Circuit Confusion :?:

[Kaspar]

I've studied the manual, watched the Youtube demo video and still don't quite get it at the level to confidently know what I'm doing in Circuit.
I won't even open the Pandora's box of Hyperion.

How do you go about understanding the method for constructing rhythms in Circuit?

I've divided my overall confusion to smaller questions that follow


Thanking you in advance for your patience

[Kaspar]

0. General Questions

a) How do you know how much the sliders/knobs need to be moved to change a value?
b) How do you center the value of a knob?


1. Config

a) The sliders - the value of 2, 3, 4 determines the probability of these divisions to be added to the sequence - am I right?
b) What does "Last" do, can't quite figure it out?
c) When I increase the "RND" value even a little, I lose some triggered notes, why?


2. Steps

a) The "All" sliders - there is only three of them although there's a 4-division also, why?
b) Again, "Last" - what does it do?
c) In the manual there under "Concept" the second figure shows how Circuit generates sequences - why are there more "3-s" than "2-s" in the sequence, although in the "Config" the slider "2" has a greater value than "3"?
d) What does the "Quant" control do?


3. LFO

Some assign targets are not self explanatory to me:
a) lfo 1ph
b) lfo 1 r
c) lfo 1 a
d) vary - seed?
e) vel var


3. Development questions

a) Would it be possible to add the display of numerical values for controls?
b) Would it be possible in the future to show the generated sequence?

[xoxos]

i think you need to come back to the manual or video at a later time.

[Kaspar]

i think you need to come back to the manual or video at a later time.

Do you mean that you are in the process of refining them or I just need a little more time to digest this fabulous music making tool?

[antoine.bertier]

Since I asked similar questions at one point or another, and received similar answer, I think I have progressed on the path towards enlightenment and illumination, and can give some answers or at least humble explanations:

0. General Questions

a) How do you know how much the sliders/knobs need to be moved to change a value?

It's enough when you hear it's enough. That's a general philosophy in xoxos plugins.

b) How do you center the value of a knob?

You don't: Play by ear. But for knobs for which being centered is important, then the center of the range has a flat region, so that you do not have to be precise to the micron (see manual for swing knob for instance).

1. Config

a) The sliders - the value of 2, 3, 4 determines the probability of these divisions to be added to the sequence - am I right?

close enough (see below cases where just a tiny nudge to the slider gives a 100% probability)

b) What does "Last" do, can't quite figure it out?

It allows to complete sequences with a 1 beat at the end. For instance if you have 4 beats and only divisions of 3 then if you do not have Last you hear nothing because you cannot cover 4 beats only with divisions of 3 (note if you have the 3 slider to the max, and only a tiny nudge of 2, you will constantly get the 2 divisions, since it is the only solution to cover the 4 beats).
But if I add the Last, then I can cover my 4 beats with a division of 3 plus a Last beat. So Last helps complete sequences opening more possibilities of variation to the algorithm.

c) When I increase the "RND" value even a little, I lose some triggered notes, why?

You should not loose any triggered note, just the intervals between the notes are randomized (see diagram on manual).

2. Steps

a) The "All" sliders - there is only three of them although there's a 4-division also, why?

Because it's not needed The All refer to the beat within the divisions, so they make sense for beats that belong to at several divisions: beat 1 and 2 are in all divisions, beat 3 is in 3-division and 4-division, but beat 4 is only in 4-division so does not need a All which can do nothing more than the 4-beat slider in the 4-division

b) Again, "Last" - what does it do?

probability to trigger a note when a Last beat is generated in the sequence.

c) In the manual there under "Concept" the second figure shows how Circuit generates sequences - why are there more "3-s" than "2-s" in the sequence, although in the "Config" the slider "2" has a greater value than "3"?

That's the beauty of probabilities: you can't trust them

d) What does the "Quant" control do?

one of the few knobs where xoxos displays the value because he is sure we do not understand it anyway
As far as I understand it is to provide some control over the seed value, so that we can generate repeatable variations by changing the Quant for a given Seed. But this is to be used only when you are 7th dan in circuit!

3. LFO

Some assign targets are not self explanatory to me:
a) lfo 1ph

lfo1 Phase

b) lfo 1 r

lfo 1 Rate

c) lfo 1 a

lfo 1 Amount

d) vary - seed?

the seed for the variations (see counter in the manual)

e) vel var

Velocity variation is described in the Velocity Parameter sidebar in the Gate Panel section of the manual.

3. Development questions

a) Would it be possible to add the display of numerical values for controls?
b) Would it be possible in the future to show the generated sequence?

No. This is the path to the dark side (and additional CPU burn )

That was a long one, I hope it helps. The short version is this: spend more time with circuit, and read the manual 17 times: it is terse, sometime cryptic, but it contains the answer to all your questions.

[Kaspar]

Thanks Antoine for taking the time to answer my numerous questions in great detail!

Things make more sense now.

Back to experimenting.

[xoxos]

sorry kaspar, my time is precious, and thank you accordingly antoine

a disambiguation -

'quant' splits the 'seed' knob (which functionally "selects" the output pattern) into n # of zones..

eg. quant at 4 means that the rotation of the seed knob is divided into four zones.. making it easy to switch between the 4 patterns (seed values) by changing the seed knob. i do that in the vid.

sliders are 0 - 100%, linear.. no mystery to it.

antoine is right - my language (especially circuit, being one of my first manuals, is extremely "carefully" worded) is terse and precise.. there might only be five words in the sentence but sometimes they need to be read a few times

that's "just my style."

i'm ~multicultural and don't have "rapport" or "familiar language," probably more "freaky postacademic english" than "people's language." i don't really know what i'm doing when i write sentences the "friendly" way. i do know what i'm doing when using a "minimalist semantic aesthetic," so that's how it turns out

[Kaspar]

sorry kaspar, my time is precious, and thank you accordingly antoine

No need to be sorry - time better spent making plug-ins

eg. quant at 4 means that the rotation of the seed knob is divided into four zones.. making it easy to switch between the 4 patterns (seed values) by changing the seed knob. i do that in the vid.

Now that made things clear!

antoine is right - my language (especially circuit, being one of my first manuals, is extremely "carefully" worded) is terse and precise.. there might only be five words in the sentence but sometimes they need to be read a few times

that's "just my style."

Will consider this before running here in the future.

[antoine.bertier]

a disambiguation -

'quant' splits the 'seed' knob (which functionally "selects" the output pattern) into n # of zones..

eg. quant at 4 means that the rotation of the seed knob is divided into four zones.. making it easy to switch between the 4 patterns (seed values) by changing the seed knob. i do that in the vid.

That's very clear now and I had understood exactly the opposite from the manual (I had understood that for a given position of the seed knob you moved the quantize knob to get the various patterns, as if for instance the quantized value was the last digit of the seed)

[xoxos]

i'm going to do somethnig more conventional next

[yauluhim]

Thanks Antoine!

Those were exactly the features i was struggling to understand.

Rurik, looks like you should hire Antoine to help you with writing the manuals next time . Oh and may i ask what will the "something more conventional next" be?

[xoxos]

appearances are sometimes deceiving

it's a unison synth with a simple algorithmic sequencer. it's probably going to be most useful for.. you know, dance music...