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, RC4S (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).
• (since RC4) = new in RC4 (not in RC2.11 or earlier).
• (since RC4.05) = a fix of RC4.05 (in RC4.08 and Beta 5.29 too; not in RC4.02 or earlier).
• The feature list (the previous manual) sums up every feature in one line, by topic.

0.2Buttons that work in every view

• Animated (pulsing) colours are never used for steady states.
• LFO synced to the tempo (since RC4): 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.
• K1 = the pads' velocity curve (since RC4) (in the RCs; the beta has no curve: K1 / K2 of the Setup view are the global velocity): −8 to +8 (2 clicks a step); the centre (0) is the original response, the default. To the right, more sensitive (soft hits sound louder); to the left, harder (you have to hit harder). While you turn it, the pads show the number (green to the right, orange to the left, white at the centre) and Velocity lights for 1.5 s. It applies to every pad in every view; fixed velocity (Shift + Velocity = 96) does not change. Saved in the settings.
• Pad 23 = USB merge (since RC4): 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.
• Pad 22 = delayed save (since RC4.05): off (the default), Save saves at once, as the original. On, saving with the sequencer running waits until you stop, so the clock does not stumble (what happens while it waits). Green on, dim off; saved in the settings.
• 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;
• (since RC4) 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 ((since RC4) 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 (since RC4) (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 the project's values (since RC4.01; before, to their knob's position): on Synth 1 / 2, the macros of the patch as the project saved it (or as it was loaded: turning knobs afterwards does not count); on MIDI 1 / 2, the own synth saved with the project (a project without it: its defaults). A knob turned by hand after the automation stays where you left 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.
• Shift + a key = latch (since RC4) (Synth 1 / 2 and MIDI 1 / 2, Note and expanded Note view, no step held): the note sounds and keeps sounding when you let go of the pad; the next press of that note (on any pad that has it, with or without Shift) stops it, and that press does nothing else. While Shift is held, the keys of the latched notes light bright teal; the other keys keep their colours (without Shift, a sounding note lights white as always). With the arpeggiator on, the latched notes stay in the arpeggio: an arpeggio latch. Clear + the track's button lets go of all its latched notes (and its latched chords).
• Chord screen (since RC4) (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.
• Two chords at once: the notes they share sound once and go on until the last chord that has them is let go.
• With the arpeggiator: the arpeggio goes on with the track muted in the Mixer (that track's sequence stays silent), and it holds up to 6 notes: if two chords add up to more, those that do not fit stay out and do not come back when the other is let go.
• The chord changes at once: change the type, the inversion or a modifier (pads 13-16) while a chord sounds (held or latched) and the new chord sounds without pressing the root again: the notes that leave stop, the new ones sound and the ones that stay keep sounding. The arpeggiator follows the change too (its arpeggio goes on with the new notes).
• Shift + a root = chord latch: the whole chord keeps sounding after you let go of the pad, until you press that root again (which only stops it), Clear + the track's button or the screen goes off; several can be latched at once and they follow the type and modifiers. With Shift, its root lights bright teal. In the Note view, Shift + a step writes its notes into that step. Pad 16's latch is as before.
• 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. (since RC4): Scales twice = Shift + Scales (with the Scales view on screen, Scales opens and closes the editor).
• 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 blue, 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 (since RC4): in the editor, Shift + pad 8 (top right; yellow with Shift) turns on the isomorphic Jankó layout (pad 8 teal while on): on the note tracks every column goes up a whole tone and the rows come in pairs, as on the stock's chromatic keyboard: the lower one starts on the Scales view's root (with root C: C D E F♯ G♯ A♯ C D) and the one above is a semitone lower (B C♯ D♯ F G A B C♯). Every chord type has the same shape in any key. The root pads show in the stock's root colour. 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 tap = a semitone; held for about half a second = an octave from where it was (Shift + Octave still transposes the pattern an octave). The same pad again, a key of the editor or a stock scale turn it off. Saved with the project. On the RCs, in the expanded Note view the upper pair is the lower one an octave up and Shift + pad 24 turns on the earlier layout (every row a semitone above the one below).

