Using Circuit Tracks' Synths, MIDI Tracks, and Drums

To obtain a keyboard with a wider range, hold down Shift and press Note ; Note now illuminates gold. This is called Expanded Note View, and removes the pattern display in the two upper rows of the grid, replacing it with keys for the next two higher octaves of the selected scale. Alternatively, press Note when already in Note View to toggle between Note View and Expanded Note View.

This View is very useful when recording synth notes in real time.

Expanded Note View can be cancelled by pressing Note again; the upper two rows of the grid will resume the pattern’s step display.

In Scales View, the lower two rows allow selection of one of the 16 available musical scales. These are given in the table below, which also lists the notes that each scale includes when the lowest note in the scale is C:

The scale you choose to play in will be saved when you save the Project.

You will see that when you select a different scale in Scales View, the illumination of the pads in the upper two rows changes. If you are familiar with a piano keyboard, you will see that the arrangement of pads simulates the layout of keys over one octave (initially starting at C), with Row 2 representing the white notes and Row 1 the black notes. Note that Pads 1, 4, 8 and 16 are always disabled in this view, to allow pads 2 and 3, and 5, 6 and 7 to act as the black notes. The brightly lit pads are those that belong to the selected scale, the dim ones are the notes that don’t belong.

When you exit Scales View by pressing Note again, the lower 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 synth keyboard pads in Note View now have the same layout as the keynote selection pads in Scales View. In Expanded Note View with Chromatic scale selected, a two-octave keyboard is presented:

The default root note for all scales is C. In the Scales View shown at Scales, Pad 9, corresponding to C, is lit a darker blue than the other pads. To change the keyboard root note in Note View, press a different keynote selection pad in Scale View. (Note that the keynote selection pads always show an octave from C to B.) When a different root note is selected, the pad illumination changes to indicate the notes available in the currently selected scale for the new key.

For example, if you are working in the Major scale, and select G as the root note, the Scales View will look this:

The upper two rows now show the notes making up the G major scale: G, A, B, C, D, E, and F#.

In Note View, each of the two lower rows (or each of all four rows in Expanded Note View) will now sound the notes of the G major scale, running from G to G’ (where G’ denotes a note one octave above G). The same principle can be applied to re-scale the synth note pads in the Note Views to any desired root key.

If you have already created a Project including synth notes, you can change the keynote to transpose the notes, even while the Project is playing. You can also change the scale itself for an existing Project. In this case, some notes present when was created may not exist in the new scale. In such a case, Circuit Tracks makes an intelligent decision as to which note to play instead, which will normally be either one semitone above or below the original note. Changing scale in this way is not destructive: you can revert to the original scale and the notes will sound as they did before.

You can hear what the Patches sound like while in Patch View by using Circuit Tracks’ Patch Preview feature. Patch Preview takes into account the current Scale and Root Note setting when auditioning a Patch.

If you hold down Shift while pressing a pad in Patch View, Preview is disabled; this may be desirable in live performance when you know which patch you’re using and don’t need to hear it on selection.

Patch Preview is disabled when Circuit Tracks is in Record Mode and playback is active.

Synth Patches may also be recalled from an external MIDI controller by sending Circuit Tracks MIDI Program Change (PGM) messages: the default MIDI channels are Channel 1 (Synth 1) and Channel 2 (Synth 2), though MIDI channels may be reassigned in Setup View. Additionally, Circuit Tracks must be set to receive Program Change messages: again, this is the default setting, but see MIDI I/O for full information.

The separate downloadable document Circuit Tracks Programmer’s Reference Guide contains full details.

You can tweak the synth sounds in real time using any of the eight Macro controls . Circuit Tracks features automation, which means you can add the effect of these tweaks to the recorded pattern by entering Record Mode (by pressing • Record ) while moving the knobs.

On entering Record Mode, the LEDs below the Macro controls initially retain the colour and brightness they had previously, but as soon as you make an adjustment, the LED turns red to confirm that you are now recording the knob movement.

For the knob movements to be replayed, you must exit Record Mode before the sequence loops, otherwise Circuit Tracks will overwrite the automation movements you’ve just recorded with that corresponding to the new knob position. Provided you do this, you’ll hear the effect of the Macro control being replayed when the sequence next loops round, at the point in the pattern where you turned the control.

