A basic overview of loading and saving Projects can be found at Loading and saving. This chapter looks at some additional aspects surrounding the use of Projects.
There are some rules governing how Circuit Rhythm responds when you change from one Project to another. If sequencer playback is stopped when you select a new Project in Projects View, on pressing the Play button, the new Project always begins at the step defined as the Start Point of the Pattern (Step 1 by default) for each track; if the Project comprises chained Patterns, it will begin at the Start Point of the first Pattern. This will be the case regardless of which step the sequencer was at when it was last stopped. The tempo of the new Project will replace that of the previous one.
There are two options for changing Projects while sequencer playback is active:
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If you select a new Project by pressing its pad, the current Pattern will play through to its last step (note – only the current Pattern, not a Scene or complete chain of Patterns), and the pad for the new Project will flash white to indicate that it is being “queued”. The new Project will then begin playing from the Start point (Step 1 by default) of its Pattern, or the Start Point of the first Pattern in a chain or its first Scene, as the case may be.
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If you hold down Shift when selecting a new Project, the newly selected Project will begin playing immediately. The new Project will play from the same step in the Pattern chain that the previous Project had reached. Instant Project switching can become particularly interesting when the two Projects either contain Patterns of different lengths, or different numbers of Patterns making up a Pattern chain.
As we have mentioned elsewhere in this User Guide, experimentation is often the best way of understanding how Circuit Rhythm deals with this
Clear may be used in Projects View to delete unwanted Projects. Press and hold Clear; it illuminates bright red and all the grid pads extinguish except that for the currently selected Project, which shows bright white. Press this pad to delete the Project.
Note that this procedure makes it only possible to delete the currently selected Project; thus providing a safeguard against deleting the wrong Project. Always check that a Project pad contains the Project you want to delete by playing it before you use Clear.
Use Save to store the tracks you’ve been working on to a Project memory slot. Save needs to be pressed twice to complete the store process: the first press will flash the Save button; a second press will save your work to the last Project memory that was in use. This means that if your current work was based on a previously-saved Project, the original version will be overwritten.
To ensure that your work gets saved in a different Project memory, switch to Projects View. You will see that the first press of Save causes the pad for the last-selected Project to pulse white. If you want to save your work in a new memory slot, press the pad for that slot: all other pads will go dark and the selected pad will flash green for a couple of seconds.
Note that you can “abort” the Save routine after the first press of Save by pressing any other button.
You can also assign a different colour to any of the pads in Project View – this can be a great help in live performance. You choose the colour as part of the Save procedures described above.
After pressing Save for the first time, the LED under Macro 1 rotary control will light in the current colour of the pad for the currently selected Project: if you’ve not already changed the colour, it will be dark blue. You can now scroll through a palette of 14 colours by rotating the Macro 1 knob. When you see the colour you want, either press Save for a second time, or press the pad corresponding to the memory location: this completes the Save process with a flashing green pad as described above.
Note that the pad will become white after the Save operation, so you won’t immediately see the new colour, but you will do so as soon as you select a different Project.
A Pack is defined as a full set of Samples, Projects, and Grid FX: you can export the current Pack to a removable microSD card. The card slot is on the rear panel .
A Pack contains the totality of Circuit Rhythm’s current operation, including the contents of all 64 Project memories, all 128 samples and 16 Grid FX presets. A card can hold 31 additional Packs: this enables you to safely save an enormous amount of working content, and can include Projects of greatly differing genres, complete with personalised samples as appropriate. The principle can be extended further still, as you can, of course, use as many microSD cards as you wish.
Packs View is the secondary view of the Projects button . Open by holding Shift and pressing Projects, or press Projects a second time if already in Projects View to toggle the View.
Packs may be sent to Circuit Rhythm using Components at components.novationmusic.com. Each pad represents a Pack: the currently loaded will be lit white and the other pads will lit in their assigned colours, which are set in Components.
