I played live with the Novation Circuits. Here's how it went. 

That's great to know, thanks!

I recommend googling house curves. Quite an interesting rabbit hole that the majority of people are unaware of. The principle is that what is perceived as equal loudness in all frequencies is not a flat EQ. It gets complicated when you consider that the values change at different volume levels. This is why loud club systems have a big increase in the bass eq. I am also an ex live engineer and have also worked for a well known speaker manufacturer. My home studio setup has an BSS minidrive Loudspeaker management system. This looks after monitor eq and crossover to my sub. I have used a measuring mic at the mix position and EQed the monitors with a “house EQ” This has a +9db shelf sloping from 100-200hz and -3db from 2k to 10k to give the same sound as a club in my room without being too OTT on bass. The minidrive has front panel controls so the sub can be adjusted when a flatter response is needed. It really helps to avoid swamping mixes with too much bass, which is a common mistake when mixing with small monitors. I have a couple of friends who use my studio to check final mixes. 3:59

@@markwarder9132 excellent! Thank you for your insight here. Do you recommend monitoring out of this system in the production stage, as well as the mix and master stages? I don’t have much experience with the studio side, so pardon my ignorance: I would think you would want to produce and mix on a flatter system, since it will be easier to make critical decisions from the flat response. Then checking the mix on the “hyped” system that would mimic the response of a live venue during the mastering step. My instincts say that the best changes to make to adapt to the Live environment would be done in the mastering step. This would mimic the idea that the FOH mix being fed into a well optimized system is expecting certain changes to be done that are specific to that system. Having a flatter mix would let it adapt to a more diverse array of systems and venue sizes. Obviously this would require trusting your SE to accurately deploy and tune the venues. That was kinda a ramble, but would love your thoughts.

I'm hyped. And yeah, I'd love if Novation updated that, but I was able to make it work with risers, occasional automation, and the master filter. I mainly had to use scene switching anytime the Tracks needed to do something longer than a bar. For big drops, I was able to rely more on project switching.

That's so awesome to hear!

It's definitely something I want to explore in the future. How have you dealt with RAM/memory usage if you have a lot of sounds in one project? I'd also want to figure out how to reset things like filter cutoffs on new songs as they come up. I'd definitely welcome any tips you may have.

Glad you've been enjoying them! More on the way!

The performance wasn't filmed, other than some friends who were kind enough to get the clips I used for this video. Recorded versions of the first 2/3 of the set are linked at the end though. Eventually, once I'm done adding to it, I want to do a full set playthrough.

@@GabeMillerMusic​​⁠ Looked like a great time. Congrats!

That would be dope

I do want to expand the set to end on a d&b track, since it already gets close to that tempo and would be a fun way to end it

@@GabeMillerMusic I used to listen to Jungle back in the day. I never gave D&B a second look after the early 2000s. But the resurgence of this genre especially in the UK is astonishing. My daughter who is in university, says it's the only thing played at parties.

That's awesome

Thanks! I've been thinking about it, although there are some things I'd have to figure out how to solve with the MC-707 that the Circuit does easily. I might try to make a different, more chill set with the 707 at some point.

I haven't tried those yet, I've been interested in giving them a go but trying new gear hasn't been a priority lately. At some point hopefully though!

@@GabeMillerMusic got it! totally get you! but congrats on the gig! very inspiring! keep it up!

Nice, that's impressive

Thanks, I'll give it a look!

Thanks! Honestly I'd still add the Circuit Rhythm in that case.

@@GabeMillerMusicthanks!

If I'm understanding what you're asking correctly, my answer is you can't play multiple samples across the keyboard on one track without locking different samples to different steps with the sequencer.

@@GabeMillerMusic thanks, I watched other videos and it actually can't do what I need. I have a Yamaha SU200 on which I can load even long samples and launch them, but it is a slightly obsolete machine starting from the memory cards which are no longer found. Akai mpx8 was an option, but it can't process samples standalone. I have to choose between the 404 or the smpltrack, which among other things have a similar price.

Not that I'm aware of unfortunately. If I was about to unmute a track and wanted to double check what it was, I'd select it to see what pattern it was playing. But I'm guessing what you're describing is more for improvised stuff, and I don't believe there's a way to pre-listen

Thanks! It was approximately 45 minutes. I was acquainted with the owners of the cafe and asked if they'd be down to have me play this event after the first one went really well (and I sent them a video of what I would play). For the next one I'll be playing, I messaged the owner of the venue that I had been going to as a show attendee with the video of what I would play, asking if they'd be down to have me play sometime. It's a friendly scene, and a lot of venues are just looking for people to play.

@@GabeMillerMusic 45 minutes is amazing given the level that you scripted it. Impressed. Thanks for the background on getting the gig. I’ve played a lot of electronic open mics here in the UK and am looking to do more gigs like this.

I was trying to stay out of the way when they set up the decks, mixer, and PA, so I didn't see exactly how that was set up, but I believe they had XLRs to the PA. I had 1/4" running to the mixer.

Probably! I did a video where l made a short synthwave live set with exactly that setup. It needs some refinements, but it works.

@@GabeMillerMusic thanks! I’m trying to figure out what combo of 707, 101, Elektron and Notation boxes would be the best for me. I think as long as portability is not important the 707 keeps everything in one box and the Roland sounds are pretty iconic.

AxcessAbles is the company, Lightweight 28x16 Portable DJ Table Stand is the product. The table surface likes to flex a bit, but other than that I like it a lot.

@@GabeMillerMusic thanks so much Gabe 👍

The Circuits are sync'd via midi, and project switching on the master device will project switch on the other one. However, there's a bug (that I've confirmed with Novation support) that causes stuff to sometimes drop in at the wrong time in certain situations. Switching scenes does NOT work over midi, so for specific sections, I have to scene switch on both devices simultaneously. Check the full video about using both together for a much more in depth explanation.

I haven't used a subpac before, but I will play it on a variety of systems to see how the bass translates.

@@GabeMillerMusic the subpac is really worth it for bass mixing!

BTW: Check out the perfomance with live looped trumpet with the female artists. Improvised Techno on the Novation Tracks with a live looped trumpet is amazing. Never heard of techno with live trumpets in my life before.

Rad, I'll give those a look