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 (amber) → 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 (step-drummer view): 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

Voice mode (pad 32) (since RC4)

How many voices each mode gives, the chord level and the voice limiter when the DSP is short of time: Own-synth voices.

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); (since RC4) 8 pages, 128 slots.
• Touch = load (the tonic sounds while you hold the pad; (since RC4): Shift + pad = load without the sound). Clear + pad twice = save.
• 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; (since RC4): the FM's too, and the matrix keeps its destinations with the amounts at zero).

The engines (pad 27)

• Choosing the engine (since RC4): 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.
• 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 (orange): 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) (since RC4): 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.

3.2Own-synth voices: polyphony and the voice limiter

How many voices

• That is each track's maximum: MIDI 1 and MIDI 2 have their own; only the FM voices are shared between the two.
• One note too many (every voice busy) takes the voice of the track's oldest note, with a 2 ms fade.
• A released note keeps its voice while its release rings: with long releases the voices fill up even when you play single notes, and the next note takes the oldest.
• In poly the envelope, filter and effect are the track's: every new note restarts them. In the VA-drum and FM every voice also has its own envelopes and noise, and rings through its whole release.

Chord level

Each voice is turned down by how many are sounding, so the sum does not clip: 1 or 2 notes, full level; 3, at 0.82; 4, at 0.71; 5, at 0.63; 6, at 0.58. The unison modes follow the same rule. A chord sounds louder than a single note, but not twice as loud.

When the DSP is short of time: the voice limiter

The DSP computes the audio in blocks, and everything sounding shares its time: the own synth, Synth 1 / 2, the drums, the effects and Master FX. Every own-synth voice takes time; FM takes the most, and long releases keep many voices sounding at once. A block that is not ready in time is heard as a rattle. To prevent it:

• With two or more own voices sounding, the device checks every 2 ms how much time the DSP has left. When it is about to run out, it switches off one own-synth voice: the quietest one already ringing out (FM ones before the other engines'); with none ringing out, the oldest held note, cut as in a voice steal. At most one voice every 12 ms (every 4 ms when very short).
• Then the track plays with the voices that fit (2 at least): a new note first switches off the quietest one ringing out, and the unison uses at most that many. Every 2 s with no trouble it tries one more voice, back up to the table's maximum.
• What you hear: a long release ending early, or the oldest note of a chord going away when a lot is sounding. How many voices fit depends on the whole project: with Master FX, many drums or Synth 1 / 2 with heavy patches, fewer fit.
• Synth 1 and Synth 2 do not lose voices to the own synth. The device has its own limiter for them (when the DSP is short, it switches Synth 1 / 2 voices off); while two or more own voices sound it is not used, and when time runs out it is the own synth's voices that go. With the DSP very short, a new Synth 1 / 2 note may use a voice of its own synth instead of a free one (what the device does under load): a Synth 1 / 2 chord may sound with fewer notes, but it does not go silent.
• With a single own voice (the mono modes, or poly with one note) the limiter does not act: the device shares the DSP as always.

Tips

• For more voices at once: shorter releases, fewer loud operators in FM, or just one track in FM poly (6 voices instead of 3 + 3).
• If a long chord loses notes, try the patch with a shorter release or a lighter engine (one oscillator, VA-drum, sample).
• The mono modes (retrigger, legato, glide) use one voice: they never reach the limiter.

3.3Knob pages of the MIDI 1 / 2 engine

Page 1 — VCA-VCF

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

K5, K6 and K8 are new: how much the engine's LFO and envelope move page 3's FM, ring and mix (centre = none, each side one way; Clear + knob = 0). Saved with the patch and with the project.

The levels go from off (fully left; Clear + knob) to the oscillator's; their LED is brighter the higher the level. The depths are bipolar (centre = none). The sub and the noise go through the filter and the VCA, and in poly every voice has its own. Saved with the patch and with the project.