You can also record Macro control changes when the sequence isn’t playing; in Velocity View, Gate View or Probability View, press • Record, select the step at which the change should occur by pressing and holding the pad corresponding to the step; this will play the drum hit at that step. Then adjust the Macro control(s) as desired; the new value(s) will be written to the automation data; press Record again to exit Record Mode. When the sequence is running, you will hear the effect of the Macro knob movements at that step. In the same manner, you may also edit the automation of Macro controls for specific steps in this way while the sequencer is playing back. With Record Mode enabled, simply hold down a step pad and turn a Macro control.

You can delete any Macro automation data you don’t want to keep by holding down Clear and moving the knob in question anticlockwise by at least 20% of its rotation – the LED below the knob will turn red to confirm. But note this will clear the automation data for that Macro for the whole Pattern, not just at the sequencer’s current step.

When you record synth notes in real time as described above, Circuit Tracks will “quantise” your timing and assign the notes you play to the nearest step. Six “finer” intervals – or “micro steps” – in between adjacent pattern steps can be made available in live record mode by disabling quantised recording.

Quantised recording is disabled by holding down Shift and pressing • Record (note the button is also legended Rec Quantise). Now your notes will be time-aligned to the nearest micro step. You can always check to see whether quantised record is enabled by pressing Shift: if the Record button illuminates green, quantisation is enabled; if it is red, recording will be non-quantised.

You can also adjust your synth notes to micro step intervals after you’ve recorded them. This is discussed in “Step Editing” at Step editing.

You can also create a synth pattern in Circuit Tracks by sending it MIDI note data from an external controller. This gives you the ability to play Circuit Tracks’ synth patches from a standard music keyboard. The default settings are: MIDI note data Receive is ON; Synth 1 uses MIDI Channel 1 and Synth 2 uses MIDI Channel 2. These settings may be changed in Setup View, see MIDI channels for full information on setting up how Circuit Tracks sends and receives MIDI data generally.

Note that the selected Scale and Root Note still takes effect when Circuit Tracks receives MIDI note data.

To delete a note from a step, press the step pad (lights red) and then press the unwanted keyboard pad (also lights red). The keyboard pad will resume the native colour of the other (unplayed) notes.

You can add a synth note to a step by holding down the step pad and pressing the desired note. Note that Record Mode does not need to be enabled. Now when you run the pattern, you will find that the note has been added. You can add multiple notes to the same step if you wish.

You can delete all assigned synth notes from a step in one go using the Clear button . 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 shows bright red to confirm Clear Mode. Now press the step pad; it will turn red and all notes at this step for the currently selected synth track will be deleted. The step pad will revert to its dim “unassigned” illumination when this has been done. Release the Clear button.

The Clear button has an additional function in both Patterns View (see page Clearing scenes) and Projects View; (see Clearing projects). Also note that you cannot clear steps when in Pattern Settings View.

The Duplicate button performs “copy-and-paste” actions on steps.

Use Duplicate to copy all the synth notes on a step, together with their various attributes, to a different step in the pattern.

To copy a synth note from one step to another, press and hold Duplicate: it shows bright green. Press the pad in the Pattern display corresponding to the step to be copied (the ‘source’ step); it will turn green and the note(s) assigned to it will turn red (providing they are in the currently selected octave). Now press the pad corresponding to the step where the data is to be copied to (the ‘destination’ step); this will give a single red blink. All the note information in the source step will now have been duplicated in the destination. Any pre-existing note information in the destination step will be overwritten. If you want to copy the note data to several steps, you can continue to hold the Duplicate button down, and simply repeat the “paste” part of the operation to the other steps.

In most synths, the Velocity parameter determines the relationship between the speed of movement and the volume of the note. A high value for Velocity means that the note will be loud; a low value means that the note will be lower in volume. Velocity values are saved to each step along with the note data, either as you play the synth pads, or assign notes to steps manually (i.e., in Stop Mode).

You can subsequently alter the Velocity parameter of each step. Circuit Tracks lets you assign one of 16 Velocity values to a step after you’ve created a pattern. This is done in Velocity View, which is selected by pressing Velocity . Note the button text now shows the track colour.

