CIRCUIT-HACKS

0.1How to read this guide

• Pads 1-32 from top-left to bottom-right: row 1 = 1-8, row 2 = 9-16, row 3 = 17-24, row 4 = 25-32.
• Knobs K1-K4 on top, K5-K8 below. «Shift + X» = hold Shift while using X; the same with Clear and Duplicate.
• Anything not described here works as on the original device (Novation's official manual).
• (since RC2) = new since RC2 (not in RC0.9 / RC0.9S). The safer build, RC2.09S (and the earlier S builds), writes nothing of its own to the card: what is marked «writes to the card» does nothing there (the Save LED turns red).
• (since RC2.02) = new in RC2.02 (not in RC2.01).
• (Beta 3.22 only) = only in Beta 3.22, the test build with the new features (not in RC2.09).
• The feature list (the previous manual) sums up every feature in one line, by topic.

0.2Buttons that work in every view

• The knob LEDs show the value of the new functions with their brightness (brighter = more; bipolar knobs are dark in the middle).
• Animated (pulsing) colours are never used for steady states.
• LFO synced to the tempo (Beta 3.22 only): the LFO rate knobs (K7 of the VCA-VCF page of the MIDI 1 / 2 engine, Shift + K4 of the matrix, Shift + K7 of the drums, K1 of the Auto-Filter and of the Phaser in Master FX) are bipolar: at the centre the LED is dim; to the right, a free LFO (faster further right); to the left, synced to the tempo, from the centre outwards 1/16T, 1/16, 1/8T, 1/8, 1/4T, 1/4, 1/2T, 1/2, 1 bar T, 1 bar, 2T, 2, 4T, 4, 8T and 8 bars (4 clicks each), each cycle starting on the bar's first beat (it is put back in place on every sequencer tick; stopped, it keeps the tempo). In the matrix, each shape of Shift + K4 is a stretch with its own centre. What was saved before with another rate may sound different.

1.1Setup view

• Patch flip always goes out on its MIDI track's channel.

1.2Advanced Setup view

• Duplicate = mode of the MIDI Thru jack (since RC2): Thru (dim red, DIN In by hardware) → Out 2 (green) → Merge (yellow: DIN In + the device's MIDI) → Filter (blue: DIN In without the channels the device listens to). No SysEx in Merge / Filter. Saved in the settings.
• Pads 22 / 23 do not light here (they do nothing there).
• Pad 23 = USB merge (Beta 3.22 only): what comes in on the DIN In (a keyboard on a MIDI cable) also goes out over USB to the computer, together with the device's own MIDI. Green on, dim off; saved in the settings. With Clock Tx on, the DIN In's clock and transport are not copied (the computer would get two clocks); SysEx is not copied; what comes in over USB is not sent on.
• The master compressor's attack / release are set in the Sidechain view, K7 / K8.

2.1Synth 1 / 2 track view (Note, Velocity, Gate)

• Pressing the same button again (with its view on screen) opens the synth's source view (2.3).
• Synth 1 + Synth 2 together (hold one, press the other) opens the split keyboard (since RC2); (since RC2.02) any pair of note tracks (Synth 1, Synth 2, MIDI 1, MIDI 2: hold one button and press another):
• the top two rows play the track you held first and the bottom two the other one, each with its scale, octave, velocity and colours (in RC2: Synth 1 always on top);
• the knobs and Octave are those of the track you pressed first; a drum button does not open the split keyboard;
• (Beta 3.22 only) hold a track button (Synth 1 / 2, MIDI 1 / 2, Drum 1-4) with the split keyboard open: while you hold it, the 8 knobs (and their lights) are that track's; let go and they go back to the first one;
• any track button ((Beta 3.22 only) a short tap, no knob turned) or view button closes it (held notes are released); Play, Record, Octave and Shift do not.
• The macro knobs work as always; their destinations can be edited on the device (source view, pad 32).
• Velocity view, Shift + a step pad (Beta 3.22 only) (Synth 1 / 2 and MIDI 1 / 2): that step lets go of the automation: no lane plays there and the parameters the automation had moved go back to their knob's position (the one before the automation; turning the knob by hand changes it). Again = off. With Shift, in the Velocity view, the step pads are yellow and the marked ones red; on the 17-32 page, steps 17-32. Saved with the pattern.
• Chord screen (Beta 3.22 only) (Synth 1 / 2 and MIDI 1 / 2, only in the expanded Note view: Note twice): Shift + pad 8 turns it on and off (with Shift pad 8 is yellow, green with the screen on).

