Novation Circuit v1.4 firmware released

AndyPlankton

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

@JohnnyGoodyear said:

>

Haven't loaded any samples up into it yet. Still at the base camp of learning the basics etc (appropriately). However, do have libraries of one shots I've rarely bothered with which are now going to get a revisit....I'm guessing/hoping that with some sensible husbandry 60 seconds may not be plenty but at least be enough.

Me neither.

That's definitely going to need a laptop.

I quite like a lot of the samples it comes with so at some point I'll try and create a bit of a mixed bag of some factory and some of my own.

The controls on the samples are really good for allowing you to shape, pitch and distort them into something that sounds right.

There is a trick to effectively double the 60 secs......record your samples at double speed, then pitch them down an octave when you play them back.....

Shaken&Stirred

It's true we aren't quite there yet with the two-way communication for patch editing via iOS, but if you at all handy with MIDI Designer, Lemur, or the like, try setting up some XY pads to control various bits in Circuit... lots of fun to be had there!

Will

@JohnnyGoodyear said:
Already (and often) long to simply 'open in' a pattern to AS, but I guess that's the grease to eventually figure out how to successfully connect the Thing to the UCA202 to the Big Boy etc. There'll be a lot of trial and error (and whining) but needs must when the Devil drives etc.

Once you sort out the MIDI clock bit, recording 'perfect' loops into Loopy should be a breeze.

I was treated very well this x-mas but Santa forgot the Circuit. Looks like I'm gonna have to pony up for it myself.

Aud_iOS

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

@Tarekith said:
Grooveboxes!

Exactly.

The sample flipping is the master stoke.

It transforms it from a limited 4 instrument drum machine into a really powerful drum machine IMO.

Suddenly you can have really interesting textured percussion parts (hats, wood blocks, different tom toms etc) using multiple samples and messing with velocity and automation.

Then I've also applied the 'add some high notes into the bass synth part' trick. And you still have another whole synth free to do other stuff with.

For deep house type stuff it's now sounding quite full and complete.

I'm really yearning for this Mobmuplat iPad editor though - because breaking out the laptop to design synth sounds is not something I'm a fan of.

Definitely be neat to see some PD ideas - Zmors Modular also does PD, but I don't... so I haven't tried anything yet. I've had Circuit over a year now, haven't done any sample flipping. I just jam with it, and the Editor, and whatever else in Ableton/iOS etc. I am interested in the new features, being able to change the length of the drums is cool, and toggling MIDI Tx/RX is definitely big.

JohnnyGoodyear

@syrupcore said:

@JohnnyGoodyear said:
Already (and often) long to simply 'open in' a pattern to AS, but I guess that's the grease to eventually figure out how to successfully connect the Thing to the UCA202 to the Big Boy etc. There'll be a lot of trial and error (and whining) but needs must when the Devil drives etc.

Once you sort out the MIDI clock bit, recording 'perfect' loops into Loopy should be a breeze.

I was treated very well this x-mas but Santa forgot the Circuit. Looks like I'm gonna have to pony up for it myself.

As mentioned before I am a great subscriber to Teddy's dictum "Comparison is the thief of all joy" BUT I was wondering about the Circuit this morning and if I could/would recommend it to someone else? Dunno. If you gave me the choice of keeping the Arturia Keystep (even though the keys seem a bit heavy) or the Circuit, I'd have to go with the former, BUT if -back here in the non-comparative real world- you tried to take the Circuit from the house I would set the dog on you. Puzzling. Is it worth 300 plus? Dunno. But I wouldn't give it back for the money. So I suppose it must be, to me.

Will

@JohnnyGoodyear said:
As mentioned before I am a great subscriber to Teddy's dictum "Comparison is the thief of all joy" BUT I was wondering about the Circuit this morning and if I could/would recommend it to someone else? Dunno. If you gave me the choice of keeping the Arturia Keystep (even though the keys seem a bit heavy) or the Circuit, I'd have to go with the former, BUT if -back here in the non-comparative real world- you tried to take the Circuit from the house I would set the dog on you. Puzzling. Is it worth 300 plus? Dunno. But I wouldn't give it back for the money. So I suppose it must be, to me.

