Keyboards

Electronic and dance music producers looking for a powerful, all-in-one groove box will be thrilled with the Novation Circuit Tracks, a compact and portable groove box that builds upon the success of the original Circuit and is designed to be used in the studio or on the go for professional producers and DJs. The machine offers two polyphonic digital synth engines, four sample-based drum tracks, and two MIDI tracks for sequencing and controlling external instruments.

Circuit Tracks uses Components, a standalone software editor, which provides deep access to the instrument's synthesizer engines, sample organization, macro controls, and more. You can load up to 600 samples, plus thousands of synth patches and projects form the included SD card. Circuit Tracks is USB class compliant and will work with any modern Mac or Windows computer.

A 4x8 grid of velocity-sensitive (RGB) sequencer pads are used to program the advanced, built-in 32-step sequencer, which offers real-time and step-input recording, as well as time and key lock to ensure all your sounds lock to tempo and blend harmonically. The 8 synth macro encoders allow you to record and playback multiple synth parameter tweaks in real time. Combine up to 256 steps of synth and drum patterns to complete full songs. The onboard reverb and delay add space and dimension to your creations, while the integrated master compressor with side-chain capabilities allows your sonic creations to pump and breathe.

Impulse 61 from Novation is a USB-MIDI keyboard controller featuring 61 semi-weighted keys with assignable aftertouch. It was designed to feel like an instrument rather than a computer peripheral, and responds more accurately and in a musical manner when triggering a synthesizer or software instrument.

In addition to the keys, the controller features eight rotary controls, nine faders, and eight backlit drum pads, along with the obligatory pitch and modulation wheels. The controls allow for hands on manipulation of DAW functions, virtual instruments and plug-ins. The included Automap control software takes the hassle out of assigning the controllers with its instant mapping feature.

The Automap software edit page looks just like the Impulse control surface. This labels what each knob, fader, and button is controlling, and once assignment is finished, the window can be hidden. Control is available over the mixer, transport, and plug-ins of all major DAWs, as well as plug-in instruments and effects that don't come with a DAW, like products from Native Instruments, Waves, or FXpansion.

The 8 drum pads are velocity-sensitive and respond to aftertouch. They are also backlit with 3-color LEDs to indicate the status of the associated clip. A built-in arpeggiator takes advantage of the pads by enabling the performer to warp arpeggios. By switching the 8 pads in or out, the rhythm of the arpeggio can be changed in real-time. The shape, syncopation, and gate time of the arpeggio can also be changed.

The Novation Peak is an 8-voice polyphonic synthesizer based on the Novation Bass Station II analog monosynth; it is well suited for musicians, sound designers, and synthesizer enthusiasts. The instrument features analog-sounding NCOs (numerically controlled oscillators), which include 3 new Oxford oscillators per voice, as well as a flexible digital domain with 17 digital wavetables. The instrument also features a multi-mode, analog state-variable OTA filter with high-pass, band-pass, and low-pass selections with 12/24 dB slopes. Peak's sound engine is rounded out by the true analog distortion and digital effects including chorus, delay, and reverb.

At the heart of the synthesizer lies the high-powered processor component called a field programmable gate array (FPGA), which far surpasses traditional DSP chips. Each of Peak's eight voices has an independent oversampling digital-to-analog converter (DAC). These DACs are oversampling at over 24 MHz (24 million times per second), using a simple RC (resistor-capacitor) filter on their output in the analog domain. Peak's ability to generate waveforms at the oversampling frequency (up to 512 times the traditional rate) ensures that Peak's waveforms are pure at all frequencies and free from digital artifacts, no matter how aggressively the pitch is modulated.