EDITOR READ ME

Circuit Editor Read Me. This document will guide you through editing patches and creating patches for your circuit. It will not be going into details of synthesizer patch design, but focus on workflows on how to get sounds from the circuit to the editor, from the editor to Circuit, and from the editor backed up to your hard disk.

PATCH CONTROLS MACRO CONTROLS

SYNTH CONTROLS

Overview The Circuit Editor is laid out in a logical fashion from top to bottom.

Select the Synth you want to edit with the choice at the top left and then use the Patch Controls to Load or Save Patches to and from the Circuit.

The Macro Controls section dictates how the 8 Encoders behave in each patch whilst the Synth Controls give fine control over everything else.

Standalone Versions Currently the MaxforLive device is compatible with Ableton Live 9.5, MaxforLive 7 and MAC OS. For a standalone version that will run in Max (you don’t need a full license as it will continue to operate in the runtime when the trial expires)

Simply sign up for the Novation X Isotonik Circuit Editor on this page and we’ll send you the links contained within the download.


--------------WARNING----------This editor will allow you to overwrite patches on your circuit. If you have accidentally overwritten patches, or want to get your unit back to its original state, then please read below.

Patch Control

Uploading the 64 original patches 1. Load Circuit Editor. It will load with the original factory bank in the Library Control Section:

You can manually load this bank by clicking on ‘Load Bank from Disk’ then selecting Factory.json that came in the download folder with the editor

2. Then press ‘Upload All Patches to Circuit’

3. Click OK. You will see the Save button on your circuit pulse for about 20 seconds whilst all 64 patches are uploaded.

You now have your patches in their original state.

Basic Concepts before you get going. Circuit has 64 patches stored on the unit that can be accessed at any point by pressing Shift + Synth 1 (or Synth 2). You have two pages of patches that can be accessed by pressing Oct ▼ (Patches 1-32) and Oct ▲ (Patches 33-64)

Circuit has 32 sessions slots available. When you save a session, you are saving all the notes and automation, but you are also saving all the settings that make up the 2 synth patches. Therefore if you change a patch using the Editor (or via external MIDI CCs) then any changes to the patch are saved with the session.

So the quickest way to save your changes to a patch is simply save the session on your hardware, and when you reload the session, it will load up and sound exactly the same as when you saved it!

The down side to this is if you have made an awesome patch, it’s only saved in the session. So if you want to be able to use the same patch in other sessions, then you’ll want to overwrite one of the 64 patches on the unit.

Now you’ll have to start to make decisions about which of the 64 patches you are going to overwrite.

One thing that you don’t need to worry about is your existing sessions… If you overwrite Patch 1 (‘Bass-ic Square’) with your new one (‘Amazing Bass’) all the sessions that used the original ‘Bass-ic Square’ patch will still sound the same. However you will no longer be able to select ‘Bass-ic Square’ patch in any new sessions as it has been overwritten. You will now only be able to select ‘Amazing Bass’ in your new sessions.



Editing an existing patch on your circuit. If you are interested in taking an existing patch from Circuit, editing it, then saving it to the unit then this is the best course of action.

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On your Circuit, press Shift + Synth1 (or Synth 2) and choose the preset that you want to edit.

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In the Editor, press Get Current Patch from Circuit.

This method will have the Editor follow the patch selection from the hardware.

So you have now synced the Editor with Circuit, and you will see all the controls move to represent the current patch.

You’ll also see the name, category and type update.

Note that this does not update the Library control list. (Library control drop down list is more useful when creating a whole bank of patches so you can ignore it for now)

Editing Circuit Presets We suggest if you have never designed or edited a synth patch before, then the circuit editor is not the best place to start. Why not try our V-Station plugin, as this is a great place to learn synthesis and when you’re more confident, come back to the Circuit Editor.


 Circuit Editor is quite a complex synth editor, but we hope that it’s laid out well enough that you find your feet quickly, but please tread carefully!

I presume you’ve just spent the last 10 minutes making a patch. Now you need to decide what to do with it.

Saving with the Session. “I want to use this new patch in this session”

“I do not want to overwrite any of the factory patches”

This is the most simple: Just press Save (twice) on your Circuit.

The edited patch is saved in the session, and when re-loading the session, you’ll recall the patch.

You will not be able to access the patch in any other sessions.

Overwriting a Patch. “I want to use this patch in new sessions that I create”

“I want to overwrite an existing patch, replacing the old one with this new one”

Remember this action will overwrite the original factory sound with your new one.

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Press Upload Single Current Patch to Circuit

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Choose the location where you want to overwrite the patch.

TIP: Press Shift + Synth 1 (or Synth 2) to see which patch is currently loaded. Note which one of the Oct ▼ (Patches 1-32) or Oct ▲ (Patches 33-64) is lit up, and then which patch slot is lit up, then press the corresponding patch number in the below window.

The selected slot will now be overwritten.

Creating a Bank of 64 Patches If you are interested in creating a whole bank of 64 patches, then this is the best way to go….

Click on the drop down list in the library control section of the editor.

Select the patch that you want to hear, and it will be loaded to the Circuit Hardware.

NOTE: Selecting Patch 35 will not make your Circuit jump to patch position 35, it will load Patch 35 into whichever Patch location you are currently using. If you are working to create a bank of patches, this should not matter, as the end result is to save 64 patches to this list, then upload all 64 patches at the end.

You may prefer to load a bank of initialised patches first. You’ll find an init_bank.json file in your downloaded folder.

Press Load Bank from Disk, and select the Init_bank.json file. This will load up 64 initial patches.

Start designing your patches, and storing them to the list as described above.

Managing and Saving Patches in the editor. First ensure that you rename your patch, and then select the desired Genre and Category.

Storing your patches to the Editor list. Storing patches does not make any changes to the patches on the unit. This only stores patches to the list in the editor.

Press Store Patch

This will overwrite whichever patch is currently displayed in the list.

If you want to select a different place in the list press Store Patch To… And then follow the buttons instructions to choose one of the patches in the drop down menu beneath it.

Initialise Current Patch to start from scratch.

Saving a Patch or Bank to your HDD Simple, just press Save Patch to Disk or Save Single Patch to Disk.

Patches will then be saved in the .json format to be recalled later.