Bad Dog Designs OSPRAY 8 Drum Synthesizer

video upload by Pro Synth Network

"I have been very privileged to test, advise, and consult with Paul at Bad Dog Designs on this brilliant drum synthesizer. Taking circuit designs that were over 40 years old, published in E&MM magazine, Paul has recreated and refined these three drum synth designs to create OSPRAY-8, a "vintage" 21st century drum synthesizer.

Four drum modules, three cymbal modules and a clap module, triggerable via MIDI or CV and with a stereo audio output or individual mono outputs per drum, this is the sound of the nascent analog drum synth of the 1980s in a beautiful handmade case.

For more information and details on how to get your hands on one, contact Bad Dog Designs to register your interest.

https://www.bad-dog-designs.co.uk/con..."

OSPRAY8 Analogue Percussion Synthesizer Demos

video upload by Bad Dog Designs

"After about 4 months on and off, I've got my percussion Synthesizer in a state where I'm happy with the look and sounds :)

All original 1980's circuit designs with just a few component changes for later IC's, and of course Midi In and through as well as individual trigger inputs.

The OSPRAY-8 ( Old School Percussion Right At Ya! ) comprises 8 individual modules, arranged as 4 X Drum modules / 3 X Cymbal modules / 1 X Handclap module. There is then a final control module that handles midi, midi channel selection and Stereo output.

The Drum Module can generate a multitude of sounds from Bass drums to Snares, Toms, Rimshots, bleeps and other weird and wonderful sounds.

The Cymbal Module can generate Open and Closed Hi-Hats, Gongs, Cowbells as well as other metallic oddness.

The Handclap does as it says, but will generate multiple claps with full control of frequency / resonance / ambience etc.

As each module has it's own line out and trigger in, you can join two together, so you can combine a handclap with a drum and get a really sharp and punchy snare for example.

The front panel is machined from a single piece of aluminium, the lettering engraved into the surface for a well engineered finish. The Casing is still in development, but you can see a mock up in the clip.
All the audio is straight out of the OSPRAY-8 with no processing."


via Bad Dog Designs

"The Ospray-8 is a fully Analogue percussion synthesizer, housed in a free standing desktop format. The sounds are produced by entirely analogue electronic modules, tailored for different percussive sound types. The Ospray-8 contains 8 modules connected together, comprising of 4 X Drum Modules, 3 X Cymbal Modules and 1 X Handclap module. There is then a housekeeping module that handles midi control, and stereo outputs."

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Valley Of The Shadows/Origin Unknown (Circuit Tracks Version)

video upload by Guinan

"'We need Jungle I'm afraid'.....this weeks track is the highly influential jungle track 'Valley Of The Shadows' by Origin Unknown released first in 1993."

"Funnily enough I had this CD for years and didn't have a sampler! (I couldn't lay my hands on it for the video but had a copy in my 'archive'). It was a lot of fun to assemble this very simple track from the ingredients and only a small amount of artistic licence was required to fit it into the Tracks.

As you can hear there are no drum machine samples in this...the 'Drum' section is used entirely to play back samples and loops. The samples were edited and time stretched to work in the track at 160Bpm. The arpeggiated section was prepared as 3 samples (2 of which had the extra pitch shifted repeat of the arpeggio).

Synth 1 - single oscillator sine wave with a touch of distortion to fatten it up
Synth 2 - detuned sine waves on 2 oscillators with heavy phaser effects applied.

Drum 2 - '31 seconds' NASA sample from FM Disk 1, 'Long Dark Tunnel' sample from Youtube.
Drum 3 - 'Think' loop from FM CD, with occasional 2nd variation and chopped 2nd half of loop.
Drum 4 - time stretched and pitch shifted arpeggiated loops from FM CD.

Almost entirely based on sounds from a CD free with the first issue of the magazine, Future Music. It also features a sample from a BBC TV documentary about near-death experiences. Countless tracks from the next few years were based on this one CD as bedroom producers hungrily reused the samples creatively.

(I found it here too - enjoy!
https://archive.org/details/the-futur... )

If you've ever heard it, the '31 Seconds' and 'I felt like I was in a long dark tunnel' samples are especially memorable with the deep sub bass.

