Novation Circuit Tracks Firmware Hack

It finally happened! Circuit Tracks Hacked! video upload by Guinan

"Thread is here,
/ circuithacks_is_out_now_unofficial_custom

Official Github,
https://github.com/Ghillermo/CIRCUITS..."

via Redit:

"NEW UPDATE: Beta1 is finishing internal testing and will be released soon. You can update with the upload tool. Thanks everybody for their input. I tried to include most of your requests (and some of my own) when it was possible, some of them I did my own take, trying to satisfy similar goals into a single approach. Now we have a couple new effects, you can save synth engine's patches, customize your macro Knobs from the device, pattern link, scene repeat, copy and re-arrange stuff inside or between packs... Check GitHub for a full list. All stock functions remain the same. Message me, submit a request on the GitHub or reply to this thread for fixes, new features or clarifications. A demo will maybe come, after a rest. If anyone wants to share theirs, be my guest."

Features for the archives, via Github:

Features (RC0.7)

Manual: illustrated colour · short. New features and fixes of every version: CHANGELOG.md. What is marked Beta 1.0 only is in the beta (Beta 1.0), not in RC0.7.

A. Shortcuts and usability

A1 Shortcut map — Every shortcut of the mod on a drawing of the device: double presses, Shift + button, Clear + knob and the special pads of each view.

A2 Master FX on the Mixer button — From the Mixer, Mixer again opens Master FX; any other view button leaves it.

A3 Keys of the FX view — Octave ▲ / ▼ = delay / reverb sends; Shift + knob = reverb and delay parameters. Duplicate = reset (sends to 0, master filter centred, Master FX off); 1-16 / 17-32 = master filter resonance.

A4 Clear + knob = default value — Hold Clear and turn a knob right: it goes back to its default. On the drums (blue LED), turned left it deletes the automation of the stock knobs (red LED), as on the original. Also on the MIDI track engine and in Master FX.

A5 Switch off latched effects (Master FX pad 8) — Pad 8 switches off everything latched with Shift (effects and song pointer) and bypasses the FX; touching a latched effect releases it.

A6 Synth source view — With Synth 1 / 2 on screen, press its button again: pads 25-29 pick the source (noise, inputs, inverted inputs), pad 30 = step-drummer.

A7 Chromatic and scale view of the drums — Shift + Preset with a drum: the pads play the sample in the scale; K1 = pitch offset, Shift + K1 = cents; Note view: pads 25-28 = drums 4-1.

A8 Pack management on the device — Save also writes the samples replaced by captures to the card. Duplicate + pad A + pad B (Drum Preset) swaps two samples; between packs it copies samples and synth patches; Clear, the pack, Clear (packs view) deletes a pack.

A9 Replace a drum with the capture — Drum Preset view: Clear + pad twice = that sample becomes the capture (until you save or reload).

A10 CC editor of the MIDI macros — MIDI 1 / 2 Preset view, pad 25: move a knob and change its CC / NRPN on the device; pad 26 = save.

A11 Mixer: Shift + knob = level to 100 / 0 — Mixer view: Shift + a knob turned right sets that track’s level to 100; turned left, to 0.

A12 Split keyboard Synth 1 + Synth 2 — Beta 1.0 only. Hold Synth 1 and press Synth 2 (or the other way round): the two top rows play Synth 1 and the two bottom rows Synth 2.

A13 Synth patches by voice mode — Beta 1.0 only. In the Preset view of Synth 1 / 2 every patch is drawn by its voice mode: mono dark blue, glide lavender, poly as always.

A14 Patches of the own synth (MIDI 1 / 2) — Beta 1.0 only. In the Preset view of MIDI 1 / 2, rows 2 and 3 are 16 patch slots of the track engine: touch = load (the root note sounds), Clear + pad twice = save, Duplicate + A + B = exchange; Octave ▼ / ▲ = 4 pages (64 slots per pack).

A15 Saving the synth’s patch into the pack — Beta 1.0 only. In the Preset view of Synth 1 / 2: Clear + pad asks (it blinks white) and Clear + the same pad again saves the patch as it sounds into that slot.

A16 Macro knob destinations — Beta 1.0 only. In the synth source view (A6), pad 32 opens the editor: a knob picks its macro, Octave ▼ / ▲ steps the field and the pads draw the number.

