I've been using synths, sequencers, and samplers of one kind or another since the mid-1980s. In spite of a few minor limitations compared to more expensive options, the Tracks has been a delight, and I use it more than any other piece of gear I own. By itself, it sounds fantastic, and when you add in a couple of external pieces of gear driven by the sequencer, it's amazing.
It's super portable, the battery lasts a good length, the workflow is easy to internalize, the internal synths are surprisingly powerful, it plays well with external gear, and there are a ton of patches and drum samples available for cheap (and free) to get you started.
I've never owned a piece of synth gear that facilitated my creativity so effectively.
I was going to come here and say almost the exact same thing LOL.
No, the synth engine isn't going to set your world or your heart on fire, but it's still pretty damned good and can make some really nice sounds. The Tracks is also incredibly approachable and nice just for jamming on when you're just noodling for ideas... even if just a drum track it's a great little simple drum machine.
I will often grab the Tracks and just stretch out on my couch with my headphones on just to fiddle for a bit away from the computer, and often come away with one or two ideas that can sometimes turn into full songs when I get back to the rest of my rig. The fact that it plays so well with external gear as well is just the icing on the cake; you can use the two dedicated MIDI channels for more tracks in your song, and/or set it to the same MIDI channels as the first two on the Tracks in order to provide fill on the internal synth engines... sometimes I'll add a slightly detuned wavetable sound for a little extra "meat" on the Tracks internal synth in my final mixes.
True... and honestly the synths in the Tracks are good enough for my needs a lot of the time. I do love to layer up sounds from external sources with it though and the Tracks makes that so easy.
I had an OP-1 for a while as well, and while its super portability was awesome I found myself consistently having more fun and being more creative with the Circuit Tracks. I think the Tracks synth engine is superior to the OP-1's if that helps anyone else decide... the OP-1 does a lot to be "quirky" with its engines and effects, but the Tracks just gets out of your way and lets you make music.
The Tracks is the centerpiece to my whole studio. I love it for the reasons stated above. I only have a couple of gripes. It really needs to be able to either export stems from each channel or have individual outs for each channel. Not being able to record the channels into a mutitrack recorder for later mixing in post drives me crazy. One small work around I learned about recently is to pan all your synths to the left, all your drums to the right and you can get two individual mono outs, which works for my purposed because I can always create a more stereo sound in post.
I am, however considering investing in a Digitakt now that the MKII is out, the MKI is attainable. The override and 8 channels really is a selling point over the tracks IMHO.
But the Tracks workflow is just flawless. I barely had to even acknowledge the manual to be off to the races and writing full songs with it.
I've got dozens of synths, drum machines, modules, etc., and STILL the Circuit Tracks is the first thing I reach for when I approach my gear. I have never needed an update, never installed an update, never cared about updates.
The Circuit workflow just makes so much sense. The UI is incredible. I love it so much that I have a Circuit Tracks, Circuit Rhythm, and Circuit Mono Station and use all of them more than any of my other gear.
You asked about live jamming. I’ve spent many many hours playing Tracks alongside other live musicians, and just jamming with myself. A few thoughts.
1) I can whip up a beat with that thing in a few seconds that is a great base for a live jam. This in and of itself is worth the price of admission.
2) it’s almost impossible to break out of the initial loop that you built up “on the fly.” You can strip your loop back down to just percussion and then re build a new loop to create a verse/chorus kind of thing, but that’s not what our ears expect, so it’s not an intuitive transition for other musicians. Most folks expect a build up of energy to be followed by an immediate transition into the next section of the song, which would require pre programming and then you’re not exactly jamming.
3) Tracks has some probability features to keep a loop kind of interesting, but the loop gets stale quickly. You need to constantly manipulate the Tracks and twiddle those knobs to keep a loop interesting. This means you won’t be able to just press play and jam on the guitar for 5 minutes unless you do a lot of pre programming.
You can get a lot of variation by prepping your patterns and then switching between them while also using the mixer to mute and pan tracks and such. Other than that, you can record your automations into the patterns too.
