Novation Circuit Rhythm launches for $400 | Engadget

Novation teased us again in February with the Circuit Rhythm, however we had nearly no data past the truth that it was sample-based and what we have been in a position to tease out of the labels on the entrance. Well, the Rhythm is formally right here and it gives a fairly compelling marriage of the Circuit workflow and SP-404 fashion beatmaking for $400.

At its core the Circuit Rhythm is constructed on the identical platform because the Circuit Tracks. It even has the identical chassis (simply in gentle grey as an alternative of black) and rechargeable battery because the Tracks. The coronary heart of any Circuits although is the eight-track 32-step sequencer and 32-pad management floor. They even have a number of built-in results, plus mutate and likelihood options for including variation and evolving your patterns. 

You’ll even discover the identical precise choice of I/O ports on the again, together with MIDI in, out and through, analog sync, plus a USB-C port, a microSD card slot, a headphone jack, stereo audio outs and two audio ins.

But the place the audio-ins on the Tracks are two mono audio feed for the mixer, on the Rhythm they’re stereo ins for the sampler. And as an alternative of getting two devoted polyphonic synth engines, two exterior MIDI tracks and 4 drum tracks, the Rhythm has eight sampled tracks that may be something you want. You can load up monitor one with some kick and snare one pictures, throw a shaker loop on monitor two, play a bass pattern chromatically on monitor three after which chop up some strings on monitor 4. And you may nonetheless have 4 extra tracks for including little bits of ear sweet. 

In addition to the reverb, delay and sidechain results you may discover within the Tracks, the Rhythm additionally has what it calls Grid FX for dwell efficiency. These are punch-in results that undoubtedly draw some inspiration from basic sampling workstations just like the SP-404 and SP-303 favored by the likes of J Dilla and MF Doom. There’s beat repeat, gate, vinyl simulation, phaser, auto-filter, digitize and reverse.

Key to capturing the vibe of these basic machines although are the sampling options. For one, you possibly can resample a loop you have processed by way of these results to bake in some compression and vinyl crackle, earlier than chopping it up and rearranging your beat for much more stuttering, lo-fi goodness. But, crucially, it could possibly additionally pattern exterior audio by way of stereo ins and outs after which slice it up both robotically into equal chunks or manually by tapping pads because the pattern performs to insert slices. That provides it a giant leg up over another finances grooveboxes just like the Elektron Model:Samples.

The massive query is whether or not or not the Circuit workflow, which eschews a display for a sequence of perform pages that you just navigate with the RGB pads, shall be as intuitive for manipulating samples as it’s for enjoying synth bass. To reply that although, you may have to attend for our evaluation (which is already below method).

The Novation Circuit Rhythm is accessible to preorder now for $400 and can ship in mid July.