• Pads 13-16 green on, dim off.
• What you play sounds and is recorded with Record as plain notes of the pattern: it plays back the same without the chord screen. With the arpeggiator on, the chord is arpeggiated from one finger.
• Each track's type and modifiers are not saved (lost at power-off).
• On MIDI 1 / 2 in the sample mode, the expanded Note view stays the sample picker.

2.2Scales view and custom scale

• Shift + Scales opens the Scales view with the custom scale editor (since RC2); with Shift held the Scales button shows yellow. Scales again, Shift + Scales or another view close it.
• The editor's keyboard is two octaves of a piano from the root (the Scales view's, picked as always out of the editor): row 4 = the white keys of the first octave (root, +2, +4, +5, +7, +9, +11, +12), row 3 = its black keys; rows 2 / 1 = the second octave (+12 … +24).
• Pressing a key adds or removes it (up to 7). The highest one pressed is the period: the root of the next iteration (not necessarily the octave); the others are the scale's notes. Colours: root white, notes green, period orange, free keys dim.
• On the note tracks (Synth 1 / 2, MIDI 1 / 2) every row of pads is one iteration: its notes and the period note at the end, like the octaves of a stock scale. With 4 notes or fewer, two iterations a row (one in each half). Octave ▼ / ▲ move one row.
• The custom scale also drives which notes of the sequence light up, the quantising and random-mutate (another note of the same iteration).
• Picking a stock scale (pads 17-32 out of the editor) switches the custom scale off; the keys are kept: going back to the editor switches it on again. While it is on, no stock scale shows as selected.
• Saved with the project; a new project starts without a custom scale.
• Jankó (Beta 3.22 only): in the editor, Shift + pad 8 (top right; yellow with Shift) turns on the isomorphic Jankó layout (pad 8 cyan while on): on the note tracks every row goes up a semitone and every column a whole tone, and the bottom-left pad is the Scales view's root. Every chord type has the same shape in any key (in the expanded Note view, with four rows, every triad and seventh chord fits). All 12 notes are there: the notes that sound light on their pads and random-mutate picks any of the 12 of its octave. Octave ▼ / ▲ = a semitone (Shift + Octave still transposes the pattern an octave). Shift + pad 8 again, a key of the editor or a stock scale turn it off. Saved with the project.

2.3Synth source view

Pads 25-30: the source

• The patch needs some noise level (CC 56) for the source to be heard. The source is saved with the project.
• If Setup routes the reverb / delay returns through strips 3 / 4, that signal is what reaches the synth.

Pad 32: editor of the macro knob destinations (since RC2)

Every macro knob has 4 slots; every slot, a destination, a span of the travel (start and end) and a depth.

1. 1. Pad 32 (teal) = editor on; the knobs no longer move the macros.
2. 2. Turn a knob to pick its macro (white LED); the first turn changes nothing.
3. 3. The knob changes the current field; Octave ▼ / ▲ = next / previous field: slot (1-4, yellow) → start (green) → end (orange) → destination (white = CC; light blue, magenta, violet = NRPN of banks 0, 1, 2) → depth (teal positive, red negative). The pads draw the number.
4. 4. Any pad releases the macro; pad 32 turns the editor off.

• The destination walks first the 31 parameters with a CC (by number), then the 39 that only have an NRPN. Changes sound at once; to keep them in the pack, save the patch (Preset view).

Pad 30: the synth's step-drummer

The step-drummer view is the MIDI tracks' one (3.5): pads 1-16 steps, 17-24 = macro 1-8 as destination, K1-K8 = the 8 step pairs. Each pair's value is the macro's position, written as automation; an empty pair starts at 0 (since RC2) (it started at the macro's present position).

• (since RC2) Play and Record no longer close the synth's step-drummer; if you go to another view, pressing Synth 1 / 2 opens it again (until you close it with pad 30).