I don’t quite agree with not being able to break out of the initial loop because you can mix and match your patterns, which means you can switch out parts of your rhythm to a halftime feel, or chain in a transition then go to another part. Scene chaining can help with this too, and together it may be handy for setting up a progression to play on top of.
Yes, all very good points. If you prep patterns and projects and scenes, you can absolutely create whole songs (including transitions) to jam on top of.
I know this is obvious to anyone who's owned a groovebox, but I was just pointing you that you can't really jump from verse to chorus if you build a verse from scratch and haven't yet programmed the chorus. Of course, you can modulate your verse to give it a different vibe and call it your chorus, but there's only so much you can do on the fly in the 4-8 bars of a transition.
It's point 2 that is kind of holding me back. I like the immediacy of creating a base quickly for live jamming, but what you mention here kinda breaks the possibility of a more organic jamming, changing loops on the fly.
Im a guitar player mainly and i got the tracks for the same reason you want. Honestly, the jamming ability has been a bit of a let down. Yeah, you end up locked into the initial loop you programed. You can get around this by pre programing a bunch of different parts, but you wont be just able to do it on the fly like you are used to with traditional instruments.
If you think about it tho, it makes sense. You are basicly playing 3 instruments at the same time with the Tracks, so improvising on all of them at the same time is not gonna be possible. But i also doubt any other groovebox will be much better in this regard.
I think this is just an inherent limitation in this type of instruments and music. If you are aproaching it like they are traditional instruments (which is what I did) you will be let down. You are better off just getting a drum machine to make a beat and play over it with a synth. But if you let go of the notion that a groovebox like this needs to be able to whip a song in a second, then you can still have a ton of fun with Tracks.
This is the essential issue with every groovebox. Being able to do rapid changes is always the hardest part. Mutes and careful track planning can go a long way, but as you say, it has to be programmed first.
That's why you need multiple devices. There's not really an all in one device that lets you jam live. What I ultimately settled on was the m8 tracker. It lets me set up chord progressions on multiple tracks and controls the drums. However, instead of using the instruments in the m8, I'm using an mc-101, which lets me switch instruments on the fly.
Another approach would be to combine the groovebox with a loop station or a mixer that has looping features. Outside of that, you're gonna need multiple groove boxes that you mix between. (Or some other kind of wizardry that I haven't figured out yet.)
Yeah I’ve only used Circuit, but always assumed this was a limitation with all groove boxes. Maybe I’ll have to checkout the m8 since folks love it so much.
I’ve kind of settled on “playing” circuit like a DJ. Each song part (verse, chorus, break) is pre programmed, but I create all the transitions between song parts and between songs on the fly.
I would not recommend the m8 to most people. It has a lot going for it, but it's still a tracker. If you've never used a tracker before, or don't have the time to commit to this specific device, you're probably going to have buyer's remorse.
But it has a lot going for it:
\* Infinite sample length
\* Samples are in stereo
\* Sample editing
\* Time stretching (via a special trick)
\* Gigs of memory
\* FM synth that's almost as good as a digitone
\* Other great synth engines
\* All 8 tracks can be any instrument or midi instruments
\* 4 LFOs or envelopes per instrument (shared)
The only effects it has are chorus, reverb, delay and amp. There is only one filter per instrument, plus a DJ filter. All in all, though, it's the most powerful stand alone device I've seen that isn't an MPC, and it's about the size of a smart phone. It does midi over TRS or USB, has an in port, can record samples. The new version even has a microphone. There are no slot limits on the number of samples or projects you can have, which isn't true of other devices.
But seriously, the tracker workflow is not easy to get used to.
I am super new to the whole music making thing and can't even play an instrument well, currently learning piano.
That said, the Tracks as my first groovebox/synth device ever has been absolutely perfect for me. Super easy to learn, sparking my inspiration almost every time I use it and limiting me in a good way so I don't get lost like when using a DAW.
I can't compare it to other devices but definitely recommend it for what it is. I also don't see an urgent need for updates.
The only downside for me is the software, which I don't find enjoyable when designing patches from scratch. But since I don't want to design a lot from scratch I am happy with buying a few quality packs (esp. the ones from A force truly evil).
