW Glossary Some of the terms used in this manual have a specific meaning as applied to Circuit. Here is a short list: Term Expanded View Fixed FX View Gate View Button Definition Shift + Note Doubles the area of performance pads for the Synths, and a “tap” hit mode for the Drums. Shift + Velocity FX Gate Allows the velocity response of the grid pads to be disabled. Allows the user to add reverb and delay to individual tracks.
English Term Button Definition Pattern Chain A cyclic set of Patterns played continuously one after the other. Pattern memory Where a Pattern is stored; there are eight per track in each Session. Patterns View This View displays the eight Pattern memories per track, and allows their selection individually or as a Pattern Chain, deletion and duplication. Patterns Performance Pad The grid pads used to enter synth notes or drum hits.
English Top View – controls 3 5 13 14 15 16 17 18 22 4 2 8 2 19 21 6 9 10 11 7 12 23 20 1 32-pad playing grid – a 4 x 8 matrix of rubber pads; internally illuminated with RGB LEDs. Depending on the view selected, the grid may be “split” into logical areas with different functions. 1 Filter – large diameter rotary control with a centre detent and RGB LED: controls filter frequency like on an analogue synth. It is always active.
English Most of the buttons have both a momentary (long press) and a latching (short press) mode. A long press will temporarily display that button’s view, but only while the button is held down. When released the view will revert to whatever it was before the button was pressed. A short press on a button will switch the grid view to that programmed into the button. 5 Track buttons: SYNTH 1/SYNTH 2/DRUMS – these eight buttons select different grid views.
English 19 Shift – several of the buttons have a “second function”, which is accessed by holding down the Shift button while pressing the button in question. (Headphones) – connect a pair of stereo headphones here. The internal speaker is muted when a plug is inserted. The headphone amplifier can drive +5 dBu into a pair of 150 ohm stereo headphones. 20 21 Battery compartment – accepts six AA-size batteries. Kensington security slot – secure your Circuit to a suitable structure if desired.
English Rear View – connectors 5 4 3 2 1 1 L/MONO and RIGHT – Circuit’s main audio outputs on two ¼” TS jack sockets. Max. output level is +5.3 dBu (+/-1.5 dBu). With no plug in the RIGHT socket, the L/MONO socket carries a mono mix of L and R channels. The internal speaker is muted when a plug is inserted into either of the main output sockets. 2 MIDI IN and OUT – MIDI connectors on two 3.5 mm TRS jack sockets.
English BASICS Powering the unit on If you haven’t fitted batteries into your Circuit, connect the supplied AC adaptor to the DC input socket 4 and plug the adaptor into the AC mains. Connect the main outputs to a monitoring system (powered speakers or a separate amplifier and passive monitors); alternatively plug in a pair of headphones if you prefer.
English After boot-up, the grid display will change to something like that shown below: Getting started We’ve pre-loaded 16 demo Sessions into the memories to give you an idea of how Circuit works. Press the Play button 12 ; you should hear the first demo Session. If it’s not already lit, press the Synth 1 button 5 ; Circuit is now displaying Note View for Synth 1.
English Loading and Saving When you press Play for the first time after powering on, the Session Circuit will play will be the last one used when it was powered off. The factory demo described in the previous section was loaded in to Memory Slot 1. To load a different Session, you use Sessions View. Press Sessions 18 to open this: Each pad corresponds to one of the memory slots.
English IMPORTANT – ENABLING SAVE By now you will probably have read the Getting Starting Guide shipped with your Circuit, so will be aware that Session Saving is disabled, but in case you haven’t, we’re repeating it here: The Save function is deliberately disabled before shipping from the factory to prevent accidental erasure of the demo Sessions. The Save button 18 will initially be unlit, and before you can save any Sessions of your own, you will need to unlock the Save function.
English Starting from Scratch Once you’ve experimented with the factory demo patterns for a while, you will probably want to create a pattern from scratch. Select Sessions and select an empty memory slot. Now select Drum 1. When you press Play you’ll see the white pad (the play cursor) progressing across the 16 steps of the two drums: PLAY Pads 1-16: Drum 1 PLAY Pads 17-32: Drum 2 You won’t hear anything just yet.
English If you want to delete a drum hit, just press its pad again: you can do this while the sequence is playing or stopped. The brightly lit pads tell you where the hits are. Now you can add synth notes. Press Synth 1 to open Synth 1 View. The top two rows represent a music keyboard, the lower two show you where you are in the sequence. When Play is pressed, you can see the white pad progressing through the steps.
English THE SYNTHS Each synth “engine” in Circuit is based on the powerful and versatile Novation MiniNova synth, albeit with fewer controls than the MiniNova offers. This section of the User Guide discusses the synth features in greater detail. Playing a Synth The two synth tracks – Synth 1 and Synth 2 operate identically.