I reckon I can sell it for most of the price if it fails to inspire.

JohnnyGoodyear

@syrupcore said:

@JohnnyGoodyear said:
As mentioned before I am a great subscriber to Teddy's dictum "Comparison is the thief of all joy" BUT I was wondering about the Circuit this morning and if I could/would recommend it to someone else? Dunno. If you gave me the choice of keeping the Arturia Keystep (even though the keys seem a bit heavy) or the Circuit, I'd have to go with the former, BUT if -back here in the non-comparative real world- you tried to take the Circuit from the house I would set the dog on you. Puzzling. Is it worth 300 plus? Dunno. But I wouldn't give it back for the money. So I suppose it must be, to me.

I reckon I can sell it for most of the price if it fails to inspire.

Yes, absolutely. And my guess is you'll be able to twist it to your needs better than most. As and when it arrives over there I'll be interested in your own assessment.

Matt_Fletcher_2000

@AndyPlankton said:

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

@JohnnyGoodyear said:

>

Haven't loaded any samples up into it yet. Still at the base camp of learning the basics etc (appropriately). However, do have libraries of one shots I've rarely bothered with which are now going to get a revisit....I'm guessing/hoping that with some sensible husbandry 60 seconds may not be plenty but at least be enough.

Me neither.

That's definitely going to need a laptop.

I quite like a lot of the samples it comes with so at some point I'll try and create a bit of a mixed bag of some factory and some of my own.

The controls on the samples are really good for allowing you to shape, pitch and distort them into something that sounds right.

There is a trick to effectively double the 60 secs......record your samples at double speed, then pitch them down an octave when you play them back.....

Thanks. I thought about doing this. But how do you judge how far to turn the knob in order to pitch then down to their 'correct' state? Guess?

Tarekith

That's the rub. There's a few Circuit templates out there that use pre-defined sample pitches sort of thing like this:

Personally for me that seems overly complicated and kind of misses the point of what makes Circuit what it is. There's better options out there if you want chromatic sampling, though I know not everyone can afford those too.

AndyPlankton

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

@AndyPlankton said:

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

@JohnnyGoodyear said:

>

Haven't loaded any samples up into it yet. Still at the base camp of learning the basics etc (appropriately). However, do have libraries of one shots I've rarely bothered with which are now going to get a revisit....I'm guessing/hoping that with some sensible husbandry 60 seconds may not be plenty but at least be enough.

Me neither.

That's definitely going to need a laptop.

I quite like a lot of the samples it comes with so at some point I'll try and create a bit of a mixed bag of some factory and some of my own.

The controls on the samples are really good for allowing you to shape, pitch and distort them into something that sounds right.

There is a trick to effectively double the 60 secs......record your samples at double speed, then pitch them down an octave when you play them back.....

Thanks. I thought about doing this. But how do you judge how far to turn the knob in order to pitch then down to their 'correct' state? Guess?

Yeah, it is not ideal, and I don't generally do it, but it is possible....you can plug the output of the circuit into a guitar tuner or into you iPad/iPhone and use a tuner app. But as you say this would totally destroy the workflow and I guess is only something you would really do when setting up for a specific performance.

Matt_Fletcher_2000

@AndyPlankton said:

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

@AndyPlankton said:

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

@JohnnyGoodyear said:

>

Haven't loaded any samples up into it yet. Still at the base camp of learning the basics etc (appropriately). However, do have libraries of one shots I've rarely bothered with which are now going to get a revisit....I'm guessing/hoping that with some sensible husbandry 60 seconds may not be plenty but at least be enough.

Me neither.

That's definitely going to need a laptop.

I quite like a lot of the samples it comes with so at some point I'll try and create a bit of a mixed bag of some factory and some of my own.

