Circuit Tracks appendix

Setup View is provided to allow “global” unit settings to be made: these include MIDI channel assignment, MIDI I/O configuration, clock source selection, external clock rate, master compressor on/off and brightness adjustment. It is entered by holding down Shift and pressing Save, and exited by pressing Play .

Opening Setup View produces the display shown below:

Circuit Tracks is able to send and/or receive MIDI data both via the USB port and the MIDI In/Out/Thru sockets .

Setup View allows you to decide how you want Circuit Tracks to operate with other MIDI equipment for four categories of MIDI data independently: Note, CC (Control Change), Program Change (PGM) and MIDI Clock. This ensures you have a high degree of flexibility in how Circuit Tracks integrates with the rest of your system.

MIDI Rx (receive) and Tx (transmit) can be enabled independently for each of the data categories. Pads 25 to 32 are arranged as four pairs of buttons as shown in the table:

By default, both MIDI Rx and MIDI Tx are ON (buttons brightly lit) for all data categories.

When Clock Rx is OFF, the clock is in internal mode and Circuit Tracks’ BPM is defined only by the internal tempo clock. Any external clock will be ignored. When Clock Rx is ON, Circuit Tracks is in AUTO mode and the BPM will be set by an externally applied MIDI clock at either the MIDI In or the USB ports if a valid one is applied; if this is not the case, Circuit Tracks will automatically switch to its internal clock.

If Clock Tx is ON, Circuit Tracks is the clock master and its clock – whatever the source - will be available as MIDI Clock at the rear panel USB and MIDI Out connectors. Setting Clock Tx to OFF will result in no clock data being transmitted.

See also “External clock” on External clock.

Circuit Tracks outputs a continuous analogue clock from the rear panel Sync Out connector at an amplitude of 5 V. The frequency of this clock is related to the tempo clock (internal or external). The output clock rate is set with the first five buttons on the third row of the grid (Pad Nos. 17-21). You can select the rate to be 1, 2, 4, 8 or 24 ppqn (pulse per quarter note) by pressing the appropriate pad. The default value is 2 ppqn. The following table summarises the settings:

Note that Swing (if set to something other than 50%) is not applied to the analogue clock output.

Some additional preferences may be set in Advanced Setup View. to enter Advanced Setup View hold Shift while powering the Circuit Tracks on. To exit, press play .

The 8 x 4 grid is not illuminated in Advanced Setup View; adjustments are made using various other buttons.

The Save Lock feature allows you to temporarily disable the Save function. This can be useful if you have a live set prepared on your Circuit Tracks, and you don’t want to risk accidentally overwriting any important projects. To enable Save Lock, hold both Shift and Save down while powering the unit on. While Save Lock is enabled, the Save button is unlit at all times.

Save Lock status is retained during subsequent power cycles. Disabling it is the same procedure as enabling: power the unit on while holding down Shift and Save.

By default, Save Lock is disabled, so that Projects can be saved and overwritten freely.

Circuit Tracks loads the last Project in use when it is powered-up. It is possible that if the power was interrupted while a Project was being saved it may have become corrupted in some way. This might mean that Circuit Tracks ends up in some anomalous state at power-on.

Although this is a very unlikely occurrence, we have included a method of turning Circuit Tracks on and forcing it to load a blank Project instead. To do this, hold down both Shift and Clear while turning Circuit Tracks on.

If any Projects do become corrupted in any way it is always possible to delete them by clearing the Project (see Clearing projects).

Circuit Tracks has been designed to respond in various ways to external MIDI data. MIDI Note On/Note Off, Program Change (PGM) and Continuous Controller (CC) messages are all recognised.

Full details of MIDI settings and parameters are available in a separate document: Circuit Tracks Programmer’s Reference Guide, which may be downloaded from novationmusic.com/downloads.

In the event of a problem with your Circuit Tracks, it may become necessary to enable Bootloader Mode. This is an “engineering mode”, and all normal unit functions become inoperative. You should not use Bootloader Mode without instructions to do so from Novation’s Technical Support team.

Bootloader Mode lets you check the version of the currently installed firmware, and to update firmware (and factory Patches) should the Firmware Update procedure described above not work correctly for any reason.

To enter Bootloader Mode:

Circuit Tracks will now be in Bootloader Mode, and the grid display will display a selection of green lit pads (which may differ from that shown below):

Synth 1 and Synth 2 are lit; selecting either of these displays 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 Play button. Circuit Tracks will then reboot into the normal operating state.

Where possible, we measure all performance figures following AES17.

You can connect most line-level sources to the inputs of Circuit Tracks, and the line outputs to most line inputs. Of you need specifications they're listed in the following tables: