A Compact Creation! But Now What? // The "Dead End" of The Groovebox Workflow - Compact Creation
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- Опубліковано 23 лип 2024
- I'm curious to know your favorite way of finishing a track that you start on a "groovebox". Do you just leave it there, try to song mode it or pattern chain it into a masterpiece, or stem it out one by one. Which, of course, takes longer but gets the job done. Today I mess around and start a track idea using the OG Novation Circuit and the Arturia Minifreak but quickly come to the roadblock that I usually come across when using Groove boxes and other forms of dawless music making.
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The Free Minifreak Patches 🎹 - bit.ly/3qC69s2 (These are PATCHES not Samples)
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00:00 Lets Set The Vibe
00:31 Getting The Drum Sequence In
01:53 Lets Try This MiniFreak Patch
02:31 Putting Down The Chord Sequence
03:08 Sound Designing a Rhythmic LFO To The Filter
04:28 The MiniFreak Can Do This?
05:28 Getting The Bassline Down
06:34 Adding Some Drum Variety
07:50 The Down Side Of Using Chord Mode
08:26 Building a WHOLE New Pattern To Improv
09:15 What I Used To Love Doing With Circuit and Improv
11:06 Why Keyboard Tracking Rules!
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#minifreak #arturia #novationcircuit
I love how immediate tracks is. I will arrange a full song via pattern chaining, send the synth midi out to my daw, record out the drum sounds direct and dry from the tracks, then use the midi to record new synth sounds on outboard gear. It's a little bit time consuming up front, but considering how quick and easy it is to compose on tracks, it's worth the effort.
I think this is why I love the Deluge so much. The arranger mode let's me flesh everything out into a full track. Super useful.
Bingo! Any gear with midi or even audio can be used to build tracks so easily
I love Ableton's push for this reason. Tbh the only time I get frustrated is when I have to switch over to my PC to dial something in with the mouse. Kinda breaks my workflow.
@@BeetMasher no matter what tool used, good we can expand limited gear, not sure why people aren't aware of it! I try to help :)
That groovebox wall/plateau is real! I love how fast a groovebox can make a lead, bassline, and add some drums! Then you have to know how to evolve or just bring it to the DAW. Sadly I usually end it there most of the time.
Get deluge you won't hit a wall :)
Sketching is a healthy part of being an artist. When the distance between your practice room and your recording studio is a 90 degree chair turn, it's easy to forget that 30-40 years ago, ideas had to be hashed out in one place and "finished" somewhere else. When you listen to music, do you think, "this was made by one person in one lucky sitting" or "this was done meticulously in a DAW, and I hear the anxiety"? Do you play a live set differently in your room, versus in front of a crowd? BTW check out Jeff Mills playing a 909 live with "The Paradox". Thanks as always
This is a great insight that put into words an idea and concept I had been trying to clarify and understand. The reality of this became apparent recently when I started, for the first time in YEARS, writing/creating away from the home studio.
@@remyvegamedia can you explain me the concept in more simple words please,
@@vincentdelmas2792 imagine that recording something would cost you 50 bucks an hour and you had to take your stuff elsewhere and you had only eight hours to come away with something finished on tape.
@@PorchBass you mean we have to be greatful because how easy it is now? Or something philosophical like difficulties of the past made them better and more focus?
@@vincentdelmas2792 music has lost it's value in part because it requires so little investment.
I think the point of the groove box is the process, not the end result. I had the circuit OG, but found it too confining. The circuit tracks is about right and strikes a good balance. Paired with two compact synths, like a mini freak and Roland boutique, you can have hella fun. If your goal is a finished track, I think its the wrong tool unless you’re just sketching ideas. Always appreciate your work.
This exactly !
For some of my songs I just hit record and jam. For others I will use the scene chaining capability on Circuit Tracks as a kind of song mode to get the arrangement right, then just record each part individually with my DAW (REAPER) sending midi clock. For some songs I'll just record audio loops and sequence those in the box. It all kind of depends on what works best for the particular song.
Great vibe, dope sounds! This channel is addictive. 🙏
I love grooveboxes, but to be fair I don't use a daw at all. I love the fact that you've brought out the OG Circuit! I'm taking that one and the Roland S-1 on holiday with me next week, because I love to bring a tiny setup to sketch out some things. We're campervanning, so space is definitely important.
