The Drums

Circuit Tracks has four separate drum tracks, Drum 1 to Drum 4. The grid displays for the drum tracks are similar to those for the synth tracks in that the upper two rows show the same Pattern display. Each of the 16 pads of the lower to rows trigger a different percussion sample: there are four pages of these (each with 16 samples), which can be selected with the up and down buttons.

Each of the four drums may be selected and programmed independently using the Track buttons Drum 1 to Drum 4.

• The tracks use colour coding for the sample pads and elsewhere for each of identification.

The default sample page allocation is:

Drum 1: Page 1, slot 1 (Kick 1)

Drum 2: Page 1, slot 3 (Snare 1)

Drum 3: Page 1, slot 5 (Close hi hat 1)

Drum 4: Page 1, slot 9 (Additional percussion 1)

• Each page represents a kit. Drums 1 and 2 are kick drums, 3 and 4 are snares, 5 and 6 are closed hi hats, 7 and 8 are open hi hats, 9 through 12 tends to be additional percussion, and 13 through 16 are melodic sounds.

Playing Drums

You can audition the samples by pressing the sample pads. To change the active sample, give a different sample pad a quick tap: a longer press will play the sample but leave the previous sample assigned as the active one.

• To assign the active sample to Pattern steps in Stop Mode or Play Mode, tap the Pattern step pads that correspond to where you want drum hits to be triggered. The stops with hits will illuminate bright blue.
  • The step pads are toggles - to delete the drum hit from a step, tap the step pad again.
• The short/long press logic of the pads lets you play additional drum hits from a different sample pad over the Pattern: pressing (as opposed to tapping) a different pad will play its sample but the Pattern will not assume the new sample.
  • If you tap a different sample pad while the Pattern is playing, the Pattern will continue with the new sample.

Drum hits programmed in Stop or Play Modes will be assigned to steps with default Velocity, Micro Step and Probability values: these parameters can subsequently be edited.

• If you use Record Mode to record on the drum tracks, you play the hits in real time on the sample pad. In this case, the velocity of the hit is assigned to the step and its value can be inspected in Velocity View.

Expanded Drum View

You can enter a drum pattern for all drum tracks simultaneously on a dedicated set of four pads - one for each drum track - by using Expanded View. Expanded Drum View is the secondary view of the Note button

• Open by holding Shift and pressing Note, or press Note a second time if already in Note View to toggle the View. In this View, all the grid pads except 29-32 are disabled
  • The samples played by each of the four pads is the current active sample for each drum track.

You can play the drum pads in Expanded Note View freely in real time, or record them into a pattern if you press Record. If Rec Quantize is enabled, Circuit Tracks will quantize the timing to place the drum hits precisely on a pattern step; if Rec Quantize is disabled, they will be placed at one of the six ticks between adjacent steps.

• You can also use Expanded Note View while a pre-existing pattern is playing, to record additional hits.

Selecting Samples

Each of the four drum tracks in Circuit Tracks can use any one of 64 pre-loaded samples. You can either audition and select the samples in Note View, four pages of 16 at a time, or use Preset View, which is opened by pressing the relevant track button, then pressing the Preset button.

• In Preset View for the drum tracks, the samples are arranged as two pages of 32: they are in the same order as when accessed through Note View. Preset View will open at the location of the active sample for each track.
  • If Drum 1 or Drum 2 is selected, Preset View opens at Page 1, if Drum 3 or Drum 4 is selected, it opens at Page 2.
  • Use the up and down buttons to swap pages.
• The sample selected will immediately become the active sample for the selected drum track, and in Note View, the sample pads assume the page (block of 16) that includes the sample.

Drum Patches may also be recalled using an external MIDI controller by sending MIDI CC messages on MIDI Channel 10. 

• Note: Circuit tracks must be configured to receive CC messages (on by default). The Circuit Tracks Programmer's Reference Guide contains full details.

Sample Flip

If you hit Record, you can play a selection of drum samples in real time, and Circuit Tracks will record your performance. This feature is called Sample Flip, and you can do it either in the drum track's Note View, or in it's Preset View (which gives you access to twice the number of samples at once.)