In Velocity View, the two upper rows of the grid represent the pattern steps. In the example shown above, Steps 4, 14 and 16 are brightly lit, indicating that these steps have notes associated with them. One pad in the Pattern step display will flash alternate white/blue: this is the step whose Velocity value is being displayed.

The two lower rows of the grid make up a 16-pad “fader”; the number of pads illuminated “sand” is the Velocity value for the selected step. In the example shown, the displayed Velocity value is 11 (equivalent to an actual Velocity value of 88 – see page 44): the remainder of the Velocity value display is unlit.

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. For example, if the Velocity value is 100, you will see Pads 1 to 12 fully lit, and Pad 13 dimly lit, because the value of 100 lies midway between two multiples of eight.

The table below shows the relationship between actual Velocity values and the pad display:

You can change Velocity value by pressing the pad in the Velocity value display corresponding to the Velocity value. If you wanted the note(s) at Step 4 in the example above to have a Velocity value of 48 instead of 88, you would press pad 6 in row 3; Pads 1 to 6 will then illuminate sand.

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.

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 Tracks has a Fixed Velocity function, which sets Velocity at a value of 96.

You can toggle Fixed Velocity mode on and off by pressing Velocity while holding down Shift. Fixed Velocity is confirmed by the Velocity button illuminating green while Shift is pressed; in variable Velocity mode, it illuminates red while Shift is pressed.

With Fixed Velocity selected, you will find that all synth notes you play have a Velocity value of 96 (12 pads lit).

Note that setting Velocity to Fixed does not alter the Velocity values of any notes previously recorded.

It is also possible for synth notes on the same step to have different Velocity values, provided Circuit Tracks is not in Fixed Velocity Mode. When notes are inserted manually, the velocity value that each note is struck with will be saved to the step. For example, if you hit a synth note with a high velocity, the velocity value for the note will be saved; if then - with the same step selected - you hit a different note using a low velocity, the velocity value for this note is saved independently of the first.

The velocity value for one of the notes can be changed by simply deleting that note from the step and hitting the note again with the desired velocity.

The range of velocity values present at a single step can be seen in Velocity view. The brightly lit pads represent the lowest velocity value at the step, while the dimly lit pads represent the highest velocity value at the step. The example below shows that a range of Velocity values are applicable to notes assigned to Step 12, from 56 (7 pads brightly lit) to 104 (Pads 8 to 13 dimly lit):

Gate is essentially the duration of the note at a Step, in units of steps. The Gate parameter is not restricted to integer values, fractional values are also allowed: It may have any value between one-sixth and 16, in increments of one-sixth of a Step, giving a total of 96 possible values. The number represents the time – as the number of steps - for which the notes at the step will sound.

Gate values are assigned to each note as you play the synth pads; Circuit Tracks quantises them to the nearest of the 96 possible values. A short stab at a pad will result in a low Gate value; if you hold a pad down for longer, the Gate value will be higher. A Gate value of 16 means that notes at that step will sound continuously for an entire 16-step pattern.

Circuit Tracks lets you change the Gate value of a step after you’ve created a pattern. This is done in Gate View, which is selected by pressing Gate.

In Gate View, the two upper rows of the grid represent the pattern steps. In the 16-step example shown above, Steps 1 and 4 are brightly lit, indicating that these steps have notes associated with them. One pad in the Pattern step display will flash alternate white/blue: this is the step whose Gate value is being displayed.

The two lower rows show the Gate value for the selected step in a similar manner to Velocity: in Gate View, the number of illuminated pads is the duration of the note in units of pattern steps. In the example shown above, the Gate value is 2: the remainder of the Gate value display is unlit.

You can change the Gate value by pressing the pad in the Gate value display that corresponds to the Gate value; that is, the number of pattern steps that the note at the step should sound for. If you wanted the note at Step 1 in the example above to sound for four steps instead of two, you would press pad 4; Pads 1 to 4 then illuminate sand (off white). You can either lengthen or shorten the note in this way.

Fractional Gate values are assigned by pressing the highest-numbered illuminated pad in the Gate value display an additional number of times: this will always shorten the Gate time. Each additional press reduces the Gate time by one sixth of a step, and the illumination dims incrementally at each press. Thus if a Gate duration of 3.5 was required for Step 1, the example above would look like this:

After the fifth press on the pad, the Gate time reverts to the former integral value on the sixth, and the pad resumes its original full brightness.