2.4Synth 1 / 2 Preset view

• The original cannot save patches from the device. The saved patch keeps the name of the one that was loaded.
• Not in the internal memory's pack (read-only for the mod): the Save LED turns red.

3.1MIDI 1 / 2 Preset view

• External keyboard (since RC2.08): notes coming in over MIDI (USB or DIN) on the channel of MIDI 1 / 2 play its own synth (before, they were only recorded); they are not sent again to the MIDI out.

Pads

Own-synth patches (pads 9-24) (since RC2)

• 16 slots per page; Octave ▼ / ▲ = 4 pages (64 slots per pack, shared by MIDI 1 and MIDI 2).
• Touch = load (the tonic sounds while you hold the pad). Clear + pad twice = save. Duplicate + A + B = swap; Duplicate + A, another pack, Duplicate + B = copy to another pack (Duplicate yellow while one is waiting).
• Colours: dim peach = has a patch, bright = the last used, violet = empty.
• A patch stores the whole engine: chosen engine, oscillators, order, every value and the step-drummer setting (writes to the card).
• Clear + the track button (since RC2) puts every engine value back to its default (the chosen engine stays).

The engines (pad 27)

• Choosing the engine (Beta 3.22 only): a tap on pad 27 opens the engine row on pads 17-23: off (white), line input, oscillator, VA-drum, granular, sample and FX sequencer, in their colours; the current one bright, the others dim. Tapping one picks it and the row stays open; pad 27 again closes it and the patch list comes back (pads 9-24, which load nothing meanwhile). Shift + pad 27 still steps to the next engine (in RC2.09, every tap of pad 27).
• Line input (yellow): the track's audio input (line 1 on MIDI 1, line 2 on MIDI 2) goes through the VCA-VCF; the track's notes trigger it.
• Oscillator (green): morph sine → triangle → saw → square, SHAPE, second oscillator (pad 28) with FM, ring, sync and bitwise modes; two notes = paraphony (with one oscillator, (since RC2): the last note has priority and releasing it goes back to the previous one).
• VA-drum (red): one-shot VCA, decay envelopes for pitch (Sustain knob) and filter (Release knob), white noise (LFO speed) and random values instead of the LFO.
• Granular (magenta): up to 16 grains from a pack sample or the capture (page 2, next section).
• FX sequencer (blue): the track's step-drummer triggers the slots of Master FX's bottom row (6.1).
• FM (violet) (Beta 3.22 only): pad 24 of the row: a 4-operator FM synth, a variant of the oscillator, with 16 algorithms (classic, percussive, bells and strings) and its knobs on page 7 (chapter «4-operator FM»).
• The track keeps sending its MIDI with any engine.

3.2Knob pages of the MIDI 1 / 2 engine

Page 1 — VCA-VCF

Page 2 — OSC 1 (oscillator and VA-drum)

What SHAPE does on each waveform (K2; SHAPE 2 on OSC 2, the same). The knob's centre is the pure wave (on the saw (Beta 3.22 only), fully left); the envelope (K4) and the LFO (K6) move SHAPE from the knob's position. With WAVE between two waves, SHAPE acts on both at once, each in its own way:

Page 2 — granular

• Note mode (Shift + K6): pitch = the notes change the grains' pitch; slicer = the sample is cut into 16 slices and each note plays one (note 36 the first one, each note up the next one; it starts again every 16 notes); stretch (since RC2) = the notes change the pitch and the stretch from the position (K2) to the end lasts K3 steps (1-64) at any tempo, without changing the pitch, aligned with the start of the transport; stopped, the position stays frozen.

• Stereo granular (Beta 3.22 only): with Shift + K4 above 0, each grain goes to one side at random, further apart the higher it is; the track's pan (Mixer) sets the proportion: centred, half and half; to the right, more grains on the right. The stereo part (what differs between the sides) only follows the VCA and the track level: the engine's filter and effect, the pan, the sends and the sidechain act on the centre.

