Using Circuit Rhythm sample tracks

Although each track on Circuit Rhythm is monophonic, it is possible to assign different samples to individual steps on a single track. This is useful for creating interesting and intricate drum beats. The action of assigning different samples per-step is called Sample Flip.

Steps may be assigned a sample in two different ways:

Steps that are sample flipped will be lit bright lilac, while steps that will play back the active sample will be lit bright blue.

Circuit Rhythm offers several sample playback options: these are selected in Sample Mode View. Enter Sample Mode View by pressing Shift and Sample , or press Sample again if you are already in Sample View. All the options on Sample Mode View can be applied independently to any of the eight tracks.

Pads 31 (Keyboard) and 32 (Slice) let you switch between these two modes; the mode changes the appearance of Note View (see Starting from scratch). Keyboard is the default for each track (Pad 31 is lit bright red and Pad 32 dim red).

Slice note view

Using Slice Note View, you may chop up samples and play back slices, allowing you to make loops of your own.

To enable Slice Mode, enter Sample Mode View, then press the bottom right pad labelled Slice. Three pads will now be lit white on the row above, which may be used to select the number of slices that the sample will automatically be sliced into.

Selecting the left-most white pad will divide samples into 4 equal slices, the middle pad will do so with 8 slices, and the right-most pad will do so with 16 slices. The default setting is 16 slices. On resuming Note View, 4, 8 or 16 pads will be lit corresponding with your selection in Sample Mode View.

By default, each slice will start where the previous one ends, and together all slices make up the entire sample. In Slice Note View, each slice’s start and length may be adjusted, allowing slices to overlap if desired. Hold Shift while adjusting the start and length to fine-tune these values.

Note that with Slice Mode active, the full sample will play back in Sample View, allowing you to browse your samples in their entirety. Further, macros 2 and 3 will not function and will be unlit in Sample View.

Step entry in Slice Note View will behave identically to Keyboard Note View described above. Switching between Slice Note View and Keyboard Note View can often lead to happy accidents, and may be used as a performance tool.

You can adjust the pitch of the selected sample per track, so the Sample Length matches the project’s tempo.

If Beat Match is available for the sample pads 1 and 2 light pink to show options for matching the sample slower or faster.

When you first load a sample it has no Beat Match, once you apply Beat Match the pad stays bright to show if the match has been done by tuning up (left) or down (right) The brighter pad below shows the Sample has been beat matched by tuning down.

Depending on the sample length you can snap the pitch of the sample up and down to loop relative to the current tempo. If the sample is already tempo matched, the two pink pads change the sample’s original pitch up or down one octave.

The pads light a dim pink colour to show the available time stretch ranges, while pads for unavailable ranges light dim red. The pad highlighted in bright pink is the currently selected time stretch value. A sample can reach a time stretch range from half to double its original length.

The Beat Match pads are a shortcut to set the Tune value of a sample so it matches a rhythmic time division. Adjust the Tune macro pot to retune the sample and remove the Beat Match tuning.

Live playing of samples may be recorded, quantised or non-quantised. Quantised recording will place drum hits on the closest step when recorded, while non-quantised recording will place hits directly on the intermediate micro steps. To toggle between quantised and non-quantised recording, hold Shift and press • Record. If Record Quantise is enabled, the Record button will light bright green when Shift is held. If Record Quantise is disabled (non-quantised), the Record button will light dim red when Shift is held.

When Record Quantise is disabled, the timing of drum hits recorded in real time is assigned to one of six micro steps in between adjacent Pattern steps. Any drum hits added manually will always be assigned to the step’s first micro step, which is on the exact beat of the step.

Enter Micro Step View by pressing Shift and Gate , or press Gate again if you are already in Gate View. Pads 17 to 22 display the currently selected step’s micro step values. Press another step pad to select it and view its micro steps.

If the first pad is illuminated (as in the first example above), it indicates that the sample at the selected step will be precisely “on the beat” at the pattern step. In the second example above, deselecting micro step 1 and selecting micro step 4 delays the hit by three-sixths of the interval between steps.

You are not limited to tweaking sample timing – you can have the hit on as many micro steps as you want: each micro step pad can be turned “on” or “off”. In the example below, Step 5 will trigger the sample assigned to it three times, once on the beat and twice more two and four ticks later.

If you are entering samples in Record Mode (with Rec Quantise disabled) and can play fast enough, you can (depending on the BPM!) generate multiple hits within a single step. Inspect the micro step display to see this.

Using micro steps can add a whole new range of rhythmic possibilities to any pattern, and can create subtle rhythmic effects, or dramatically wonky grooves. As with many other aspects of Circuit Rhythm, we urge you to experiment!

Note that you can modify elements of a pattern from within Micro Step View, and add additional hits by adding micro step values to empty steps: these will be populated with the current default sample for the drum track in use.

Note also that all micro step hits adopt the velocity value and sample assigned to the step they are contained within (see below).

