As a note to myself and for future reference:
- Make sure the MIDI template for Minonova is synced to the Circuit Tracks via Novation components. This is quite self-explanatory. (Keep track where it is as the Circuit doesn’t have a display to tell you which template is which)
- Connect via MIDI cable (e.g. Mininova MIDI In <-> Circuit MIDI Out)
- Connect via Audio cable (e.g. Mininova Audio Out to Circuit Tracks Audio Input 1 – n.b. that these are mono inputs). Just to be on the safe side make sure your volume knobs are turned down before switching your gear on.
- Set Mininova to MIDI channel 3 (for the „MIDI Out“ socket on Circuit Tracks with default settings, triggered via notes input on the „MIDI 1“ track on Circuit Tracks)
- Make sure Circuit has all MIDI channels activated and properly set, see manual p. 103f
- Set the clock correctly: „ClkSource MIDI“ or „ClkSource Auto“ in Mininova settings
- For arp settings, see below
For MIDI specs see Mininova Manual and Circuit Tracks Manual (link as of April 2021).
Getting the arpeggiator to work
As soon as the Mininova was setup correctly, I tried to experiment with bass sounds and leads – which worked perfectly well out of the box. As the Mininova has some nice arppegiator sounds and the Circuit Tracks doesn’t come with an arp feature itself, I then tried some arp pads – and ran into a problem: I could trigger the sound without a glitch, but it wouldn’t arp. No matter if I programmed in a chord or hit the Circuit Tracks pads, I could only get one note out at a time.
I turned pages in both manuals to no avail until I found the setting „Arp MIDI“ (which I still can’t find properly described in the Mininova manual, unfortunately) by flipping through the Mininova Menu. This setting has to be set to „MIDI->Arp“ from the default „Arp->MIDI“ – and the arpeggiator can successfully be triggered by notes played on the Circuit Tracks.
hello! can you please tell which cable and adapters you used for audio connection?
Hi there, I don’t clearly remember, but I guess I just connected the headphone out of the Mininova with one of the Tracks inputs via a 6,3mm cable. That’s mono, of course, so if you want to use stereo effects on the Mininova, you would have to connect the L/R outputs of the Mininova to the 1/2 inputs of the Tracks and pan them to the left/right in the mixer. (This has the disadvantage to block both audio inputs of the Tracks, so you’d be stuck with only the Mininova as external gear.) You can also get creative with a hardware mixer, of course, either mixing together two external devices into the tracks or having all the audio go through the mixer instead of the tracks. There’s no limits …
Hi … I control the mininova from the Circuit Tracks via MIDI. Than I use the both Out 6,3mm from the mininova and connect it to the Circuit Tracks to hear both devices. The problem is, that the volume of the mininove is very very low. I set the volume on the mininova to max but I hear it only very quiet at the headphone from the Circuit Tracks. Do you have an idea it is a failure of the Out from the mininova? btw … same connection with the korg volca keys … its very loud.
Looking forward for help … Thanks 🙂
Hi there, hard to say – could be anything from the cable (Volca uses 3,5mm jack, so it’s anothe cable, right?) to some software settings (mininova has a lot of them in the menus). You could first of all try to connect the mininova out so some other piece of hardware or an audio interface to make sure it’s not the mininova output levels …
Btw: Did you pan the corresponding tracks on the Circuit Tracks to emulate a stereo signal (since the Tracks‘ inputs are mono)? And did you adjust the volume in the Tracks‘ mixer?
I currently don’t have access to both devices, so this is only what comes to mind from memory … Good luck!
Hey there, I’ve connected both as you explained. When I try to record a set, the mininova output can be heard but not recorded. What am I missing ?
Thanks in advance
Hi Pau, hard to say without knowing your setup …that sounds like a connection issue between your DAW and your Circuit … do you have sound levels on all channels?
Or maybe the Mininova channel is muted in your Circuit Tracks Mixer, so you can hear it over the headphone output but not record via …? I can’t really remember how those outputs work exactly.
atm I don’t have access to the gear, so I can’t check what exactly to do in e.g. Ableton … Sorry!
Vielen lieben Dank für die schnelle Antwort. I’ll Check the Sound Levels.