This was all programmed and played on a single Circuit Tracks. No additional synths or effects were used."

The guide here tells you step-by-step how to recreate this track. Thanks ‪@newbreakscom5050‬:

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Moog Memorymoog SN 1025

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this Reverb listing

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crucFX SLM (scrollfo + mobvrt)

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated. Playlist:
1. SLM and Friends
2. SLM Prototype Test - Modulating ciat-lonbarde Sidrax
3. ciat-lonbarde & crucFX SLM Symphony
4. ciat-lonbarde DDD SRINE and crucFX SLM prototype

crucFX SLM (scrollfo + mobvrt) via this Reverb listing

"SLM is SCROLLFO + MOBVRT.

This utility instrument contains x4 SCROLLFO, and x4 MOBVRT.
————————————————————————
SCROLLFO is a unique LFO circuit based on the original scroll circuit from Peter’s SIDRASSI/RAZZI/TETRASSI/RAZZI units.
But expanded upon.
You have an on/off/on round button switch that allows you to momentarily activate the LFO, or latch it on, when the button is released or in the off position, it samples where it was at in the lfo cycle and holds that value, to give you the ability to generate random pitch voltages/CV voltages.
This button also has a pulse input that allows you to trigger the switch hands free.
flanking each side of the big lfo button are the 2 square buttons - one pulls the signal to ground, and the other pulls the signal to mido.
These 2 buttons also have CV inputs that allow you to fight against the LFO (when it is active) or to set virtual ground and ground on other gear.

MOBVRT is a MIDO biased OFFSET, BOOST, and ATTENUVERTER - giving you the ability to move your @ciat_lonbarde signals anywhere you want in the unipolar boundaries!
Think an offset/attenuverter module for eurorack, but specifically for ciat-lonbarde voltage levels!"

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Maniac/Michael Sembello (Circuit Tracks Version)

video upload by Guinan

"Feeling a yearning for a bit of LinnDrum action I loaded up a bunch of samples and it occurred to me to try this song - a bit of a musical 'guilty pleasure' as it has such a distinctive rhythm. I put the song on, donned my legwarmers and had a bit of a 'spin' around the room to the track in my best 'Flashdance' impression. Straight away it became apparent it shouldn't be possible to do it on the Tracks as it has too many tracks. Bass, electric piano chords, arpeggio, melody...and a distinctive 80's guitar solo! Not to be deterred I shrank it down as much as I could and used the layering and extra voices hacks I've talked about elsewhere * and what you hear is the end result.

It was a fun challenge and I hope you enjoy the end result. All you hear was programmed into a single Circuit Tracks and played 'live' just recording the audio outs.

More details for synth nerds

The excellent ‪@CaptainPikant‬ had a great video breaking down how the rhythm track was constructed so I largely followed this guide.

• MANIAC - The most INSANE drum pattern of t... [below]

BPM 155bpm
Synth 1 - mono bass synth
Synth 2 - 'piano'ish patch playing chords, arepeggio and melody lines (at different velocities/ranges)
Drum 1- LM1 bass drum
Drum 2 - LM1 snare and sidestick
Drum 3 - LM1 hihats and combined HH and fake guitar (see below)
Drum 4 - LM1 cowbell and clap

The 'guitar' is faked I'm sorry. My lead guitar skills are not up to this (I did try!) and my friendly local 'shredder' was busy. I used instead the Native Instruments Electric Sunburst plug in instrument to fake a short solo and drenched it in guitar effects. I recorded to 4 bar loops with the hihat pattern duplicated along with them and then triggered the samples at the right moment on the hihat track."

MANIAC - The most INSANE drum pattern of the '80s | Drum Patterns Explained

video upload by Captain Pikant

"The drum pattern of Michael Sembello's 'Maniac' is positively insane. It's what you'd get if you made a Synthwave drum track, decided it wasn't complex enough, glitched it up with a tiny dash of Aphex Twin and then put a second drum track on top of that with over a dozen Tom fills for good measure. Pure '80s maximalism with two of the most iconic drum sounds of that era."

