Blue Monday/New Order (Circuit Tracks Revision)

video upload by Guinan

"Almost! It's another Monday, so what could be more apt than todays 1983 New Order classic, Blue Monday.

As per usual this is ALL Novation Circuit Tracks playing live from the audio outs direct into my Zoom L6 recorder. No extra synths/no effects/no extra edits.

This is a revision of a version I did about 12 months ago. There is a lot going on in this track so I've squeezed a bit extra out of the groovebox in using some short melodic samples in place of drum sounds on 3 pads.

I'd initially dug it out to get me started on an Ableton Move version of the track and with some polished up samples and a little bit of editing I thought it was worth a revision.

More details for synth nerds,

BPM 131
I originally programmed the top arpeggio line on the Circuit Tracks quickly realising I was going to run out of voices. I sampled the riff and stuck it on a pad and played it back as a pattern and saved myself a voice, I couldn't get a bass synth sound that would double up as the main synth and as 'Peter Hook'. Instead I played a short Spaghetti Western style bass guitar riff through a spring reverb in my best impression of Hooky and sampled it on the Circuit Rhythm. I then transferred this onto one of the drum sample pads and put it on Drum 4 as another pattern, finally there is a choir sample the band played on an old Emulator. I simply copied the same source they used ( Kraftwerk's track, 'Uranium') and made a loop on another one of the drum pads, turning it into a 3rd pattern for Drum 4."

Bizarre Love Triangle/New Order (Circuit Tracks & MiniDEXED version)

video upload by Guinan

"‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ from 1986 is first off the rank for my ‘New Order February’ recreations.

I love this perfect slice of dance-synth-pop and I was keen to get the DX7 bass intro as close as I could. Earlier this week I’ve been showing the tiny $75 Raspberry Pi synth, MiniDEXED, that I built to add this vital ingredient. If you are interested check out the video showing more details, • I made a synth for $75* ! (*excluding tar... [posted here]

A couple of very clever folk identified what I was cooking up!

The MiniDEXED was sequenced from the MIDI tracks on the Circuit Tracks and routed into the audio in to add effects from the Tracks. All that you hear was programmed into the single Circuit Tracks and no further additional synths or processing were done to the sound – it’s straight audio out recorded direct into a Zoom L6.

The arrangement was taken from several versions posted on Musescore and compressed into the 4 melodic tracks and rhythm. Thanks to everyone who posts their transcriptions there.

I hope you enjoy the track as much as I did making it. Stay tuned for more New Order recreations and reworkings for the rest of this month.

(Ableton Move version coming in just a couple of days...I'll post a link here when it's live).

CLICK FOR MORE »

Making ANOTHER $75 synth! (MT32-pi)

video upload by Guinan

Follow-up to this post.

"I made ANOTHER Raspberry Pi-based $75* synth to pair with my Circuit Tracks.

(*approx price depending on a whole bunch of local factors...)

The commentary is long and unscripted (full of ums & errs!) so if you want to jump to a particular section the sections are as follows,

00:04 Intro
00:21 MicroDEXED synth
01:00 MT32-pi
01:52 Why emulate the Roland MT-32?
02:55 General MIDI vs. MT-32
04:03 Soundfonts (.SF2)
05:21 MT32-pi bootup
05:55 JV-1010 emulation soundfont demo
08:23 Using the Circuit Tracks Mixer and Effects on the MT32-pi
09:55 Selecting presets from the Tracks
12:00 Conclusions

This time I've used open-source hardware and software designed around the MT32-pi project. See link here,
https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi

There's a very excellent detailed build and demo video from ‪@mr_floydst‬ here, • MT32-Pi DIY synthesizer: bare metal 80s no... [below]

Oddly the hardware worked out cheaper (despite a bigger display) as this is a commoner target build.

This excellent project uses any Pi from the Pi Zero 2W upwards to recreate a multi-timbral emulation of the Roland MT-32 synth and also act as a player for soundfonts in the .SF2 format.

Roland MT-32,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_...