English With the exception of the Chromatic scale (see Scales, page 24), the top row of the synth keyboard contains notes one octave above those in the second row. The highest note of the lower octave (Pad 16) is the always the same as the lowest note of the higher octave (Pad 1). Thus to play the notes over two octaves in ascending order, start with Pads 9 to 16, then 1 to 8.
English This View is very useful when recording synth notes in real time. Expanded Note View can be cancelled by pressing Note again; the lower two rows of the grid now resume the pattern’s step display. Scales Circuit is extremely flexible in how it lets you configure the note pads in the playing grid to suit many musical genres in key or scale. There are two aspects to specifying how the note pads are laid out: the scale and the root note.
English Scale selection In Scales View, the bottom two rows allow selection of one of the 16 available musical scales.
English When you exit Scales View by pressing Note again, the upper two rows in Note View now contain the notes in the selected scale, over two octaves. There is one exception to this – Chromatic scale. With this scale selected all 12 notes in the scale are available, which means that only a one-octave keyboard is possible to accommodate them. The upper two rows in Note View now have the same layout as in Scales View. In Expanded Note View, a two-octave keyboard is presented with Chromatic scale selected.
English If you have already created a pattern including synth notes, you can change the keynote to transpose the pattern, even while the pattern is playing. You can also change the scale itself for an existing pattern. In this case, some notes in the pattern as it was created may not exist in the new scale. In such a case, Circuit makes an intelligent decision as to which note to play instead, which will normally be either one semitone above or below the original note.
English Exploring the Macros You can modify Circuit’s synth sounds extensively with the Macro controls 3 . Each of the 64 factory Patches available can have eight of its parameters “tweaked” in value to alter the sound. The audible effect of any adjustment will depend to a large degree on the Patch itself: on some Patches the effect of a given Macro control will be more obvious than on others.
English than two (or two rather than one if you’ve selected Chromatic scale), select Expanded Note View instead (Shift + Note). You can “audition” the synth notes simply by playing them against the rhythm tracks a few times until you’re happy – they won’t be recorded until you press the Record button. When you’re ready to save them to the pattern, press Record and carry on playing; after the pattern has completed 16 steps, the notes will be replayed.
English Step editing Step editing operations in Circuit may either be done with the pattern running (i.e., in Play mode) not running (i.e., in Stop mode). Circuit gives you the means of adding or deleting individual notes in a pattern without needing to worry about accurate timing, as editing is step-based and doesn’t require the notes to be accurately entered.
English If a bright blue step pad (i.e., one corresponding to a synth note) is pressed and held, it illuminates red, the note(s) at that step will sound, and the performance pad corresponding to the note(s) will also illuminate red (it will be two pads if it’s the highest note in the lower octave or vice versa). This is illustrated in the second diagram above. The pads stay red and the note(s) sound(s) for as long as the step pad is held down.
English Clear and Duplicate Clearing Steps You can delete all assigned synth notes from a step in one go using the Clear button 16 . This has the advantage that you don’t have to search through several octaves to find all the notes assigned to the step. Press and hold Clear; the button will illuminate bright red to confirm Clear Mode. Now press the step pad; it will turn red and all notes for the selected synth track at this step will be deleted.
English Velocity and Gate Every step in a pattern has two further parameters that are available to you to adjust. These are Velocity, which determines how the volume of a note is related to how hard the pad is struck, and Gate, which sets the duration of the note. The Velocity and Gate values of each step will apply to every note assigned to that step. Velocity The velocity parameter determines the relationship between the speed of movement and the volume of the note.
English If you record in real time – i.e., while the sequencer is running and recording – the velocity value is set internally to 7-bit accuracy: a value between 0 and 127. However, Velocity View can only display the Velocity value to a resolution of 16 increments of 8 value steps each (because there are only 16 pads available). This means that you are likely to see the “last” pad in the display lit at a lower brightness.
English Fixed Velocity You may sometimes prefer to disable Velocity; then the notes comprising your synth sequence will have a more “mechanical” feel to them regardless of how you hard you actually strike the pads. Circuit has a Fixed Velocity function, which sets Velocity at a value of 96. Fixed Velocity is enabled by pressing Velocity 6 while holding down Shift 19 . Fixed Velocity is confirmed by the Velocity button illuminating bright white while Shift is pressed.
English You can change Gate value by pressing the pad in the Gate value display rows that corresponds to the Gate value; that is, the number of pattern steps that the note(s) at the step should sound for. If you wanted the note(s) at Step 1 in the example above to sound for four steps instead of two, you would press pad 4; Pads 1 to 4 now illuminate white. If you want to shorten a Gate value, press the pad corresponding to the required value.