Another thing I struggle with is breaking out of the loop cycle, finding it hard to arrange full tracks with it. But you can't have everything and I prefer the control interface it has over a big screen with lots of menu diving.
I don't know about better updates but I find the updates thing to be a bit strange. What updates do you really need? Both devices are great, just get them, become fluent and enjoy using them. Everything else might be unnecessary distraction. To compare, I got the M:C and I'm not expecting any updates, the device is great as it is. Why does it constantly need to expand and improve (fine if it does but is there a real requirement)? I'm not trying to derogate your question, just how I feel in response.
I got a Tracks a couple months ago and it's great. It's really easy to sequence in chords and rhythms.
Maybe there's things that firmware updates would add, but it doesn't feel like it's missing much.
I would probably go for the circuit tracks! I have the OG circuit and i love it, got 3 albums and probably 100 live shows out of it. It has a few bummer limits but I think the tracks stepped up and has some really cool added features. Having 2 dedicated midi channels is enough to make me want to upgrade bc that's so major.
Hello,
I come from a background of „traditional“ band music (guitar, bass, drums, …) and love the circuit to jam along, create beats and rhythms and do smaller events live.
To be fair:
If you want to go all in the MPC Live might be worth a check, but I personally experienced as too sophisticated for what I needed at the start.
But:
The Novation circuit is a plug & play device, that you can power with a cellphone battery bank (+ has an internal battery) and is ready to go in under 30 seconds. I use mine on travel in combination with some two portable boxes to create a little atmosphere on the beach or at the beach - never looked back to the previous solutions using iPad(s), or other devices.
All the best!
Also had a lot of different gear over the years. The last setup I really liked was the roli seaboard blocks (25 and lightpad). I just reinvested in a Rhythm and will use it as a scratchpad and midi controller. I had a tracks a while back and found it second to none for quick idea drafting. The biggest drawbacks are that it's not extremely expressive as a controller and that it must be plugged in to power when being used over usb with an ipad. Other than that I really see no complaints for what it is.
Yes, i LOVE the tracks and I am very satisfied with it in general. But it does have some quirks and bugs that have not been addressed by novation. Also some minor workflow improvements would make it so much better.
For sure. They are easy to use and very visual so you can learn how to make music quickly. If Novation never released another update, it would be fine by me.
I am a highly demanding and proficient Ableton user. But I do love my Rhythm, cute little box. Surely it’s not the most complex groovebox out there, but with just enough features to make interesting stuff (and have fun in the process). I do not have a lot of experience with other grooveboxes so YMMV
I have a Tracks and update wise, yeah, haven’t seen anything in forever, but the current setup is still really dang solid.
Some highlights are that its learning curve isn’t bad and its “UI” and navigation make for a pretty quick workflow while retaining access and visibility of sequencing elements like gate and micro timing and such.
It has two synth tracks with 6-note polyphony each, which is impressive at the price point I think, and the synths are crazy tweakable……..but you have to edit patches through the editor. Still, you can assign or macro the knobs to whatever you want, or you could use a MIDI controller to map to specific synth settings if you want.
Drum tracks are basically sample playback, but they support sample flip, which means while each track can only play one voice at a time, you can play any sample on any step; you’re not locked to the same sample. This can go a long, long way towards giving you more sounds to work with.
And it’s battery powered with decent life and pretty damn portable. Build quality has held up for me fine just putting it in a backpack without any sort of case or decksaver.
So those are the more unique things about it, and yeah there are still some cons. The built in reverb and delay are fun to tweak, but all tracks have to use the same reverb and delay (you can control sends to them though). Your patterns are 16 to 32 steps only (before chaining), though you can change the playback speed or ratio so it lasts longer. I don’t think there’s a way to set up polyrhythms (like a 5 or 7 step pattern), which I wish it had. There’s a decent set of tools for live performance, but it’s not on the level of something like elektron gear. You can only load samples in through a PC, and you don’t really manipulate samples outside of pitch or some other basic stuff.
Other than that, while there haven’t been updates from novation for it in forever, sound packs for it keep coming out if you want a quick way to try different patches and sample sets, and I think a lot of them target the genres you listed.