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

Pattern steps with no notes have a zero Gate value; all Gate pads in Gate View for such steps will be unlit. You can’t edit a step’s Gate Value if there are no notes assigned to that step.

Circuit Tracks’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%.

You’re not limited to your synth notes only being played precisely on the pattern step they’re assigned to. You can take your music ‘off the grid’ by delaying individual notes on a step by between one and five ‘ticks’, where a tick is a sixth of a step. This lets you create more complex rhythms that would not be possible otherwise, for example, triplets across the beat.

Micro Step View is the secondary view of the Gate button . Open by holding Shift and pressing Gate, or press Gate a second time if already in Gate View to toggle the View. In Micro Step View, select a step to see the location of the note(s) on the step: the first six pads of the third grid row will display this. By default, whether the note was entered in Stop Mode or via live recording (with Rec Quantise enabled), the first pad will be lit. This means the note(s) have an initial delay of zero, and will be heard exactly on the step.

The fourth grid row will show one or more pads in the track colour. These let you choose which note at the step is to have a delay altered: if only one note is assigned, only one pad will be lit. Multiple notes are displayed left to right in the order they were assigned, meaning that the first note that was assigned to the step is the leftmost pad, the next note assigned will be to its right, and so on. There may be up to 6 notes assigned to a single step. Selecting a note here will audition it, so you can be sure which note you’re adjusting. The selected note will be lit brightly, while the others will be dim.

With a note selected, use the synth micro step pads to set the Micro step on which the note will trigger. The pad for the selected Micro step will be lit brightly, while the other micro step pads will be dim. Each note may trigger only once per step unless multiples of the same note are live-recorded on a single step.

Multiple notes can be selected by pressing their pads simultaneously or by holding down one pad and tapping others. All the notes assigned to a step are selected by default before manual note selection is made.

When multiple notes are selected, the micro steps on which the selected notes trigger are all displayed. This is shown in the Gate View image below – four notes are selected, some of which trigger on micro step 1 while others trigger on micro step 4. Each individual note can then be selected to determine which micro step it triggers on.

When auditioning a step that contains notes with different micro steps, playback of the notes will be staggered according to their micro step delays. This allows for the playback of “strummed” chords. The step will play back at the current Pattern tempo - lowering this can help with hearing each note individually.

It is possible to tie notes together to create drone notes and long ambient pads.

Each step may have a tie-forward setting. This feature is accessed using Gate View. In Gate View, select a step that contains the note that you want to tie-forward.

Select Micro Step View (see previous section), and you will see the following:

You can now turn the tie-forward setting on/off for this step by pressing pad 24 as shown above. To make the tied note work you need to set the gate length so that the note ends just before the next note is played or overlaps with it.

In this example, the note to tie is on the first step so setting the gate length to 16 steps means that it will end just before the next pattern is triggered as follows:

If this pattern is the only one selected to play in Patterns View then the note will now play indefinitely. Alternatively create a new note of the same pitch at the beginning of the next pattern to play in the pattern chain and the two notes will be tied together.

In Note View, tied notes are shown as orange when the steps are held down as opposed to the usual red. If notes are added to a step that already has a tied note assigned, they will not inherit the tie-forward setting and will be shown in red. This ensures that overdubbing on a step with a tied note does not result in multiple ties.

It is also the case that newly added notes will have their own gate lengths, which may be different to the length of any pre-existing notes.

If you do want to add a new note to the tie then simply use Gate View to select the step and turn the tie-forward setting off and back on again to apply the tie-forward setting to all the notes on the step just as when you edit the gate length on a step, all notes inherit the same new gate length.

The upper two rows of the Pattern Settings View show the Pattern steps for the currently selected track. If no adjustments have yet been made to Pattern length, Pad 16 will be illuminated sand: this indicates the last step in the Pattern. However if the Pattern length is 32 steps, you will need to press the Step Page button to open Page 2 to see the end step indication. To see which step is currently the Pattern start point, press and hold Shift. The end point step returns to blue and a different step pad lights sand: this will be Pad 1 if Pattern length has not yet been altered.

