CIRCUIT-HACKS

A1Shortcut map

A2Grid FX on the Mixer button

Grid FX is a performance view with effects on the master output, a song pointer and a row of assignable effects (sections C4, C5, C6, C7 and D1).

1. 1. Press Mixer.
2. 2. Press Mixer again: Grid FX opens.
3. 3. Any other view button goes back to the normal view.

A3Keys of the FX view

• The bottom row (pads 25-32) is the same as in Grid FX: assignable slots, the Glitch (31) and record (32).
• If Setup routes the reverb / delay return to strip 3 / 4, the sends of those strips stop at half range and move at half speed.

A4Clear + knob = default value

• On the drums and the MIDI engine it resets both layers of the knob: the plain one and the Shift one.
• Grid FX: while Clear is held, the knobs of the selected effect show blue at their default and red elsewhere. It works for the effects of pads 1-6, the Glitch (normal speed, no repeat, no delay or chaos) and the sample (no transposition, one-shot, start 0, end at maximum).
• RC0.3: the drum blue is the original’s (before, a dim red-orange showed).

A5Switch off latched effects (Grid FX pad 8)

• Shift + effect pad latches the effect. Touching it again (without Shift) releases it.
• Pad 8 (white) releases every latched effect, also those of the bottom row, switches the song pointer off and stops the sample.

A6Synth source view

1. 1. With the Synth 1 or Synth 2 view on screen, press its button again.
2. 2. Pick the source:

1. 3. Any button closes the view.

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

A7Chromatic and scale view of the drums

• Shift + Preset with a drum selected: the pads play the sample transposed by the scale and root of the Scales view (three rows).
• K1 = pitch offset in semitones; Shift + K1 = fine tuning in cents.
• While recording, each pitch is recorded on its own step only.
• Note view of the drums: pads 25-28 repeat the tiles of drums 4 … 1.

A8Pack management on the device

Not in the safer builds (RC0.3S, RC0.2S, RC0.1S, RC0S). New: RC0.1, Duplicate lights and works in the drum and synth Preset views, copying samples and patches between packs and deleting packs by presses; RC0.2, the Clear LED during a delete; RC0.3, copies go into the replaced sample’s place when they fit, the import memory never overwrites a sample that plays and the delete is easier to follow (Clear steady white, the packs get their colours back); RC0.4, copies to empty slots and Clear steady white as soon as the packs view opens.

Saving the captures into the pack

When the project is saved, every drum sample replaced by a capture (A9) is written into the pack as PCM/NN_PCM.wav, if it fits in the sample memory.

Swapping two samples

Drum Preset view: hold Duplicate (it lights in this view), touch pad A (it blinks blue), then pad B. Both files and the sample table are swapped: you hear it at once.

Copying samples between packs

1. 1. In the sample’s pack: Drum Preset view, Duplicate + pad A. It stays copied (blinks blue while Duplicate is held), even after you release Duplicate.
2. 2. Load the other pack. While Duplicate is held, the pad with A’s number blinks yellow.
3. 3. Duplicate + pad B: sample A is copied over B in this pack and sounds at once. A’s pack is left untouched.
4. 4. Duplicate + A again (in its pack) cancels.
5. 5. Inside one pack, Duplicate + A + B still swaps the two samples.
6. 6. Where the copy goes (from RC0.3): if the sample fits in B’s place it goes there and uses no memory. Otherwise it goes into the free import memory (≈ 44 s), which starts again once no sample uses it (for instance after loading the pack again). If there is no room, nothing changes: a copy never overwrites a sample that plays.
7. 7. Empty B (from RC0.4): a pad without a sample can be the target; its file is created in the pack.

