the circuit was the first groovebox I ever used. so, almost two years into its lifecycle, how do I like the circuit tracks?

Spoiler: I'm really disappointed! ... but it's still pretty fun.

Note that I sort of misspoke a few times in this. It should be pretty obvious what I meant - but I was just kind of going on this one, since I have maybe seven or eight hours of video I just had to throw out for ground loop issues and other things, and wanted to just finish the video. This is also why the notes on the video are ... so long. Sorry.

Things I missed:

-The Circuit /can/ save mute states. That's why I was a bit flustered when it didn't work ... I most likely just didn't change the setting to enable that.

Circuit Rhythm - I only mentioned the circuit rhythm in passing - I might do a full review at some point, but the TLDR is that it doesn't have polyphony on individual tracks, and I really like just sort of playing chords. I also bought it for a specific project and ended up having to bring that project ITB, which is never a good sign. It's easy to chop samples but hard to chop /and/ play those chops chromatically, which is all I want really. For chords you also have to do resampling and clear our some tracks temporarily, and ... I've never really been able to get my head around its resampling workflow very much. If that and it being mono doesn't bother you, I actually like it more than the Circuit Tracks, even though I haven't been using it recently. It has these punch-in FX that are sort of like the OP-Z's, which is neat (even though none of them are really good either - it's hard for gates and repeats to 'sound bad' so it ends up working well for just fun noodling around), and it doesn't have the sort of artificial glassiness of the Nova sound engine in it.

Packs/Patterns - I also kind of glossed over the Packs/Patterns thing and sort of don't always use the two terms right. It's great to have more sample time in a pack - I think it's three times as much? But I just glossed over it because I didn't feel much of a difference just working on the Circuit - possibly because I use it, as the title implies, very casually. And I think the Circuit as a whole suffers if you're trying to do more advanced things. Like, if you're slicing samples, this is just really ... not the place you should be doing that. For one of the songs I ended up changing the pitch of a sample and it took like ten minutes of listening to it, tweaking the pitch, and then you have to tweak the pitch of the track back to 'normal' at the beginning of the next sequence because it doesn't just snap back to normal for some reason, and it's just ... very annoying.

Inputs - I glossed over the Circuit Rhythm and Tracks being able to take inputs, put FX on them, and play them out of the main output, which can make setting up groups of instruments easier. The Tracks can actually mix them into the mix on the mixer page which is neat, and add effects if you're routing it in like that. It just doesn't have any impact on me personally.

LED Lights - the LED lights on the Circuit itself look really flickery and dim on the overhead shot. This is because I have a USB ring light pointed directly at it from above, set to full brightness. In normal usage the lights are completely fine, and even when fully washed out by a light they're visible, which I think is honestly pretty impressive.

Camera - Sorry about the small zooming in and out, it's automatic from my current camera and I'm not sure how to stop it. I believe the phone tries to focus temporarily to my hand, then snaps back. I've shot enough videos now ... I'm probably going to swap out my "camera" for most future videos. Eventually.

Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:26 - Conclusion - This is how I feel about the Circuit Tracks.
2:46 - Short discussion on the Circuit Rhythm. TLDR: I think it's a little better but also not ... better enough to be better than other options, usually.
3:54 - Talking about the "Master Compressor" and also effects
4:32 - Other options
5:29 - I talk about how the "improvements" made to the Circuit Tracks in comparison to the original Circuit don't affect my workflow on it at all.
8:05 - To be clear: It's still a lot of fun to use, and I don't hate it. I'm just disappointed(tm). They could've done a lot here.
9:10 - Let's walk through making a short track on the Circuit Tracks, and just my general workflow on the Circuit Tracks and whatever else I remember while I do this! I also introduce myself again! Woo. This is really sloppy (and I still don't have the hang of the behavior of the shift button, which you'll notice), but I think it can be useful to see.
24:40 - I forgot to point out a few things on the Circuit Tracks when making the track - like how to add FX (delay/reverb) and some other stuff - so let me just point those out real quick.
29:28 - Let's go through the patterns I've made in the default pack on the Circuit :)

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