• You can do this independently for each of the four drums: this is a very powerful feature as it overcomes the one-sample-per-track restriction and lets you use the full palette of drum samples throughout the Pattern.
  • It may be helpful to record a basic pattern on a different track to give a timing reference when you do this.
• You can also apply a sample flip to a step in a similar way to assigning synth notes.
  • Press and hold the pad for the required sample (in turns red) and then press the step pads in the Pattern display where you want to place that sample in the pattern - they also turn red. When you run the pattern, the new sample will play at the steps it was assigned to instead of the one that was assigned previously.
• The Pattern display differentiates between steps that are sample flipped: steps with hits of the active sample illuminate bright blue, but any that have been flipped illuminate pink.

Using the Macros for drum design

You can use the Macro controls to tweak drum sounds in the same way as you can with synth sounds. Unlike the synth Macros, the functions are fixed for drums, but the actual sonic nature of moving the knobs will vary greatly with the sample being used.

• Only the even-numbered Macros are active (2, 4, 6 and 8) are active when a drum track is selected.
  • The functions of each macro are as follows for the drums:
    • 2: Pitch
    • 4: Decay envelope time
    • 6: Distortion
    • 8: EQ

Recording a Drum Pattern

When you're in Record mode and Note View for a drum track, just hitting the sample pads in real time establishes hits at those steps in Pattern, and Pattern step pads light bright blue.

• Note that the Pattern must be running (Play|) in order for you to hear the hits; unlike the synth tracks, you won't hear anything in Note View if you hit a bright blue step pad with the Pattern stopped.
  • However, you can hear the hits in this way using Velocity View or Gate View.

A 16-step drum Pattern is created simply by entering Record Mode an hitting some sample pads.

• The Pattern you make will constitute Pattern 1 (of eight) for the currently active Project. There are eight Patterns for each of the eight tracks - two synths, two MIDI and four drums.
• Pattern 1 is the default Pattern in all Projects, and will be the one you record to and the one you'll hear when you hit Play.
  • You can create longer sequences by chaining Patterns together.

Non-quantized record

Live playing of drum samples may be recorded quantized or non-quantized. Quantized recording will place drum hits on the closest step when recorded, while non-quantized recording will place hits directly on the intermediate micro steps.

• To toggle between quantized and non-quantized recording, hold Shift and press Record.
  • If Record Quantized is enabled, the Record button will light bright green when Shift is held.
  • If Record Quantized is disabled, the Record button will light dim red when Shift is held.

Manual hit entry and step editing

Although you can't hear the drum hits by pressing lit step pads in Note View when the Pattern isn't running (i.e. Stop mode), Circuit Tracks lets you add or delete individual drum hits to/from a pattern, effectively “off-line”.

• In Note View, one sample pad will always be lit, though it may not be on the currently visible page of four. This is the current default sample.
  • If you tap (short-press) a step pad, the default sample will be assigned to that step and the step pad will show bright blue.
  • If you long-press a step pad, it will show red: You can then press any sample pad, and that sample will now be assigned to the chosen step, and the step pad will show pink.
• Sample flip is operative in Stop and Play Modes:
  • Hold down a step pad: the pad with the currently assigned sample will illuminate red. Select an alternative sample and the step will now trigger the new sample.
• Pressing a lit step pad will clear the drum hit at that step.

Micro Step Edit

When quantized recording is not enabled, the timing of drum hits recorded in real time is assigned to one of six “micro steps” in between adjacent Pattern steps. Any drum hits added "off-line will always e assigned to the step's first micro step, which is on the exact beat of the step.

As with synth tracks you can shift drum this to micro step intervals, but you can also choose to have duplicate hits assigned to other micro steps within the same interval.

• To adjust the micro step values, press Gate View for the relevant drum track. Pads 17 to 22 display the micro step values. Press the step pad whose micro step values are to be adjusted and one of the micro step pads illuminates brightly.

• If the first pad is illuminated, it indicates that the drum hit at the selected step will be precisely “on the beat” at the pattern step.

If you are entering drum hits in Record Mode (with Rec Quantize disabled) and can play fast enough you can generate multiple hits in a single step (depending on the BPM).

• Note that you can modify elements of a drum pattern from within Micro Step View, and also add additional hits by adding micro step values to empty steps: these will be populated with the current default sample of the drum track in use.
• Note also that all micro step hits adopt the velocity value and sample assigned to the major step.

Velocity

As with synth tracks, Drum hits entered in Note View may used Fixed or Variable Velocity. (Note: Variable velocity is the default setting. If you press Shift, you will see that Velocity illuminated red confirming this.)