Pages 3-5

• Page 3 (OSC 2): (since RC2): the eight values without Shift, following the printed labels: K1 Oscillator TUNE 2, K2 Osc mod SHAPE 2, K3 Amp envelope MIX OSC 1 ↔ OSC 2, K4 Filter envelope FM, K5 Filter frequency FINE 2, K6 Resonance BITSYNC, K7 Modulation WAVE 2, K8 FX RING (in RC0.9: K1 TUNE 2 / FINE 2, K2 SHAPE 2 / FM, Shift + K3 RING, K7 WAVE 2).
• Page 4: the 8 sequenceable values: with Record + Play their moves are recorded into the pattern (TUNE, Release, Env → level, Env → filter, Filter, Resonance, LFO speed, Effect). (Beta 3.22 only): Shift + knob = that knob's destination: the engine's 33 parameters in the modulation matrix's order and colours (the LED in its page's colour; 4 clicks a parameter); with Clear held before Shift, the factory one. While you pick, pads 9-24 show where the destination lives, as when a matrix knob turns: its page's pad bright and that page's knobs (K1-K8 above, Shift + K1-K8 below; the destination bright). The lane records and plays the new destination (what it already held now moves that parameter). They are saved with the own-synth patches (MIDI 1 / 2's Preset view); a patch without them loads the factory ones.
• Snapshot of the values into a step (Beta 3.22 only): in MIDI 1 / 2's track view (engine on), Record held + a step pad (pads 1-16; with 17-32, steps 17-32) writes into that step's lanes the parameters that are not at their initial value (the one of Clear + knob to the right), and only those. A parameter without a lane takes one whose parameter is at its initial value (in lane order), and that lane is cleared in the pattern first; when they do not fit, the first ones in the matrix's order. The step keeps its notes and Record stays as it was.
• Page 5: ADSR on top, LFO below. (since RC2): Shift + K8 = the LFO's shape: reverse saw (orange, the usual one), saw (magenta), triangle (green), square (red), sine (cyan), sample & hold (white: a random value each cycle); (since RC2.02): slewed sample & hold (violet: it glides from one random value to the next during each cycle), and with no shape saved (a new or older project) the triangle (in RC2: the reverse saw; an own-synth patch from before the shapes still loads the reverse saw). A step every 4 clicks, K8's LED with Shift in its colour. Saved with the project and in the own-synth patch; with the VA-drum the LFO stays its noise.
• Page 6 (since RC2.02): the mod matrix (next section).
• Page 7 (Beta 3.22 only): with the FM engine, its operators and its algorithm (chapter «4-operator FM»).
• Type knobs show colour (type) and brightness (position within the type). Everything goes out and comes in over CC / NRPN (MIDI reference).

3.3Mod matrix

• The knob's position is the destination and the amount. Fully left = off. Turning right goes through every parameter of the knob pages (33: page 1's, then page 2's, page 3's and the page 5 ones not seen before), one stretch each: inside a stretch the amount grows from 1/16 to full; into the next stretch the destination changes and the amount starts again.
• Slow knobs: two clicks a step, 16 steps a destination.
• The LED's colour is the destination page's (the colours of pads 1-5: orange VCA-VCF, green OSC 1, teal OSC 2), its brightness the amount; dark = no destination.
• While you turn a source (and 1.5 s after), the pads show where its destination lives: its page pad lights up and pads 9-16 / 17-24 are that page's K1-K8 / Shift + K1-K8 (dim the ones with a parameter, bright the destination). While they show, pads 9-24 do not load patches.
• Full amount = the whole source sweeps the parameter's whole range. The bipolar sources (note, random, LFO 2, stepped random) go up and down; the others only up. The parameter's stored value does not change: the matrix is added when it is sent.
• Several sources can share a destination (they add up). TUNE moves in semitones and FINE in fractions; with the granular engine, its ranges; in sample mode the sample parameter picks the sample (from the capture to 64) and only TUNE changes the pitch.
• Clear + knob = that source off; Clear + Shift + knob = its parameter back to the default; Clear + pad 6 = all off.
• Saved with the own-synth patches (pads 9-24: Clear + pad twice, also when swapping them or copying them between packs); a patch saved before loads it off. (Beta 3.22 only) also saved with the project (with the rest of the own synth); before, it was not saved with the project nor across a power-down. No CC / NRPN.
• The modulations reach the engine some 100-250 times a second, shared by everything that moves on the track: several fast sources at once update more slowly.