And the original:


video upload by Maniac

A short history of the 909 in 16 songs ⬜🟧 from TECHNO and HOUSE to POP | Drum Patterns Explained

video upload by Captain Pikant

"The Roland TR-909 has shaped the sound of many genres ranging from Techno, House, Hip Hop and Pop to Industrial and Eurodance. In this video we'll take a look at 16 of our favourite 909 drum patterns - including its very first appearance as well as modern productions nearly 40 years later, so get ready for some interesting 909 history and trivia. We'll be using an external sequencer so you can see all the different instruments and you can try the patterns in your drum machine or in your DAW."

0:00 Introduction
1:02 Skinny Puppy - Smothered Hope
2:36 Mantronix - Bassline
4:56 Phil Collins - Take Me Home
6:09 Inner City - Big Fun
8:39 Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam
11:17 Madonna - Vogue
12:51 Adamski - Killer
14:50 Aphex Twin - Heliosphan
15:44 Circuit Breaker - Trac-X
17:03 Björk - Hunter
18:02 Daft Punk - Revolution 909
18:44 Darude - Sandstorm
20:16 Duke Dumont - The Giver (Original Mix)
23:04 John Tejada - Stabilizer
24:04 Jeff Mills - Exhibitionist 2 Mix 3
25:13 Peggy Gou - I Go
26:16 End Jam

Erica Synths: Hexinverter Mutant Drums | Full Demo and Review

video upload by Happy Mag

"The Mutant Drum Line lives on! When Hexinverter shut its doors in 2022, the future of those gloriously twisted Mutant modules looked bleak — but Erica Synths swooped in, reverse‑engineered every circuit, and gave the whole lineup a second life with modern muscle.⁠
⁠
🥁 Mutant Bassdrum — pure 808 thump or fuzzed‑out speaker‑ripper thanks to batteryACID distortion. CV everything, stay clean or filthy.⁠
⁠
🎯 Mutant Snare — twin bridged‑T oscillators + snappy noise + switchable HP/BP filter = crack, glitch, or full‑roar chaos. External audio input turns it into its own percussion synth.⁠
⁠
💥 Mutant Rimshot — three oscillators, multimode VCF, and HI/LO/CLV voicing. Flip the range switch for deep FM clangs or classic 909 clicks.⁠
⁠
👏 Mutant Clap — LFSR‑driven 909 clap that mutates into bleeps, broken textures, or lush analogue‑reverb tails. Dedicated NOISE out and Drive for extra crunch.⁠
⁠
✨ Mutant Hihats — true analogue open/closed hats with per‑voice Drive, choke switch, resonant BPF, and external noise input. Classic shimmer to future grit.⁠
⁠
🎚️ Drum Mixer Lite — six channels, LED metering, switchable AUX send, plus a vactrol compressor that glues (or crushes) your kit into one punchy monster.⁠
⁠
Hexinverter’s DNA, Erica Synths’ engineering — same mutant attitude, new‑school reliability. Ready to patch, perform, and terrify your neighbours. 🔊⚡️⁠
⁠
#MutantDrums #EricaSynths #Hexinverter #Eurorack #ModularSynth #808 #909 #DrumMachine #SynthCommunity #GearHeads #BeatMaker #SoundDesign #ElectronicMusic #HardwareSynthesis #SynthLife #ModularMadness #StudioGear #AnalogDrums #VoltageControlled #AussieMusician #HappyMag #EngineeringTheSound #ETS

0:00 - Intro
0:04 - Overview
0:38 - Mutant Bassdrum
1:42 - Mutant Snare
2:44 - Mutant Rimshot
3:53 - Mutant Clap
4:53 - Mutant Hihats
5:46 - Drum Mixer Lite"

ASTROGENIC HALLUCINAUTING Kerr County Benefit 080925

video upload by thenoiztemple

"080925 Old Town Spring - Spring, Texas
Astrogenic Hallucinauting performing a live tek-noiz set at the Benefit for the Kerr County Flood Victims. This show was put together by some fellow synth and noiz musicians with help from Ozmotic Records and Simply Texas Gourmet Foods.

Please donate to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund:
https://cftexashillcountry.fcsuite.co...

