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.

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PinkPantheress vs Underworld (Circuit Tracks Mashup Remix)

video upload by Guinan

"Time for a bonus extra upload. The remix nobody asked for! (I dropped enough hints but nobody took the bait). I couldn't resist doing a version of this song that brought the Underworld version of 'Dark&Long (Dark Train)' with PinkPantheress' 'Illegal'.

Hopefully all previous glitches with the music are sorted and you can enjoy this version. It was programmed and played on just a single Novation Circuit Tracks. If you'd like more details as to how the track was put together check out the videos for the two component parts,"

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

Discopolis 2.0/Kris Menace & Lifelike (Novation Circuit Tracks Beach Mix)

video upload by Guinan

"I'm travelling so I hope you enjoy some of the slightly different videos I'm posting. This weeks video is a reworking of a track I put out last month following a suggestion by @DerrynGrierson
I wasn't happy with audio/video on the original (see below) so this is a reworking of the same.

Kris Menace & Lifelike have released multiple versions of the track so I feel pretty justified in putting out another mix of the track! I thought however I had to come up with something new so this was re-programmed and then played live on the beach! The line out went straight into a Zoom LiveTrak L6 so everything you hear is just as it was played on the Circuit Tracks 'on the beach'.

It's harder than it looks playing live on a beach (the tide was coming in....). I missed the filter sweep in the track completely! Stay tuned to the end, if you can, to see what a beautiful place this was played at.

Till next time, stay tuned."

Discopolis/Kris Menace & Lifelike (Novation Circuit Tracks Version)
video upload by Guinan

"This week’s track is the 2005 cult club-classic, ‘Discopolis’ by Kris Menace (an alias of DJ Christoph Hoeffel) and Lifelike. Recreating this was suggested by subscriber @DerrynGrierson. Thanks for the excellent suggestion Derryn!

It’s very likely I’ve heard this but it hadn’t been something I’d really noticed. I absolutely LOVE it and it has been a pleasure listening to the (very) numerous mixes and remixes to get an idea as to how to recreate this onto the Novation Circuit Tracks.

It features a very prominent sample from the start of the Italo-disco song 'Another Life' by Kano. Incidentally this sample is also used elsewhere (e.g. by Nero) so you might recognise it. I was able to find and use the same sample and build the song around it.

Everything you hear was programmed and played on the Novation Circuit Tracks. No extra synths/effects were used in the playback and the stereo track has not been remastered or otherwise altered.

I’m trying out a different way of filming/recording these direct to camera so apologies if the video is a bit dark. Almost knocked over the mirrorball too!

I hope you enjoy this track and come back again for other future recreations. Thanks for watching."

Voodoo Ray/A Guy Called Gerald - Novation Circuit version

video upload by Guinan

"Time for the first British acid house hit and another Hacienda favourite. The Manchester act A Guy Called Gerald blew up the Manchester music scene with his 808 and 303 tour-de-force. He's still making excellent music ‪@AGuyCalledGeraldTV‬ #voodooray

Everything you hear was programmed into the Novation Circuit and played ‘live’ straight out of the headphone jack into my phone. No extra effects or outboard gear are used during playback.

The ‪@IsotonikStudios‬ sound pack RB 303 by Yves Big City got me thinking about how capable the Novation Circuit could be for a blast of acid house. I hope this attempt gets close to the flavour of the original. • DEMO - RB 303 - Novation Circuit Pack by Y... [posted here]

‪@GyuBeats‬ has done some great video breakdowns of the track and is obviously a fan. Big thanks as he helped me track down some of the original samples. • Why Does VOODOO RAY Still Sound Fresh Today?

I also found the following website which is a fantastic resource of patterns for 303-soundalikes. It just had to be called Acid Tabs….. https://acid-tabs.com/303_patterns.ph...

I hope you like the track – drop a comment if there is an 80’s or 90’s track you’d like to see a version of.

Synth nerd details;
The 808 sounds are a mix of samples from Isotonik and a pack that is sometimes free called 808 From Mars.

The vocal samples are from a surprising source of an old comedy routine from Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. The ‘voodoo ray’ sample is actually cut from a snatch of Peter Cook saying 'voodoo rage'.

A key part of the track is the excellent singing of Nicola Collier. I didn’t have a singer to hand and I wasn’t going to impose my dulcet tones on the world. The ‘singing’ is therefore played on the Arturia plug-in ‘Augmented Voices’.