I should have thought about something like that before I took my Polybrute out camping 🤔
It would be interesting to know what your favorite groovebox is, with your experience.
@@samueldecker2406 I'm sure you meant this question for Ricky, but I'm going to answer anyway. :-)
My favourite would be the Digitakt. But close runners up are the OG Circuit and the Model:Cycles. Different machines get you to different places.
I think that's the beauty of it! It lets you play around with short and fresh ideas without the compromise of them becoming something, if they don't pass the test of the 20 minutes tracking them into the DAW then they probably shouldn't become a full song anyways.
Thanks for bringing this back
Love the compact creation series. Keep them going pls!
This exacly ! Probably best part of this channel, it’s the moment when Ricky really shines and shows his incredible creativity .. throught thise limitations .. it’s great how he can buils really groovy catchy loop which literally just few drum samoles and one synth .. 👌👍
def in the latter category. it might take me a while to get the performance aspect down, but being able to do it live is what makes music exciting for me. i understand wanting to be able to examine and control the minutiae of every waveform and effect, but no one is going to look at whatever you create, or even care about, nearly as closely as you. does that mean its acceptable to turn out substandard work? no. but if you care about what the project is, others will interpret that vibe. there are so many other opportunities that could be missed while dwelling on something for too long. be the shark.
05:00 the Sickness Level I Love-it.... Great video "RT" Jams 💯
lullaby house so sick 😆really diggin this one. excited to mess around with your minifreak patches
Your compact creations helped me get into dawless, also your live setup video where you had your OG circuit, Sirin, and MPC 💖 Limitations for sure, but combined with a mixer and some outboard it's endless fun!
DO you have music posted anywhere? I'd love to hear some tunes.
whoa! that's awesome to hear. That setup was so simple and so fun. I feel like I start to lose the forest through the trees with these things. When I take a step back and see how simple it was and how fun I question how I'm getting the same outcome with way more complication haha!
@@RickyTinez I spent a decade just being lost in a DAW and trying to make rock/metal, but the roadblocks of trying to program drums without knowing anything about them and just getting everything set up in Reaper was just so fatiguing I never made anything I was truly happy with. But totally, the freedom and creativity these little compact creations can foster is incredible and for me it's really been the springboard I need to create meaningfully and have fun with it, even if it comes at the price of whatever time spent muting and tracking stuff in later if it needs to be arranged more completely.
Thanks for all you do and the vibes you put out here 💖 I'm displaced from my home right now where all my gear is and your video did a lot to brighten up my day.
@@abstractmodule4574 I made a Bandcamp since you asked with the same username as on here, I don't think UA-cam likes comments with outside links though or I'd give you the URL 😭
It's so refreshing to hear/see those we look up to/follow struggle with the exact same things we do. Thanks for putting this up Ricky!
I definetly hit that point always. I have my Novation circuit tracks full of sketches which could turn into a song. I think that's the idea behind many grooveboxes you can use them for live playing and making sketches but finishing songs on it it's just not really efficient.
Right. Playing live with them is WAY more fun than playing with the laptop. I've also realized this slider between "simple/good at improvisingcomplicated/not good and improvising" There is a place for most things and the Circuit was a blast to have fun in the moment with not so much making entire songs on
I love this arturia-novation combo
This inspired me to use my launchpad in a similar way. Thanks Ricky!
Great jam
I create fully in the Mpc live, then sequence in the live into song mode. Output the audio outs to a mixer and some outboard and create a version before committing to tape/daw. Being Ltd helps my creativity and the song mode and the way the mpc live can do pretty much everything is not to be slept on. Love to see you do a video using the mpc to see if you like it. Great content as always.
I feel that! My best music was made on just the MPC 4000. Extremely simple and straight forward song mode that you had to "hack" to do some cool stuff but made it all the more fun and rewarding. AND I still take those techniques and use them today in a limitless DAW
I did that exact approach with the Mpc live for several years. It’s good and I enjoyed it. I did find that after a while I felt too limited… I do plan to return to it for a project… but these days Ableton plus a mix of hardware, groove-boxes and NI plugins for me.
Our OG circuit getting some love.😊
I usually pattern chain or song mode it into a full song and then leave it. There's definitely a sort of limit to what you can do in the groovebox but I think if you get it to its natural end point you can move the structure of it, post song mode-analogue, into a daw if you really want.
Sick track and nice to see the OG Circuit again! Your videos with it got me into dawless. For me, it depends on the track: if it works dawless, I’ll just record the performance and just master in the DAW. For other tracks I’ll make stems and mix/add more tracks in the DAW.
great video ricky! I have a circuit tracks that I bring along with me to jam out ideas when i'm travelling ! I then try to perform the arrangement live by live looping the performance. the challenge is doing it fast enough so its interesting. I am recording the audio into a zoom recorder. I then take that audio and "master" it abit in logic, and add one or two guitar tracks. Thats how I've been "finishing" my circuit tracks jams ! I have a couple on my youtube as an example ! Not sure if this workflow resonates with anyone else here looking to get more out of their groovebox :)
It's the workflow of moving sketches on that makes me really like using a few types of hardware alongside synths. One is Elektron boxes like Digitakt, because of Overbridge. The other is MPC One / Live because you can take ideas further into arrangement and mixing but still easy to transfer to DAW. Other is using powerful groovebox type sequencers, like Oxi One or Hapax, where it's powerful enough that you can just continue on fleshing it out, and can use the DAW like a tape machine/mixer/mutli-effects/master chain. Now there's the Ableton Push 3, which makes the transition from idea to final arrangement and mixing in DAW even more seamless. Though for me, with Push 3 standalone, I think I'd struggle to Live without some FabFilter, SoundToys, Valhalla, Output, Sonible, Arturia FX
I really love your compact creation series, but i was wondering why you havent touched the "Korg NTS-1" yet?
You could show your piano teacher what you have learned hooking up the NTS-1 to a midi-keyboard 😁
Damn - tricky Ricky , you got this HARD ! 😗
There are some grooveboxes that I don't hit the wall as quickly though. Octatrack and Syntakt is just about all I need.
One thing I like about the MPC Live is its ability to render and bounce parts. You can go as deep as you like with each individual drum pad getting it’s own audio file or just render the whole tune as a stereo file or somewhere in between.
I’ve been using a multitrack recorder (1010 bluebox) lately as the compromise between the momentum killing of the daw and the what now of just the onboard sequencers approaches. It allows me to build out a proto arrangement full track right away, but even better, I’ve been knob tweaking more during recording to create variations in real time. A couple takes all the way through and then to the computer for some drops and fine tuning.
With regards to the last point you made: Yes, I get to this point of, 'What now?' too. It helps to have some post processing to finalise a track or it requires more gear in the chain like some eq, effects stomp boxes or external sampler/looper. Otherwise it's back to the daw to record>name> list and arrange.
Love the video as always. I was looking for a "low-cost sketchpad setup" this one looks fun but you highlighted some of the flaws or thresholds I'd encounter myself and I appreciate that.
mc-707 has audio over usb and each track is it's own channel.
works great! Really mean machine!
great video i enjoy seeing the different UI tricks and root patterns to the workflow. its like there is endless languages for music with regard to the UI variations of different devices. as for your question i am stuck in the middle. i want the press record and rip it feel with the polished up sound quality. trying to find that right setup to orchestrate sequences between devices with enough stand alone fx and modulation between the devices that recording that higher level sound can be recorded out of a large suitcase without DAW.
I am just a hobbyist, whenever I try to finish something in a DAW I totally feel overwhelmed by all available options. Luckily I have some boxes with pretty good arrangement modes. I really like arranging on the Deluge because it is just like a timeline in a DAW but without the ten trillion options.
haha! I'll have to check out the deluge arrangement mode. I worry about the Deluge's ability to do everything and if it will be cumbersome. But that's also me living tomorrow death today.. why care until I try.
Just dusted off my OG circuit the other day. Forgot how fun and easy it was to get something going.
I love my groove boxes. If I am spending a lot of time on building a jam outside the daw, then I usually just record a live stereo jam and then master that. If I work in the daw from the start (typical approach for me), I skip making the groove box jam, but do use the grooveboxes for crafting song parts 1 by 1…. for example I might lay down a midi synth part and then run that out to a hardware keyboard to track the sound while I fiddle with the knobs real-time.