3.44-operator FM

• It is a variant of the oscillator: the note, TUNE / FINE, the pitch envelope and the vibrato of page 2 still apply; after it, the VCA-VCF, the effect and the matrix as with the oscillator. One note at a time (the last one wins).
• The level of a carrier is its loudness; of a modulator, how much it modulates (up to 4π).
• A/R envelopes with a fixed sustain: while the note is held, a sustained operator stays up after its attack; a percussive one (the algorithm says which) falls with the release even while the note is held. On release, all fall with the release. The release is one for all and longer the harder the note; the algorithm shortens or lengthens it per operator.
• Noise: white, with the envelope of the operator the algorithm names (1, except the snare's), added after the FM, in any algorithm.
• Clear + knob = its initial value; Clear + pad 7 = all of them.
• Saved with the own-synth patches (with the engine on FM); a patch from before loads it off. No CC / NRPN. Another engine of the row (or Shift + pad 27) turns it off.

3.5CC editor of the MIDI macros (pad 25)

1. 1. Pad 25 (lights). 2. Move a knob: it is picked and its number is drawn on the pads.
2. 3. Octave ▼ / ▲: next / previous field. 4. Turn the knob to change the value.
3. 5. Save: pad 26, or Octave ▼ up to the save step (pad 26 and Save blink) and Octave ▼ again.
4. 6. Discard: any view button, pad 25 or a template pad.

3.6Step-drummer view

• The pair's value offsets the destination from the centre (64 = no change): it adds to or takes from the value the parameter has on the engine's page. (since RC2) The knob LED shows the amount: dim at the centre, brighter the further it goes, up or down.
• Every step keeps the pitch of its first note.
• (since RC2) Velocity page with a destination: the knobs write their value into the pair (MIDI: from the centre, 64; synths: from 0), without touching the velocity while the toggle is off. With no destination and no toggle the velocity page does nothing. On MIDI, page 2 uses REL's automation lane: with the step-drummer on, REL is neither played nor recorded.
• (since RC2) Pitch-vel toggle: every note of the track moves up / down one degree of the project's scale (stock or custom) every 8 knob steps: MIDI from the centre (−8 … +8 degrees), synths from 0 (0 … +16), within notes 0-127; auditioning a step too. With the toggle, the pitch page's pitch destinations (pitch of both oscillators / of OSC 2) no longer move the own synth: the note does. The velocity follows the velocity page.
• (since RC2) On MIDI, pad 30 shows dim with the step-drummer off and bright when it is on (it was dark / dim).
• With Record, touching a step records it on the playing step (real time).
• With the engine on FX sequencer (blue), each knob picks a slot of Master FX's bottom row: 0 none, 1-5 pads 26-30, 6 pad 31, and at the end random (since RC2) (white LED: one at random among the slots with an effect). It moves slowly (one slot every ~48 steps of turning). A slot with no effect assigned does nothing.

3.7Sample mode and sample picker

• The pitch: C3 (note 60) = the sample as recorded; an octave up = twice as fast. The notes come from the normal Note view, the step-drummer or incoming MIDI.
• One-shot: the VCA stays open and the sample plays to its end; every new note restarts it (one voice per track). The filter, effect and LFO of the engine pages still work.
• Live: with Record + Play, touching a sample records a note 60 on the step playing, with its flip.
• The track's sample is the same source as the granular's (Shift + K8 on its page; the capture is picked there).
• The flips live in the track's level automation lane (Mixer): a flip replaces the level recorded on its step; recording the level over it erases those flips.