A17 Copying projects to another slot or another pack — Beta 1.0 only. In the Projects view: Duplicate + pad A picks the project (it blinks yellow) and Duplicate + pad B copies it into that slot, of the same pack or of another one.

A18 Own-synth patches to another pack — Beta 1.0 only. In the Preset view of MIDI 1 / 2: Duplicate + slot A, load another pack and Duplicate + slot B copies the patch (engine, parameters and name).

B. Exposed controls

B1 Drum knobs as printed on the panel — Every knob does what its label says, with a second layer on Shift: ring mod, envelopes, filters (DJ, BP, notch, comb, tilt), LFO, start point, bitcrush and distortion.

B2 Reverb and delay parameters — FX view, Shift + knob: reverb (type, decay, damping) and delay (time, sync, feedback, width, ratio, slew); saved with the project.

B3 Side-chain and master compressor on the knobs — Beta 1.0 only. In the Sidechain view (Shift + FX): K1-K4 = attack, hold, decay and depth of the side-chain of the chosen track; K7 / K8 = attack and release of the master compressor.

B4 Recording the internal MIDI routes — Beta 1.0 only. In the Setup view, Record decides whether what a MIDI track sends to an internal synth over a shared channel is also recorded into that synth: yellow = yes, dark = no (the default).

B5 MIDI for everything new — The new values go out and come in over MIDI: CC / NRPN of the MIDI track engine, NRPN of the drums (MSB 5-8) and of Master FX (MSB 9, channel 16).

B6 Automation of the MIDI engine — With Record + Play, the 8 values of page 4 of the MIDI engine are recorded into the macro lanes of the pattern.

B7 Setup and device MIDI — Channel 16 Rx / Tx (pad 16), shared channels, internal loopback without a cable and reverb / delay returns through strips 3 / 4 (pads 22 / 23, cream / peach like the reverb and delay of the FX view). Beta 1.0 only: MIDI Thru with four modes (Duplicate in Advanced Setup): Thru, Out 2, Merge (DIN In + the device’s MIDI) and Filter (DIN In without the channels the device listens to).

B8 Patch flip on MIDI 1 / 2 — Pad 26 of the MIDI Preset view: every note is sent as a Program Change (exclusive with the track engine).

C. New control modes

C1 Engine of the MIDI tracks (pad 27) — Pad 27 of the MIDI 1 / 2 Preset view picks the engine: off → line → oscillator → VA-drum → granular → FX sequencer. Pads 1-5 pick the knob page; 28 = two oscillators, 29 = chain order, 30 = step-drummer, 31 = velocity (VA-drum). Beta 1.0 only: Clear + a page pad = the values of that page back to their initial values; rows 2-3 hold patches (A14).

C2 Step-drummer — Sequencing by pairs of steps on top of the pattern: pads 1-16 steps, 17-24 destination / macro, the 8 knobs = the 8 pairs (pitch or velocity). MIDI: Preset view, pad 30. Synths: source view, pad 30. While recording, the steps you play are recorded in real time.

C3 FX sequencer — Blue state of pad 27: the step-drummer of the track picks, for each pair of steps, a slot of the Master FX bottom row (0 = none); it plays on the steps with a note. The knob moves slowly (one slot every ~48 steps of the turn) and lights in the colour of the chosen effect. A slot with no effect assigned does nothing: assign the effects to the Master FX bottom row first (see “Assignable bottom row”).

C4 Song pointer (Master FX) — Pads 9-24 = steps 1-16: one held step = retrigger; two steps = momentary phrase; Shift + two = latched phrase. Phrase mode: Shift + step = start (end 16); a touch = the end; Shift + another step = new start; Shift + the start or the white pad 9 = exit.

C5 Captured sample — Pad 32 (red) records the output; pad 7 (yellow) plays it: K1 pitch, K2 mode (one-shot / gate / loop by colour), K3 start, K4 end. The sample can be assigned to the bottom row (pad 7 + a bottom pad) and can replace a drum (A8).

C6 Glitch (pad 31) and its assignment — Hold pad 31 (Master FX or FX view): the output breaks up and lags like a tape. K1 speed, K2 repeat, K3 delay, K4 chaos (lower half) or overload (upper half). Pad 31 held + another bottom-row pad = that slot is a Glitch too, with its copy of K1-K4.