Less aliasing (since RC4): the saw, the supersaw's seven saws and the square / pulse are made with PolyBLEP: on high notes the metallic tones that do not belong to the note are gone (about 40 dB less); low notes sound the same. The sine and the triangle without folding do not change. (Fix in RC4.08 and Beta 5.28) The pulse at a width other than 50 % (SHAPE off its centre, or the envelope / LFO moving it) had only one edge corrected: now both (note 96: from −22 to −73 dB of aliasing below 8 kHz).

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 (since RC4): 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) follows the track's VCA, level, pan, mute and sidechain; the engine's filter and effect and the sends act on the centre only.

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 — sequenceable knobs: 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).
• Non-sequenceable knobs (since RC4) (Shift + pad 4; pad 4 pink while they are on the knobs, dim pink with Shift): 8 knobs with an assignable destination like the sequenceable ones (Shift + knob = the destination among the 33 parameters, in its page's colour; Clear held, then Shift + knob = the factory one; while you pick, pads 9-24 show where it lives). By default: Attack, Decay, Sustain, SHAPE, LFO → filter, Env → pitch, MIX OSC 1 / 2, VCA gain. They move that parameter's value without recording it (a destination that is also on the sequenceable knobs is recorded, as from any page). Their destinations are saved with the own patches.
• Snapshot of the values into a step (since RC4): 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 (blue, the usual one), saw (magenta), triangle (green), square (red), sine (teal), 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). (since RC4.05): sine, sample & hold and slewed sample & hold sound (they used to silence the engine).
• Page 6 (since RC2.02): the mod matrix (next section).
• Page 7 (since RC4): 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).

3.4Mod 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 ((since RC4): from 0 to full: the stretch's first step is the destination with no amount, its LED dim); 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: amber 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. (since RC4) 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.

3.54-operator FM

• Choosing the algorithm with the pads: on the FM page, hold pad 7: pads 9-24 show the 16 algorithms (their family's colour; the current one bright). Press one: it is chosen and the tonic sounds while you hold it (Shift + pad: no sound). Letting go of pad 7 brings the patches back.
• Starter sounds (since RC4): with FM on, a tap on pad 8 opens the FM page (like pad 7) and holding pad 8 shows 16 ready-to-play instruments on pads 9-24, in their family's colour: row 2 piano, electric piano, organ (keys, white), pluck, harp, marimba (plucked, violet), bass (amber), bell (teal); row 3 strings, pad (green), flute, clarinet, brass (winds, light blue), kick, snare, hi-hat (drums, orange). Press one: it loads whole (algorithm, ratios, levels, envelopes, feedback, noise and release) and the tonic sounds while you hold it (Shift + pad: no sound); the one matching what plays shows bright. They are starting points: tweak them with the knobs and save them like any patch. Pad 8 shows dim white with FM on and bright while held.
• While a ratio turns (K1-K4) pads 9-32 show the 24 ratios for 1.5 s (the current one bright, white when detuned); while the algorithm turns (Shift + K5), pads 9-24 show the algorithms. Meanwhile those pads load no patch.
• 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 filter, the effect and the matrix as with the oscillator. One note at a time (the last one wins); with the retrigger off (Shift + pad 29) a legato note does not restart the attacks.
• The loudness comes from the operators' envelopes: the engine's VCA stays open (velocity still sets the level) and page 1's ADSR moves the filter, the pitch and the brightness.
• Velocity also sets the brightness (how much, by algorithm) and how far the kick drops. High notes modulate less and decay sooner (by algorithm, as on a DX7). At very high notes and ratios the engine limits the modulation so it does not alias (except in the percussive ones, where it is part of the sound).
• The level of a carrier is its loudness; of a modulator, how much it modulates.
• 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 so, or its Shift + knob to the left) falls even while the note is held. On release, all fall with the release (one made percussive by its knob, with the shorter of its decay and the release). The release is one for all and longer the harder the note; the algorithm shortens or lengthens it per operator.
• The feedback is the DX7's (the average of the last two outputs): a clean saw over more of the range; the knob is finer at the bottom.
• The percussive and bell algorithms start every hit with the phases at zero: every hit sounds the same.
• Noise: white, with the envelope of the operator the algorithm names (1, except the snare's), added after the FM, in any algorithm.
• Clear + pad 7 = a playable voice of the chosen algorithm (the table's «Voice» column); Clear + knob = its value in that voice (Clear + Shift + K5: the stack). Clear + MIDI 1 / 2 = the whole engine to its defaults (the FM to the stack).
• Saved with the own-synth patches (with the engine on FM). A patch from Beta 3.22 or before is adapted when it loads (the attacks to the right half of their knob, the same feedback, the ratios exact); an earlier beta loads a new one with FM off. No CC / NRPN. Another engine of the row (or Shift + pad 27) turns it off.