Editing software and library of downloadable soundfonts,
https://www.polyphone.io/en/soundfonts

I used a pre-assembled hardware kit from Ebay with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W (with header). The assmbled complete hardware can also be bought from sites such as Etsy etc."

MT32-Pi DIY synthesizer: bare metal 80s nostalgia

video upload by Floyd Steinberg

"This week, let's build and take a look at the #MT32 PI, another "bare metal" synthesizer running on #RaspberryPi. This is an emulator for the late #80s Roland MT-32 sound module, which was used by a lot of games for their sound track. The MT-32 PI can also load soundfonts, so you can use it as a ROMpler in your setup. Table of contents:

00:00 introduction
00:36 hello
01:28 hardware needed
02:34 breadboard explained
03:09 building the UI
03:28 wiring
03:55 LCD setup
04:32 software installation, ROMs and soundfonts
05:04 config file setup
05:31 using the device, soundfont editing
06:31 important considerations
06:48 demo 1 (MT-32 emulation)
08:43 demo 2 (soundfonts)
09:45 bye-bye

HÄLP ZIS CHANNEL
https://www.patreon.com/floyd_steinberg
https://floydsteinberg.gumroad.com/
https://floydsteinberg.bandcamp.com/"

He Made a synth for $75* ! (*excluding tariffs/postage...)

video upload by Guinan

"I made an open-source Raspberry Pi based DX-emulation synth for around $75 and hooked it up to my Novation Circuit Tracks.

MiniDEXED is the open source DX emulation project,
https://github.com/probonopd/MiniDexe...

I used the following open source hardware Raspberry Pi HAT which delivers a DAC and DIN MIDI in and out, https://github.com/tebl/BulkyMIDI-32

Build is also here, https://www.pcbway.com/project/sharep...

I ordered mine pre-built from Ebay - but that's just a reflection on my soldering skill!

To run the software it also needs a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 (buy one with a 'GPIO header' as then it's just plug and play once you have loaded the software from the above link). Make sure it's a 'Zero 2' as the older model is much slower.

Much more detail and slicker presentation here....
• MINIDEXED - honey, I shrunk my DX7 collection [posted here]

All of the above work was inspired by the very excellent and similar MT32-pi project by Dale Winham which emulates the Roland MT-32 synth and others. I've got a 2nd Pi Zero 2 and some parts in the wings for a further video...."

Small Town Boy/Bronski Beat (Circuit Tracks version)

video upload by Guinan

"Feeling a bit of 80’s nostalgia ('Stranger Things' anyone?) I thought the time had finally come to try and give this classic electro-pop anthem the Circuit Tracks treatment. Released in 1984 (40+ years!) it’s too easy to forget how ground-breaking the song (and it’s subject) was in the political climate of the Eighties.

The song itself is a simple but almost perfect pop song. It was programmed on an MC-202 Microcomposer and is reputed to have started life as an electronic disco version of the Sex Pistol’s 'Pretty Vacant'!

Yamaha DX7 is used heavily on the track (notably the presets ‘Harp1’ and ‘Bass1’), and additional Sequential Pro-One, Memorymoog and Linn drums. I managed to simplify the arrangement to program everything and the vocals into a single Novation Circuit Tracks. Everything you hear is being played and recorded live from the Tracks.

I'm pleased at how close to the spirit of the original I managed to get this time. I hope you enjoy the track and it brings back some memories for you too."

"More details for synth nerds
BPM 135
I don’t own a DX7 (sadly!) but the closest thing I have is emulation. The repeated ‘Harp1’ DX7 line (and the ‘Marimba’ break) was sequenced on the Tracks MIDI 1 and sampled as 4-bar loops from the internal MicroDEXED emulator in an M-Vave SMK-37 Pro keyboard. Each sample was then triggered (like a drum sound) at the required point in the song using the Drum 3 track.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Groove Is In The Heart/Deee-Lite (Circuit Tracks Version)

video upload by Guinan

"I watched ‪@smallplatesmusic‬ excellent video detailing the story behind the samples used in the very excellent 1990 track 'Groove Is In The Heart' by Deee-Lite and thought it warranted a Circuit Tracks version.