Kerr County Flood Relief Fund
The Kerr County Flood Relief Fund supports urgent relief and long-term rebuilding after the devastating floods of July 4, 2025. Your generosity helps neighbors across our region recover and rebuild.

The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country—a 501(c)(3) public charity based in Kerrville—will directly distribute funds to vetted local organizations providing rescue, relief, recovery services and flood assistance. The Fund will support impacted communities including Boerne, Hunt, Ingram, Kerrville, Center Point and Comfort.

All donations are tax-deductible, and you will receive a receipt for your gift.
--
The Kerrville, Texas floods in July 2025 were caused by a combination of heavy rainfall and the area's terrain. Tropical moisture from the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry combined with a slow-moving low-pressure system and a mesoscale convective vortex (MCV) to produce intense, localized rainfall over the Texas Hill Country. The rugged terrain, combined with dry, drought-stricken soils, meant that the rain ran off quickly into rivers and streams, causing rapid flooding. The Guadalupe River, in particular, experienced a historic rise in water levels.
--
noiz circuit:
Dirtywave M8 x 2
Dirtywave M8 mkii
FaderFox PC12
FaderFox MX12
erm MIDIclock
Korg KP3+ x 2
1010music BlueBox
--
website:
http://manipulate.net"

Lady (Hear Me Tonight)/Modjo (Circuit Tracks Version).

video upload by Guinan

"'Lady' by French house group Modjo was released in 2000 and comes very much from the Daft Punk/Ed Banger school of French dance music. It is (like many of Daft Punk's songs) built round the choice of a killer sample - this time 'Soup For One' from disco band Chic. Even 2nd tier Chic songs are fabulous in my book and this track plucks out the few essential seconds of the Chic track and makes a feature of them.

A shout out again to ‪@hansotto8563‬ for suggesting this as a future track - sorry it took so long!

All you hear was programmed and sequenced on the Circuit Tracks and recorded straight from the audio out. This is an edit as I was running out of pattern space. I'll go back and redo it with a combination version with the Circuit Rhythm but for now I hope you enjoy this version.

Synth 1 - bass
Synth 2 - v-sync 'piano'-like patch playing chords and melody.
Drums - 909 samples and 3 edited Chic loops from 'Soup For One'"

3rd Wave 8M – First Look, Unboxing, Sound Demo & Full Walkthrough

video upload by Devin Belanger

"Purchase my Custom 3rd Wave Patches (confirmed to work on the 8M): https://shop.milesawayofficial.com/pr...

Miles Away gives you a world-first in-depth look at the 3rd Wave 8M, the new desktop version of the powerful wavetable synth from Groove Synthesis.

In this video, I unbox the unit, give a sound demo, and walk you through the key features, workflow, and what sets the 8M apart.

0:00 - unboxing
2:13 - playing factory patches
3:58 - making a patch from scratch
6:00 - pulse width modulation and circuit drift
7:08 - using samples as oscillators
8:50 - analog filter section
10:30 - wave envelope and jamming on our patch
12:49 - state variable filter and LFO section
14:28 - built in FX section
15:31 - Vangelis style reverb jam
16:55 - mod matrix
18:00 - multitimbrality
18:37 - loading different multisamples
19:42 - ambient live performance on Miles Away Custom Patch Vol 3
21:11 - if you want to hear even more 3rd Wave, click here!"

LFO/LFO (Circuit Tracks Version)

video upload by Guinan

"This week’s track is a version of the classic 1988 Warp records release ‘LFO’ by the UK Leeds band, LFO. Seen at the time as part of a genre then known as ‘bleep techno’ it was characterised by hard, uncompromising electronic minimalist industrial techno tracks such as this.

I’m hoping I’m not the only one who remembers and loves this track! If you like this try and find 'Testone/Sweet Exorcist' in a similar style - possibly one for a future cover too.

More details for synth nerds

I already had some ‘Speak & Spell’ samples I’d downloaded years ago so this was a great starting point. I had separate samples for the “L”, “F’ and “O” and I thought it would be fun to throw in one of the starting noises the toy makes when switched on. The same toy is featured on Kraftwerk’s ‘Computer World’ album so the sound will be a familiar one.