Samples entered in Note View may use Fixed or Variable Velocity. Variable Velocity is the default setting; if you press Shift, you will see that Velocity illuminates red confirming this. With Variable Velocity selected, samples recorded live will have Velocity values determined by how hard the sample pads are struck. This applies to Note View (both Slice and Keyboard), Expanded Keyboard Note View, Sample View and Drum Pads View.

To select Fixed Velocity, hold Shift and press Velocity : the Velocity button changes colour to green. Now, all samples entered using the sample pads will always have a fixed velocity of 96 (12 pads lit in Velocity View – see below). This also applies to Note View (both Slice and Keyboard), Expanded Keyboard Note View, Sample View and Drum Pads View.

Samples programmed using the pattern step pads will always use Fixed Velocity, regardless of the selected velocity mode. Note that the selection of fixed or variable velocity is global, i.e., it applies to all tracks.

You can change the Velocity value of a step after you’ve created a pattern. This is done in Velocity View, which is selected by pressing Velocity .

In Velocity View, the two upper rows of the grid represent the 16-step pattern for the currently selected sample, while the two lower rows represent a 16-segment “fader”, spilt across two rows; the number of pads illuminated sand represent the Velocity value for the selected step.

In the example above, Steps 4, 8,10 and 16 are brightly lit, indicating that these steps have samples associated with them. One pad in the Pattern step display will flash alternate blue/white: this is the step whose Velocity value is being displayed. In the example, the Velocity value for this step is 40; the first five pads of Row 3 are lit sand (because 5 × 8 = 40), the remainder of the Velocity value display is unlit. If the Velocity value is not a multiple of 8, the “last” pad in the Velocity display will be dimly lit to indicate that it is between pad values. Such values may be recorded via live playing, but may not be programmed in manually.

Note also that you hear the sample at the step when you press the step pad.

You can change Velocity value by pressing the pad in the Velocity value display rows that corresponds to the Velocity value. If you wanted the hit at Step 12 in the example above to have a Velocity value of 96 instead of 40, you would press pad 12; Pads 1 to 12 now illuminate sand. If you want to decrease a Velocity value, press the pad corresponding to the required value.

You can also use Velocity View to change Velocity values while a pattern is playing. In this case, you need to press and hold the pad for the step to have its Velocity value changed; you can do this at any point in the pattern. The held step pad will illuminate red, and the two lower rows will “freeze” to display the Velocity value of the selected step. Press the Velocity pad corresponding to the new value required. The pattern continues to play, so you can experiment with different Velocity values in real time and hear the differences.

Circuit Rhythm’s Probability function can be applied to individual steps on any track. Probability introduces a degree of random variation into a pattern. It is essentially a further step parameter, which decides whether the notes on the step will be played during each pass of the Pattern.

All steps are initially assigned with a Probability value of 100%, meaning that all steps will always be played, unless their Probability value is reduced: this is done using Probability View.

Probability View is the secondary view of the Pattern Settings button . Open it by holding Shift and pressing Pattern Settings, or press Pattern Settings a second time if already in Pattern Settings View to toggle the View.

Select the step in the Pattern display for which it is wished to alter the probability of the notes at that step. Pads 17 – 24 constitute a “probability meter”: initially all eight pads will be lit, with the colour deepening from 17 to 24.

There are eight possible values of Probability, determining the likelihood that the notes on the chosen step will play in any one pass through the Pattern. The number of lit pads indicates the Probability value: the higher pads in the row will be dark. The possible Probability values are:

To assign a Probability to a step while sequencer playback is stopped, press and release the pad for the step you wish to edit and press the pad in Row 3 corresponding to the Probability value. To assign Probability to a step while sequencer playback is active, you must keep the step pad held while you set a probability. All micro steps contained within the step will have a collective chance of being played according to the percentages above. This means that either all the micro steps at the step will play, or none of them will.

Clearing steps, Patterns and Projects will also reset all Probabilities to 100%. Live recording of a new sample to a step will also reset the probability at that step to 100%.

The eight pads at the left of the two upper rows let you select a note repeat rate. Pads 9 to 12 on Row 2 select standard rates at multiples of the currently set BPM, with Pad 9 being the BPM itself. Pads 1 to 4 on Row 1 select triplet multiples of these rates.

To play a sample with note repeat, hold down a Repeat Rate pad and press the sample trigger pad for the required track. The sample will repeat for as long as both pads are pressed. You can remove the need to use two fingers by pressing Pad 5, which makes the Repeat Rate pads latch on when they are tapped. Pad 5 illuminates bright white when the latch function is active. Press it a second time to turn the latch function off. Note repeat playback will over-ride any existing step data within a pattern. For example, if you are performing with a ¼ note repeat rate, but the existing pattern is made of steps that each contain six micro steps, you will only hear ¼ note rates for the duration of note repeat being active. This can be very useful to create dramatic fills while performing live.

You can record repeat note performances directly into patterns while Record Mode is active. Recording note repeat is destructive and will overwrite any micro steps that currently exist in the pattern – what you hear during recording is what the pattern will become.

See the grid images at Drum pads view to see which pad in Drum Pads View selects each repeat rate.