4.1Pattern Settings view

• Nudge and orders also on the drums. The order is saved with the pattern; Clear on the pattern removes it. (since RC2)

Arpeggiator (note tracks) (since RC2)

While Shift is held, the arpeggiator's pads keep their Pattern Settings colours and the chosen ones show green:

• Sequence: when two or more notes start on a step, they play one at a time (at the arpeggio's resolution), in the chosen order over the notes sorted by pitch, for as long as the chord's longest note. Each note lasts its own gate, at most one arpeggio step (and what is left of the chord) and keeps its velocity: a chord recorded by holding its notes plays arpeggiated, one entered with short notes, staccato.
• Input: the first note sounds as always; holding another one with it starts the arpeggio of the held notes, one an arpeggio step (with the transport stopped, at the project's tempo), until all are let go; each note lasts an arpeggio step. With Record the chord is recorded, not the single notes: the sequence plays the arpeggio afterwards.
• Pressed order (Beta 3.22 only): the notes are arpeggiated in the order they were pressed (a recorded chord, in the order of its notes in the step), not by pitch; up, down, ping-pong, random, fractal and deconstructed walk that order. A note let go leaves its place empty and skipped; the next note you press takes the first empty place before going to the end.
• Random-mutate (Beta 3.22 only): when the chord's step has a random-mutate level, each note of the arpeggio goes through it (another degree of the scale, an octave up or down) as normal notes do; nothing is written into the step. The live arpeggio (the notes held) uses the level of the step the track is on (playing, the one that plays; stopped, where it stopped).
• Long notes when recording (since RC2.04): the stock's recorder cuts notes at 16 steps; now a note or chord held longer goes on, tied, 16 steps later (in patterns longer than 16 steps), so the arpeggio of a held chord does not stop at step 16. For every note of Synth 1 / 2 and MIDI 1 / 2, with or without the arpeggiator.
• Saved with the project, per track and pattern.

The drums' arpeggiator (since RC2)

The same gestures (Shift + pad 25 / 27-32 / 17-24) in a drum's Pattern Settings turn its arpeggiator on for the pattern it plays, with its order and resolution. In the drum's Preset view the first sample held is the usual one; holding another one with it starts the arpeggio of the samples held: the drum jumps from sample to sample (in the chosen order, over the samples sorted by number), with its pad's velocity. Playing, it follows the drum's grid; stopped, the project's tempo. It goes on while any is held; when all are let go, the drum goes back to its chosen sample. With Record (playing) every hit is recorded into the pattern: its micro step, its sample as the step's sample flip (one a step: the last one stays) and, on an empty step, its velocity.

4.2Micro Step view (note tracks)

• The stock part: pads 17-22 = the 6 micro steps of the chosen step; pad 24 = Tie (a toggle: ties the chosen notes to the next step); pads 25-30 = the step's notes: touching one chooses it (the micro step and the Tie apply to it) and plays it.
• One micro step per note (stock): each note stores a single position, so touching another micro step moves the chosen note; two cannot be lit at once. For several in the same step, enter several notes. Drums can light several micro steps (repeats).
• Gate once is the Gate view (pads 17-32 = the length): there pads 31 / 32 are the stock's.
• Pad 32 = gate by holding (since RC2) for the track (green = on, dim = off; saved with the project): when entering notes by hand (a step held + a note pad, or a note held + a step pad), how long you hold the pad is the note's gate, at the project's tempo and the track's sync rate (1 micro step to 16 steps). It ends when the first of the two pads is let go. Off: the stock's gate.
• Pad 31 = fixed length (since RC2) for the track (orange = on): with both off, it opens the selector (pads 17-32 = 1 … 16 steps, like the Gate view) and picking a length turns it on (and closes the selector). With it, every note entered by hand (not one recorded live) gets that gate, all of a chord's notes too, whichever pad you let go first (since RC2.08: before, only when the note pad was let go first).
• The two toggles (since RC2): with one on, pressing it again turns it off (nothing opens); pressing the other one turns the first off and the new one on (pad 31 by opening its selector).
• The arpeggiator uses those gates too: each note of the chord lasts its own.

4.3Probability view (note tracks and drums)

Random-mutate (row 4)

• Scale = another note of the scale in the same octave; octave = one up or down. Each note of a chord is drawn separately. Without Record it changes only that time; with Record it is written (the sequence drifts). Tied notes do not change.

Dynamics (row 3, mode 2)

• With Record and mode 2 on screen, what plays (mutated note, dynamics) is written into the pattern. Everything is saved with the step.

