Components can manage the content stored on Circuit Rhythm; Projects, Samples, and Grid FX.
While it is possible to use Components without Circuit Rhythm connected, this guide will assume there is one connected.
Packs
When you first open Components and select Circuit Rhythm you'll be greeted with the Packs screen.
The green indicator in the top right corner shows that a unit is connected. A red indicator means that the unit is not recognised by Components. This may be because the unit is not connected, powered or you may be using a browser that does not support Web MIDI (be sure to use something like Chrome or Opera). If the issue persists please contact our support team here.
You'll have three options:
- Get Pack from Circuit Rhythm - this will give you the option to get any of the Packs loaded into the unit connected (either from internal memory or from the SD card)
- Create Pack - allows you to create an entirely new pack from a blank slate
- Upload Pack - this lets you upload a .circuitrhythmpack file to Components from your computer.
If you pick the wrong option, just press New Pack in the top left to be taken back to that screen.
Once you've selected any of these three options you'll be taken to the Pack, which will look something like this:
You can expand a pack on the left-hand side and drag its content in if you want to use some of its content:
You can also drag and drop individual or multiples from a file browser (e.g. Finder on Mac) into these slots.
You can hold the Alt key on your keyboard while dragging content with the mouse to copy it to a new slot:
Projects
The first section shown on the page is Projects, this shows the projects of the unit in the slots they are saved in. The name of the project is shown as well as the colour it shows on the unit. You can click any slot here to change its name, replace it with a different Project, or, change its colour. You can also send it to Circuit Rhythm, download it to your computer or remove it from the pack.
Samples
Pressing samples will take you to the samples screen which shows the samples in the pack. These are all audio files. You can upload different formats, but all audio will be converted to 48khz Mono 16bit when sent to Circuit Rhythm. Selecting a sample allows you to change its name, replace the samples, send it to the Circuit Rhythm, download it to your computer, or remove it from the pack. You can also drag and drop samples from a file browser (e.g. Finder on Mac) into these slots. No sample can be longer than 32 seconds, and you can store a total of 228.1 seconds worth of samples.
If you experience issues in transferring longer samples, consider taking the unit out of MSD mode as per this guide:
Why do I get an error message when loading Packs onto my Circuit Tracks and Circuit Rhythm?
Grid Effects
Circuit Rhythm features 16 slots for “Grid FX” – seven different effects that are applied to all tracks (including audio inputs). The Grid Effects page in Components allows you to build and edit the Grid FX page you’ll see on the unit.
Select an FX slot or drop in an effect from the browser on the right-hand side.
If a unit is connected you’ll be able to live preview the Grid Effect you are creating by hitting the “Live Preview” switch.
Sending/Saving the pack
Once you're happy with the content in the pack you can either save it to your account, computer or send it to your Circuit Rhythm. This is done with the options at the top of the Packs screen:
When you click 'Send to Circuit Rhythm' you'll be able to decide if you want to send the whole Pack, or just one section (which will be much faster).
Once you click one of these options you can choose the Pack slot to send to (note that only one will be available if no SD card is inserted to Circuit Rhythm).
After clicking Send Pack you'll see a progress bar on the screen and the unit will show it is receiving the Pack. This can take some time, and you should make sure the unit remains connected and powered while it sends. The computer should not go to sleep as well. If the transfer does fail, you can just try again. Circuit Rhythm will always keep a back up of the Pack that was loaded before the transfer so that it can boot up into that Pack.
When sending or receiving a pack you'll be asked which slot you'd like to use, the first slot is the internal memory, the remaining slots are for use with an SD card.
Firmware
The Update page will let you update the firmware on Circuit Rhythm. You can also review the release notes for the latest firmware here.