3.6CC 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. Saving leaves the editor, back to the Preset view.
4. 6. Discard: any view button, pad 25 or a template pad.

3.7Step-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; since RC4: it plays the effect at the top of its column (pad 26 = Master FX pad 1 … pad 30 = pad 5), with its knobs, and its LED shows that colour.

3.8Sample 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.
• Erasing the note of a step with a flip (since RC4) (in the Note view: Clear + step, or the step held + its note's key) erases the note and keeps the flip, which only shows here (violet); Clear + step in this picker removes the 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; since RC2.10: stopped, it always ran at about 120 BPM before), 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.
• Held step (since RC4): with the transport stopped, holding a step with several notes arpeggiates them, as if you held their pads (they sounded at once before), until you let it go; if you start the transport with the step held, the arpeggio stops when you let it go.
• External keyboard (since RC4): with the Note button of the Setup view on, the notes coming in over MIDI on the channel of a note track whose arpeggiator is on are arpeggiated like the pads (the first sounds as always; with Record the chord is recorded). Off by default, so it does not clash with a keyboard that has its own arpeggiator.
• Pressed order (since RC4): 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 (since RC4): 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.

#### Arpeggio modifiers (since RC4)

With the pattern's arpeggiator on, Shift + pads 1-16 pick four modifiers (with the arpeggiator off, Shift + pad is still the stock's first step). Each group has its colour; the chosen option bright, the others dim:

• The octaves count what comes out of the groove and the reset (with "twice", each repeat counts as a note).
• They apply to a step's arpeggio, to the held notes and to the external keyboard, stopped or playing. 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 (blue = 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 in the RCs (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 in the RCs (row 3, mode 2)

• With Record and mode 2 on screen, what plays (mutated note, dynamics) is written into that track's pattern (since RC4.05) (before, into the other note tracks too). 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).

Stereo pair (since RC4)

Hold Drum 1 and press Drum 2 (or the other way round; Drum 3 + Drum 4 the same): the two drums become a stereo pair; the same gesture undoes it. Not with Shift, Clear or Duplicate held, nor in Setup.

• Drum 1 / 3 sounds on the left and Drum 2 / 4 on the right with the pack's next sample (a stereo sample = two slots in a row; after 64, 1).
• Everything of Drum 1 / 3 drives both: its knobs (the Shift layer too), its pattern (steps, sample flips, micro steps, automation, arpeggio, rollers), its level, sends and side-chain. Its pan is the centre of the pair.
• Drum 2 / 4's pattern does not play while the pair lasts (it stays saved). Its pads and MIDI notes play it alone, on the right.
• Picking another sample on Drum 2 / 4 (its Preset view) sets the distance between the two; then it follows Drum 1 / 3's sample changes.
• Drum 2 / 4's knobs are deviations from Drum 1 / 3 (its own values do not change and come back when the pair is undone):

• LEDs: the deviations in Drum 1 / 3's colour (brighter = more deviation), the width in white. Clear + knob = no deviation (the width, full).
• Drum 2 / 4's button pulses in Drum 1 / 3's colour while the pair lasts.
• Saved with the project (on, distance, width and deviations).