You can change the end point for the track – and hence shorten the Pattern length - by pressing a different Pattern step pad. The new end point is indicated by a sand illumination, and the “higher” pads either go dark or dim red, the latter indicating that note/hit data has previously been assigned to that step. If you reselect the original end point, this data will still be there and will be played.

Altering the start point is exactly the same process, except that Shift needs to be held down while selecting the new start point:

Pads 29 to 32 in Pattern Settings View let you choose the play order the currently selected Pattern will use. The pad for the selected play order illuminates brightly: the default play order is forwards (i.e., normal), indicated by Pad 29.

Alternatives to the normal forward play order are:

If the play order is changed in Play Mode, the Pattern always completes its current cycle before starting a cycle with the new direction. This applies regardless of the current Pattern length or Step Page selection.

The third row of Pattern Settings View determines the speed at which the track plays relative to the Project’s BPM. It is effectively a multiplier/divider of the BPM.

The selected sync rate is indicated by the brightly-lit pad: the default rate is “x1” (pad 5 in row 3), which means the track will play at the set BPM. Selection of a higher-numbered pad increases the rate at which the play cursor progresses through the Pattern relative to the previous one. Similarly the a lower-numbered pads will decrease the play rate. The sync rates available are 1/4, 1/4T, 1/8, 1/8T, 1/16, 1/16T, 1/32, 1/32T, with T representing triplets.

1/16 is the default sync rate, where each step corresponds to a 16th note. Increasing the sync rate is a great way to increase the sequencer’s step resolution at the cost of overall playback time. Reducing the sync rate is useful for creating longer patterns that don’t require quite as fine detail, such as long, evolving pads.

If the sync rate is changed in Play Mode, the Pattern always completes the current cycle at the existing rate, and changes to the new rate at the end of the cycle. This applies regardless of the current Pattern length or Step Page selection.

The eight default MIDI templates are identical. Select any one and use Components Editor to make any changes that are needed to make the Macro controls work effectively with your external equipment. You may find that the default settings are usable, as many synths use the same CC messages to adjust similar parameters: furthermore, many synths allow internal re-mapping of CC messages.

With the default templates, the Macro controls transmit MIDI CC messages as per the table:

You can download various pre-made templates from Components; these cover a range of Novation products as well as those from other manufacturers.

Using Components Editor, you can define the start and end values of each control in the template. The start value sets the value that will be output when the control is rotated fully anti-clockwise and the end value sets the value that will be output when the control is rotated fully clockwise.

Components Editor also lets you define each Macro control as either unipolar or bipolar. This only affects the response of the LED below the control and does not affect the transmitted messages. When unipolar is selected, the brightness of the LED will move linearly from dim to bright as you move the control from one limit of its range to the other. When set to bipolar, the LED will illuminate in its dim state in the centre of the range, increasing in brightness as the control is rotated in either direction.

You can enter a drum pattern for all drum tracks simultaneously on a dedicated set of four pads – one for each drum track – by using Expand View. Expanded Drum View is the secondary view of the Note button . Open by holding Shift and pressing Note, or press Note a second time if already in Note View to toggle the View. In this View, all the grid pads except 29-32 are disabled, as shown:

The samples played by each of the four pads is the current active sample for each drum track.

You can play the drum pads in Expanded Note View freely in real time, or record them into a pattern if you press • Record. If Rec Quantise is enabled, Circuit Tracks will quantise the timing to place the drum hits precisely on a pattern step; if Rec Quantise is disabled, they will be placed at one of the six ticks between adjacent steps.

You can also use Expanded Note View while a pre-existing pattern is playing, to record additional hits.

If you hit • Record , you can play a selection of drum samples in real time, and Circuit Tracks will record your performance. This feature is called Sample Flip, and you can do it either in the drum track’s Note View, or in its Preset View (which gives you access to twice the number of samples at once). You can do this independently for each of the four drums: this is a very powerful feature as it overcomes the one-sample-per-track restriction and lets you use the full palette of drum samples throughout the Pattern. It may be helpful to record a basic pattern on a different track to give a timing reference when you do this.

You can also apply a sample flip to a step in a similar way to assigning synth notes. Press and hold the pad for the required sample (it turns red) and then press the step pads in the Pattern display where you want to place that sample in the pattern – they also turn red. When you run the pattern, the new sample will play at the steps it was assigned to instead of the one that was assigned previously.