The main chord sequence comes from a Kawai K1 preset patch. Luckily there is a free fantastic software synth emulation of this keyboard available online so I was able to create a sample for the repeating chords. The emulator can be downloaded from the following page,
https://www.nilsschneider.de/wp/categ...
I’d encourage you to leave a donation for the author if you find this emulator useful.

All of these samples are sequenced alternately on the Drum 4 track.
There is a single repeating rhythm pattern using 909 samples played on Drum 1-3.
Synth 1 plays an FM-sounding bass patch, and Synth 2 is a representation of the staccato bleep sound (a small amount of pitch envelope helps recreate the original sound). Add lots of reverb and voila!"

Korg Arp Odyssey Rev 3 Desktop Synthesizer Module

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this listing

Additional Perfect Circuit listings

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Yamaha CS-80 w/ The Cox Electronics CS-80 Programmer

video upload by rimela

"Multitrack recording of the Yamaha CS-80. All sounds are made with the CS-80, except drums.
Very special thanks to Jair for lending me his CS-80 and Cox Electronics CS-80 programmer. Check out the Cox Electronics upgrade: https://cox-electronics.com"

Also see YAMAHA CS-80 Ultimate Upgrade - A Dream come true...

Pic of the programmer and details on the upgrade via https://cox-electronics.com:

"Here is a summary of features provided by the upgrade:

- 3 banks of 128 free programmable performances
- 6 banks of 128 free programmable presets
- possibility of dumping performances and presets by SysEx
- MIDI sending and receiving of almost every parameter (more then 100 CC messages)
- full MIDI support of the CS-80 keyboard's polyphonic aftertouch
- special keyboard settings like octave transpose, velocity and aftertouch response
- automatic keyboard double trigger remove setting
- programmable chord memory
- foot pedal can be programmed sending CC messages (3 simultaniously)
- possibility of manually disabling a defective voice
- autotuning possibility of all 16 oscillators
- 3 extra separate global LFOs for VCO, VCF and VCA (with MIDI clock sync)
- special playmodes providing various algorithms like voice stealing, monophonic and polyphonic in unison with detune setting
- VCF and VCA envelope time can seperately be switched to 5 times the length
- very much care has been taken so the "analog feel" of the CS-80 stays authentic to original

Also extensive service needs to be performed and lots of modifications like:

- all electrolytic capacitors will be replaced since the old ones are bad (around 450)
- all sliders and switches will be professionally cleaned (around 80)
- cleaning and readjustment of the keyboard contacts
- cleaning of the polyphonic aftertouch parts
- removal of 5 old boards, to be replaced by 7 new boards. Now the very rare YM26600 and YM26700 chips are replaced by modern electronics
- around 250 additional wires, several modifications to the boards and around 70 extra capacitors are needed to make everything possible
- complete calibration of all circuit boards
- a nice programmer is included and only one connector will be mounted on the back of the CS-80

Almost every parameter of the synthesizer can be stored in memory and can receive and send MIDI data. For only a few knobs and sliders this is not possible:

- detune CHII slider
- the four touch response sliders
- the master volume knob (exp can be controlled by footcontroller and MIDI)
- foot pedal exp/expwah switches
- sustain slider (although it can be controlled on/off by footswitch and MIDI)
- the switches and knobs of the tremolo and chorus section"

Pacific State/808 State - (Circuit Tracks Version)

video upload by Guinan

"This week’s track is another favourite Hacienda club track. This time from 1989 by the group 808 State (thanks again to Yves Big City @bigcitymastering for inspiring this series).

The original was actually recorded in January 1988 as a reply to the emerging Chicago House scene ‘Pacific State’ has been released in a number of guises. Sometimes just called ‘Pacific,’ others times being labelled numerically after other Roland machines eg. 707, 202. This version is a bit of an amalgamation of a few versions.

Worth noting too that Gerald Simpson ('A Guy Called Gerald') was originally one of the founding members of 808 State before leaving to start his solo career with 'Voodoo Ray'.