On the drums (since RC2)

The same view for a drum: Pattern Settings twice (mode 1) or pad 25 of its Pattern Settings (mode 2, peach; green when its arpeggiator is on). Pick a step with a hit (pads 1-16) and touch a pad of rows 3-4.

• The dynamics only delay the hit inside its step (a drum cannot play earlier). The mutate starts from the step's sample flip, or the chosen sample; it is not recorded.
• The values live in bytes of the pattern the stock does not use (they travel when it is duplicated and with Nudge); the first one set clears those bytes in the project's 32 drum patterns (a factory pack keeps garbage there).

5.1Drum track view (knobs)

• K3: turning left, the attack goes back to 0 before the decay goes down; with Shift, one of the two (start or cut) goes back to 0 before the other moves. LED: attack in white; with Shift, start in the drum's colour, cut in white.
• Clear + K3 to the right puts attack, start and cut to 0; Clear + K8 to the right removes the bitcrush too (since RC2). Clear + knob resets both layers on the others.
• Clear + the drum's button (since RC2) (with one of its views on screen): the drum's eight knobs, with their Shift layer, back to their defaults.
• All neutral, a sample sounds as on the original. Everything is saved with the project and has an NRPN.
• Sidechain between drums: Shift + FX and Octave ▼ (8.1).

5.2Drum Preset view

• Duplicate lights in this view. Writes to the card: not in the «S» versions nor in the internal memory's pack.

5.3Chromatic and scale view of the drums

• Three rows of notes in the scale and root of the Scales view.
• K1 = pitch offset in semitones; Shift + K1 = fine tuning in cents.
• While recording, each pitch is recorded on its own step only. (since RC2): the pads transpose in semitones on top of K1's pitch and, while recording, stay on their step inside the drum's pitch lane (a step holds a K1 turn or a chromatic note); Clear + K1 to the left (held) deletes both.
• The drums' Note view: pads 25-28 repeat the boxes of drums 4 … 1.
• Micro-step rollers (since RC2) on rows 1-3 of the drums' Note view: each column is the drum of its box below (columns 1-4 = drums 4-1, columns 5-8 = drums 1-4), dim in its colour. A drum's left column is its micro steps 1-3 (rows 1-3) and the right one 4-6: drum 1 = pads 4, 12, 20 and 5, 13, 21. While held (one or several, of one or several drums), the drum plays on every step at those micro steps (with the step's velocity, or 100 on an empty step); they light up while held. With the transport stopped (since RC2) too: at the project's tempo, starting when the first one is pressed (velocity 100). With Record their hits are recorded into the pattern too (the micro step, and velocity 100 on an empty step).

6.1Master FX

Pads

Effects (pads 1-6)

• Hold = on; Shift + pad = latched; touching it again releases it. The knob LEDs show the value with their brightness.
• Clear + knob to the right = default; while Clear is held the knobs at their default show lavender (Master FX has no automation: no red).
• Per session (since RC2): the effects' 20 knobs, the slot assignments and the compressor are saved with each project.

Song pointer (pads 9-24)

• One step held = retrigger; two = momentary phrase between them; Shift + two = latched phrase (pad 9 white; touching it removes it).
• Phrase mode: Shift + step = start (end 16); a touch = the end; Shift + another = new start; Shift + the start or pad 9 = leave.

Captured sample (pads 7 and 32)

• Pad 32: hold = records while held (up to 3.46 s); short tap = until the next; Shift + pad 32 = armed (records the next bar; stopped, from Play). The capture records the output without Master FX's effects; the playing sample goes through them. Since RC2.01 the capture and the sample sit before the master filter: the filter acts on the sample as it plays and the capture does not hold it.
• Pad 7: play; Shift + pad 7 = latched loop until pressed again. Loop mode (K2 blue) sounds only while held.
• It can be assigned to a slot (pad 7 + a pad below) and replace a drum (drum Preset view). When the project is saved it goes into the pack if it fits.

Bottom row (pads 26-31)

• Assign: hold an effect on top (1-6), pad 7 or pad 31 and touch a slot: it stores the effect with a copy of its parameters.
• Touch the slot = on while held; Shift + slot = latched. The FX sequencer triggers these slots.