• With Variable Velocity selected, drum hits recorded live using the sample pads will have Velocity values determined by how hard the sample pads are struck.
  • This applies both to normal Note View and Expanded Note View..
• To select Fixed Velocity, hold Shift and press Velocity: the Velocity button changes colour to green. This will make all drum hits have a fixed velocity of 96 

Drum Hits programmed using the pattern step pads will always used Fixed Velocity, regardless of the selected velocity mode.

• Note: the selection of fixed or variable velocity is global and applies to all tracks.

You can change the Velocity of a step after you have created a pattern in Velocity View.

• In Velocity View, the two upper rows of the grid represent the 16 step pattern for the currently selected drum, while the two lower rows represent a 16-segment “fader”, split across two rows; the number of pads illuminated sand represent the Velocity for the selected step.
• Steps in the upper rows that are brightly lit indicate that these steps have drum hits associated with them.
  • The one pad that is flashing white and blue is the step whose Velocity is being displayed.
• In the bottom rows, in which the velocity value is not a multiple of 8, the “last” pad in the Velocity display will be dimly lit.

You can also use Velocity View to change Velocity values while a pattern is playing.

• In this case, you need to press and hold the pad for the step to have its Velocity value change. The held step pad will illuminate red, and the other two rows will “freeze” to display the Velocity value of the selected step. Finally, press the pad corresponding to the new value required.
  • Note: You can also add drum hits in Velocity View by holding down the pad corresponding to the step where a hit is added, and press a pad on the two lower rows; the pad defines the velocity of that hit.
    • Useful for adding a series of “ghost” hits at low volume.

Probability

Circuit Tracks' Probability function can be applied to individual steps on any of the Drum tracks in exactly the same manner as it is to individual steps on either Synth track. 

• Note: Probability is applies per step, not per micro step, so if there are multiple hits on different micro step, either they will all trigger, or none of them will.

Probability View is the secondary view of the Pattern Settings button.

• Open by holding Shift and pressing Pattern Settings, or press Pattern Settings a second time if already in Pattern Settings View to toggle the View.

Recording Knob Movements

You can tweak the drum sounds in real time using the Macro controls. Circuit Tracks features automation, which means you can add the effect of these tweaks to the recorded pattern by entering Record Mode while moving the knobs.

• On the drum tracks, only the even-numbered Macro controls are used, and knob movements are only recorded when Velocity View Gate or  Probability View are selected. (2, 4 6 and 8th knobs.)

On entering Record Mode, the LEDs below the active Macro controls initially retain the colour and brightness they had previously, but as soon as you make an adjustment, the LED turns red to confirm that you are now recording the knob movement.

• In order for the knob movements to be retained, you must drop out of Record Mode before the sequence loops right round, otherwise Circuit Tracks will overwrite the automation data with that corresponding to the new knob position.
• You can also record Macro control changes when the sequence isn't playing;
  • in Velocity View, Gate View  or Probability View, press Record select the step at which the change should occur by pressing and holding the pad corresponding to the step; this will play the drum hit at that step. Then adjust the Macro controls as desired; the new values will be written to the automation data; press Record again to exit Record Mode. When the sequence is running, you will hear the effect of the Macro knob movements at that step.
    • In the same manner, you may also edit the automation of Macro controls for specific steps in this way while the sequence is playing back. With Record Mode enabled, simply hold down a step pad and turn a Macro control.

Note: the automation data is recorded independently of Pattern data. This means that any changes made to Drum Macros which are recorded as part of the Pattern will be retained even if the drum sample is changed during the Pattern.

• You can tweak the drum sound at a specific step and then change the sample at that step: the tweak will still be effective.

You can delete any Macro automation data you don't want to keep by holding down Clear and moving the knob in question anticlockwise by at least 20% of its rotation - the LED below the knob will turn red to confirm.

• Note: this will clear the automation data for that Macro for the whole Pattern, not just at the sequencer's current step.

Clear and Duplicate

The Clear and Duplciate buttons perform the same functions with drum tracks as they do with synth notes, although altering a drum pattern is a simple process perform in Note View, you probably won't ever use them to simply add or remove drum hits.

• Note that clearing a step will delete all parameters that were assigned to the step (Velocity, Micro step and Probability.)