Novation has announced Circuit, an all-in-one standalone box for electronic music creation.
Circuit is composed of two Novation polysynths and a four-part drum machine combined with an intuitive 4×8 RGB velocity-sensitive grid sequencer.
Compact and battery-powered with a powerful built-in speaker, Circuit can be used to make music entirely on its own, but it can also work alongside other standalone synth gear and/or run in sync with any music software using its Line Outs, USB and MIDI ports (it can also be used as a “mere” standard USB-MIDI controller). Its split grid shows steps and notes at the same time, so the user can sequence and play while seeing exactly what’s going on, hence making music creation quick and easy either through programming or capturing a performance in real-time. Entire tunes can be created from scratch without a laptop, then saved and played back live.
Based on the brand’s Nova heritage, Circuit is said to deliver cutting-edge sound with production-ready monophonic and polyphonic patches and a lot of character to allow easy creation of deep bass lines, epic leads and warm pads.
As for drum beats, velocity-sensitive RGB pads can be used by step sequencing or playing the wide range of drum sounds, giving the user total control over pitch, decay, distortion and EQ.
Entire tunes can be created by combining up to 128 steps of synth and drum patterns, then adding space, depth and energy with the built-in effects (even allowing for internal sidechain between the synth and drum), before saving the resulting tune to one of 32 slots.
No release date or price was announced as of yet.
Technical specifications include:
Product Hardware Specifications
- 32 RGB backlit velocity sensitive button grid
- 28 RGB backlit function buttons
- 8 Continuous pots with RGB indicator LEDs
- Dedicated filter and volume pots
- 1/4" jack sockets for left and right outputs
- Two MIDI sockets (3.5mm jack sockets with MIDI din break-out cables)
- USB socket
- Front-mounted 3.5mm jack socket for headphones
- Integrated speaker
- Rubberised knob caps
- Rotary controls secured to the chassis with metal nuts
- Power supply connector
- Power switch
- Battery compartment for 6x AA batteries (included)
- Kensington Security Slot
Sound Engine
- 2 Nova synths
- 4 Part drum machine
- 6 Note polyphonic per synth
- 64 Synth patches
- 64 Drum patches
- 8 Synth macro controls (Control up to 4 parameters with one knob)
- 4 Drum parameter controls (Pitch, Decay, Distortion, Filter)
- Mixer view with levels and mutes
- Master FX with individual track sends
- 16 Delays
- 8 Reverbs
- Sidechain effect (7 types and off). Triggered from Drum 1
- Hi-pass / low-pass master filter
Sequencer
- 32 Sessions
- 6 Tracks per session (2 Synth and 4 Drum)
- 8 Patterns per track (Synth 1, Synth 2, Drum 1&2, Drum 3&4)
- 16 Demo sessions
- Real time record (notes, with velocity and automation)
- Auto-quantise notes to steps and automation to 6 events per step
- 50 Automation parameters (up to 4800 events per pattern)
- Internal tempo range 40 – 240
- External synced tempo range 30 – 300
- Swing 20 – 80%
Real Time Performance
- Full range velocity scanning and record. Editable to 16 levels
- 16 Scale types and chromatic transposition
- Synth expand view doubles playable area
- Drum expand view allows real time drum record
- Octave (input) and pattern octave (edit)
- Pattern length and nudge
- Configurable pattern chain
- Session instant switching and queued switch
Editing
- Velocity and gate per step
- Multiple gate lengths per step (via real time record)
- Automation edit per step
- Clear step, automation parameter per pattern, pattern, session
- Duplicate step, pattern
Software Compatibility
- Ableton Live Lite 9 is included
Circuit will also work as a standard USB-MIDI controller.
Power Requirements
- Circuit can be powered using 6x AA batteries or a power supply (both included). It can not be powered via USB
- Maximum power consumption 12V DC 600mA
Product Dimensions
- 240mm width x 200mm depth x 35mm height
More details (and videos) available at https://global.novationmusic.com/circuit/circuit#.
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