Native Instruments Circular — A Mix Product of the Week

A MIDI pattern generator lets you evolve a single note into complex patterns. Native Instruments takes that idea to a higher and more powerful place with Circular, its new Kontakt instrument. A polyphonic sequencer with four independent layers, it’s capable of generating everything from simple to complex musical patterns and altering them with a vast range of adjustable parameters, in real time.

The name Circular derives from its user interface, whose main page, called the Play page, is centered around a circular sequencer with concentric color-coded rings.

Each layer represents one of the instruments in the sequence. The steps move in a circular motion rather than horizontally, like on most sequencers. You can assign a different instrument to each layer, choosing from Circular’s collection of over 160 acoustic and electronic sounds. You can also import your own samples.

Instant pattern generation features enable you to build complex polyrhythms and evolving soundscapes by combining the layers. Three Macro knobs in the Play window—whose default assignments are Variation, Reverb and Delay—can be assigned to any parameter, allowing you real-time control over modulation, effects and more.

Opening the Sequencer tab brings up a more standard, horizontally oriented sequencer—one for each layer—where you can apply modulation, envelopes, pitch shifting, filtering and more, either globally for the layer or one step at a time.

Open the FX page to configure independent effects chains for each of the layers, as well as the separate Grain Effects bus.

There’s also a Mixer page for adjusting volume, panning, effects send levels, modulation parameters and more for each layer.

Circular supports polyphonic aftertouch for additional expressiveness. It works with any MIDI controller, but on NI’s Kontrol S-Series keyboards, key parameters are pre-mapped to its knobs and switches.

If you don’t own Kontakt, you can run Circular on the free Kontakt Player (version 8.2.1 or higher required). Circular sells for $199. Find out more at the Native Instruments website.