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.
• Cue preview (since RC4): with the cue mode on, choosing a Synth 1 / 2 patch in its Preset view (a normal or a Shift press) and Shift + sample in a drum's Preset view (on the original, the silent selection) are heard only in the cue (right): while you hold the pad and 0.8 s after, that track goes to the cue only (its pattern too, for that moment). A normal drum press still sounds in the mix, and any live hit of that drum (its pads, MIDI, the pattern) brings it back to the mix before it sounds.
• Metronome in the cue (since RC4): with the cue mode on, the metronome's click (Shift + Clear) and the count-in's sound only in the cue (right output): the mix on the left goes out without the click. Without the cue mode, on both outputs as always.

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).

11.1What a pattern holds and how to make sure it is saved

What each pattern carries

• Not in the pattern, although chosen with it on screen: the arpeggiator (on, order and resolution; (since RC4) its modifiers) and the gate by holding are saved in the project per track (the arpeggiator per track and pattern number: duplicating the pattern does not copy it).
• Duplicating a pattern copies everything in the table. Clear + pattern in the Patterns view (outside chain mode) deletes it with its rule and its order.

How to make sure it is saved

1. 1. A knob turned without Record changes the sound of the whole project (the patch, the drum knobs, the Mixer…), not the pattern. To make it change at a step or along the pattern, record it: Record with the sequencer running, or hold a step and turn (as on the original).
2. 2. Save the project: Save twice (the first press flashes white; the second, fast green). It goes to the last slot used; for another slot, in the Projects view: Save + the slot's pad (as on the original). Everything marked «project» or «pattern» in this guide only reaches the card this way.
3. 3. Loading another project or switching off without saving loses the changes since the last Save (as on the original). At power-up the last project used is loaded, as it was saved.
4. 4. Save always off = Save Lock is on (Shift + Save at power-up, an original feature): repeat the gesture to remove it.
5. 5. The MIDI 1 / 2 own synth keeps its values in the device settings (the same for every project): (since RC4) also with the project when it is saved. To keep a sound across projects or packs, save it as a patch (MIDI 1 / 2 Preset view, Clear + pad twice). To make it change inside the pattern, use page 4 (the lanes) or the step-drummer.
6. 6. A Synth 1 / 2 patch as it sounds (knobs, edited macro destinations, MIDI received) goes with the project; to have it in the pack and use it in other projects, save it in the Preset view (Clear + pad twice) (since RC2).
7. 7. Before switching off: stop the sequencer and wait 2 s without touching the MIDI 1 / 2 engine (its settings are written to the card only with the transport stopped, so as not to break up the audio), and switch off with the power button.
8. 8. Without a card (the internal memory's pack) and with the S versions, the mod writes nothing of its own: patches, samples and copies are not saved (the Save LED turns red). Projects are, as on the original.
9. 9. (since RC4.05) Saving while it plays: by default the project saves at once, as on the original, though the clock can stumble for a moment. With the delayed save (Advanced Setup, pad 22) on, Save twice with the sequencer running leaves the save pending (Save blinks yellow) and writes it when you stop; if you ask the project for something else first (loading one, saving into another slot) or turn pad 22 off, it is saved right then. If you change pack before stopping, that save is dropped. With a save pending, stop the transport before switching off.

11.2What comes back after a restart and where it is saved

The project (Save twice)

The pack (written to the card when you do the gesture)

The device settings (on their own, for every project)

11.3What is lost at a restart

• Installing another version restarts the device: what was not saved is lost; the project, the pack and the settings stay.
• Going back to the official firmware: projects and packs saved with the mod open on the original; the mod's own data sits in parts of the files the original does not use, and the original does not read it.

11.4MIDI: own behaviours, new CCs and NRPNs

Channels (as on the original, changeable in Setup)

Synth 1 = channel 1, Synth 2 = channel 2, drums = channel 10, project and Master FX = channel 16 (those of Novation's guide); MIDI 1 / 2 = the channels chosen for them in Setup.