I hope it fills the gap for now and doesn’t detract from the overall track.

All samples are edited and positioned on drum pads then sequenced/played on the Drum 4 track of the circuit."

Voodoo Ray/A Guy Called Gerald (Circuit Tracks & Rolands Version )

video upload by Guinan

"'Say Hello To My Little Friends'…..

Something a little different again. This is a reworking of one of my earlier videos but with an 'acidic' twist. At the time there were comments wondering how it would sound with Roland synths rather than my attempts at recreating the sound using the internal synth engine.

I couldn’t resist the challenge, so the Circuit Tracks has some company in the form of a Roland T-8 and S-1 Aira. The T-8 is a drum machine based on a selection of classic Roland sounds, but it has the added bonus of a very good TB303 emulation.

The Roland S-1 on the other hand is a 4-voice recreation of the classic 80’s synth, the SH-101. An awesome synth in it's own right it's a great partner for the Tracks to use with one of the external MIDI tracks.

Both of these Roland originals were an essential part of the classic Acid House sound and the track, ‘Voodoo Ray’ so this seemed a natural Circuit Tracks project to rework. I’ll keep a separate playlist of any tracks with external gear to keep my main playlist Tracks only.

For this video I’ve copied the patterns across to the Midi 1 & 2 tracks, hooked up both of the Roland individually to the MIDI Out and Thru (setup in Advanced Setup to be individual MIDI Outs). Each of the Roland boxes are then fed into each of the Audio Inputs so they can be panned, level altered and have effects applied individually. Each of the Roland boxes are not using their own sequencers but are just being used as slave MIDI synths playing the patterns sent via MIDI from the Circuit Tracks. T-8 bass was set to MIDI Ch3 and S-1 to Ch4 to match the default channels for these tracks."

Enjoy The Silence/Depeche Mode (Novation Circuit Tracks Version)

video upload by Guinan

"‘Enjoy The Silence’ from 1990 is my favourite track from Depeche Mode. Not strictly 'dance music', it crossed over into most of the clubs I went to in the day. I have certainly danced to it! Many house and techno musicians cite a softspot for Depeche Mode and in turn the album this came from, ‘Violator’ reflected club dance music trends.

Sooner, or later, every synth player has a go at playing this song....

Everything on this track is coming from the Circuit Tracks. All synth sounds were either played or programmed/sampled and played back. The only exception is the bass part (see below). No extra synths or effects but in order to fit it all in this is a simplified arrangement."

Blue Monday/New Order (edit) - Novation Circuit version

video upload by Guinan

"It's Monday so what could be more apt than todays Hacienda club classic, Blue Monday.
As per usual this is ALL Novation Circuit Tracks playing live from the headphone jack direct into my phone. No extra synths/no effects/no extra edits.

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.

If people like this I'll do a '12" remix' version with the Novation Circuit Rhythm padding out the tracks. Let me know in the comments.

Details for synth nerds (extra video after the song);
I 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 twangy bass guitar (one of the old wooden ones with strings and stuff :P ) 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 ( ;) Google It!) and made a loop on another one of the drum pads, turning it into a 3rd pattern for Drum 4.

It all needs a bit more tweaking and arranging for the full version but this was sounding good so couldn't resist letting you have a listen."

Can You Feel It?/Fingers Inc - Novation Circuit Tracks & Rhythm duo version.

video upload by Guinan

"As promised a slightly expanded version of this track (following the 120BPM Fingers Inc version with samples). Once again it is just the headphone out, no extra processing, played 'live' direct into my phone. Hope you like it! (and again let me know if there is a particular House classic you think would work well)

Synth nerd details below;

Having the Circuit Rhythm beside the Tracks let me split out some of the drum tracks. I let the Rhythm take over the drums to allow for muting/unmuting of all the drum tracks and it runs in tighter sync. Huge shout out to Gabe Miller's videos showing how to run these two machines together and what a great pairing they can be.
• Combining BOTH Novation Circuits (Tra... [posted here]

Basically the audio out from the Tracks (on the left) goes to the audio in of the Rhythm (on the right). The MIDI out from the Rhythm controls the Tracks and syncs both - even allowing simultaneous Project switching (not shown here).

The lead line is sampled from the Circuit Tracks synth.

The main thing you can see me switching is Scenes (which can preset levels and muting for a number of tracks) and I also play some of the velocity sensitive pads live."