I was inspired to cover this after recently acquiring a copy of the Emulator II library disks (to recreate the Kraftwerk track, 'Tour De France' [posted here].
Among these disks, Disk 22 is entitled ‘Loon Garden’. Cited by many as the original source of the ‘Loon’ bird sample we all know and love, it also features a ‘shakahuchi’ sample familiar to anyone who’s ever heard ‘Sledgehammer’ by Peter Gabriel and is a historic piece of sound design. Once you’ve heard these samples you can’t help but hear them across the whole spectrum of popular music. If anyone knows who originally recorded these original samples (also in the Akai S900 library) please leave a comment?

As I started piecing this together I found this excellent video by @CaptainPikant
• Analyzing PACIFIC STATE - How to make clas... [embedded below]
which elegantly detailed the rhythm patterns used. I simplified these somewhat to fit the drum tracks into just 2 tracks to allow room for Sax and Sound Effects tracks (see below).

There is a small snatch of sampled 'sax' played on Logic sampler to fill in for the original sax solo played by Graham Massey from the band but otherwise everything was programmed and played on the Circuit Tracks. No extra synths or FX were used and the audio is recorded straight out of the stereo outs.

I hope you enjoy this track as much as I did putting it together and check back soon for more.

More details for synth nerds.

The bass patch was programmed into Synth 1 to serve as both bass and melody line. The pad sound on Synth 2 is yet another detuned sawtooth pad with chorus, but rolled off with a 24dB low pass filter to create a sound a bit more like the original Juno (said to have been sampled as a chord into a Casio FZ1 sampler).

The drum sounds are a mixture of various 909,707 and 727 Roland drum machine samples from the Reverb Drum Machines collection (normalised and filtered where required).

The Sax sound was played using the sampler instrument in Logic (and is just a preset). The 3 edited phrases were placed onto Drum pad slots and triggered using Drum 3 when required.

Another sample was a ‘bell’ patch created on the Tracks but sampled as a ‘glissando’ to double up the glissando played on the pad on Synth 2, as a break between sections of the song.

Finally Drum 4 was reserved for water and ‘Loon’ sound effects (plus additional 727 rhythm). Did you know the Loon is actually a Canadian diving aquatic bird somewhat like a duck and not at all exotic!

The tracks were as follows;
125BPM, Swing 59%
Synth 1 – bass and melody
Synth 2 – chorused pad chords
Drum 1 – 707 bass drum
Drum 2 – Hihat, Open Hat, Clap and Ride samples.
Drum 3 – Sampled sax lines (and Tracks synth 'bell' glissando sample in break)
Drum 4 – Sound effects, alternating with 727 percussion sampled bongo and muted conga sounds."

Analyzing PACIFIC STATE - How to make classic 909 Ambient House beats | Drum Patterns Explained

video upload by Captain Pikant

"Join us as we analyze and rebuild the unique rhythm of 808 State's timeless Ambient House classic layer by layer."

0:00 Introduction
0:46 Pattern 1
2:54 Loon
4:27 Pattern 2
5:26 Percussion Layer
6:22 One-Shot Patterns
6:49 End Jam

Digitakt 2 + Circuit Tracks + Novation Peak

video uploads by DJ Roommate

Playlist:

1. Digitakt 2 + Circuit Tracks + Novation Peak - progressive/chill/house

This has been my favorite setup to play live with so far. Subscribe for more electronic jams if you dig it!

Digitakt is on drum duty, Circuit is playing the bass and accent synth, Peak is playing the main chord progression.

2. Digitakt 2 and friends - house/chill jam

Another track from this batch of jams

Digitakt is on drum duty, Circuit is playing the bass and accent synth, Peak is playing the main chord progression.

3. Circuit Tracks and Friends - upbeat house jam

Digitakt 2, Circuit Tracks, and Peak coming together in a tight little setup.

Teardrop/Massive Attack (Circuit Rhythm Version)

video upload by Guinan

"This week’s track is the ever wonderful ‘Teardrop’ by Massive Attack. Time to light a few candles, run a hot bath and get ready to chill out…..

I first attempted a version of this a couple of years ago in Logic after seeing the excellent breakdown by @GyuBeats . See his video here; • MASSIVE ATTACK - Teardrop - How Was It Mad...