Copying synth patches between packs

1. 1. Synth 1 or 2 Preset view, in the patch’s pack: Duplicate + pad A (Duplicate lights in this view). It stays copied (blue while Duplicate is held).
2. 2. Load the other pack: while Duplicate is held, A’s pad (on its page) blinks yellow.
3. 3. Duplicate + pad B: patch A is copied over B in this pack and B is chosen again, so it sounds at once. A’s pack is left untouched. Inside one pack the two patches are swapped; Duplicate + A again cancels.
4. 4. The 128 patches of a pack are shared by both synths. Not in the source or step-drummer views (from RC0.3, not even with Duplicate held before they open).
5. 5. Empty slot (from RC0.4): B can be an unlit pad. If it lies past the last patch of its bank, the empty slots in between stay empty, as when the original saves a patch.

Deleting a pack

1. 1. Packs view (Shift + Projects): tap Clear (no Shift). For ~5 s the packs that can be deleted blink (never the loaded one).
2. 2. Touch the pack: only that one blinks; it is not loaded.
3. 3. Tap Clear again within 5 s: the pack is deleted. The slot can be reused after a restart.
4. 4. This is how it works from RC0.1; in RC0 (Clear held + pack) it did not work on the device. Clear shows steady white as soon as the packs view opens (from RC0.4; dim before) and while the delete waits for confirmation; when it ends or is cancelled the packs get their colours back (from RC0.3; in RC0.2 Clear blinked and the packs could stay dark; in RC0.1 Clear did not light).

A9Replace a drum with the capture

• Clear + pad: asks (the pad blinks). Clear + the same pad again: confirmed; the sample plays the Grid FX capture (C5).
• Any pad without Clear cancels the question; Clear + another pad moves it to that pad.
• It is volatile until you save the project: then it is written into the pack (A8). In the safer builds it lasts until the pack is loaded again.
• Up to RC0.2 it was Shift + pad; from RC0.3 Shift + pad is the original’s silent selection again (picking a sample without playing it).

A10CC editor of the MIDI macros

1. 1. MIDI 1 / 2 Preset view, pad 25 (it lights).
2. 2. Move a knob: it is selected and its CC number is drawn with the 32 pads.
3. 3. Octave ▼ / ▲: next / previous field.
4. 4. Turn the knob to change the value.
5. 5. Save: pad 26 (Save), or step with Octave ▼ to the save step (pad 26 and the Save button blink) and press Octave ▼ again.
6. 6. Discard: any view button, pad 25 or a template pad.

A11Mixer: Shift + knob = level to 100 / 0

• On the levels page of the Mixer (the normal one, Octave ▲). On the pan page (Octave ▼), Shift + knob moves the pan as always.
• The jump works like a turn of the knob: it goes out over MIDI and, while recording, it is written into the automation.
• On the original, Shift + knob did the same as the plain knob: no function is lost. Clear + knob (delete the automation) and Grid FX (Mixer twice) do not change.
• From RC0.3 (also in RC0.3S).

B1Drum knobs as printed on the panel

• The LED brightness shows the value; Clear + knob resets both layers.
• Everything is saved with the project and has NRPN (E4).

B2Reverb and delay parameters

• In the FX view, with Octave ▲ (delay) or Octave ▼ (reverb), Shift + knob sets the global effect.
• Reverb: K1 type, K2 decay, K3 damping. Delay: K1 time, K2 sync, K3 feedback, K4 width, K5 ratio, K6 slew.
• The LED shows the value with its brightness.

B3MIDI for everything new

• MIDI track engine: stock CCs where the function matches and NRPN 4:code for the rest, on the track channel.
• Drums: NRPN MSB 5-8 = Drum 1-4, LSB 1-12, on the drum channel.
• Grid FX: NRPN MSB 9, LSB = 4 × set + knob, channel 16.
• They follow the CC Tx / Rx filters of Setup. Full tables in E4.

B4Automation of the MIDI engine

• Engine page 4 (pad 4 of the page row): TUNE, Release, Env → level, Env → filter, Filter, Resonance, LFO speed, Effect amount.
• While recording, moving those knobs records the movement; on playback the pattern moves them.
• With the step-drummer on, the TUNE lane is used by the pitch row.