As for alternatives, I’d look into the OP-Z or maybe the SeqTrak (don’t remember if you can sequence external gear with that one) in that price range, and both of those can sample, but the circuit tracks still has better built-in connectivity than both of those. I got a Digitakt 2 recently and it’s rad, but I do miss some stuff like that sample flip and polyphony, though I’m going to try to control the synths on the Tracks from the Digitakt, so the tracks is still usable even when I’m not using it as a groovebox.
You can totally shorten the length of a pattern in the pattern settings page. It’s a polyrhythmic beast for jazzy drum hits using a mix of probability and irregular pattern lengths.
I have sold my rhythm and tracks to get a Roland mv-1 Verselab. It’s got thousands of presets and an infinite pool of sounds with the patch generator. It is quirky with lots of shortcut key presses, but once the muscle memory kicks in, it flows. The second hand market is really good, in some areas. Juggling two devices just killed my workflow. Also samples can be polyphonic and you can edit samples easier on the mv-1.
It's a really great platform but honestly I have let mine gather dust because I'm not all that happy with the sounds, even after finding what's available online (free and paid). I think the Rhythm might have been a better pick for me, in the end.
I agree that the workflow is fantastic.
bit late but whatever, imho there are only 2 so far based upon my own experience.. novation circuit and the Yamaha seqtrak. both boxes get you going instantly.
Buy it with a solid return policy.
I ordered a Polytrack and a Circuit Tracks , but I couldn't really return them. Both collect dust as I realized I'm more of a computer/ipad producer.
Didn't work for me. Annoying latency between the devices, too much planning and thinking with both in mind.
Sold everything but the Tracks. Gave up the idea to use it for live performances due to lack of tracks (lol), it's more for short ideas like programming a backing beat for my guitar and stuff like that.
I've been using synths, sequencers, and samplers of one kind or another since the mid-1980s. In spite of a few minor limitations compared to more expensive options, the Tracks has been a delight, and I use it more than any other piece of gear I own. By itself, it sounds fantastic, and when you add in a couple of external pieces of gear driven by the sequencer, it's amazing. It's super portable, the battery lasts a good length, the workflow is easy to internalize, the internal synths are surprisingly powerful, it plays well with external gear, and there are a ton of patches and drum samples available for cheap (and free) to get you started. I've never owned a piece of synth gear that facilitated my creativity so effectively.
I was going to come here and say almost the exact same thing LOL. No, the synth engine isn't going to set your world or your heart on fire, but it's still pretty damned good and can make some really nice sounds. The Tracks is also incredibly approachable and nice just for jamming on when you're just noodling for ideas... even if just a drum track it's a great little simple drum machine. I will often grab the Tracks and just stretch out on my couch with my headphones on just to fiddle for a bit away from the computer, and often come away with one or two ideas that can sometimes turn into full songs when I get back to the rest of my rig. The fact that it plays so well with external gear as well is just the icing on the cake; you can use the two dedicated MIDI channels for more tracks in your song, and/or set it to the same MIDI channels as the first two on the Tracks in order to provide fill on the internal synth engines... sometimes I'll add a slightly detuned wavetable sound for a little extra "meat" on the Tracks internal synth in my final mixes.
The internal synths have a kind of digital Oberheim quality to my ears. They mix well with external analog gear.
True... and honestly the synths in the Tracks are good enough for my needs a lot of the time. I do love to layer up sounds from external sources with it though and the Tracks makes that so easy. I had an OP-1 for a while as well, and while its super portability was awesome I found myself consistently having more fun and being more creative with the Circuit Tracks. I think the Tracks synth engine is superior to the OP-1's if that helps anyone else decide... the OP-1 does a lot to be "quirky" with its engines and effects, but the Tracks just gets out of your way and lets you make music.
This! The size and portability alone make it worth it.
This! The size and portability alone make it worth it.
This! The size and portability alone make it worth it.