I always live record my prepared jams where the backbone (mainly clips with note information) is ready and I mainly select scenes, add modulation and play some occasional Melodies live. All multitracked into the Daw, where I do some mixing and eq / compression. And that’s it.
i have a pattern based brain. i always turn my ideas/patterns/loops into songs on the mpc. if i start an idea on a groovebox, then i'll hook it up to the mpc. once i have the idea on the mpc, i use the mpc to create the arrangement.
If you’re playing gigs, you have the option of persevering with the groove boxes to knock out a decent live version… but you’re always going to need a DAW to develop your refined studio version. 🤷♂️
The main thing is that we are adjusting our expectations accordingly & enjoying each process for what it is.
You make the circuit sing bro.
I do something peculiar with my Circuit Tracks, each Pack i saw it as a song, where the Projects are different parts (intro, verse, bridge, chorus, etc) within the song, i can change them and make it as long as a i wish combining song mode, mute states and Projects switching, that's my workaround to make full songs.
But at the end of the day, i must record each part on it's own to save them in the DAW for mixing, i wish the CT could save Projects with a multichannel approach on the Micro SD card, so at least we could import the WAVs into the DAW.
Thanks for the amazing music and videos as usual Ricky.
Just got a microfreak and pulled out the circuit og that was gathering dust. Inspirational! Not sure what to do for a nice reverb of delay. Upgrade to tracks or fx pedals?
ideally i always record main out in case of happy accidents.. then theres two to take it from there, although you can crossover between the two.. you can either embrace the limitations of the box, especially if this is going to be a live performance set.. or take it and do whatever u need to do to fully produce something (record multi takes, sample chop manipulate, or even recreate totally with other instruments in a daw)
Damn, just when I thought I’d decided the ASM hydra synth was my next purchase you drop this bad boy….
Now I’m torn again
In my opinion, the perfect companion to a limited or compact groovebox is the sp404 mk2. You can take those groovebox loops; mangle, chop, pitch and affect them, then transition them into each other, and before you know it... One loop becomes 3 loops , tons of variation and *Boom*... song. I feel like the sp404 almost unlocks a lot of grooveboxes.
cassette tape and or Alesis Masterlink are my go to for capturing jams
I setup my drums on the Alphabase, make my sequences on the Live and I live jam it out then sit on it for a few days and go back for a listen. If it's good as is and I'm satisfied with the results, I'll mark it as complete. But if I feel the need to do another take I'll make notes on what to change or add.
Great vid - great to see you revisit your process with the OG circuit and it's a great combo with the minifreak. Something I wonder - would you ever sing a vocal take as part of your sketching/songwriting process? The most immediate instrument there is!
I use my voice a lot to think of melody or bass parts but rarely as part of the song. If I do I chop it up, pitch it around, and make it less obvious haha. I sang in this one actually - open.spotify.com/track/7dAPzsOAvprbWghWqUa7EN
Old school Circuit ricky!
Bringing it back! Just this once.. haha
@@RickyTinez 🦁
Dude why on earth did you “used to” love playing with the circuit? This is my favorite jam of your I’ve heard
My OG Circuit turned into an unusable brick 1 year after using it - which was a logical time to upgrade to Tracks. I liked the drum sample control ever slightly more but tracks ability to send 2 midi outs + operate as a sidechaining mixer has been nice. I’ve come back to using midi controllers & the DAW recently & keep my groovebox on the go workflow, minimal gear live setup. Compression/dynamic/ efx & arrangement all work better in the DAW but cranking out bass lines ( or base lines ) on the go is always a blast.
Also just enjoy trying new configurations & trying new combos out - so neither the studio nor live setup ever get stagnant
mini freak is dope yo ( i need one ) .... and i should use my Circuit More
Lately, I always end up liking the live dawless versions more than when I try tracking everything separately into a DAW and finishing it inside the daw. I mostly just use my Torso T1 to sequence everything modular and vsts in Renoise but without syncing anything. Works fine and I don't have any syncing issues. It's the bane of my existence. No clock jitter, well, for now..
Every few new product releases I try groove boxes again but always go back to big synths and dedicated sequencers. It’s just my nature to want them separated.
im really liking the sh-4d. its got everything in one box. and it sounds so good.
i totally agree 100% loving the SH-4d currently
The Minifreak has a delay, but it may have already been assigned to effect slot 2 or 3. It won't show up in the menu if it's already assigned to another slot, even if it's deactivated in that slot.
