Patterns

Patterns

Each Project in Circuit Tracks has memory space for eight separate Patterns per track, so you can create eight Patterns for each synth, eight Patterns for each drum and eight Patterns for each of the two external MIDI instruments within a project.

• Patterns can be segued together to be played out as a complete chain of up to 256 (8 x 32) steps.
• Not all the Patterns for each track need to be chained in the same way: you could have 64-step drum patterns for each drum track combined with a longer sequence of bass and/or synth lines.

Patterns View

To arrange and organize your Patterns, use Patterns View, accessed by pressing Patterns. 

Patterns View has two pages, selected y the up and down buttons. The pages are identical and the Pattern memories are arranged vertically;

• On page 1 the pads select Patterns 1 to 4 for each track, on Page 2 the select Patterns 5 to 8.
• How each pad is lit indicates its status:
  • A dim pad means that the Pattern is not currently selected to play.
  • One pad per track will be pulsating slowly between dim and bright: this is the Pattern that was playing when Play was last stopped. Initially, Pattern 1 in each track will be in this state with all the other memories empty, and the pads dimly lit.

To select a different Pattern for any track, simply press its pad. You can do this in Stop or Play mode.

• Another important feature of pattern switching is that if you select a Pattern while another is already playing you can choose to “queue” the next Pattern to play at the end of the current one, or switch to another Pattern immediately.
  • The default is for the current Pattern to play to its end before the new Pattern starts playing, giving a smooth transition between patterns.
  • To switch to the next Pattern immediately, hold down Shift while selecting the next Pattern memory from the corresponding Pattern step.
  • By selecting Patterns this way, they will loop round as a pair every time you press Play until you deselect one of them (This is Pattern Chaining.)

The currently selected Pattern is the one you will hear in either Play or Record Mode. The current contents of the selected Pattern will play when you press Play, and if you add extra track information (drums, MIDI or synth notes), it will be saved in the same Pattern memory.

• Every time you press Play, the Pattern restarts from Step 1 (or the chosen Start point - selectable in Pattern Settings View)
  • If you want to continue the Pattern from the point at which teh sequencer was last stopped, press Shift and Play together.

Clearing Patterns

Pattern memories may be cleared in Patterns View by holding down Clear and pressing the corresponding pad. Both Clear and the pad itself will light bright red while you press them to confirm deletion.

• While playback is stopped, if the Pattern that is cleared is not the current active Pattern (indicated by the track colour pulsing), and is not part of a Pattern Chain, it will light white. This indicates that this Pattern will be displaed in all step views for the track. (Same behaviour as View Lock)

Duplicating Patterns

In Pattern View, the Duplicate button can e used to perform a simple copy-and-paste function, letting you copy a Pattern from one memory to another.

• It is often easier to modify an existing Pattern to be how you want it than create a new one from scratch.

To copy a Pattern form one memory to another, hold down Duplicate (it lights green), press the pad with the Pattern you want to copy (it lights green while you press it), and then press the pad for the memory where you want the copy to be stored (it will light red, then if playback is stopped, it will turn white once you release Duplicate, indicating that this Pattern will be displayed when you switch to a step view.)

• If you want to copy the Pattern data to several memories, you can continue to hold the Duplicate button down, and simply repeat the “paste” part of the operation to the other steps.
  • You an copy a Pattern from a synth to a MIDI track, and vice versa. You can also copy one drum track to another. However, you cannot copy a synth/MIDI track to a drum pattern track, and vice versa.

Step Page and 16/32-step Patterns

The default length of a Pattern in Circuit Tracks is 16 steps, but you can double the length to 32 steps with the Step Page button.

• A Pattern length of 16 steps or fewer is indicated by the Step Page button showing dim blue.
• To extend the length of the Pattern currently being viewed beyond 16 steps, press the Step Page button: it now shows bright blue for Page 1 - while displaying Steps 1 to 16, and orange for page 2- while displaying Steps 17 to 32.

Pressing Step Page (1-16/17-32) while a 32-step Pattern is playing changes the display to the other page but does not interrupt the Pattern.

• You can quickly set a set of Pattern length back to the default of 16 steps by holding down Clear and pressing the Step Page button.
  • Note: Notes and hits assigned to all 32 steps are preserved, though you will only hear those assigned to the first 16 steps after using Clear. Extending the Pattern length to 32 steps again will restore all the previously assigned notes and hits.
• You can also use Duplicate with the Step Page button. Holding down Duplicate and pressing the Step Page button will extend the Pattern length for the currently selected track to 32 steps, and copy all data at steps 1 to 16 to steps 17 to 32 respectively, including automation data.
  • Note: any data already present on page 2 will be overwritten by this operation.

Chaining Patterns

Once you've created several Patterns for one or more tracks, you can start to chain them together to make a longer sequence by pressing Patterns to open Patterns View.

When Patterns are chained, they play sequentially (in numerical order one after another, then repeat).

• i.e. If they are all 32-step Patterns, the chain will be 128 steps in length.

To create a Pattern Chain, press and hold the pad for the lowest-numbered Pattern required and then press the pad for the highest-numbered Pattern required (or it can be the other way around).

• i.e. If you want to chain a track's Patterns in memories 1 to 3 together, hold Pad 1 down and then press Pad 3. All three pads will illuminate, indicating that they are now formed into a chained sequence.
• You can also chain Patterns across the Page boundary by holding down the start pad, pressing the down arrow, then pressing the pad for the desired pattern on page 2.

What's important to remember is that the Patterns you chain together must be contiguous, that is, numerically consecutive. You can chain Patterns 1, 2, 3 and 4, but cannot chain Patterns 1, 3, and 5 together. 