Own behaviours

MIDI track engine (MIDI 1 / 2)

The MIDI track's channel. Values 0-127; bipolar ones, 64 = centre. Sent when the knob turns (also with Clear) and received on the same number. «Page / knob» = where it is in the Preset view with the engine on (pads 1-5 = pages). In the granular engine page 2 uses the same numbers with another meaning (in brackets).

Sequenceable knobs (page 4: recorded into the pattern with Record): TUNE, Release, Envelope → level, Envelope → filter, Filter, Resonance, LFO speed, Effect. RC4 only: the eight destinations are chosen with Shift + knob.

Drums

The drums channel (Setup). CC 99 = 5, 6, 7, 8 (Drum 1-4), CC 98 = LSB, CC 6 = value. The stock knobs (pitch, decay, distortion, EQ) keep their original CCs. RC4 only: with the General MIDI mode (Setup view, K4) the notes of Drum 1-4 go out as each one's GM note (K5-K8, 35-81; by default 36 / 38 / 42 / 46) instead of 60 / 62 / 64 / 65.

Master FX

Channel 16. CC 99 = 9, CC 98 = 4 × effect + knob (knob 0-3 = K1-K4), CC 6 = value.

11.5Mod matrix and macro destinations

The official reference is Novation's Programmer's Reference Guide, version 3 (PDF, on the Circuit Tracks downloads page). For every macro slot it gives: «macro knob 1 destination A NRPN 3:0 0 – 70 0» (Novation, Circuit Tracks Programmer's Reference Guide v3, «Macro Knobs»).

Synth 1 / 2 mod matrix (stock, unchanged)

• Edited from Components or over MIDI (the synth's channel); the device has no view for it. Every slot: source 1, source 2, depth (−64..63) and destination. The official guide lists 12 slots from NRPN 1:83 (source 1, source 2, —, depth, destination: 5 numbers per slot); the firmware has 20, with the same pattern.
• Sources (0-12): 0 direct, 4 velocity, 5 keyboard (note), 6 / 7 LFO 1 (unipolar / bipolar), 8 / 9 LFO 2 (unipolar / bipolar), 10 amp envelope, 11 filter envelope, 12 envelope 3.
• Destinations (0-17): 0 pitch of both oscillators, 1 / 2 pitch of oscillator 1 / 2, 3 / 4 v-sync 1 / 2, 5 / 6 pulse width / index 1 / 2, 7 / 8 level of oscillator 1 / 2, 9 noise level, 10 ring mod level, 11 filter drive, 12 filter frequency, 13 resonance, 14 / 15 LFO 1 / 2 rate, 16 amp envelope decay, 17 filter envelope decay.

Synth 1 / 2 macros (stock) and their editor (since RC2)

• 8 macros per patch, position = CC 80-87; every macro, 4 slots A-D. Slot r (0-3) of macro k (1-8): NRPN 3:(16 (k − 1) + 4 r) = destination, + 1 start, + 2 end (the stretch of the knob's travel, 0 / 127 by default), + 3 depth (64 = 0).
• The official guide gives the destination as «0 – 70» without naming them: the list below names each one (70 destinations, 0-69).
• On the device: source view, pad 32 = editor (slot, start, end, destination, depth). The edits go into the project's patch; Clear + pad twice in the Preset view saves it to the pack.
• The editor's knob walks the destinations with a CC first (by CC number), then the NRPN-only ones; on the pads, white = CC, light blue / magenta / violet = NRPN of banks 0 / 1 / 2.

The MIDI 1 / 2 own synth's matrix (own) (since RC2.02)

• MIDI Preset view with the engine on, pad 6: the 8 knobs are 8 sources: K1 velocity, K2 note, K3 random per note, K4 LFO 2, K5 envelope 2, K6 a drum's hit, K7 position in the pattern, K8 stepped random ((since RC4) LFO 2 also synced to tempo).
• The knob's position is the destination and the amount: left = off; turning right walks every parameter of the knob pages (page 1's, then page 2, page 3 and those of page 5 not met before), 16 steps per destination, the amount growing inside each stretch. LED = the colour of the destination's page; brightness = amount.
• Several sources on the same destination add up; the parameter's stored value does not change. Details: Mod matrix.