Glitch and mechanical gesture

• Glitch: the output becomes a tape head over the recent audio: K1 speed (top normal, middle stopped, bottom backwards), K2 repeat, K3 delay (up to 2.6 s), K4 chaos (lower half) or overload (upper half).
• Mechanical gesture (since RC2): pressing it slows the audio to a stop; releasing restarts it. K1 moves (1-8), K2 continuous kind in colours (tape stop → baby scratch → tear → back spin → rattle), K3 stop time, K4 start time. It uses the Glitch's engine: while it plays, the Glitch waits.

7.1FX view

• If Setup routes the returns through strips 3 / 4, their sends are capped at half.

8.1Sidechain view

9.1Patterns view and pattern chains

• Examples: n = 3 → A A A B A A A C; no C → A A A B; n = 1 → A B A C. B and C play once and the track goes back to A (unless they have a rule).
• Rules travel with the pattern (when duplicated); the mode, with the project and with each scene (9.2).

9.2Mixer view and scenes

• A scene ends when its longest chain ends. Saving a scene again does not change its repeats.
• Cue mode (since RC2): the left output carries the mix in mono as always and the right one only the cued tracks, each at its send. A muted track in the cue plays only on the right, at the step its pattern is on; its pad stays dim and its pad (or Shift + pad, on the next bar) takes it into or out of the mix. The pans are not touched and come back when the mode goes off; saving the project saves the mix's mutes. Reverb, delay and Master FX are the mix's: the cue hears them too.

10.1Projects view

• Duplicate + pad A (a project) = the source (yellow, blinks); Duplicate + A again forgets it.
• Duplicate + pad B = copy. B empty: written at once; B in use: it blinks white and Duplicate + B must be repeated within ~5 s. Never the loaded project. (since RC2)
• To another pack: pick the source, load the other pack, go back to Projects and Duplicate + B.
• The project saved on the card is copied; while copying the device does not respond for a moment. In another pack it plays with that pack's patches and samples (writes to the card).

10.2Packs view

1. 1. Touch Clear (no Shift): for ~5 s the packs that can be deleted blink (never the loaded one). Clear lights steady white in this view.
2. 2. Touch the pack: only that one blinks; it is not loaded.
3. 3. Clear again within 5 s: deleted. The slot can be reused after a restart.

• The internal memory's pack (the first one) is read-only for the mod: it cannot be deleted and nothing of the mod is written into it (copies, patches, captures); the Save LED turns red for 1.5 s. It can be read and copied from to a pack on the card (writes to the card).

A.1What is saved and where

A.2MIDI of the new features

• MIDI track engine (the track's channel): Filter CC 74, Resonance 71, Env → filter 79, Attack 73, Decay 75, Sustain 70, Release 72, Effect 91, Gain 59, TUNE 26, FINE 27, WAVE 20, SHAPE 21, TUNE 2 37, FINE 2 39, WAVE 2 30, SHAPE 2 31, MIX 52, RING 54, LFO speed NRPN 0:76; the rest NRPN MSB 4 with LSB = code.
• Drums (the drums channel): NRPN MSB 5-8 = Drum 1-4; LSB 1 pitch env., 2 ring (frequency), 3 LFO, 4 LFO speed, 5 env → cutoff, 6 resonance, 7 envelope shape, 8 ring (amount), 9 filter mode, 10 start, 11 bitcrush, 12 distortion type, 13 cut, 14 attack. (Beta 3.22 only): with the GM mode (Setup, K4) the notes of Drum 1-4 go out as the GM notes picked (K5-K8).
• Master FX (channel 16): NRPN MSB 9, LSB = 4 × effect + knob.
• Full tables: the MIDI reference (docs/MIDI.en.md).

A.3Installing and going back

1. 1. Download Novation's official firmware 1.2.1, open tools/rc_uploader.html in Chrome and connect the Circuit Tracks over USB.
2. 2. Pick the version (RC2.09, the safer RC2.09S, Beta 3.22 with the new untested features, or an earlier one) and send. Novation's bootloader is not touched.
3. 3. Back up the card first. With the versions that do not end in «S», do not use the internal memory for projects.

• Going back: send another version or the official firmware. If it does not boot: Scales + Preset + Note at power-up.