English THE DRUMS Circuit has four separate drum tracks, Drum 1 to Drum 4. The grid displays for the drum tracks differ from those for the synth tracks in that the drums data is presented in odd/even pairs, and also, all of the display shows the pattern steps, there being no pitch information to display as with the synths. Playing Drums The two pairs of drums operate identically apart from the RGB colour coding. Drum 1 and Drum 2 are displayed as a pair, in orange, while Drum 3 and Drum 4 are yellow.
English Expand View You can enter a drum pattern “manually” on a dedicated set of four pads – one for each drum – by using Expand View. Hold down Shift 19 and press Note 6 .
English The grid pad corresponding to the currently selected Patch will be illuminated white and the others will be orange (Drums 1 and 2) or yellow (Drums 3 and 4). The default Drum Patches are summarised in the table below: Drum Patch No. Page No. 1 1 1 2 17 1 3 33 2 4 37 2 Patch Default page for Drums 1 & 2 Kick Default page for Drums 3 & 4 Hi-hat (closed) Snare Hi-hat (open) To select a different Patch, press its pad.
English The table below summarises the functions of each Macro control as applied to the drum tracks: Macro Drums 1 1 or 3 2 2 or 4 3 1 or 3 4 2 or 4 5 1 or 3 6 2 of 4 7 1 or 3 8 2 or 4 Function Static pitch Decay envelope time Distortion Filter Recording a Drum Pattern Creating a drum pattern is a slightly different procedure from creating a synth pattern.
English Manual hit entry and step editing Although you can’t hear the drum hits in Note View when the Pattern isn’t running (i.e., Circuit is not in Play mode), Circuit lets you add or delete individual drum hits to/from a Pattern, effectively “off-line”. All the following details apply equally – and independently - to Drums 1 and 2, and Drums 3 and 4; press the Drum 1 (or Drum 2) or Drum 3 (or Drum 4) buttons to see the individual contributions of the four drum tracks to the overall pattern.
English In Velocity View, the two upper rows of the grid represent the 16-step pattern for Drum 1 or Drum 3, while the two upper rows make up a 16-segment “bargraph” meter; the number of pads illuminated “sand” (off white) represent the Velocity value for the selected step. If Drum 2 or Drum 4 is selected, the pairs of rows are reversed, with the velocity meter above the steps.
English Recording Knob Movements As with synth sounds, you can tweak drum sounds in real time using the eight Macro controls 3 . Circuit features Dynamic Automation, which means you can add the effect of these tweaks to the recorded pattern by putting Circuit into Record Mode (by pressing Record 12 ) while moving the knobs.
English Clear and Duplicate The Clear and Duplicate buttons perform the same functions with drum tracks as they do with synth notes (see “Clear and Duplicate” on page 32), although as altering a drum pattern is such a simple process to perform in Note View, you probably won’t ever use them to simply add or remove drum hits. However, there is one important point to note – using Clear and Duplicate will also remove or copy any automation data (Macro knob movements) associated with the step.
English PATTERNS Each Session in Circuit has memory space for eight separate Patterns per track, so you can create eight Synth 1 Patterns, eight Synth 2 Patterns, eight Drum 1+2 Patterns and eight Drum 3+4 Patterns within a Session. The true potential of Circuit begins to be realised when you start to create interesting variations of a pattern, save them, and then chain them together to be played out as complete sequences of up to 128 (8 x 16) steps.
English another is already playing, the first will play to the end of the Pattern before the new Pattern starts playing. This gives you a smooth transition between patterns. In this case, the pad for the newly selected track will flash quickly while it is being “queued”, until it starts to play. The currently selected Pattern is the one used in both Play and Record Modes: this makes operation very simple and transparent.
English Nudge Circuit’s Nudge function is all about per-track timing adjustments. It lets you move the notes of a synth track or hits of a drum track backwards or forwards in time, in one-step increments, relative to the other tracks making up the Session. It’s useful to correct notes or hits that you didn’t manage to enter exactly on time, and can also be used creatively to move synth or drum phrases against the rest of the Pattern by any number of steps you wish.
English The grids below (Synths used as the example) show the effect of retarding and advancing a Pattern by one step using Nudge: Original Pattern Pattern nudged back one beat Pattern nudged forward one beat Length The number of drum steps (on the four drum tracks) in a Pattern is always 16, but the Patterns on the synth tracks can have any number of steps between 1 and 16. The default number of steps in the synth Patterns is 16, however.
English To reduce the synth pattern length to, say, 12 steps, press pad 12; the LEDs in pads 13 to 16 will go out. In the lower two rows, the last four pads will also change their indication: if any of Steps 13 to 16 have notes assigned to them, the relevant pads will glow dim red. If there are no notes assigned to them, the pads will go dark.