The own synth's sequenceable (page 4) and non-sequenceable knob destinations (since RC4)

• The 8 sequenceable knobs (page 4) are the automation lanes (by default: TUNE, Release, Env → level, Env → filter, Filter, Resonance, LFO speed, Effect). Shift + knob = its destination, among the same parameters and colours as the matrix; Clear held, then Shift + knob = the default one. Saved with the own patch and with the project. Details: Knob pages.
• Non-sequenceable knobs (Shift + pad 4): the same choice of destination, on 8 knobs that are not lanes; by default Attack, Decay, Sustain, SHAPE, LFO → filter, Env → pitch, MIX OSC 1 / 2, VCA gain; saved with the own patches.

Step-drummer destinations

• MIDI 1 / 2: pads 17-24 of its view = the engine parameter every step moves; Synth 1 / 2: macros 1-8. Details: Step-drummer.

The 70 macro destinations

A.1Installing 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 (RC4, the safer RC4S, 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.
• New builds: in step 2, Check for new builds looks up the published ones (it needs the internet) and adds to the list those your installer does not carry; you pick and send them like the others.

A.2Card and device app

It organises, from the computer, what is on the microSD card or on the device connected by USB. It also works with the official firmware; only the custom patches belong to the mod.

Opening

• Open folder…: choose the Tracks folder of the card or of a copy on the computer.
• Device…: the Circuit Tracks over USB. Close Components and accept the MIDI permission. Save the project first. The transport stops and the panel stays locked until Disconnect device; closing the page without disconnecting releases it too.
• ↻ reads what is open again. Backups: choose the folder on the computer where the app keeps what it replaces or deletes.

The two columns

Each column opens a folder, a card or the device, with its own pack. A click chooses a row; Ctrl adds and Shift chooses a range.

• Copy and Move send the selection to the other column: to the slot chosen there or, with none chosen, to the first free one. If it is in use, the app asks: overwrite or, when moving, swap.
• Delete removes the selection, after asking. Edit opens the selection in Custom patches, Patterns and CC presets; so does a double click.
• Rename / order… changes the name or the number of one chosen row in Packs, Nova synths, Drums and Custom patches (in CC presets, the name only: the projects of every pack choose presets by their number). An occupied number = the two swap. A new name changes only the name. A new number for a sample or a Nova synth that projects of the pack use asks what to do with them: «Move their references» rewrites those projects so each one still sounds the same; «Leave them» keeps them on the old number, which now holds something else. What gets rewritten: each drum's sample and its sample flips, the MIDI 1 / 2 own synth's sample and its flips, and the Synth 1 / 2 patch (the log says which projects were updated). Custom patches are found by their sound and no project names a pack: they just move. The app only takes names the device and the card accept: ASCII letters, digits, spaces and signs (no accents); for packs and samples, no \ / : * ? " < > | and no space or dot at the end, and at most 27 characters for a pack and 23 for a sample (30 with the number and the extension); patches 16; CC presets 32. Over USB the pack the device has loaded is not renamed or moved (it would reload the project); in the loaded pack the app warns before rewriting its projects.

The tabs

Which projects use what

In Nova synths, Drums and Custom patches, before the name: ● n = n projects of the pack use it; ○ = none. Hovering, or choosing a single row, shows the list: project and track. Deleting something in use, the app warns.

• Nova synths: the patch Synth 1 / 2 points at in each project. The project carries its own copy, which is what a load plays; when it is no longer named like the slot, the list gives its name.
• Drums: each drum's sample, the sample flips of its steps and, with the MIDI 1 / 2 own synth, the sample of the granular or sample engine and its flips.
• Custom patches: a project keeps no patch number. It counts when the own synth saved with the project sounds the same: same engine and same values, even with another name.
• With the device connected the list is not read by itself: press See which projects use them (it reads every session of the pack over USB).