The controls on the samples are really good for allowing you to shape, pitch and distort them into something that sounds right.

There is a trick to effectively double the 60 secs......record your samples at double speed, then pitch them down an octave when you play them back.....

Thanks. I thought about doing this. But how do you judge how far to turn the knob in order to pitch then down to their 'correct' state? Guess?

Yeah, it is not ideal, and I don't generally do it, but it is possible....you can plug the output of the circuit into a guitar tuner or into you iPad/iPhone and use a tuner app. But as you say this would totally destroy the workflow and I guess is only something you would really do when setting up for a specific performance.

It would work for non-pitched samples though. Or samples where you don't care what the pitch is. Eg you want to slow down a sample of some police radio chatter or something. Weird sh1t basically.

I was thinking of making a few samples from that crazy electronic noise app that I forget the name of. Or bitwhizz or something. In which case speeding up to save on the 60sec limit would work well I'd have thought.

Matt_Fletcher_2000

I quite like the idea of being forced to choose 64 samples for the Curcuit desert island (I doubt that I'm going to very often update them).

I'm tempted to keep the factory ones for bread and butter kicks, snares and hats (I'm sure they've been pretty well optimised to sound good) - but throw some found sound type ones into the mix myself. And some backwards vocals or something.

Aud_iOS

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:
I quite like the idea of being forced to choose 64 samples for the Curcuit desert island (I doubt that I'm going to very often update them).

I'm tempted to keep the factory ones for bread and butter kicks, snares and hats (I'm sure they've been pretty well optimised to sound good) - but throw some found sound type ones into the mix myself. And some backwards vocals or something.

I kept the factory sounds for like 8 months - the 2nd Novation factory pack is really nice, a bit less cheezy overall imho. For me the factory drum sounds were challenging, took me a while but I found a more delicate touch was needed on the macros, otherwise stuff got real ugly real quick for me.

Matt_Fletcher_2000

@Ocsprey said:

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:
I quite like the idea of being forced to choose 64 samples for the Curcuit desert island (I doubt that I'm going to very often update them).

I'm tempted to keep the factory ones for bread and butter kicks, snares and hats (I'm sure they've been pretty well optimised to sound good) - but throw some found sound type ones into the mix myself. And some backwards vocals or something.

I kept the factory sounds for like 8 months - the 2nd Novation factory pack is really nice, a bit less cheezy overall imho. For me the factory drum sounds were challenging, took me a while but I found a more delicate touch was needed on the macros, otherwise stuff got real ugly real quick for me.

Yep. Distortion on the kick drums turns into 1990s gabba very, very quickly

JohnnyGoodyear

@Ocsprey said:

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:
I quite like the idea of being forced to choose 64 samples for the Curcuit desert island (I doubt that I'm going to very often update them).

I'm tempted to keep the factory ones for bread and butter kicks, snares and hats (I'm sure they've been pretty well optimised to sound good) - but throw some found sound type ones into the mix myself. And some backwards vocals or something.

I kept the factory sounds for like 8 months - the 2nd Novation factory pack is really nice, a bit less cheezy overall imho. For me the factory drum sounds were challenging, took me a while but I found a more delicate touch was needed on the macros, otherwise stuff got real ugly real quick for me.

So, got your money's worth? Actually, hang on, let me ask that in a more useful way; do you use it now as much as you thought you were going to?

Aud_iOS

So, got your money's worth? Actually, hang on, let me ask that in a more useful way; do you use it now as much as you thought you were going to?

I picked it up as part of my initial order/foray into music - my reason for getting it was for the polyphony/digital/sequencer aspects (I got the analog side w/ MS-20M + Sq-1), and portability w/ headphones... then the CCK3 came out, which made portability freakin' great. love all the updates, but rarely use any of the new features - excepting the Editor, and now the MIDI Tx/Rx toggle, and adjustable drum sequence lengths.