B5Setup and device MIDI

• Internal loopback: if a MIDI track shares its channel with a synth or the drums, what it sends reaches them internally.
• Pads 22 / 23 light cream (reverb) and peach (delay), the colours of the FX view; dim = off.

MIDI Thru: Merge and Filter (BETA0 only)

The original only lets the Thru jack be Thru (a hardware copy of DIN In, Duplicate dim red) or Out 2 (a second MIDI output, green). Duplicate in the Advanced Setup view now steps through four modes:

• DIN In SysEx is not copied in Merge / Filter. In Merge, if the device follows the DIN In clock and has Clock Tx on, the Thru jack carries two clocks: switch Clock Tx off.
• It is saved in the settings. With the original firmware, Merge / Filter go back to Out 2.

B6Patch flip on MIDI 1 / 2

• MIDI 1 / 2 Preset view, pad 26: the notes of the track send Program Change.
• It switches off when the track engine is switched on (pad 27), and the other way round.

C1Engine of the MIDI tracks (pad 27)

Each MIDI track gets its own “synth”: the track’s audio input (line 1 for MIDI 1, line 2 for MIDI 2) or an internal engine goes through VCA, effect and filter, with envelope and LFO, before mixer strip 3 / 4. The notes of the track trigger it. The track still sends its MIDI.

States of pad 27

Pads of the Preset view

Page 1 — VCA-VCF

Type knobs: colour = type, brightness = position inside the type.

Page 2 — OSC 1 (with the oscillator / VA-drum)

Page 3 (OSC 2): K1 TUNE 2 / FINE 2, K2 SHAPE 2 / FM, Shift + K3 RING, K7 WAVE 2. Page 4: the 8 sequenceable values (B4). Page 5: ADSR on top, LFO at the bottom.

• The engine values are saved in the device (not with the project); the OSC 2 ones are volatile.

C2Step-drummer

Opening and closing

• Pad 30 bright = view open; dim = closed. On MIDI, Shift + pad 30 disables the step-drummer.

Controls

• Pitch on MIDI: the pair value (64 = no change) offsets the destination: pitch of both oscillators, OSC 2 pitch, WAVE, FM, MIX, env → filter, SHAPE, decay.
• Pitch on the synths: the value is the macro position, written as automation.
• Each step keeps the pitch of its first note; a new note takes the pair’s or the previous one.
• Real-time recording: with Record on, playing a step also records it on the step that plays, with its microstep.

C3FX sequencer

1. 1. On MIDI 1 / 2, set pad 27 to blue. The step-drummer of the track switches on.
2. 2. Open its view with pad 30. Put notes on the steps with Shift + pad.
3. 3. Each knob (a pair of steps) picks a slot of the Grid FX bottom row:

1. 4. While the sequencer runs, every step with a note switches on what that slot holds: an effect (with its copy of the parameters) or the Glitch. The knob LED takes the colour of that effect; off = none.

• Assign the effects to the bottom row in Grid FX first (C7).
• The track makes no sound in the DSP; its notes still go out over MIDI.
• Leaving the blue state switches the step-drummer of the track off.

C4Song pointer (Grid FX)

• One held step: retrigger, the step repeats while you hold it.
• Two held steps: the pattern loops between them while you hold them.
• Shift + two steps: latched phrase; pad 9 turns white and touching it clears it.
• Phrase mode (SC34.2): Shift + a step enters the mode with that step as start and 16 as end. In the mode, touching a step moves the end (no retrigger); Shift + another step moves the start; Shift + the start or the white pad 9 exits.
• The playhead is white while the sequencer runs. When a project loads it starts off.

C5Captured sample

Recording (pad 32, Grid FX and FX view)

• Hold: records while held (up to 3.46 s).
• Short press: records until the next press.
• Shift + pad 32: armed: with the transport running it records the next bar; stopped, it starts when you press Play, from the first beat, and records that bar (from RC0.4; it used to start a bar late).