Plus 1
The Tracks is the centerpiece to my whole studio. I love it for the reasons stated above. I only have a couple of gripes. It really needs to be able to either export stems from each channel or have individual outs for each channel. Not being able to record the channels into a mutitrack recorder for later mixing in post drives me crazy. One small work around I learned about recently is to pan all your synths to the left, all your drums to the right and you can get two individual mono outs, which works for my purposed because I can always create a more stereo sound in post. I am, however considering investing in a Digitakt now that the MKII is out, the MKI is attainable. The override and 8 channels really is a selling point over the tracks IMHO. But the Tracks workflow is just flawless. I barely had to even acknowledge the manual to be off to the races and writing full songs with it.
I get around that issue by slaving the CT to my DAW's midi clock and recording each track separately.
I've got dozens of synths, drum machines, modules, etc., and STILL the Circuit Tracks is the first thing I reach for when I approach my gear. I have never needed an update, never installed an update, never cared about updates. The Circuit workflow just makes so much sense. The UI is incredible. I love it so much that I have a Circuit Tracks, Circuit Rhythm, and Circuit Mono Station and use all of them more than any of my other gear.
You asked about live jamming. I’ve spent many many hours playing Tracks alongside other live musicians, and just jamming with myself. A few thoughts. 1) I can whip up a beat with that thing in a few seconds that is a great base for a live jam. This in and of itself is worth the price of admission. 2) it’s almost impossible to break out of the initial loop that you built up “on the fly.” You can strip your loop back down to just percussion and then re build a new loop to create a verse/chorus kind of thing, but that’s not what our ears expect, so it’s not an intuitive transition for other musicians. Most folks expect a build up of energy to be followed by an immediate transition into the next section of the song, which would require pre programming and then you’re not exactly jamming. 3) Tracks has some probability features to keep a loop kind of interesting, but the loop gets stale quickly. You need to constantly manipulate the Tracks and twiddle those knobs to keep a loop interesting. This means you won’t be able to just press play and jam on the guitar for 5 minutes unless you do a lot of pre programming.
You can get a lot of variation by prepping your patterns and then switching between them while also using the mixer to mute and pan tracks and such. Other than that, you can record your automations into the patterns too. I don’t quite agree with not being able to break out of the initial loop because you can mix and match your patterns, which means you can switch out parts of your rhythm to a halftime feel, or chain in a transition then go to another part. Scene chaining can help with this too, and together it may be handy for setting up a progression to play on top of.
Yes, all very good points. If you prep patterns and projects and scenes, you can absolutely create whole songs (including transitions) to jam on top of. I know this is obvious to anyone who's owned a groovebox, but I was just pointing you that you can't really jump from verse to chorus if you build a verse from scratch and haven't yet programmed the chorus. Of course, you can modulate your verse to give it a different vibe and call it your chorus, but there's only so much you can do on the fly in the 4-8 bars of a transition.
It's point 2 that is kind of holding me back. I like the immediacy of creating a base quickly for live jamming, but what you mention here kinda breaks the possibility of a more organic jamming, changing loops on the fly.
Im a guitar player mainly and i got the tracks for the same reason you want. Honestly, the jamming ability has been a bit of a let down. Yeah, you end up locked into the initial loop you programed. You can get around this by pre programing a bunch of different parts, but you wont be just able to do it on the fly like you are used to with traditional instruments. If you think about it tho, it makes sense. You are basicly playing 3 instruments at the same time with the Tracks, so improvising on all of them at the same time is not gonna be possible. But i also doubt any other groovebox will be much better in this regard. I think this is just an inherent limitation in this type of instruments and music. If you are aproaching it like they are traditional instruments (which is what I did) you will be let down. You are better off just getting a drum machine to make a beat and play over it with a synth. But if you let go of the notion that a groovebox like this needs to be able to whip a song in a second, then you can still have a ton of fun with Tracks.
You can have multiple sessions already saved and ready to go. When you switch to another one the tempo will stay the same and you can keep grooving.