I really dig the older circuit. The color and the fast I could stuff batteries in it. I use to run two of them. The rhythm is my only Novation survivor lol. Might get an OG circuit again, kind of miss that chunky thing.
its such a chunker haha. a lot of older ones have this issue where the pads start to go all crazy and pressing themselves. mine did the second I stopped recording! haha. Just have to slap it or "drop it" onto a table from about an inch high and it helps
@@RickyTineza little late but…..I read it had something to do with the kensington lock up in the top right. My circuit og does the same thing so yeah when I use it I give it a little tap top right corner and it usually works ok for a while at least. Would like to have it fixed actually (dont like having otherwise excellent condition gear malfunctioning) so if anyone has any advice or experience fixing it…
Lullaby House!
I am a complete dilettante at this so I just try to finish something in one night, play live over the loop, and either record that and just push it to UA-cam or record it for myself to remember the idea for another night. Anything else would feel like work and I just wanna mess around 🙂
Got a standalone Push 3 coming hoping to solve this pain. I can just send the session via wifi to the DAW. Been waiting for that forever. No more sync clock worries or tracking in!
maaaannn that kinda sounds super nice right about now.. Push really does make Ableton feel a lot more like an instrument
i do the second way ya said pattern record pad mute live play it out straight record it out the groovebox myself, and the roland SH-4d seems to do it all easy and can mix the tracks think you should give it a second chance js
My OG Circuit 's PAD is suffering , the pad will randomly fire notes. I need to hit it hard to fix it....
It is luck if you have a OG Circuit and still have perfect condition.
Have had the circuit do this as well. Worse yet, it was the reason my MPC live died.
Must be a hard thing to do, make pads that last. Companies should at least make it easy to fix.
I still play live shows using my OG Circuit. But yeah, struggle of getting songs out of it is real. I have a dozen of sessions in Circuit that I play live for more than couple years, but I still didn't properly sat down and record them into DAW to arrange them as tracks.
i haven't even seen 'the wall' with the deluge. most of my tracks don't involve external synths and some of my songs get fairly complex.
Exactly Michael
I have the polyend play which at least allows me to export stems to wav for some pretty easy arranging. But i cant export over usb i have to do it over micro sd which feels like such a pain even though my laptop has a micro sd port making it pretty easy.
As a result ive been really looking at the digitakt because honestly overbridge seems too good a solution for this.
It would be interesting if Akai used the MPC platform for a DAW mode. I like to do long phrases. Having a song mode that works with blocks more than roll notes would be useful. 1010 Bluebox is something like that. Shuttling data is a PIA.
I might plug in my OG Circuit I havnt used it in a while
Its a fun trip down memory lane haha
@Ricky Tinez Always motivating me to get back to work ! Thank bro, one of ma fav UA-camrs
I would go with sketching it out in song mode and record it in my daw. And give it a week or 2 for listening the sketch. And come up with some ideas. And after that stem out all the parts and create a full arrangement.
I could never get the online software to recognize the circuit so I'm stuck with the same sounds. Definitely made some cool jams with it though.
I had this problem at first, was able to fix it by forcing windows to use the novation driver via device manager
Got it working again. I think it may have been the USB cable.
You could play something on top of the chords from the circuit, but you just gotta know your theory.
I perform with my Circuit Tracks, formerly the Circuit Classic, and we perform bespoke songs, so it's a bunch of chaining alongside storing a song across multiple projects, since the Circuit is amazing at just swapping.
I do my arranging on my groovebox. I do mute the track, but I'm trying to not do that with our next release, and didn't do much of it, since the grooveboxes in my band are more for performing songs that were pre-written in a DAW.
Some grooveboxes, like the MC101, which I use alongside my Tracks, will send the four tracks, returns, and the amster over USB to a DAW. Unfortuantely, I don't like programming the 101, and typically send midi to it from the Tracks.
that's exactly how I feel :( got my KSP full with cool ideas, but tracking them down and stressing over which sounds should I use ('cause I'm sequencing hardware with it) takes the magic away for me ... I end up getting choice paralysis when I get to Ableton and just archiving my beautiful ideas in my hard disk graveyard 😢
I would get as far as I could with a track in the MPC One until I knew exactly how to finish it off in Ableton. I’d use the .ALS export, then make a second pass on all the parts.