Playing (pad 7)

• Press pad 7: it plays and its knobs move to K1-K4: K1 pitch (±24 semitones), K2 mode (yellow one-shot, green gate, blue loop), K3 start, K4 end (end < start = reversed).
• Shift + pad 7: a latched loop, in any mode, until you press pad 7 again (or pad 8); the same with Shift + a slot of the sample (from RC0.4; in RC0-RC0.3 it only played while held).
• The loop mode (K2 blue) is a different thing: it only plays while you hold the pad and stops when you release it.

Assigning

Hold pad 7 and touch a pad of the bottom row: that slot plays the sample with a copy of its knobs.

C6Glitch (pad 31) and its assignment

• Holding pad 31: the master output is replaced by a tape head reading the recent audio (D6). On release the normal audio comes back.
• When pressed in Grid FX, K1-K4 are its parameters:

• Assign: hold pad 31 and touch another bottom-row pad (without Shift): that slot stores a Glitch with the current copy of K1-K4 and lights turquoise. Touching that slot plays it with its values.
• Two Glitch slots at once: the last one you press plays; release it and the other one comes back with its values. Neither copies the other’s values (in RC0, pressing one while another played copied its knobs).
• Pad 31 lights while the Glitch plays.

C7Assignable bottom row (Grid FX / FX)

• Pads 26-30 (and 31 as the Glitch): assignable slots. An unassigned slot is the stock performance effect of the FX view.
• Assign: hold the effect on top (pads 1-6), pad 7 (sample) or pad 31 (Glitch) and touch the slot.
• Touching the slot: loads its copy of the parameters and enables the effect while held. Shift + slot latches it.
• The assignments travel with the project and come back at power-on; when switching sessions the ones in RAM stay.
• The FX sequencer (C3) triggers these slots.

D1Grid FX effects

• Hold = active; Shift = latched. The brightness of the knob LEDs shows the value.

D2VCA-VCF of the MIDI tracks

• Per-voice chain: VCA → effect → filter, or filter → VCA → effect (pad 29).
• State-variable filter with key tracking; 24 dB LP / HP = two stages.
• VCA with ADSR, velocity, gain up to +18 dB with soft saturation.
• Inverse-ramp LFO to level, filter, pitch, shape and morph.
• The default values let the input through clean.

D3Oscillators and paraphony

• OSC 1: WAVE is a continuous morph (0 sine, 42 triangle, 84 saw, 126 square); SHAPE folds the sine / triangle, bends the saw or changes the square’s width. Envelope and LFO move pitch, shape and morph.
• OSC 2 (pad 28): its own TUNE / FINE / WAVE / SHAPE; MIX, FM (OSC 2 → OSC 1 phase), RING and BITSYNC (soft sync every N cycles, xor, or, nor, and, nand).
• Paraphony: one note = unison; two = one per oscillator.

D4VA-drum engine

• Pad 31: velocity also sets the level of the pitch and filter envelopes.
• Kick: sine, Decay ~70, Sustain ~30, Env → pitch to the right. Snare: more noise, short Decay, band pass.

D5Granular synth

Magenta state of pad 27; pad 2 of the page row = granular page.

• Pitch mode: the note changes the pitch of the grains; with two notes they are shared between both.
• Slicer mode: the note picks one of 16 slices of the sample.
• Stretch mode (BETA0 only): the stretch from K2 to the end of the sample lasts K3 steps (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48 or 64; K3’s LED shows it) at any tempo, without changing the pitch, and starts again in step with the start of the transport; the notes change the pitch as in pitch mode. With the transport stopped it stands still. K7 / K8 do little in this mode.
• It goes through the VCA-VCF of page 1. It shares its saved values with the oscillator page.