• However, Circuit Tracks' Scene feature allows you to overcome this restriction
• Example of chaining patterns below:

• When you press Play, each track will loop round its own chain of Patterns. Circuit Tracks allows Pattern chains of up to 256 (8 x 32) steps.

Whenever you press Play, the Pattern Chain restarts from the start point of the first Patter in the chain. You can restart the Chain from the point at which the sequencer was stopped by pressing Play while holding down Shift.

Pattern Octave

You can shift the pitch of an entire synth or MIDI Pattern up or down one or more octaves by holding down Shift and then pressing Up or Down. This can be done either while the Pattern is playing or stopped.

• Pattern Octave can be changed in any of the step views. Only the pitch of the currently selected track is adjusted.
• If the limit for how high or low the octave amount you can go, the Up or Down button will light red.

View Lock

By default, the Pattern Step display on the upper two rows changes with the selected Pattern (and current Page), so that the play cursor is always visible. If you want to edit one pattern while continuing to play another Pattern or complete Pattern Chain, you can make use of View Lock.

• One use of View Lock is to “freeze” the Pattern Step display to the current Pattern (and Page) by holding down Shift and pressing Patterns. The upper two rows will now be locked to the Pattern that was displayed when you selected View Lock.
• In Patterns View, the currently viewed Patterns will be lit white. A pulsing white pad indicates that a Pattern is being both viewed and played ,while steady white indicates that Pattern is being viewed while another (of the same track) is being played: this pad will be pulsing in the track colour.
  • To change the viewed Pattern, hold shift and press a Pattern pad. You can still change which Patterns and Pattern Chains are playing in the usual way.

View Lock also lets you freeze the Step display on the current Page of the Pattern when you are working on a 32-step Pattern. When View Lock is active, the Pattern will continue to play through both Pages, but only the one Page that was in view when View Lock was selected is now displayed.

• While Shift is held, the Patterns button lights green when View Lock is active; when inactive it is red. 
  • You can press Shift at any time: the button colour will confirm whether View Lock is active or not.

View Lock is applied to all tracks, and also applies to all Views that have a Pattern Step display (i.e. Velocity View, Gate view, Note View, etc…)

• It can be cancelled by pressing Shift + Patterns again.
  • Note that the state of View Lock is not saved.

Scenes

Scenes let you assign multiple patterns and pattern chains within a project to a single pad, allowing you to trigger part of a song easily. Scenes themselves can also be chained to arrange much longer sequences to build up complete song structures

• Scenes are accessed in Mixer View: press Mixer to open this:

• The two lower rows of pads in Mixer View represent the 16 scenes that are available in Circuit Tracks.
  • In a new Project, all the pads will trigger Pattern 1 of all eight tracks as no Pattern Chains have been defined or assigned yet

Assigning Patterns to Scenes

Open Patterns View and define all the Pattern Chains for each track that are to constitute a Scene. Change to Mixer View, press and hold Shift: the Scene pads change colour to dim gold. Press a Scene pad (while still holding Shift) - it will light bright gold while pressed, indicating that Patterns are now assigned to it.

All the selected pattern chains are now stored as that Scene. On releasing Shift, the pad with the stored Scene will bright white. Now when you press the pad, the Scene is selected and will play the set of Pattern Chains which were assigned to it next time you press Play.

• When you select Mixer View, you will immediately be able to see where Scenes are already stored, as their pads will be lit bright white, or bright gold when you press Shift.
• Assigning Pattern Chains to a Scene does not affect current playback and will not select the Scene nor Change your Scene Chain if you are already in Play Mode: The selected Scene will start when the current Pattern or Pattern Chain is completed.
• Scene data is stored with the current Project when you perform a Save by pressing Save twice.
  • If a Scene pad is pulsing green, in indicates two things: That this is the currently selected Scene and that the currently selected Patterns match those assigned to the Scene.
    • If the selected Patterns are changed in Patterns View, the Scene pad will return to dim white.
    • If the matching Patterns are selected once again, the Scene pad will again pulse green.
  • This behaviour will only occur for the most recently selected Scene - If you select the Patterns of a Scene other than the most recently selected one, the corresponding pad will not turn green.

Chaining Scenes to create and arrangement

Just as you can chain Patterns together in Patterns View, so can you chain Scenes together in the Mixer View to create longer sequences.

• You do this by holding down the pad for the first Scene, then pressing the pad for the last Scene: these pads and all those between them will illuminate green.
• Note that you can use Scenes to overcome the restriction in Patterns View of not being able to define a Pattern Chain of non-contiguous groups of Patterns. You can assign the contiguous groups of Patterns to consecutive Scene memories and then play them out as a Scene Chain.
  • i.e. if you wanted to play Patterns 1, 2, 5 and 6 in order, you can make a Pattern Chain of Patterns 1 and 2 and assign it to a Scene memory, and then another Pattern Chain of Patterns 5 and 6 and assign it to the next Scene Memory.

Queuing Scenes

Scenes may be “pre-selected” in the same way as Patterns, so if a Scene is already playing, the next one is queued. 

• The pad for a queued Scene flashes green and then at the end of the Drum 1 Pattern currently playing, the new Scene will be playing from the start without losing sync.

Clearing Scenes

To clear a Scene memory, hold down Clear and press the pad for the Scene you wish to clear. This will return the Scene memory to its default state - Pattern 1 for all tracks.

Duplicating Scenes

To Copy a Scene, hold down Duplicate, press the pad for the Scene to be copied, then press the Pad for the Scene memory where you want the copy to be stored. Release Duplicate.

• However, you can paste the copied Scene multiple times (into different memory locations) if you keep Duplicate held.