Importing DX7 voices

In Custom patches, Import DX7… opens a DX7 .syx: a 32-voice bank (4104 bytes), a single voice (163 bytes), several messages in one file or a 4096-byte bank without a header. The list shows each voice with the slot it goes to: From slot picks the first (by default the chosen row or the first free slot), Skip the slots in use overwrites no patch (unticked, the ones replaced carry ⚠), All / None and the boxes choose the voices.

• Each voice becomes a custom patch: the oscillator with the 8-operator FM on (the DX7's 6 operators; 7 and 8 silent), poly voice mode and the voice's name. Envelopes, levels, ratios, scaling, velocity, algorithm, feedback and transpose, in the DX7's units. The DX7's LFO is kept in the patch but does not play yet.
• It needs Beta 5.20 or later on the device: the 8-operator FM is stored in an own record at the end of the patch bank. Copy, move, delete and export carry that record with the patch; in the Editor, such a patch shows its algorithm and its operators are edited on the device.
• A wrong check byte does not stop the import: the app says so.

Patterns

• At the top you choose the pack and the session. The third selector filters: With content, All or one track.
• Each row gives the track and pattern (Synth 1·3), what it holds and its steps, with a grid of its notes. With the device connected, also the track's channel; the channel is kept on the device, not in the session.
• Choosing a row shows the pattern large below: a piano roll for note tracks, velocity bars for drums, with sample flips in amber and rollers split.
• A double click edits a note track: first and last step, sync rate, direction, order, notes and automation lanes. Drum patterns can be seen, copied and exported, but not edited yet.
• Project sounds… (at the top, with the chosen session): what that project loads. Synth 1 / 2 = the Nova slot it points at and the copy a load plays (its initial state: Take the slot's replaces it with that slot's patch); MIDI 1 / 2 = the project's own synth (from a custom patch, with its 8-operator FM and its wavetable; Edit its initial state… opens the patch editor on the project's copy); Drum 1-4 = each one's sample. Save to the project writes that session only; the pack's slots do not change.
• A drum pattern only goes to another drum track. A copy leaves in the destination the chain rules and the project data kept in the pattern's settings; on drums, also the per-step frequency and random-mutate.

Export

Export… saves the selection on the computer, with no card folder and no full dump. With nothing chosen, it exports everything in the list (in Packs you have to choose). One item asks for a file name; several, for a folder.

• The .mid is one loop of the pattern, forward from its first step to its last, on the track's channel. It has no direction, sample flips or automation, and a long note stops at the end.
• Exported files cannot be loaded back from the app yet, except .ctcc.

Snapshot and Restore

With the device connected:

• Snapshot… makes a Circuit_<date> folder with all the packs, the internal pack and the CC presets. That folder also opens with Open folder…, like a card.
• Restore… asks for that folder, compares each file by size and CRC and shows a plan: what it writes, what it deletes and what is already equal. It only changes what differs, and what it replaces goes to your backups folder first.
• The internal pack is not written back, and packs that are not in the snapshot stay.
• Left out: the device's settings, which cannot be written, and whatever is unsaved in the project.

The bar at the bottom shows the progress: percentage, MB, speed, time left and file. With patches and patterns it moves by items.

Precautions

• Take a snapshot or a copy of the card first. Writing over USB has been tested on a real device, but there may be bugs still undiscovered.
• Over USB, each write deletes the old file first. That is why the backups folder is compulsory with the device.
• Never leave copies inside a pack: the device finds files by their NN_ prefix and a copy can take the original's place. If the app warns about files that can hide the pack's own, remove them from the computer.
• The loaded pack: if you write to it, it reloads on disconnect and unsaved edits are lost.
• Connecting overwrites about 1.7 s of an unsaved captured sample. Do not use Components at the same time.