My thoughts on the Novation Circuit

N3V3RM1ND · Post by **N3V3RM1ND** » Sat Nov 28, 2015 6:02 pm

It not only sounds great, it's the work flow element that makes this thing great. Not to mention the price. 30 minutes after unboxing it I had Kraftwerks "Home Computer" blasting through my studio monitors. It does fall a little short with only 2 poly synths and only 4 drum parts but that can be fixed easily by just picking up a second unit. Yes that's right, a second one. For those of you who feel the Electribes aren't for you, give Circuit a shot. It might be the answer.

Oh and by the way, 8 bars make all the difference in the world..

circuitghost · Post by **circuitghost** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 6:38 am

N3V3RM1ND wrote:It not only sounds great, it's the work flow element that makes this thing great. Not to mention the price. 30 minutes after unboxing it I had Kraftwerks "Home Computer" blasting through my studio monitors. It does fall a little short with only 2 poly synths and only 4 drum parts but that can be fixed easily by just picking up a second unit. Yes that's right, a second one. For those of you who feel the Electribes aren't for you, give Circuit a shot. It might be the answer.

Oh and by the way, 8 bars make all the difference in the world..

Workflow aside (which is important, of course, but just for the sake of argument), would you say the Circuit has any other benefits over the Electribe? Given its limitations of tracks and sounds compared to the tribe, I'm still getting the impression that doesn't seem to bother new recruiters to the Circuit all that much.

mailman1979 · Post by **mailman1979** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 8:00 am

My opinion: best way is to use Circuit AND Electribe, not OR. I have both, and they work great together

tim from texas · Post by **tim from texas** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 3:20 pm

the sequencer is a lot more fun and interactive for me than i ever got with the electribe.. plus i like step sequencing the synth parts and the way that you can adjust velocity and gate super easily and visually AND by working in chunks (bars) at a time make it really easy for me.. I loved my esx compared to any of my sp-samplers because of how quick and easy it was to get up and running quickly.. its the same thing with the circuit.. I am probably not a great person to listen to in regards to the synthesis.. i owned an er1-mk2 and an alesis micron and never really understood what i was doing.. the circuit is awesome because it gives you a base to start with and i just tweak the knobs until i find the sound i am looking for and roll with it.. I just started messing with the effects too and that section seems straight forward and clean also.. there are two different types reverb and delay? i am pretty sure one is reverb and i cant remember what the other is.. and they are global but you can turn on or off (or increase or decrease) the effect per part.. you can run one effect from each group at a time.. I have never used an EMX so theres my two cents

immon · Post by **immon** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 5:33 pm

I can see some similarities between circuit and the sugarbytes app 'egoist'. This only has 3 parts, a drum track, a bass synth and a sample slicer, but because it is quick to use you can jump around patterns very easily. It's easy to produce good results. It would be killer if circuit allowed samples.

tim from texas · Post by **tim from texas** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 5:59 pm

there is a software editor that is supposed to be dropping at some point that will allow deeper manipulation of the synth sounds.. on the circuit users page on facebook, several novation reps have hinted at other possible functionality through the software also.. they talked about having access to a larger sound library and also hinted at being able to add samples.. but the proof is in the pudding..

michi_mak · Post by **michi_mak** » Tue Dec 01, 2015 8:15 am

tim from texas wrote:the sequencer is a lot more fun and interactive for me than i ever got with the electribe.. plus i like step sequencing the synth parts and the way that you can adjust velocity and gate super easily and visually AND by working in chunks (bars) at a time make it really easy for me...

yeah, me too - but i don't like any of the synth sounds built into the Circuit edit: no this was me :AND the sequencer seems to have an issue with notes ment to sound beyond step 16 of a bar (read have a 2 bar pattern and let a note sound from end of bar into bar 2 ->always cuts the note for me?!)

gizmoismogwai · Post by **gizmoismogwai** » Wed Dec 02, 2015 5:08 pm

I bought a circuit over the weekend and this thing is all about workflow and speed. The best comparison I can make is calling it a hardware version of Propellerheads Figure for iOS. It even has the same number of synths and drums.

The sounds are meh but I try to look past that and focus on the musical idea because ultimately I'm going to hook up my sequences to better sounding synths. This might sound like a problem but I can't stress enough how easily and how quickly I can come up with ideas that I actually like on the circuit. And though the sounds are not the best, with tweaking and extra processing you can feed them into a sampler for a long time before you run out of ideas.

I wouldn't compare it to the electribes at all though. It does about a quarter of what those do. Not meant to be an all-in-one workstation but a sketchpad and controller. At $325 its an overly expensive sketchpad but also being able to use this workflow as a controller for other sounds justifies the price, for sure. I could have purchased a launchpad for less but then I lose the sketchpad. So it works well for me.

mabi · Post by **mabi** » Wed Dec 02, 2015 7:02 pm

I came to the conclusion that the reason I haven't fell in love with my E2S is that it seems to be in an awkward place between a "workstation", a "sketchpad", and a performance device.

The editing is too limited and annoying for me to use for in-depth editing of a composition if I really want to flesh it out.

I find it too fussy for fun or brainstorming. There are a lot of apps, the volcas, and even the ds-10 on Nintendo that I grab first before the new electribe.

It would make a super-cool performance instrument except that because of the previous 2 points I don't have much to perform on it.

I know it is functionally capable of doing a lot of things, and I spent some time trying to appreciate it on its own terms. But after a few months for me it is a dud.

Haven't tried one yet but Circuit reminds me more of the volcas or the teenage engineering pocket operators. Very limited but easy to play around with and wind up with some good clips and ideas.

Sometimes I like serious musical instruments, and sometimes I like the ones that are more built for fun. The new electribes seem to exist somewhere in the middle.

tim from texas · Post by **tim from texas** » Wed Dec 02, 2015 7:43 pm

the sequencer is ten times what the volcas offer.. i found them to be super un inspiring.

apapdop · Post by **apapdop** » Fri Dec 04, 2015 3:51 pm

Sonicstate review of the Novation Circuit if anybody is interested.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9GP_hvP_PXM

Being able to (easily!!) record motion sequence data across several patterns is way cool...

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 7:49 am

The software editor was just announced:

http://isotonikstudios.com/novation-x-i ... it-editor/

immon · Post by **immon** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 10:07 am

Bit of a coup there for Darren at isotonik. Screen shots look great. Just the fact that novation have opened the device up to developers like that is a really positive move. I hope korg can make my Christmas with a sexy update.

Leptic Tech · Post by **Leptic Tech** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 4:24 pm

i don't success to use the editor with my pc

Spheric El · Post by **Spheric El** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 4:46 pm

E2 should of looked (and worked) like this.

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My thoughts on the Novation Circuit

My thoughts on the Novation Circuit

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