You find that workflow works pretty well?! I love a good Ableton export. or even just stems!
@@RickyTinez yeah mainly to tidy up some EQ/FX stuff. Once I start playing with the stems in Ableton the arrangement comes together pretty quick!
I worked with circuit OG and tracks with rhythm. In december I bit the bullet, sold the lot and went deep dive into Roland Verselab. Now 6 months in, I have my first track, 16 sections of sequenced evolving Tangerine Dream Hyperborea reminiscences, and I love it. Verselab will export stems to the roland zenbeats or straight into the DAW. Its battery portable. I can sample my acoustic electric guitar straight in, and build full tracks from the ground up. Sorry to be a zealous evangelist, but I traded my squarp pyramid, roland tr 808 and numerous keyboards for a single deep dive instrument. Worth it? My first track is more finished than anything I've done on anything else, but I needed 15 hrs per week focus to overcome the learning curve. Commitment is absolutely essential.
I feel dawless groove box or hardware based scenarios, just lend themself towards the playing live sittuation the best, I remember 10 years ago, there was a big issue of computer stability and 'what'cha gonna do when it crashes' with a lot of electroninc based artist's then re-thinking the whole subject of 'how am I going to do this?' for that sittuation, lately the price and power of these devices has come down, making it a really useful tool for that issue. my question is this maybe a subject for you 'Should we be going in a reverse direction and see if we can get out DAW tracks to fit inside our boxes?' as this is really what I want to explore next. I guess this is where Abletons Push 3 is eally going to help; for example, what do you think?
The minifreak has a delay. Maybe you still have the beta firmware, which I believe had a bug that hid some effects sometimes.
It’s located in FX slot 2 and 3.
I now see the need for a more powerful and capable groovebox. Synth workstations were becoming obsolete because of the modern DAW. But many people are drawn back to the workflow of hardware. I'm looking at the Roland Fantom-06 because it's a synth and groovebox and interfaces with Ableton. Seems like the ultimate mix. I just got a Circuit Tracks, and love the workflow, but it's so limited. Needs more effects. More ways to modulate your sounds. I'm trapped between the advantages of software and hardware.
Funny timing I've been watching some of these old videos again in the last few days. I normally habe the now what feeling mostly after I have finished a track, listen will in itself anyway no one :D. That's why I now try to give songs more of a rough finish that I can perform live, and Jam. Makes me as a hobby musician just much more fun than the eternal boring arrangement in ableton.
Speaking of the old videos, I saw the xBase 09 lying around in one of them. What is your opinion about it? Have a good offer for a xbase 999 in sight 🤪
The Xbase 09.. They sound great but not for me.. the 999 Sounds even cooler! But still I'm not super sold on them haha. I think the DRM1 Vermona thing sounds pretty good. and there was this 4 channel drum machine thing that came out in 2021 or 2020 maybe that was pretty dope. Module only, needed to be sequenced but had 4-5 channels.. I can't for the life of me remember the name though!
The "dead end" of the groovebox workflow is why I switched to a Force as the core of my setup. I love the hardware workflow, but got sick of the "dead end". I want to actually finish songs. So I got a Force. It has the convenience and fun of a groovebox, but also the power and flexibility of a DAW. So now finishing songs isn't a problem.
With my old gear, a song would be like a couple hours on the fun hardware devices to sketch out ideas, and then a couple tedious days at a computer finishing the song in a DAW. Most of the process wasn't fun, so I would generally skip the un-fun parts and never finish anything. But after switching to a Force, there is no computer involved... and I actually finish stuff.
as far as I understand you can use Minifreak with Novation CT with only one patch at the same time because MFreak is not multibimbral. is it true?