English Combining Nudge and Length adjustments Nudge and Length make separate adjustments to the pattern, and may be used independently. However, the effect of Nudge on shortened Pattern lengths differs from its effect on the Pattern’s original length. Nudge only shifts “active” steps in the Pattern. Thus if a Pattern of 16 steps is shortened to, say, 12 steps, the data for Steps 13 to 16 – which continues to exist, but is rendered temporarily inactive by the reduced Length - is not shifted.
English When you press Play, each track will loop round its own chain of Patterns. The longest chain is Synth 1 – this defines the overall length of the sequence, in this case, 64 steps. Synth 1 will play Patterns 1 to 4 in order, and then loop back to Pattern 1 and start again. Synth 2 only has one Pattern, so this will repeat four times in the 4-pattern sequence. Both drum pairs have two Patterns in the sequence, a total of 32 steps each, so they will play twice.
English TEMPO AND SWING Tempo and Swing are closely related and the methods of adjusting them are very similar. Tempo Circuit will operate at any tempo in the range 40 to 240 BPM; the default tempo is 120 BPM. The tempo can be set by the internal tempo clock, or, if you are working with other MIDI devices or a DAW, by an external MIDI clock source. External MIDI clock can be applied either via USB or the MIDI IN break-out cable.
English Tap Tempo If you want to match Circuit’s tempo to another piece of music and you don’t know its BPM, you can use Tap Tempo. Hold down Shift 19 and tap the Tempo button 14 in time with the track you’re listening to. You need at least three taps for Circuit to change its tempo setting to your manual input, and will then calculate the BPM by averaging the last five taps. You can use Tap Tempo at any time, but if you’re in Tempo View, you’ll see the BPM display update itself to the tap tempo.
English MIXER Circuit includes a six-channel mixer to let you adjust the volume of each track (i.e., instrument) relative to each other. By default, all the tracks are played at a volume level of 100 (range 0 - 127), leaving you with the Master Volume control 4 to adjust the speaker volume and output level as required. Press Mixer 10 to open Mixer View.
English FX SECTION Circuit includes a digital effects processor (FX) which lets you add delay and/or reverb effects to any or all of the tracks making up your Session. Sixteen delay and eight reverb presets are provided, and you can select any one of each type. The send level from each instrument - how much reverb and/or delay there is on each track – is individually adjustable using the Macro controls. Press FX 11 to open FX View.
English You can add the selected reverb effect to any or all of your tracks to different degrees by using the other Macro controls. It is not possible to use different reverb presets on different tracks, however. Adding a delay effect is exactly the same process: select an effect from the first and second rows of pads. The same six Macros are now delay send level controls; you’ll see that their LEDs are now showing peach to confirm their reassignment to delay effects.
English SIDECHAINS Each of Circuit’s two synths has a Sidechain feature. This works in the same manner as common dynamics processors such as compressors, and can be used to alter the “envelope” of synth notes in time with the main beat – the “key” source for both sidechains is always Drum 1. The Sidechain feature allows the hits of Drum 1 to duck the audio level of the synths.
English markedly different effect when used with different synth patches, so it is worth experimenting with various synth sounds as well. Above all, because sidechain processing is modifying time parameters, the effect will be more or less interesting depending on the relative timings of the synth patterns and Drum 1.
English SESSION SWITCHING A basic overview of loading and saving Sessions can be found at page 18. This chapter looks at some additional aspects surrounding the use of Sessions. There are some rules governing how Circuit responds when you change from one Session to another. If you’re in Stop Mode (i.e.
English APPENDIX Firmware Updates Updating Circuit’s firmware is very simple. Novation is constantly refining the operating systems for all its current products, so do make a point of checking the download website from time to time for any Circuit updates. Firmware updates can be found at www.novationmusic.com/downloads. Select Circuit from the Find support for: dropdown list.
English Synth 1, (Synth 1) Sidechain and Synth 2 are lit; selecting each of these generates a pattern of illuminated pads; the pattern represents the version numbers of the three firmware elements in binary form. You may need to describe these patterns to Novation’s Technical Support Team in the event of a problem. Bootloader Mode is most easily exited by simply pressing the reboot into the normal operating state. Play button.
English Clock settings The method of selecting internal or external tempo clock is very similar to the above MIDI I/O on/off selection. The two right-hand pads in the bottom row select AUTO mode (left) or the internal clock (right). The two pads act as a “toggle pair”: that is, selecting one deselects the other. One pad will be lit bright blue (selected), the other dim blue (not selected). When shipped from the factory, Clock mode is set to AUTO, so the left-hand pad will be brightly lit.