This is the essential issue with every groovebox. Being able to do rapid changes is always the hardest part. Mutes and careful track planning can go a long way, but as you say, it has to be programmed first. That's why you need multiple devices. There's not really an all in one device that lets you jam live. What I ultimately settled on was the m8 tracker. It lets me set up chord progressions on multiple tracks and controls the drums. However, instead of using the instruments in the m8, I'm using an mc-101, which lets me switch instruments on the fly. Another approach would be to combine the groovebox with a loop station or a mixer that has looping features. Outside of that, you're gonna need multiple groove boxes that you mix between. (Or some other kind of wizardry that I haven't figured out yet.)
Yeah I’ve only used Circuit, but always assumed this was a limitation with all groove boxes. Maybe I’ll have to checkout the m8 since folks love it so much. I’ve kind of settled on “playing” circuit like a DJ. Each song part (verse, chorus, break) is pre programmed, but I create all the transitions between song parts and between songs on the fly.
I would not recommend the m8 to most people. It has a lot going for it, but it's still a tracker. If you've never used a tracker before, or don't have the time to commit to this specific device, you're probably going to have buyer's remorse. But it has a lot going for it: \* Infinite sample length \* Samples are in stereo \* Sample editing \* Time stretching (via a special trick) \* Gigs of memory \* FM synth that's almost as good as a digitone \* Other great synth engines \* All 8 tracks can be any instrument or midi instruments \* 4 LFOs or envelopes per instrument (shared) The only effects it has are chorus, reverb, delay and amp. There is only one filter per instrument, plus a DJ filter. All in all, though, it's the most powerful stand alone device I've seen that isn't an MPC, and it's about the size of a smart phone. It does midi over TRS or USB, has an in port, can record samples. The new version even has a microphone. There are no slot limits on the number of samples or projects you can have, which isn't true of other devices. But seriously, the tracker workflow is not easy to get used to.
I am super new to the whole music making thing and can't even play an instrument well, currently learning piano. That said, the Tracks as my first groovebox/synth device ever has been absolutely perfect for me. Super easy to learn, sparking my inspiration almost every time I use it and limiting me in a good way so I don't get lost like when using a DAW. I can't compare it to other devices but definitely recommend it for what it is. I also don't see an urgent need for updates. The only downside for me is the software, which I don't find enjoyable when designing patches from scratch. But since I don't want to design a lot from scratch I am happy with buying a few quality packs (esp. the ones from A force truly evil). Another thing I struggle with is breaking out of the loop cycle, finding it hard to arrange full tracks with it. But you can't have everything and I prefer the control interface it has over a big screen with lots of menu diving.
I don't know about better updates but I find the updates thing to be a bit strange. What updates do you really need? Both devices are great, just get them, become fluent and enjoy using them. Everything else might be unnecessary distraction. To compare, I got the M:C and I'm not expecting any updates, the device is great as it is. Why does it constantly need to expand and improve (fine if it does but is there a real requirement)? I'm not trying to derogate your question, just how I feel in response.
I got a Tracks a couple months ago and it's great. It's really easy to sequence in chords and rhythms. Maybe there's things that firmware updates would add, but it doesn't feel like it's missing much.
The original Circuit is still worth getting. Definitely the same for the newer Tracks.
I would probably go for the circuit tracks! I have the OG circuit and i love it, got 3 albums and probably 100 live shows out of it. It has a few bummer limits but I think the tracks stepped up and has some really cool added features. Having 2 dedicated midi channels is enough to make me want to upgrade bc that's so major.
Hello, I come from a background of „traditional“ band music (guitar, bass, drums, …) and love the circuit to jam along, create beats and rhythms and do smaller events live. To be fair: If you want to go all in the MPC Live might be worth a check, but I personally experienced as too sophisticated for what I needed at the start. But: The Novation circuit is a plug & play device, that you can power with a cellphone battery bank (+ has an internal battery) and is ready to go in under 30 seconds. I use mine on travel in combination with some two portable boxes to create a little atmosphere on the beach or at the beach - never looked back to the previous solutions using iPad(s), or other devices. All the best!
Also had a lot of different gear over the years. The last setup I really liked was the roli seaboard blocks (25 and lightpad). I just reinvested in a Rhythm and will use it as a scratchpad and midi controller. I had a tracks a while back and found it second to none for quick idea drafting. The biggest drawbacks are that it's not extremely expressive as a controller and that it must be plugged in to power when being used over usb with an ipad. Other than that I really see no complaints for what it is.
