Novation Circuit Rhythm and Circuit Tracks

Market/product differentiation since Novation had decided to throw out 2 similar products instead of a Circuit Pro.

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As far as I can tell, it’s set up basically like the Digitakt or the Model: Samples where each track has its own channel. I’d have to double check to see if it’s the same deal where you can play all the tracks from one channel at the bottom of the keyboard. I’m guessing it is.

As far as how you can use them, I really can’t get the thing to respond the way I want to parameter locks on track parameters. I can, for example change the sample without an issue. But I can’t put that in a sequence even if I have the Digitakt send the message before the note. I hope that I’m just doing it wrong.

However, depending on what kind of samples you want to use, you can probably just as easily record the samples you want into one sample and use the slice mode since it just responds to regular old notes.

Also, while I couldn’t get other things working the way I wanted to, controlling the master filter and the grid fx was no problem at all.

Nope

I don’t think so. I’ve been using mine for a few months now and I haven’t had this happen.

Hey up,

This is my first jam with the Rhythm. Still getting used to the grid fx, but I enjoyed this:

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Hi all,

Need to midi and could use a hand. Trying to connect a db-01 to my rhythms midi channel 2. I’m getting signal when the db-01 is set to keyboard mode but outside of that it’s not registering the notes. I’ve looked in the circuit manual and it’s just a little confusing.

Anyone with better knowledge would be much appreciated!

Pretty dope :crazy_face:

Could resist no longer, ordered from Bax here in UK. Delivered by Hermes, wish me luck :roll_eyes:

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there’s gear4music in UK?

Yep, over £100 more than Bax though…

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firmware changes and bugfixes are available once you click on “Technical Release Notes” in Components

This is a very easy trick for time stretching that I think people overlooked because I did.

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thank you sir!

Yeah. I just ordered one… seems fun… guess you can never have too many grooveboxes :innocent:

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The sample mangling seems a bit limited on the Circuit Rhythm. Not too many ways to manipulate samples.

I’d quite like one for the portability but I think I might find it a bit underwhelming. Anyone have both model samples and the CR. How do they compare?

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Mine arrived today, not tried sampling yet but jamming with the factory samples simply highlights how much fun this is! And quick!

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I used to have a Model: Samples. I think the reverb and delay are a whole lot better on the Model: Samples. But I like the filters better on the Rhythm. You can also use both the high pass and the low pass together. Although only the low pass is resonant. I’m not really big on using all that much distortion so I don’t have a strong opinion there.

The Rhythm has what Novation calls slope, which is like a stripped down amp envelope that gives you more to work with than just the decay on the Model: Samples. But the Rhythm doesn’t have an LFO.

The Rhythm can motion sequence and do a version of parameter locking for most parameters, but it’s not as straightforward as on the Model: Samples. It’s also not as flexible. So you can change the cutoff or the sample start point on a given step but you can’t reverse it for one step. And the fx sends can be automated but not by step. But unlike the Model: Samples you can automate the panning.

The Rhythm doesn’t have control all, but it does have a master filter and grid fx. And those are all pretty good. And they’re also all things that the Model: Samples just doesn’t really have a version of to compare it to like the digitize, which is a lofi effect or beat repeats. And these can all be applied to incoming audio, as well as the internal tracks

And then there’s the obvious fact that you can sample and resample on the Circuit Rhythm. And it really feels like that’s what it was made to do. Most of my beats are things that I’ve put together with it and then resampled and chopped up again.

With the sequencer as a whole, I can kind of go back and forth as to what I’d prefer. The resolution is pretty bad on the Rhythm. It’s 24 ppqn but you can double up a track if you want. And like I was saying the parameter locking isn’t as straight forward. But other than that, I prefer the Rhythm. You can mix and match patterns and save them on scenes. You can chain those together within a project. And you can even chain projects together. It’s a nice way of doing things. Also, the layout makes playing and sequencing notes a lot easier on the Rhythm. You can also do things like play patterns in reverse or random order.

Something else to consider is that the Rhythm doesn’t have USB audio. So you need an interface to record it. And when you do, it’s quiet. That’s not a big problem for me since I like to run it through my Digitakt’s compressor anyway. But it’s quiet.

Also, there’s the pack system and the Components software. This is where the Model: Samples is just better. You’ve got access to all of your samples whereas on the Rhythm they need to live on packs and you can’t import samples from one pack into another one that you’ve already started. And Components is just not nearly as fast and straightforward as Transfer.

So yeah, I sold my Model: Samples to help fund my Circuit Rhythm and I’m happy with that. But there are trade offs.

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Mine arrived too, however it didn’t have any factory sounds…

I updated the firmware successfully, but I can’t transfer any packs with components. I get an error about the internal flash not being formatted, so it’s dead on arrival :disappointed:

I reached out to Novation for support and ordered a second unit, hope that one will work!

You need to add an SD card to the unit. There is no internal memory.

The factory pack is preloaded into the internal memory which you don’t need an SD card for. You only need an SD card if you want to have back up packs saved to the unit.

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32 packs, the first is always on the internal memory, the other 31 on the sd card, a 32 GB card is what
you need, each pack is around 900mb.

There is internal storage, the first pack should be on internal flash and the rest is indeed on a SD-card…

Error the internal flash needs to be formatted-cropt Error circuit-circuit-rythm.no-valid-file-system-crop

I cannot format the internal storage as it is read only, there is no filesystem according to the diskpart utility… not sure if this is fixable or just a bad flash chip due to the chip shortages.

A second unit should be delivered today, hope this one will work and I’ll return the faulty one…

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