User Manual

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English
than two (or two rather than one if you’ve selected Chromatic scale), select Expanded Note
View instead (Shift + Note). You can “audition” the synth notes simply by playing them against
the rhythm tracks a few times until you’re happy – they won’t be recorded until you press the
Record button. When you’re ready to save them to the pattern, press Record and carry
on playing; after the pattern has completed 16 steps, the notes will be replayed. Circuit’s synth
engines are “six-note polyphonic” – that is, you can play up to six notes at once at any step in
the pattern, if the Patch you’ve selected is suitably polyphonic.
While you’re in Record, the step cursor (normally white) changes to red as it progresses
through the pattern as an additional reminder that you are now about to alter the pattern.
Once you’ve played the required notes, press Record again to stop recording. You can also
delete or add notes “manually” – that is, while the pattern isn’t running. If you’re working to a
fast tempo, this is often easier. This topic is discussed in detail in the next section of the Guide.
The factory default Sessions load with monophonic sounds for Synth 1 and
polyphonic sounds for Synth 2. This means you can easily use Synth 1 for a
bass line, and Synth 2 for keyboard sounds. But you can, of course, change
this at will.
Note that the two Octave buttons
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have no effect on the pitch of the notes once they’ve been
recorded; you need to decide which octave you’re going to play in at the time of recording.
However, you can still alter the octave of the pattern after recording by holding down Shift
when pressing Octave.
The two parameters in Scales View – Scale and Root Note – can both be altered during
playback as well, so if you like the pattern, but it’s in the wrong key to t with another musical
element, you can just press Scales and select a different root note. The selected scale and root
note apply to both Synth 1 and Synth 2.
Playing the same note in different octaves at the same step can add great depth and character
to the sound. Circuit’s six-note polyphony lets you play any six notes from each synth, and they
don’t all need to be in the same octave.
You can also experiment with different Patches once you’ve recorded a simple pattern. Enter
Patch View while the pattern is playing (see “Selecting Patches” on page 27) and choose
some different Patches; you’ll hear their effect immediately.