🎉
I just ditched all my grooveboxes. I used to have an OG Circuit and Digitakt, and I found myself really stuck in the realm of 4 bar loop. Almost like the intuitive workflow on those machines and speed you get after getting used to it really messed with my understanding of producing. I started as a live musician, 13-15 years ago and back then pretty much all gear was out of reach for me. I've had a half-decent guitar, an amp and some cheap bootleg pedals. In order to actually make a full song I've had a full band, and the closest thing we had to a synth was an awful Casio rompler and a stinky laptop barely running an FL for some drums. So my process was very different. I didn't approach a song as a chain of patterns, and I wasn't making arrangement by developing a 4-8 bar loop, it was more of a continuous image of music, where you have a time signature, an idea how fast you want to play the song, but everything else is just a continuous stream of music, played imperfectly by humans. We did most of the stuff by ear, so it wasn't unusual to have a changes in time signatures between two consecutive bars, floating BPM and other consequences of trying to keep 3 people in sync. I know that you can play without quantisation, but the more I got into music making machines and the more I got familiar with the DAWs, the more my music started to be "locked in". And I've started to build arrangements around loops and patterns, which is really easy, when you have a visual representation of bars, constant BPM and most importantly, a sequencer with its usual limitations.
Having this little boxes is super fan for jamming and sketching, but then it's time to move it to a DAW and get to the worst part of making a song - making a set of loops sound like it's not a set of loops. And in terms of actually finishing your music, those boxes aren't the most convenient for me. I'd rather play most of the stuff by hand, track it part by part and use my guitar as a "sketchpad".
Right now I'm trying to work more with a grid turned off, or at least "snap mode" turned off.
i would absolutely buy a ricky’s lullabies album. put some kijimi noodles on there thanks for the vid ricky
haha! I thought about it.. then stopped haha
Record Stems and one-shots into DAW - add other hardware or VSTs, arrange and mix down
I sold my OG Circuit due to the encoders being guess work on every patch.
Since there is no display, how are you to know what knob does what when they aren't labelled and change what they do from patch to patch?
This stalled my workflow, halted it, so frustrating. Glad it was fixed in their rev 2.
sad i gotta do the back slap for my OG circuit 😭 still workin tho.
haha! mine started doing it RIGHT when I hit stop on the recording.
I know it’s not as cool, but after having a Digitakt and an MPC One, I returned to my first groovebox in the Electribe 2s. It’s effortless for me to create with that thing
I almost never finish a track because my main goal is to have fun, not to commercialize the result. The only way I can finish a track is to start and finish it in Ableton. If I use external hardware, I'm too lazy to move everything from one place to another.
Nowadays, with the power and accessibility that computers have, I only see dedicated hardware as a legitimate way to have fun, and in this sense, the Novation Circuit is one of the most genuinely enjoyable contenders, an instant drug (although I certainly miss at least one more synth track IN THE CIRCUIT ITSELF instead of MIDI channels that force you to lose his groovebox all-in-one essence and portability).
I kind of think the groove box is all about performance. I got back into messing around with hardware production by watching one of Rickys videos about the perfect live setup. If you are going to capture a live performance of a track you are always going to need more than one groovebox, I tend to use 2 and another thing (synth, looper, live instrument) and practise jamming with elements I have on those until I have an idea of form and sections. I like jamming more than I like set production. The bands I loved as a kid were mainly psychedelic/funk jam bands, so that is kind of where I aim to go, and for that Grooveboxes work really well and the DAW is pretty much redundant.
I create a loop, do the mute and immune thing and record a UA-cam video.
I did always find the circuit to have one to few tracks. Would have liked at least 3, one bass, a lead and a pad track.
Agreeeeee. It’s fun for sure, but too basic for most thangs.
was hoping youd use that acid-y bass at 10:34
literally sounds so fucking good, great rhythm and timbre
First!
Sorry Ricky I've never had this opportunity before...
Please soak it in LaVern! haha, Thanks for watching
aphex vibes on that tune omg
Im still banging out stuff constantly with the OG circuit. The two synths on it are vastly underrated and the sequencer is awesome. I love it to death alongside the TR8S.
I guess it depends on your genre preference, but Ive never hit the wall with two synth voices and a drumkit... ✨🪐
I want to play live
I wish you could easily audition sounds via headphones, so that you could more easily live jam. Now I don't feel comfortable looking up sounds, or experimenting when I'm performing for other people, cause I want it to sound smooth. If anyone has a fix/hack for this, let me know 😅 😅
I feel like it should be possible to write software to export a groovebox track to a DAW. Sure, you'd need the help of the makers of the groovebox, but it should be doable.
:)