I cleared the decks this afternoon and got to work!

(Check out the highly recommended original video below)

James recreates many of his tracks using Koala software and I've taken some of his edits, sprinkled a few extra ones from the original sources and have shoehorned them into a Circuit Tracks arrangement.

Everything you hear was programmed into and played on a single Circuit Tracks with no additional effects or synths. Hopefully it shows what a great sample player/drum machine it can be! (probably not quite how Novation thought this machine would be used - but it kinda works!)

The only non-original sources are a couple of Linn drum samples to beef up the rhythm, some General MIDI 'scratching' samples and some finger clicking and verbal gymnastics from the man himself, ‪@smallplatesmusic‬

More details for synths nerds
BPM=122
No synths on this mate! Only samples!!
No 'butter' notes either..."

"Groove Is in the Heart": Sample Breakdown, stories, recreating Deee-Lite track in Koala Sampler

video upload by small plates music

"Built on Herbie Hancock’s "Bring Down the Birds" and Vernon Burch’s 'Get Up' but including some very unexpected, sound effects, sitcom snippets, and belly‑dancing records, Groove Is In The Heart has big hidden depths.

I'll dig into the samples and tell you the stories behind each one:

Miles Davis’s 'butter notes,'
How an innocent sounding sample is hiding one of the dirtiest of house divas
A tenuous link with Donald Trump
Is belly dancing Greek? And why do we care?

In the end I will drop the samples into Koala Sampler (on my iPhone) and try to recreate the track. Because yes, we have Deee Lite at home.

Perfect for fans of sample culture, music history, and anyone curious about how one of the most joyful dance tracks ever was crafted.

0:00 - Introduction Overview of 'Groove Is in the Heart'

0:42 - Herbie Hancock 'Bring Down The Birds'
Origins of the melodic bassline and guitar and the Blow-Up soundtrack. Why Miles Davis did (not) tell Herbie to lay off the butter

2:17 - Vernon Burch 'Get Up'.
Burch’s career and gospel recordings, with surprising Stevie Wonder cameo.

3:08 - Combining the Hancock and Burch samples using the Koala sampler.

3:39 - Imagine my surprise when this “Trumpet” is actually supposed to be a woman’s scream?

4:30 - Hateful Head Helen / Sweet Pssy Pauline, HIDDEN FILTH. This is the original sample btw- • Hateful head helen ACAPELLA

5:35 - Sitcom Sample (Green Acres) The “I-I-I-I” vocal clip comes from a 1960s sitcom theme tune. Watch Donald Trump at the 2005 Emmys performing the same theme tune.

7:33 – Belly Dance Record Sample Intro chant “We’re going to dance and have some fun” from Tomee and the Grecian Knights. Discussion of belly dancing trend and what the hell a Bosonk is meant to be.

9:22 – Latin Percussion by Ray Barretto, plus studio-made finger clicks.

9:49 – Rebuilding the Track in Koala- Live attempt.

11:07 – Closing Performance Final recreation of the track showing how the samples are layered together.'

Block Rockin' Beats/The Chemical Brothers (Circuit Tracks Version)

video upload by Guinan

"'Back with another one of those block rockin' beats.....'
I've been searching around for an ideal Chemical Brothers track to recreate on the Circuit Tracks when up popped one of my favourite channels, ‪@smallplatesmusic‬ with a video about this classic 1997 song off the album "Dig Your Own Hole'. I've loved the band since their 'Dust Brother'/Playstation 1 days and this mix of jazz, hip-hop and breakbeats blended with their signature synths is a true anthem. (plus check out another great band, 23 Skidoo's track 'Coup' for possible 'inpiration')

See the video here [below] for his fascinating deep dive into all of the samples used and the history behind them. Highly, highly recommend for any music fan...plus also some great Koala Sample App recreations too!

