Novation Circuit Tracks: Groovebox sequencer with synth engines, MIDI control, and drum patterns for electronic music making

Back when the original Novation Circuit came out, I was steeped in the world of guitar but was starting to take interest in the world of electronic synthesis. A friend at the time talked me into getting the Circuit and I grew to love it's intuitive workflow. I even improvised a couple of full length songs with it. But, as much as I like the sequencing workflow, I'm hesitant to edit the onboard synth presets. Don't get me wrong, the LEDs under the encoders help, but when it comes to tweaking tone, I prefer analog control. So, I dove into the world of synthesis and for a long time, used the Circuit to sequence my growing collection of synths. But I was annoyed that I had to sacrifice something, usually the Circuit's onboard synth tones, to sequence external gear. I got a Launchpad Pro and really liked it, as it's workflow is nearly identical to the Circuit. Yet that left me needing a full array of gear and a mixer to jam DAWless style. Fast forward to now. I've largely gotten out of music but have kept more portable pieces of gear to jam with on the fly when inspiration hits. I looked up sequencers for fun here on Amazon and came across this. I just had to have it. And now, I come to the review title: This iteration of the Circuit is EXACTLY what I've been wanting!! Two onboard synth channels (that I could still mute for more external gear sequencing!) that I'll largely leave alone, FOUR drum tracks, that not only play drum samples, but other sample types as well, and TWO MIDI control tracks dedicated to controlling external gear!! Still battery powered and to add more icing to this cake, has two audio inputs!! This has been great. I just grab this, two portable synths and some cables. Connect this Circuit Tracks to the other synths via MIDI and audio cable, then connect it to my Yamaha receiver, which sports connections to Polk Audio Bookshelf and center channel speakers, and a powered subwoofer, power everything on and get jamming!! If I want to do some knob twisting, I can noodle around on my external synths to my heart's content. Heck, I've even plugged in a small mixer I've got, and added my FLAMMA multi effects guitar pedal with an electric guitar and added some guitar work to my jams!! This Circuit fits my needs perfectly!! While this iteration of the Circuit seems a little less durable than my first generation Circuit, it still feels fairly durable, and battery life seems respectable; It's not a massive fuel tank that'll keep you going all day, but you can get a few hours out of it. Some folks may resent the fact that this Tracks and the Circuit Rhythm have non-swappable lithium batteries instead of the easily swapped AA batteries the original Circuit had, but for me, literally jamming in my bedroom, it's not a concern either way. Software seems fairly stable....I did have issues connecting to Novation Components, and had to download the software and update my Tracks offline. I still need to learn how to use the Scenes feature, and I know that'll be handy when I get around to making full length songs and recording them. But, I still think there's room for improvement here. I hope Novation still has a lot of plans to update and stabilize these devices. Overall though, I am stoked with this device and as I've outlined, it's exactly what I've wanted in a sequencer. I'm hoping this turns out to be at least as reliable as my old Circuit is though!

I've used Korg Volcas for years, connected them together to have rythm, synth and bass which means lots of cables and literally a hundred knobs/buttons and never produced anything that sounded as good as my first attempt on the Circuit Tracks. My poor wife has listened to (been subjected to?) this process for years and when I played my first "track" from the Tracks she was really impressed, saying it sounded, "professional, like something you would actually hear in a movie" which is a real complement from her. She and my five-year-old danced in the living room while I played it. In addition, it was just a lot of fun making that first track, just me and one device jamming out; really cool. Prior to purchase I looked at groove-boxes from Roland, MPC, Elekton etc., and, based on price, flexibility and reviews I went with the Circuit Tracks. I watched tutorial videos (YouTube and Novation have a good number) and was pretty familiar with the device before it arrived. This definitely made for a more enjoyable experience when I finally had this thing in my hands. One of my favorite features is the ability to connect it to you computer and use the Components (free from Novation) software to download new sound-packs. You can download some free stuff from Novation or purchase sound-packs (they're not expensive) for the types of music you like. Isotonik Studios has some good ones. This allows you to change the sound of the Tracks to suite your music style and means the device does not have a fixed sound, and almost seems like a new groovebox after you change the sound packs. Cons: Recording. You get an awesome (to you) sounding track and want to record it and export it to a format (mp3 etc) that you can play on other devices? I won't go into the details, but it's not easy. There are some good videos from Gabe Miller Music (great source of info) on YouTube on how to get your track off the Tracks, but it's a process and requires additional equipment. Overall, this is a very user-friendly device and just fun to play around with. I felt like I was making songs that sounded really good quickly. I would recommend it to anyone looking to get into making their own music.

Simple, user friendly, and versatile.

Great groove box not requiring any pc/laptop.

Found it easier to use then anticipated. The quality of this product feels premium. Look up YouTube videos and you will see just how unbelievably versatile it can be making different Electronic music genres; you can definitely design sounds on it to be sampled elsewhere. Bedroom studio sounds great hooked up to a portable Boss with AUX port and it’s very portable. Again the appearance also matches the feel for that premium level instrument/device. There’s a lot of value here in this machine… coming from a Roland fan this pairs great with my TR8S.

Genuinely wish this product had Bluetooth Midi/Audio functionality. It's portable but I find myself wishing I could use AirPods with it. As it is now I don't look forward to the idea of bringing around a wired pair of headphones when I just wanna jam to something, so I find myself never fully utilizing the internal battery. I feel it was a bit of a missed opportunity to release this without Bluetooth, but even so I'm still glad that the Circuit Tracks has improved on the original in a number of ways. As for any other criticisms I would say the 3.5mm sockets are also a bit loose unfortunately. The ability to mix external gear into the sequencer and now the effects section though is a nice touch. I'm also sooooooo glad they labeled the knobs. Having some labels is better than none in my opinion and it at least gives sound designers something to adhere to. The expanded step sequencer from 16-32 steps is also nice, new functions like "Mutate" which helps me find different potential patterns, the sdcard slot for loading up different sound packs, and the MIDI templates which are great feature for whenever you wish to control external gear but maybe it's a bit inconvenient or far from your setup. Overall making music has never been easier for me. Maybe the only other thing I would wish from this device is the ability to multi track record all the different parts from the sequencer into my computer. I find myself using the Circuit Tracks with a hybrid approach and not a fully standalone unit, so I still need to record into a DAW. As it is now I'm only aware of needing to mute and un-mute tracks to record the different parts. The ability to do it all once if it were possible would be kinda cool though, and make things a lot more efficient so that I could start arranging immediately. Other than that I'm really curious about any of the future updates. Novation was amazing with all the updates done to the original and so hopefully we could still see the same here as well. It's a huge reason why I felt confident going with Novation for my latest purchase. So yeah that said it's definitely worth it I think but as with anything make sure you know what you're getting, and keep your expectations in check.

I've bought a few of these now already. I like playing with this thing. It's intuitive to learn and use, and they make great gifts for a few of my grandkids. I do have a lot of other much much more expensive midi synths, sequencers, mixing gear, and recording equipment. But with this all in one small portable battery powered unit, I can kick back and compose rhythms and melodies and beats from anywhere. And I find this beneficial, as opposed to sitting in a chair at a workstation trying to be creative.

The only drawback of the Circuit Tracks is that it's not the Circuit Rhythm, haha. But it's a powerful little machine in its own right, and when hooked up with some synths it is simply awesome. You can easily burn an afternoon jamming out. Now whether you can take that and transfer it to your DAW, that's another skillset, but not too hard, just a matter of recording. I do wish that you could more easily transpose the notes on the samples without some workarounds, but then again, that's what the Rhythm is for, so I see why they left that out.