Try as I might I still haven’t perfected this, but I thought it would be fun to do a ‘proper’ version using the Novation Circuit Rhythm. I’ve chopped and loaded as many phrases from the accappella version of the track as I could fit in the sample memory of the Rhythm. I think the Liz Fraser vocal is what makes 'Teardrop' so special. You can find the vocal track here (not sure how ‘official’ as it claims to be though)… • Massive Attack - Teardrop Official Acapell...

Everything you hear was programmed into the Circuit Rhythm and played live without any extra effects or synths.

I hope you enjoy my recreation (and on a Circuit Rhythm for a change). Check back soon for more tunes.

More details for synth nerds.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Tour De France/Kraftwerk - (Circuit Tracks & Rhythm Version)

video upload by Guinan

"I was listening to the 50th Anniversary version of the album, ‘Autobahn’ by Kraftwerk and it occurred to me to have a try at one of their tracks.

By far the most danceable of theirs is the 1983 song ‘Tour De France’ with the 2003 Francois Kevorkian mix the best fit for the Circuit Tracks treatment. It also should be noted that the band were complete cycling fanatics even hosting some of their concerts in velodromes!

With the real Tour De France just about to kick off (5th July in Lille) I couldn’t think of a more suitable track, and I want to dedicate this with love to my cycling-loving father-in-law, Bernard.

Having influenced early 80’s electro music such as Afrika Bambaataa’s ‘Planet Rock’ the influences went in the other direction for this track. Hiring the famous New York electro producer Kevorkian to do the remix made for a fantastic combination. Francois was responsible for many of the greatest New York electro productions and remixes.

(a big shout out too to anyone who's here because they love the broom scene from the movie, 'Breakdance' !)

This era of Kraftwerk was notable in introducing sampling to the normally analogue instrumentation they used. For this reason, I’ve drafted in my Circuit Rhythm again in the same way as my recent version of Robert Mile’s ‘Children’. See here;

• Children/Robert Miles - (Novation Circuits... [posted here]

Everything you hear is coming from just these two machines (Circuit Tracks & Rhythm). The Tracks is programmed with the musical parts and is playing the Rhythm on two tracks. There are in addition some rhythm tracks playing on this machine to thicken out the sound. No other synths were used (apart from the sampled instruments mentioned below) and you’re hearing the straight audio direct out from the machines.

I loved the challenge of putting this together (see below for details!)
I hope you enjoy it too and check in soon for more tunes.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Erica Synths Echolocator Demo (no talking) with Novation Circuit Tracks

video upload by Bonedo Synthesizers

0:00 Ambient Delay Verb
1:12 Dub Delays (Preset Morph)
2:47 Echolocator on Pads
3:53 Echolocator on Drums

Children/Robert Miles - (Novation Circuits Dream Version)

video upload by Guinan

"Huge thanks to @hansotto8563 for this suggestion. Thanks again to all subscribers for their support. I’ve always loved this track and it remains a favourite to this day.

First released in 1995 this song was originally composed by DJ Robert Miles (real name Roberto Concina) as a ‘wind-down’ track for the end of his DJ sets. Credited as starting the genre of ‘dream house’ it was conceived as a way of reducing the death toll for clubbers returning from Italian clubs and falling asleep at the wheel.

The whole track was programmed and played on just the two machines’ pictured, a Novation Circuit Tracks and Circuit Rhythm. No additional synth or effects were used and the track was recorded straight from the output of the Rhythm (which mixed in the audio input from the Tracks).

I hope you enjoy the end result and check back soon for more tunes.

More details for synth nerds;

I’ve been thinking for a while as to how to cover this. Very much of the 90’s, it used sampled instruments and this made it harder to keep this an all-Circuit track. So much of the track relies on the impact of the piano and guitar samples I needed to reproduce these convincingly. I used my Circuit Rhythm purely as an expander in this case and all the sequences are played from the Circuit Tracks.

The Circuit Rhythm is running purely as a MIDI slave device for channels 3 and 4 only. I plan to detail how to do this in another video – mainly because the title ‘Make Rhythm Your Slave’ popped into my head and seemed too good to waste!