After commenting I was offered access to the Koala track shown in the video, and many of the samples in this recreation come from that version. Mark this up as my first collaboration on this channel! Huge thanks for the inspiration and help ‪@smallplatesmusic‬

What you hear was all recreated on a single Novation Circuit Tracks with the drum tracks used to sequence the various samples, augmented with synth lines to underpin the sound when needed. It was recorded straight from the audio outs into a Zoom L6 without any extra synths or effects.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did making it and stay tuned!

More details for synth nerds.

BPM 109.
Synth 1 - sawtooth bass synth
Synth 2 - distorted PWM saw patch playing chords and stabs
Drum 1 - drum loops
Drum 2 - sequenced bass note samples
Drum 3 - vocal snatches and pitched gunshot(!) samples
Drum 4 - crash cymbal and 707 open and closed hihats"

Remaking "Block Rockin' Beats" on Koala Sampler

video upload by small plates music

"Back with another one of those..attempts to remake a dancefloor classic on my phone.

This early Chemical Brothers banger includes a lot of jazz, funk, soul and early hip-hop samples including Schoolly D’s raw intro, Wilton Felder’s (very technical...) bassline, and Bernard Purdie’s funky drum fills. I have a listen to the sample, tell you some interesting things I found out, then try to rebuild the track using Koala, showing you how it works (more or less).

Featuring nods to Grand Wizard Theodore, Afrika Islam, Adult Swim cartoons, and the Zulu Beat Show.

0:00-0:15 Intro - What are we doing here anyway?
0:23-1:10 Schoolly D "Back With Another One Of Those" vocal, Acqua Teen Hunger Force
1:10-1:45 The Crusaders bassline- Beastie Boys cover, every third 1/16th note, Wilton Felder's other credits
2:02-2:43 Using Koala for the bass and drums
2:43-4:07 Drums by Bernard Purdie- the sample machine
4:07- 5:20 "Hoooo!" - Early hip-hop artefacts, Grand Wizard Theodore
5:20-6:50 Afrika Islam on the Zulu Beats Show, waiting for MCs, 'We're about ready to rock steady'
6:50-7:36 "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo", "Rocksteady" Aretha Franklin drummer
7:36-9:00 Koala workout, using the samples to recreate Block Rockin' Beats"

Inner City/Big Fun (Circuit Rhythm Instrumental)

video upload by Guinan

"Written in 1987 and released in 1988 Inner City’s ‘Big Fun’ was one of the first big crossover hits for House music internationally. Composed with minimal equipment and featuring Paris Grey’s iconic vocal, it set the template for many imitators and subsequent hits.

In the interview below Kevin Saunderson states that all he wanted to create was a track that could be played at the Paradise Garage, the birthplace of House. Nearly 40 years later it can still fill a dancefloor.

Much of the essence of the track comes down to the sampled sounds used. I’ve tried as far as possible to use the original sound sources for my samples and have recreated a version that fits the track into the Circuit Rhythm. What you hear (on both the instrumental and vocal versions) is recreated entirely on the Rhythm and recorded direct from the audio outs. See below for more details."

How Kevin Saunderson Made Big Fun

video upload by Mixmag

Born Slippy/Underworld (Circuit Tracks Instrumental)

video upload by Guinan

"This iconic tune (featured in the movie, ‘Trainspotting’) is another classic piece of techno from Underworld. This is a bit of a test if I could get anywhere near the sound using just the Circuit Tracks. The main iconic sound synth was apparently produced using a Waldorf Microwave which is a very different synth architecture than the Tracks.

This version was programmed and recorded straight from the Novation Circuit Tracks.