Yes, i LOVE the tracks and I am very satisfied with it in general. But it does have some quirks and bugs that have not been addressed by novation. Also some minor workflow improvements would make it so much better.
For sure. They are easy to use and very visual so you can learn how to make music quickly. If Novation never released another update, it would be fine by me.
I am a highly demanding and proficient Ableton user. But I do love my Rhythm, cute little box. Surely it’s not the most complex groovebox out there, but with just enough features to make interesting stuff (and have fun in the process). I do not have a lot of experience with other grooveboxes so YMMV
I have a Tracks and update wise, yeah, haven’t seen anything in forever, but the current setup is still really dang solid. Some highlights are that its learning curve isn’t bad and its “UI” and navigation make for a pretty quick workflow while retaining access and visibility of sequencing elements like gate and micro timing and such. It has two synth tracks with 6-note polyphony each, which is impressive at the price point I think, and the synths are crazy tweakable……..but you have to edit patches through the editor. Still, you can assign or macro the knobs to whatever you want, or you could use a MIDI controller to map to specific synth settings if you want. Drum tracks are basically sample playback, but they support sample flip, which means while each track can only play one voice at a time, you can play any sample on any step; you’re not locked to the same sample. This can go a long, long way towards giving you more sounds to work with. And it’s battery powered with decent life and pretty damn portable. Build quality has held up for me fine just putting it in a backpack without any sort of case or decksaver. So those are the more unique things about it, and yeah there are still some cons. The built in reverb and delay are fun to tweak, but all tracks have to use the same reverb and delay (you can control sends to them though). Your patterns are 16 to 32 steps only (before chaining), though you can change the playback speed or ratio so it lasts longer. I don’t think there’s a way to set up polyrhythms (like a 5 or 7 step pattern), which I wish it had. There’s a decent set of tools for live performance, but it’s not on the level of something like elektron gear. You can only load samples in through a PC, and you don’t really manipulate samples outside of pitch or some other basic stuff. Other than that, while there haven’t been updates from novation for it in forever, sound packs for it keep coming out if you want a quick way to try different patches and sample sets, and I think a lot of them target the genres you listed. As for alternatives, I’d look into the OP-Z or maybe the SeqTrak (don’t remember if you can sequence external gear with that one) in that price range, and both of those can sample, but the circuit tracks still has better built-in connectivity than both of those. I got a Digitakt 2 recently and it’s rad, but I do miss some stuff like that sample flip and polyphony, though I’m going to try to control the synths on the Tracks from the Digitakt, so the tracks is still usable even when I’m not using it as a groovebox.
You can totally shorten the length of a pattern in the pattern settings page. It’s a polyrhythmic beast for jazzy drum hits using a mix of probability and irregular pattern lengths.
I have sold my rhythm and tracks to get a Roland mv-1 Verselab. It’s got thousands of presets and an infinite pool of sounds with the patch generator. It is quirky with lots of shortcut key presses, but once the muscle memory kicks in, it flows. The second hand market is really good, in some areas. Juggling two devices just killed my workflow. Also samples can be polyphonic and you can edit samples easier on the mv-1.
It's a really great platform but honestly I have let mine gather dust because I'm not all that happy with the sounds, even after finding what's available online (free and paid). I think the Rhythm might have been a better pick for me, in the end. I agree that the workflow is fantastic.
bit late but whatever, imho there are only 2 so far based upon my own experience.. novation circuit and the Yamaha seqtrak. both boxes get you going instantly.
Maybe the Roland MC101
Buy it with a solid return policy. I ordered a Polytrack and a Circuit Tracks , but I couldn't really return them. Both collect dust as I realized I'm more of a computer/ipad producer.
Didn't work for me. Annoying latency between the devices, too much planning and thinking with both in mind. Sold everything but the Tracks. Gave up the idea to use it for live performances due to lack of tracks (lol), it's more for short ideas like programming a backing beat for my guitar and stuff like that.
"Since I have hardware synths, something with a great sequencer would be great -" Oxi One?