The original piano sound was apparently played on a Kurzweil K2000 and I managed to find a sample of the same sound. The Rhythm is monophonic and the sample is not multisampled but I think (with lot’s of reverb and delay) I managed to get it sounding not too bad.

The patches are self-programmed and I had some fun putting together the thunder and rain ambience effects from free online sample libraries.

The tracks are as follows.
TRACKS
Synth 1 – M1 Organ bass-like patch
Synth 2 – phased detuned sawtooth pad
MIDI 1 – MIDI channel 3 to piano sample track on Rhythm
MIDI 2 – MIDI channel 4 to acoustic guitar sample on Rhythm
Drum 1 – bass drum, 909 sample
Drum 2 – 909 snare sample
Drum 3 – 909 hihat and closed hihat samples.
Drum 4 – ambient samples for thunder, rain etc. (from various free online sample libraries) edited via phaser effect as per original track.
RHYTHM
Track 3 (MIDI channel 3) Kurzweil K2000 sample.
Track 4 (MIDI channel 4) Kawai acoustic guitar sample.

The remaining sample tracks and sequencer on the Rhythm were not used (to reduce the complexity of the track). I based the track on the Dreams version of the song and had to simplify it somewhat to fit in the Tracks. Many of the patterns were played at quarter speed and the notes played unquantized to use micro-steps to squeeze longer squences in. Nonetheless I’ve had to simplify the arrangement but I hope I’ve captured the spirit of this classic.

Thanks once again for watching. Fire away with any questions in the comments and stay tuned"

Dark & Long (Dark Train)/Underworld - Circuit Tracks Version.

video upload by Guinan

"Best known for being featured in the movie Danny Boyle movie ‘Trainspotting’ this track was first released in 1994 by the band, Underworld. It featured also in the 2012 opening ceremony of the London Olympics (which was also directed by Danny Boyle). Prior to this my wife was only slightly aware of the band, but this song (and others featured) made her an instant fan! The album it is featured on (‘Isles Of Wonder’) is her favourite and is played in our house, in her car, on her phone whenever and wherever she has a chance so this is dedicated to her. Love xx

I was inspired to do this version after PinkPantheress’s new track inspired by this song. I’ve done a version of her track too and you can find it here; [Illegal/PinkPantheress video below]

Everything you hear is programmed into, played and produced by the Circuit Tracks. No extra synths or effects were used and the audio is a straight recording from the stereo out. There are a couple of samples being played (see below) to fill out the track and some very dodgy singing of the repeated refrain ‘Dark Train’ by yours truly.

More details for synth nerds:

This was fun to do and having polished this a bit more I would like to go back and redo the PinkPantheress track….if anyone would like to see an Underworld/Pink Pantheress mashup remix (‘Illegal’ in the style of ‘Dark Train’) leave a comment below and I’ll happily oblige ;)
The sounds on this were self-created exclusively for this track. The drum samples used were my go-to 909 and 707 samples from Yves Big City’s ‘90’s House Dream’ pack. I addition I created a looped chord for the choir sound (I used Arturia’s Emulator softsynth) and I merged this chord with edited filtered sections of my voice to produce the repeated ‘Dark Train’ section.
The track layout was as follows,
Tempo 136 BPM
Synth 1 – Bass Organ patch
Synth 2 – Main synth stab/pad sound (I used a wavetable wave, ‘Tri-Saw Blend’, detuned it and added tons of reverb)
Drum 1 – 909 bass drum and rim sounds (no reverb)
Drum 2 – 909 & 707 Hihat (closed and open and some ride)
Drum 3 – 909 Claps
Drum 4 – Arturia Emulator softsynth Choir chord loop (4 bars) and merged choir/”Dark Train’ vocals all loaded onto drum pads and played as if drum sequences.

Illegal/PinkPantheress - Circuit Tracks Version

video upload by Guinan

"This week's track is so new the paint is still fresh! ‘Illegal’ by PinkPantheress. This hyperpop spin on modern UK Garage just shows how dance music evolves and constantly changes.

If you don’t know the track yet see the original here;"

PinkPantheress - Illegal (Official Video)

video upload by Pinkpantheress