My biggest wish is for the M4L Editor to be midi-learnable w/in Ableton. I use PPTC which allows for lightning fast parametric saving of track (devices, chains... everything) - I get a lot of sounds I like from Circuit noodling from one moment to the next, if the parameters were there in Live it would drastically increase the utility for me.

One unexpected and valuable aspect - pick up jam sessions w/ other musicians. Show up w/ a Circuit and fill in with some huge bass, drones, or synths... whatever is needed.

But yep, all things considered I have no plans to get rid of it, always on my desk

JohnnyGoodyear

@Ocsprey said:

So, got your money's worth? Actually, hang on, let me ask that in a more useful way; do you use it now as much as you thought you were going to?

I picked it up as part of my initial order/foray into music - my reason for getting it was for the polyphony/digital/sequencer aspects (I got the analog side w/ MS-20M + Sq-1), and portability w/ headphones... then the CCK3 came out, which made portability freakin' great. love all the updates, but rarely use any of the new features - excepting the Editor, and now the MIDI Tx/Rx toggle, and adjustable drum sequence lengths.

My biggest wish is for the M4L Editor to be midi-learnable w/in Ableton. I use PPTC which allows for lightning fast parametric saving of track (devices, chains... everything) - I get a lot of sounds I like from Circuit noodling from one moment to the next, if the parameters were there in Live it would drastically increase the utility for me.

One unexpected and valuable aspect - pick up jam sessions w/ other musicians. Show up w/ a Circuit and fill in with some huge bass, drones, or synths... whatever is needed.

But yep, all things considered I have no plans to get rid of it, always on my desk

Heard and understood.

Must also be said that I spent an hour between paid (dull) gigs (non-musical) this evening just letting StepPoly Arp and Synthmaster become intimately involved and I realized that Circuit also makes me really appreciate what this iPad on my lap can do and how easily, despite all my grumbling. It's a fair bit more expensive of course....

Aud_iOS

Must also be said that I spent an hour between paid (dull) gigs (non-musical) this evening just letting StepPoly Arp and Synthmaster become intimately involved and I realized that Circuit also makes me really appreciate what this iPad on my lap can do and how easily, despite all my grumbling. It's a fair bit more expensive of course....

Cool, , on desktop Synthmaster get some great sounds letting Circuit play into its arp. Did a little playlist of this just with factory Preset #1:

JohnnyGoodyear

@Ocsprey interesting. Just the phrase letting Circuit play into its arp makes me feel like I need to go to college

Aud_iOS

@JohnnyGoodyear said:
@Ocsprey interesting. Just the phrase letting Circuit play into its arp makes me feel like I need to go to college

Hehe, this forum is my college nowadays... attended 4 others, loved them all...wife works at one too

Matt_Fletcher_2000

I had a go at doing a bit of a live (20min) session with the Circuit. Here it is worts and all. Pretty unpolished and various 'mistakes' as you'll hear - some which I like, others not so much... (It gets better )

But wow - it's a hell of a lot of fun. And hopefully theres a bit of a raw 'live performance' feel to this which is what I wanted to get across.

All 100% Circuit (original factory presets/samples etc.). Moving across 4 different sessions and various pattern and length switching.

Anyone who has the time to listen please do let me know your thoughts / advice...

JohnnyGoodyear

Will indeed listen (maybe over tea this afternoon ). How did you record this? Signed: Blind man stumbling about.

Matt_Fletcher_2000

@JohnnyGoodyear said:
Will indeed listen (maybe over tea this afternoon ). How did you record this? Signed: Blind man stumbling about.

Thanks...

I just recorded the output of the Circuit live into AudioShare. (Headphone socket out of Circuit into UCA222 input L+R then UCA222 USB into iPhone via CCK.)

No mastering or anything.

Aud_iOS

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:
I had a go at doing a bit of a live (20min) session with the Circuit. Here it is worts and all. Pretty unpolished and various 'mistakes' as you'll hear - some which I like, others not so much... (It gets better )

But wow - it's a hell of a lot of fun. And hopefully theres a bit of a raw 'live performance' feel to this which is what I wanted to get across.

