- "Start Something" was the tagline chosen by Novation for the tease campaign running up to the October 1st reveal of their newest creation. Besides those words, there weren't too many other clues. There were interviews with artists speaking in general terms about inspiration and the creative process, and some cleverly composed photos that showed producers using… something. As it turns out, it's a new groovebox called Circuit.
Circuit's physical design has elements taken from the Novation heritage. It has a four-by-eight pad grid reminiscent of the Launchpad, and a synth engine controlled by eight endless encoders, much like the UltraNova. These form the main components of the front panel layout, and they are complemented by a swath of buttons that switch between a handful of interaction modes. From a size perspective, it's nicely portable at 240-by-200-by-35 mm. Despite this compact size it still feels solid, and the rubberized base kept it neatly in place during my testing. Circuit's portability is further enhanced by its built-in speaker and its capacity to run on six AA batteries—and it lets you know how much battery power you have left using a clever pad visualization on startup, so you need not worry whether you've got enough juice. Connectivity-wise, you get pair of 1/4-inch jacks for stereo audio output, a 3.5 mm headphone jack on the front and MIDI via a pair of 3.5 mm hardware jacks (adapters included) as well as USB.
When it comes to creating sound, Circuit provides two synth parts and four drum parts. Each synth part gives you six-note polyphony of the virtual analog modeled synthesis found on the MiniNova and UltraNova. There are 64 synth presets available to choose from, and each preset has its own unique mapping to the eight macro encoders that sit above the pad grid. The combination of unlabeled presets and unlabeled macros (each of which can control up to four parameters at once) makes the Circuit an instrument that emphasizes experimentation and discovery rather than conceptual sound design. The drums are more straightforward. Each part lets you sequence one of the 64 available drum sounds, and the endless encoders can control the pitch, decay, distortion and filter for two parts at once. When it comes to effects, Circuit provides reverb and delay, with the ability to control the send amount for each part individually. Finally, the entire mix passes through a hi-pass/low-pass master filter, which has its own large dedicated knob. This is a nice touch for up-front filtering, but I would have preferred to be able to select individual parts to route through the filter.
As one would expect from a groovebox, Circuit has a fairly sophisticated sequencer centered on the pad grid. For the drum parts, this is a straightforward 16-step pattern with velocity sensitivity. You can set the sequence for two drum parts at once using the pad grid step sequencer or play and record notes manually, MPC-style. The synth side of Circuit is similar but has more features—you can sequence up to six notes per step and choose from 16 preset scales for note input. The step sequencer flow for synth parts is one of the best I've used. Building polyphonic sequences with it is fast and intuitive, and there's a nice hidden trick that lets you play steps manually by muting the synth part (which really just disables the sequence) and using the step sequencer pads like note/chord triggers. One feature that the synth patterns allow—that's unfortunately missing from their drum counterparts—is the ability to set a pattern length shorter than 16 steps for polyrhythmic sequencing. In addition to notes, sequences can also store macro knob changes much like the parameter locks on Elektron's hardware units. This lets you automate synth parameters, mixer levels and effects send amounts—a very nice inclusion and one that's pretty rare for a piece of gear this affordable.
Being limited to one-bar patterns would be unfortunate, but thankfully Circuit supports pattern chaining. The duplicate button lets you copy and paste individual notes or whole patterns, making it easy for you effectively extend a pattern to up to eight bars. Chaining patterns is as simple as pressing and holding the first pattern and then pressing the last pattern you want to play. Circuit will then play those patterns and any in between them in a loop. My only gripe with this is that once chaining is enabled, there's no way to select one of the chained patterns to edit it without subsequently triggering that individual pattern and breaking the chain. The current synth and drum sounds, effects and patterns are stored in what's known as a session, and Circuit gives you 32 session slots to save your song ideas or variations in. There's no way to back up or export your sessions right now, but that's rumored to be in development.
I've grown quite fond of Circuit in my time with it. While there are certainly ways it could be improved, I think Novation hit the mark with this one. As a tool for sparking creativity and serving as a sketchpad for new ideas, this little groovebox is pretty much unmatched at its price. If Novation continues to improve it over time, allowing users to design their own synth/drum patches or adding a DAW control mode (its form factor would make for a terrific Live controller), it would become an essential piece of gear. Even in its current initial state, it's well worth the price of admission.
Ratings:
Cost: 4.9
Versatility: 4.3
Sound: 4.6
Ease Of Use: 4.2