Hi all,
since I’ve worked with renoise a lot, and mostly on a full size 104 keyboard, I have never thought of the complications of controlling renoise on a laptop. Now I’ve got a brand new laptop and I’m very happy with it, but apparently DirectX(?) seems to handle the keypresses “awkwardly” (there’s also the fact that I can’t use more than 2 keys at the same time but that’s another story…)
I consider myself lucky with a 15" laptop with numpad on it, major but: home, end, pgup and pgdn are only on the numpad. Since these four are used extensively in usual renoise kb shortcut setup, I will either (1) have to miss these and replace them with “NumPad 7” etc shortcuts, or (2) not be able to type in values with numpad. Also, when numpad is on, key combos like Ctrl+Shift+Numpad1 are only ‘recognized’ as Ctrl+Numpad1. So I’ll have to work around a lot of these weird things. Is there a way I could have known this before buying the laptop? 
Some other laptop users could fill you in with tips to reassign other keycombinations for those shortcomings.
Yes laptops come with a third layered keypad (requiring the ‘fn’ key to access it).
The best advise i heard so far was attaching a USB keypad to your laptop if you have enough USB ports.
Such keypads cost a dime a dozen.
Thanks for this masterful tip, I might just use one of those since I actually have 2 laying around here from the days I was recklessly buying stupid electronic stuff instead of getting girls drunk.
to make the thing clearer, the numpad on laptop looks like this and numlock works as expected everywhere EXCEPT in renoise (DirectX i guess). Well I’ll get around
That should never happen! All modifier keys should be recognised in combination together with at least any single normal key (letter/number.) Laptops famously have very bad n-key rollover though! A common simple three letter press you might find doesn’t play the chord on some keyboards (my laptop being an example) is QET, assuming qwerty layout. But you should still be able to hold Shift and Ctrl and Alt plus any other key at the same time and it be correctly recognised.
Is it definitely only Renoise that isn’t recognising the multiple modifiers being pressed?
I agree that it shouldn’t, well the only other way I really know how to test that is probably xev under linux so I’ll try that out sometime soon-ish yea but, for now I’ve just settled on entering most values with ‘top row’ numbers, or quickly switching numpad on and not forget, ever, to switch back 
and yea you’re right on toughness entering chords on a laptop, well this one is particularly bad at that since I had to connect a usb keyboard to play prototype 2 properly 
(W+Shift held it wouldn’t recognize space to jump…)
Thanks for the support!
The keyboard in my laptop does not have the extra keypad and only three USB ports, neither a Fn option as keypad, so I’m unable to jump between instruments without an external device
Do I have to map all the keys manually to jump between instruments from my keyboard?
If I have to, I’m afraid there aren’t enough free shortcuts to do it…
bichuelo: think this is a separate topic. To give you an answer: yes, of course you need to have to find ten keys to bind to this. And yes, you need to set them one by one, no alternative for that (most won’t find editing Config.xml easier).
I myself haven’t used those 0-9 shortcuts in ages, only use numpad plus and minus. And of course use automatically select instrument (in the form of my tool that is, AutoSelectInstrument on this page).
Well I still think this belongs here, anyway…
I will install the tool and it will sure replace those shortcuts, thanks!
However, the keypad has some more unique shortcuts, and my laptop has only 3 USB ports, so I want to avoid using an external keyboard… I guess I will have to map these manually
Thanks. That tool worked fine, indeed I don’t need those shortcuts anymore!
But, I stil do need the [/] and [+] to change the recording octave. Is there a way to do it using a laptop keyboard?
Just find two of the function keys you use least…
ctrl-[and ctrl-] also change the octave.
ctrl-[and ctrl-] also change the octave.
Thanks!! 
bichuelo: think this is a separate topic. To give you an answer: yes, of course you need to have to find ten keys to bind to this. And yes, you need to set them one by one, no alternative for that (most won’t find editing Config.xml easier).
I myself haven’t used those 0-9 shortcuts in ages, only use numpad plus and minus. And of course use automatically select instrument (in the form of my tool that is, AutoSelectInstrument on this page).
The link to AutoSelectInstrument is dead. This is not as important as the octave selector, and I think the instrument selection can be done using other methods. I am going to uninstall the tool… Shall everyone else do so?