All 100% Circuit (original factory presets/samples etc.). Moving across 4 different sessions and various pattern and length switching.

Anyone who has the time to listen please do let me know your thoughts / advice...

Fabulous!

Matt_Fletcher_2000

@Ocsprey said:

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:
I had a go at doing a bit of a live (20min) session with the Circuit. Here it is worts and all. Pretty unpolished and various 'mistakes' as you'll hear - some which I like, others not so much... (It gets better )

But wow - it's a hell of a lot of fun. And hopefully theres a bit of a raw 'live performance' feel to this which is what I wanted to get across.

All 100% Circuit (original factory presets/samples etc.). Moving across 4 different sessions and various pattern and length switching.

Anyone who has the time to listen please do let me know your thoughts / advice...

Fabulous!

Thanks.

Also like your Synthmaster tests.

JohnnyGoodyear

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

@JohnnyGoodyear said:
Will indeed listen (maybe over tea this afternoon ). How did you record this? Signed: Blind man stumbling about.

Thanks...

I just recorded the output of the Circuit live into AudioShare. (Headphone socket out of Circuit into UCA222 input L+R then UCA222 USB into iPhone via CCK.)

No mastering or anything.

Tea awaits, as does your noodle. Thanks for the explanation, I will try to lose this cherry later...

JohnnyGoodyear

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:
I had a go at doing a bit of a live (20min) session with the Circuit. Here it is worts and all. Pretty unpolished and various 'mistakes' as you'll hear - some which I like, others not so much... (It gets better )

But wow - it's a hell of a lot of fun. And hopefully theres a bit of a raw 'live performance' feel to this which is what I wanted to get across.

All 100% Circuit (original factory presets/samples etc.). Moving across 4 different sessions and various pattern and length switching.

Anyone who has the time to listen please do let me know your thoughts / advice...

Been a long time since I wished I was mildly stoned, that Marrakesh state of mind etc. The opening of this got me that way (the wishing at least) from early on. The little lead coming in added a taste of some eastern road movie, clean yet hot. I love the repetition, something I rarely allow myself. Maybe that's one of the pleasures of the stoned state, the nodding. Patience. The little pieces that come dipping in and out. Messengers on top of the main. Great little squirrelly bass at around 4 minutes, ferreting around snout first. Jealous of the almost bongoid little drum sound. At 5 and a half minutes I'm ready for a vocal/sample whatever, words of wisdom: Also the ability to not sequence is a must maybe. At 6 and three quarters I like the mistakes (or deliberate) clumsier line/sound, yeah it could be cleaned up/mastered, but first thought/best thought may apply. Love the rattle around 8, again a movie line would fit well here, something obscure, Rod Taylor in black and white, disappointed. Maybe the sound of a fist fight in an outback bar before the aliens move in. Demented little Ray Manzarek organ. And then the bass at 10 finally calls for a woman's voice (spoken). Dismissive prophesy maybe. Heading towards 11 I was thinking you were just going to keep taking it down, but you never quite got there. The snare is pure Pigbag, what those art students would have done with this machine. At 13 I'm ready for a big bass but it never comes, or maybe an acoustic bass at that. Stand up. Something cross culture. Gospel choir as the morse code keeps sending the same signal. 14 and a half and where is James Brown? The noise almost a vocal. Converts with snakes and suddenly we're back to a white 50s preacher town condemning, shivering, shooting from the hip, the lip, while at 18 the mad child with the broken body sits behind a curtain, flies on their face, stroking randomly at a plastic machine they'll never know the name of. Ride done. Transmission over.

Tarekith

I was mildly stoned listening to this, so I won't write as much

Nice smooth progressions, it felt very cohesive overall. The intro session/song was a bit long for me, but not a huge deal as I'm just impatient in general. I liked the live nature of it, right on that edge of being out of control or tweaked beyond taste, but never really got that far (this is a good thing!). Only thing that really stands out to me personally is that is feels pretty midrange heavy. Lots of cool drum sounds I wanted to hear better, but they were just a tiny bit too quiet compared to the lead synths.