D6Glitch engine

• The master is recorded all the time into a 2.7 s stereo ring.
• On press, the head starts at “now − delay” with a short fade-in.
• Negative speed = backwards; near 0 = tape stop.
• Repeat: at the end of each segment it goes back to its start; at maximum, continuous delay without fades.
• Chaos: random jumps back, silences and reversals.
• Overload (K4 in the upper half, from RC0.2): imitates what was heard when the DSP sample memory was really overloaded (SC35DB): in every 32-sample block, with a probability that grows with K4, the block “comes late” (the head goes 32 samples back and catches up at the next late block); from K4 ≈ 96 the head also brakes down to 0.43 ×. It is a simulation: the DSP is not loaded, so the sequencer, the MIDI clock and the rest of the audio are not affected.

D7Drum DSP

• State-variable filter per drum (DJ, band pass, notch), comb with feedback and the stock EQ tilt.
• Ring mod with its own oscillator, tremolo / vibrato LFO, soft / hard / folded distortion, bitcrush.
• Sidechain between drums: Shift + FX and Octave ▼: ducking pages per drum (rows 3-4) and which drum triggers it (row 1, pads 5-8).

D8Audio inputs and returns

• The synths can use input 1 / 2 (or inverted) instead of the noise (A6).
• With the Setup returns on strips 3 / 4, the sends of those strips send the return again, already processed by the VCF / FX of the track, to the reverb and the delay.

E1What is saved and where

E2Installing and going back

1. 0. Without building: tools/rc_uploader.html patches the official firmware ([Novation download](https://components.novationmusic.com/api/v2/firmwares/168/file)) in the browser and sends it. Pick RC0.4, RC0.4S, BETA0 (or the earlier RC0.3 / RC0.3S) or “Official”.
2. 1. Open tools/ct_uploader.html in Chrome and connect the Circuit Tracks over USB.
3. 2. Pick the .syx from firmware/<version>/: the uploader checks its SHA-256.
4. 3. Send. Novation’s bootloader is not modified.

• Going back: send another version or the official firmware. If the device does not start: hold Scales + Preset + Note at power-on (bootloader recovery mode).
• The RC branch does not publish .syx files: they are generated with tools/patch_official.py from the official firmware.
• RC0.4 (fifth release candidate) = RC0.3 + the fixes of SC38.2-SC38.6; RC0.3 = SC38, RC0.2 = SC37.5, RC0.1 = SC37.4, RC0 = SC36.2.
• BETA0 (beta) = SC38.7: RC0.4 + what this manual marks BETA0 only (granular stretch, MIDI Thru Merge / Filter, Clear + pad 27). Not tested on the device yet: use it with a backup of the SD card.
• Safer build: RC0.4S = RC0.4 without features that write to the SD card (no A8, no remote diagnostics; = RC0S + what RC0.1-RC0.4 add outside the SD card). Back up the SD card before installing any version.
• New features and fixes of every version: CHANGELOG.md.

E3Development and diagnostic tools

• tools/build_scNN.py: every version is built from the official firmware; verify_builds.py checks they all give the same SHA-256.
• tools/emu_*.py: emulation tests (Unicorn for the ARM, dsp56300 for the DSP).
• tools/ctremote.py + rdiag: the PC reads memory, card items and the device’s capture over SysEx. Only in the diagnostic builds and in SC35 / SC36: SC36.1, SC36.2, the RCs (RC0 … RC0.4 and their safer builds) and BETA0 do not include it, to leave the USB protocol alone.
• docs/NOTAS.md: technical map of everything found (in Spanish).

E4MIDI tables

MIDI track engine — track channel

The rest, NRPN MSB 4 with LSB = code (4, 12, 13, 15, 16, 21-26, 32, 33).

Drums — NRPN MSB 5 / 6 / 7 / 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 point, 11 bitcrush, 12 distortion type.

Grid FX — channel 16, NRPN MSB 9

LSB = 4 × set + knob: Gater 0-3, Auto-Filter 4-7, Digitise 8-11, Phaser 12-15, Vinyl 16-19.