More details for synth nerds.
140BPM
Synth 1 – Pad sound using Digital Vocal waveforms 1 & 6. The original pad has a very sampled vocal tone from the wavetable used so I mixed in some modulated noise to try and get at least part of the same effect.
Synth 2 – percussive sawtooth chords with delay (apparently dotted 8ths on the original but it didn’t sound right so I’ve used 8th delay (preset 11)).
Drum 1- booming 909 techno bass drum.
Drum 2 – 909 hihats and open hihat.
Drum 3 – this might be contentious but ‘the Internet’ suggests Underworld used a loop from the sample CD ‘Best Service:Dance Mega Jungle Rave’. What you are hearing therefore is sample ‘140 25.wav’ from this set I found by searching online. Opinion suggests that even if it wasn’t from this CD both they and Underworld sampled it from the same source?
Drum 4 – this is reserved for the vocal samples – surprising how essential to the song they are!"

Acperience 1/Hardfloor (Circuit Tracks & Roland T-8 version)

video upload by Guinan

"1992's 'Acperience 1' by the German duo Hardfloor is almost peak 303 acid house. I've used the Novation Circuit Tracks with the ‪@IsotonikStudios‬ soundpack RB 303 by Yves Big City ‪@bigcitymastering‬ to emulate 2 of the 3 TB-303s used. The final pattern comes from the Roland T-8 drum machines emulation synced with the Tracks and feeding into the audio in..

The high string synth note was created on the Tracks and sampled so it could be played back on a drum pad.

Everything you hear was programmed and played live on these two machines and the mixed audio was recorded straight from the Tracks output."

And the original:


video upload by HRDFLR

This might be the best Novation Circuit track yet!

video upload by Guinan

"It started out as a bit of a challenge but in the end turned out better than I hoped.

Everything you hear was programmed on the Tracks synth (and if required, sampled into the Rhythm). Only the drums and vocals are samples from elsewhere and the whole thing is played back on the two machines and recorded (without any extra synths or effects)."

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:

CLICK FOR MORE »

Make 'Rhythm' Your 'Slave'!

video upload by Guinan

"How to use your Novation Circuit Rhythm as a 'slave' device to a Novation Circuit Tracks acting as the 'master'. Use your MIDI1 and MIDI2 tracks to sequence sampled instruments or drums on the Circuit Rhythm."

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

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'"

Testone/Sweet Exorcist (Circuit Tracks Version)

video upload by Guinan

"This weeks bonus track is another slice of moody 1989 UK Bleep Techno from Sweet Exorcist (actually one half of the electronic punk band Cabaret Voltaire). I was listening to this as I did the LFO song" [posted here - additional posts here]

Sweet Exorcist - Testone (Official Video)

video upload by Abstructure

"Official Video by: Jarvis Cocker"

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!"

Says (Version)/Nils Frahm - Circuit Tracks Version.

video upload by Guinan

"I was lucky enough to see Nils Frahm on his latest tour and this is my favourite of his compositions. Whilst listening to the track build on his stack of vintage synths and keyboards (notably a Roland Juno for the main arpeggio) it occurred to me (perhaps over-ambitiously) to have an attempt at seeing how this would sound on the Circuit Tracks.

The track may be familiar to some from the 'Ad Astra' movie soundtrack (might be the best thing about the movie?!). • Says - Nils Frahm Scene Part 2 | Ad Astra ... [below]

This time the limit was definitely not the Circuit hardware but more my own musical ability. Without a score, (and discovering that many of the versions online seem to be semi-improvised) I was left with slowing down the track until I could identify individual notes and program them in in step time….add to that the fact that the track has enormous amounts of tape echo which he manipulates in real-time.

I came to the conclusion that at best I could try and create my own ‘version’ inspired by his original. This should be viewed as a reinterpretation and not a strict cover (and I did put a rhythm track on it too). I’ve since found other Youtubers playing versions of these but they mainly go for very simple arpeggios and I was aiming to try and capture some of the complexity of the other ‘layers’ played.

Imagine this composition then as the simplified version Nils might create for his first Café Del Mar set armed only with a Circuit Tracks…..and after someone had removed his ability to play the piano ;)
I hope some of you like it…I loved attempting this electronica classic and hope you enjoy the end result.

Everything you hear is just the Circuit Tracks. No extra synths or effects."

Says - Nils Frahm Scene Part 2 | Ad Astra (1080p)

video upload by Favorite Scenes

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

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.

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