Good stuff though, really enjoyed this.

Matt_Fletcher_2000

@JohnnyGoodyear said:

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:
I had a go at doing a bit of a live (20min) session with the Circuit. Here it is worts and all. Pretty unpolished and various 'mistakes' as you'll hear - some which I like, others not so much... (It gets better )

But wow - it's a hell of a lot of fun. And hopefully theres a bit of a raw 'live performance' feel to this which is what I wanted to get across.

All 100% Circuit (original factory presets/samples etc.). Moving across 4 different sessions and various pattern and length switching.

Anyone who has the time to listen please do let me know your thoughts / advice...

Been a long time since I wished I was mildly stoned, that Marrakesh state of mind etc. The opening of this got me that way (the wishing at least) from early on. The little lead coming in added a taste of some eastern road movie, clean yet hot. I love the repetition, something I rarely allow myself. Maybe that's one of the pleasures of the stoned state, the nodding. Patience. The little pieces that come dipping in and out. Messengers on top of the main. Great little squirrelly bass at around 4 minutes, ferreting around snout first. Jealous of the almost bongoid little drum sound. At 5 and a half minutes I'm ready for a vocal/sample whatever, words of wisdom: Also the ability to not sequence is a must maybe. At 6 and three quarters I like the mistakes (or deliberate) clumsier line/sound, yeah it could be cleaned up/mastered, but first thought/best thought may apply. Love the rattle around 8, again a movie line would fit well here, something obscure, Rod Taylor in black and white, disappointed. Maybe the sound of a fist fight in an outback bar before the aliens move in. Demented little Ray Manzarek organ. And then the bass at 10 finally calls for a woman's voice (spoken). Dismissive prophesy maybe. Heading towards 11 I was thinking you were just going to keep taking it down, but you never quite got there. The snare is pure Pigbag, what those art students would have done with this machine. At 13 I'm ready for a big bass but it never comes, or maybe an acoustic bass at that. Stand up. Something cross culture. Gospel choir as the morse code keeps sending the same signal. 14 and a half and where is James Brown? The noise almost a vocal. Converts with snakes and suddenly we're back to a white 50s preacher town condemning, shivering, shooting from the hip, the lip, while at 18 the mad child with the broken body sits behind a curtain, flies on their face, stroking randomly at a plastic machine they'll never know the name of. Ride done. Transmission over.

Wow. Thanks for the walkthrough Johnny. Most appreciated. I hope some of it worked for you.

I think there are about 4 or 5 (of 64) synth patches used in this session. And just a handful of the 64 samples. So it's really just scratching the surface which I find pretty remarkable.

I took the advice of various people above and doubled up both synths as both low sounds and high sounds in most sessions.

I also had a bit of a system on the synths which goes "first four bars, then second four bars" then move on to the next session once both synths have done this. With the possibility to switch things up a bit of course.

My favourite bit is tweaking the sample flipped percussion tracks though (drums 3 and 4). I'm loving the tripple tweaking of decay, distortion and filter on each drum part. Loads of mileage there.

Matt_Fletcher_2000

@Tarekith said:
I was mildly stoned listening to this, so I won't write as much

Nice smooth progressions, it felt very cohesive overall. The intro session/song was a bit long for me, but not a huge deal as I'm just impatient in general. I liked the live nature of it, right on that edge of being out of control or tweaked beyond taste, but never really got that far (this is a good thing!). Only thing that really stands out to me personally is that is feels pretty midrange heavy. Lots of cool drum sounds I wanted to hear better, but they were just a tiny bit too quiet compared to the lead synths.

Good stuff though, really enjoyed this.

Wow. Thanks Tarekith. That's a huge compliment coming from you. The master of this stuff!

So more trebley drum sounds? Or more kick sounds low down? Or both?

I certainly think I am a bit synth biased. Whereas I need to do much more with the drums for this type of music.