First select a Pack by pressing any lit pad other than that for the currently loaded Pack. It will start pulsing between dim and bright (in its assigned colour) to confirm that it is “primed” and can now be loaded. Empty pack slots may be loaded, which provides you with a blank canvas for recording new samples. It is also not possible to reload the current pack.
[If you do not wish to load a primed Pack, either prime a different Pack for loading or exit Packs View. When you return to Packs View, no Pack will display as primed.]
Once a Pack is primed, press the play button to load the Pack. An animation will play on the pads for a few seconds while the Pack loads, and once the load is complete, Packs View will be displayed again with the pad for newly loaded pack lit white.
You can create a new Pack with no samples or projects by loading a blank Pack slot. Newly created Packs will include the default Grid FX layout (matching the factory pack).
If you run out of Projects in a Pack, but would like to continue working on new Projects with the same set of samples, you can duplicate the current pack.
To duplicate the current pack, first enter Packs View. Hold Duplicate and the currently selected Pack will pulse green, while the available Pack slots will be lit dim blue. Press a dim blue slot to write the current pack to the new location.
Note
You can only remove packs using Components, and not from the Circuit Rhythm directly.
Warning
Do not remove the microSD card from Circuit Rhythm during Save or Load operations. Doing so may result in the loss of previously saved work. Note that Save operations include the process of duplicating a pack, transferring content from Components, and saving newly recorded and trimmed samples.
A microSD card inserted into the rear panel card slot allows access to multiple Packs. Circuit Rhythm’s internal memory holds only a single Pack: the microSD card can hold a further 31 Packs, thus allowing the availability of up to 32 Packs for loading to Circuit Rhythm while the card is inserted.
If a microSD card has not been inserted since powering up, Packs View will display a red and yellow icon that means “no SD available”:
The “no SD” icon is also displayed in other situations, see ‘Removing a MicroSD card’ below for more details. Circuit Rhythm is fully operational without a MicroSD card, but you will only have access to the internal Pack. If a microSD card is present, Packs View will display the available Packs and allow you to load a new Pack as described in ‘Loading a Pack’ above.
If the unit is powered on with no microSD card present (resulting in the internal Pack being loaded), one can be inserted at any point to gain access to the card’s content. If the card has previously been removed, reinserting it will allow access to the card’s content again, and normal operation will continue if removing the card previously had disrupted any functionality.
If a microSD card is removed while the internal Pack is loaded, Circuit Rhythm will behave as described above for operating from power-up without a card present. Doing so does not hinder your ability to load samples, or to save and load Projects.
It is possible to remove the microSD card while a Pack loaded from the SD card is in use. Sequencer playback will not stop, and any unsaved changes will not be lost at this point. However, as the card is not present, there is no data available to load. The Project will continue to play as the current Project data is loaded into the unit’s RAM, but it is not possible to change Project or save the current Project while in this state. However, you can change sample during Pack load. As such, Projects View will display the ‘No SD’ icon as described above, and the Save button will not be lit until the card is re-inserted. Packs View will also display the ‘No SD’ icon until the card is re-inserted. If you wish to load the internal Pack without re-inserting the microSD card, you must power the unit down and back up again to load the internal Pack.
If you insert a different microSD card, Circuit Rhythm’s behaviour is undefined. If you need to load a Pack from a different microSD card, you should power the unit down and back up again. The new microSD card can be inserted any time before, during or after the power cycle, but the power cycle must be completed before loading the new card content to avoid undefined behaviour.
MicroSD cards need to be Class 10 as a minimum, and use FAT32 format. For more information on specific microSD cards recommended for use with Circuit Rhythm, please see the Novation Help Centre.
Novation Components is the online companion for Circuit Rhythm. With Components, you can:
Components requires a Web MIDI enabled browser to communicate with your device. We recommend using Google Chrome or Opera. Alternatively, you can download a standalone version of Components once you have registered your product.
Access Components at components.novationmusic.com.
Note
If you are having issues using the web version of Components, try installing the standalone application from the Novation downloads page. Additionally, if you are on Windows, we recommend you install the Novation Driver from