C7 Assignable bottom row (Master FX / FX) — Hold an effect of the top rows (or pad 7, or pad 31) and touch a bottom pad: that slot stores the effect with a copy of its parameters. Saved with the project.

C8 Random-mutate per step — Beta 1.0 only. In the probability view (Shift + Pattern Settings) row 4 gives each step a chance of its notes jumping an octave or moving to another note of the scale when they play.

C9 Step frequency and dynamics — Beta 1.0 only. In the probability view of the note tracks: row 4 = every how many plays of the pattern the step sounds (1-8). With pad 25 of Pattern Settings: row 3 = random dynamics (velocity, position and length), row 4 = random-mutate.

C10 Pattern chains and scenes — Beta 1.0 only. Every pattern can carry a rule “play n times, then jump to B; the next time, to C”. Shift + Octave ▲ / ▼ in the Patterns view switches the chain mode of the whole project on / off; every scene remembers the mode it was saved in.

C11 Nudge and play orders — Beta 1.0 only. In the Pattern Settings view: pad 26 = Nudge (the pattern rotated so that the chosen first step becomes step 1), pad 27 = fractal order, pad 28 = deconstructed order. On every track, drums included.

C12 Master FX in the beta: mechanical gesture, Glitch, Digitise and saving per session — Beta 1.0 only. Pad 6 of Master FX is the Glitch and pad 31 a mechanical gesture (tape stop, scratch…); Digitise gains K3 = momentary send to the delay and K4 = envelope; the Master FX knobs and slots are saved with every project.

D. DSP

D1 Master FX effects — Gater, Auto-Filter LP / HP, Digitise, Phaser and Vinyl on the master output, with 4 parameters each.

D2 VCA-VCF of the MIDI tracks — DJ / LP / HP 12 and 24 dB / band pass / notch filters, effects (saturation, folding, wavefold, ring, comb, chorus), VCA with ADSR and LFO.

D3 Oscillators and paraphony — Continuous morph sine → triangle → saw → square, wavefold / slope / width, second oscillator with FM, ring, soft sync and bitwise modes; two paraphonic notes.

D4 VA-drum engine — Oscillator made for percussion: one-shot VCA, dedicated decay envelopes for pitch (Sustain knob) and filter (Release knob), white noise and random values instead of the LFO.

D5 Granular synth — Up to 16 grains per track from any sample of the pack or the capture, with interpolation and window; on the second DSP core. K1 pitch, K2 position, K3 scan / freeze, K4 size, K5 density, K6 zone, K7 LFO → position, K8 envelope → position; Shift: fine, sprays, reverse, window, slicer (or stretch, Beta 1.0 only), LFO → size, source.

D6 Glitch engine — A tape head over a stereo circular buffer of the master (2.7 s) in the external DSP memory: variable speed, repeats with fades, chaos.

D7 Drum DSP — Ring mod, pitch and filter envelopes, LFO, DJ / band pass / notch / comb / tilt filters, bitcrush, start point, distortions and sidechain between drums.

D8 Audio inputs and returns — Line input (normal or inverted) as a synth source; reverb / delay returns through strips 3 / 4 with feedback.

E. Miscellaneous

E1 What is saved and where — Project: drums, Master FX slots, synth source, reverb / delay parameters. Device: MIDI track engine. Volatile: OSC 2, latched effects.

E2 Installing and going back — tools/ct_uploader.html sends the .syx over Web MIDI; it only accepts verified firmwares. Recovery: Scales + Preset + Note at power-on.

E3 Development and diagnostic tools — Reproducible builders, ARM / DSP emulators with tests through the real routes, verify_builds.py, remote diagnostics over USB (ctremote.py).

E4 MIDI tables — MIDI engine: CC 74/71/79/73/75/70/72/91/59/26/27/20/21/37/39/30/31/52/54 + NRPN 4:x; drums NRPN 5-8:1-12; Master FX NRPN 9:0-19 (channel 16).

License

MIT © 2026 Ghillermo, for the project's own work (tools, patches, documentation and manuals). It does not cover Novation's firmware (not included; you get it from Novation under its terms, as are the images built from it) nor third-party dependencies, which keep their licences (docs/DEPENDENCIAS.md): the patches in tools/dsptool/ apply to dsp56300 (GPL-3.0) and a dsptool linked against it is GPL-3.0.

Circuit Tracks, Components and Novation are trademarks of Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd. This project is not affiliated with them.