The Pattern display differentiates between steps that are sample flipped: steps with hits of the active sample illuminate bright blue, but any that have been flipped illuminate pink.

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 quantised recording is not enabled, 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 “off-line” (i.e., in Stop Mode, see preceding section) will always be assigned to the step’s first micro step, which is on the exact beat of the step.

As with synth tracks you can shift drum hits to micro step intervals, but you can also choose to have duplicate hits assigned to other micro steps within the same interval.

To adjust the micro step values, press Gate View for the relevant drum track. Pads 17 to 22 display the micro step values. Press the step pad whose micro step values are to be adjusted and one of the micro step pads illuminates brightly.

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 Tracks, 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).

As with synth tracks, Drum hits 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, drum hits recorded live using the sample pads will have Velocity values determined by how hard the sample pads are struck. This applies both to normal Note View and Expanded Note View.

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

Drum hits 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 drum, 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 drum hits 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 x 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. Note also that you hear the drum hit 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 other two rows will “freeze” to display the Velocity value of the selected step. Press the pad corresponding to the new value required. The pattern continues to play, so you can experiment with different Velocity values in real time.

Circuit Tracks’ Probability function can be applied to individual steps on any of the Drum tracks in exactly the same manner as it is to individual steps on either Synth track. Note that as regards the drum tracks, probability is applied per step, not per micro step, so if there are multiple hits on different micro step, either all they will all trigger, or none of them will.

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

A full description of Probability can be found in the Synth section of the User Guide: see Probability.

Open Patterns View and define all the Pattern Chains for each track that are to constitute a Scene. Change to Mixer View, press and hold Shift: the Scene pads change colour to dim gold. Press a Scene pad (while still holding Shift) – it will light bright gold while pressed, indicating that Patterns are now assigned to it.

All the selected pattern chains are now stored as that Scene. On releasing Shift, the pad with the stored Scene now shows bright white:

Now when you press the pad, the Scene is selected and will play the set of Pattern Chains which were assigned to it next time you press Play .

When you select Mixer View, you will immediately be able to see where Scenes are already stored, as their pads will be lit bright white, or bright gold when you press Shift.

Assigning Pattern Chains to a Scene does not affect current playback and will not select the Scene nor change your Scene Chain (see below) if you are already in Play Mode: the selected Scene will start when the current Pattern or Pattern Chain is completed – see “Queuing Scenes” Queuing scenes.

Scene data is stored with the current Project when you perform a Save by pressing Save twice. If a Scene pad is pulsing green, it indicates i) that this is the currently selected Scene, and ii) that the currently selected Patterns match those assigned to the Scene. If the selected Patterns are changed in Patterns View, the Scene pad will return to dim white. If the matching Patterns are selected once again, the Scene pad will once again pulse green. Note that this behaviour will only occur for the most recently selected Scene – if you select the Patterns of a Scene other than the most recently selected one, the corresponding pad will not turn green.

Just as you can chain Patterns together in Patterns View, you can chain Scenes together in Mixer View to create longer sequences. You do this by holding down the pad for the first Scene, then pressing the pad for the last Scene: these pads and all those between them will illuminate green. The Scene Chain to be played will now comprise the Scenes assigned to all the pads between the two you pressed; e.g., if you want a Scene Chain made up of Scenes 1 to 5, hold the Scene 1 pad and press the Scene 5 pad. Each Scene will play the Pattern Chain assigned to it once and then switch to the next Scene. The Scenes will play in numerical order, and then repeat.

Scenes may be “pre-selected” in the same way as Patterns, so if a Scene is already playing, the next one is queued. The pad for a queued Scene flashes green and at the end of the Track 1 Pattern currently playing, the new Scene will begin playing from the start without losing sync.

To clear a Scene memory, hold down Clear and press the pad for the Scene you wish to clear. This will return the Scene memory to its default state - Pattern 1 for all tracks.

To copy a Scene, hold down Duplicate , press the pad for the Scene to be copied, then press the pad for the Scene memory where you want the copy to be stored. Release Duplicate. However, you can paste the copied Scene multiple times (into different memory locations) if you keep Duplicate held.