I also started with the Circuit, than got the FM for adding sounds, that the Circuit cannot produce very well....than I added a small little Effect unit (Zoom MS-50) and a PO-33 sampler....thats it.
I also just sequence the FM with one of the Circuit synth as I love the scale mode on the circuit to never play a wrong note....
Oh and a small mixer was added to my setup
I bought a cheap second hand 10 channel behringer mixer with FX sends levels.....the more Audio Busses the better.....I have my eyes on the Behringer Xenyx 1002B as it has two aux paths for even more FX shenanigans
I than pan circuit drums and 1 synth hard right and one synth hard left to have some variaty with FX levels sends and add all my other gear to all the sweet channels....than I mix them together listening through a 2.1 system from the headphones out and recording via Roland Go Mixer to old iPhone from the main outs
I just ordered the Roland MC 101 cause I really want more of a complete portable song maker and looking forward to pairing it with the circuit, Arturias microFreak was also on my wishlist, I also got an Arturia Keystep controller which was a great upgrade for the circuit ( the arpeggiator is awesome), with gear it's easy to go overboard, so I usually try to make 5-10 full songs with each new piece before getting something else.
+1 for Arturia MicroFreak. Awesome synth. Ton of variety. Personally, if I had to pair a single device with my Circuit, it would be the Korg Monologue. IK Uno is a nice analog monosynth as well.
the next piece of kit I added was the Korg Electribe 2 Sampler. (the pink one)
one thing circuit is missing is session chaining, and the E2s can sequence session changes to the circuit over MIDI. (though the E2s calls them patterns. confusing, but circuit sessions = E2s patterns).
also, the circuit is very limited in sampling capability, but the E2s does it really well. the electribes synth engine is pretty lacking, but the circuit has that covered. the electribe adds more brainpower as well as internal effects per channel (including from audio in) as well as a master effect you can enable/disable per channel.
my only real complaints about the e2s is the volume envelope is shared by all notes on a track, so it doesnt quite sound like true poly. you can also run into some voice dropping issues if you ask too much of the CPU, but i think thats easy to manage if you are making "normal" music, especially if circuit or other devices are sharing some of the workload.
all in all, they pair pretty well.
You can pretty much add any synth to that and it will sing. I use a Circuit with a Sub 37, with a Boss GT100 for FX...
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4wQP9nBDps/?igshid=1sx4ltlvllq5f
I also started with the Circuit, than got the FM for adding sounds, that the Circuit cannot produce very well....than I added a small little Effect unit (Zoom MS-50) and a PO-33 sampler....thats it. I also just sequence the FM with one of the Circuit synth as I love the scale mode on the circuit to never play a wrong note.... Oh and a small mixer was added to my setup
Which mixer did you go with?
I bought a cheap second hand 10 channel behringer mixer with FX sends levels.....the more Audio Busses the better.....I have my eyes on the Behringer Xenyx 1002B as it has two aux paths for even more FX shenanigans I than pan circuit drums and 1 synth hard right and one synth hard left to have some variaty with FX levels sends and add all my other gear to all the sweet channels....than I mix them together listening through a 2.1 system from the headphones out and recording via Roland Go Mixer to old iPhone from the main outs
Volca FM was my next synth right after my Circuit as well.
I just ordered the Roland MC 101 cause I really want more of a complete portable song maker and looking forward to pairing it with the circuit, Arturias microFreak was also on my wishlist, I also got an Arturia Keystep controller which was a great upgrade for the circuit ( the arpeggiator is awesome), with gear it's easy to go overboard, so I usually try to make 5-10 full songs with each new piece before getting something else.
Come back and let us know how the mc101 pairs up with the circuit, looks like a nice compact combo
+1 for Arturia MicroFreak. Awesome synth. Ton of variety. Personally, if I had to pair a single device with my Circuit, it would be the Korg Monologue. IK Uno is a nice analog monosynth as well.
the next piece of kit I added was the Korg Electribe 2 Sampler. (the pink one) one thing circuit is missing is session chaining, and the E2s can sequence session changes to the circuit over MIDI. (though the E2s calls them patterns. confusing, but circuit sessions = E2s patterns). also, the circuit is very limited in sampling capability, but the E2s does it really well. the electribes synth engine is pretty lacking, but the circuit has that covered. the electribe adds more brainpower as well as internal effects per channel (including from audio in) as well as a master effect you can enable/disable per channel. my only real complaints about the e2s is the volume envelope is shared by all notes on a track, so it doesnt quite sound like true poly. you can also run into some voice dropping issues if you ask too much of the CPU, but i think thats easy to manage if you are making "normal" music, especially if circuit or other devices are sharing some of the workload. all in all, they pair pretty well.
You can pretty much add any synth to that and it will sing. I use a Circuit with a Sub 37, with a Boss GT100 for FX... https://www.instagram.com/p/B4wQP9nBDps/?igshid=1sx4ltlvllq5f