i just can’t figure out how to do this or if its even possible. im just trying to understand how renoise works. another question, should i load fx into the sampler or on tracks if im trying to use renoise with samples.
If you want to save (and later, recreate) all effects in a given instruments, saving each Effect Chain as a preset is currently the closest thing. And yes, when you save an effect chain preset it only represents a single row (instrument) or track (pattern)…So if you have some send/meta-device routing set up, that routing information will become lost as you save a preset.
I personally believe this limitation is a good thing, as those presets are self contained and easily understood. The downside is that they can’t contain multiple tracks, so it is not possible to save a single effect chain which contains more advanced techniques such as ‘parallel compression’ or ‘dry/wet mixed version of effect without dry/wet slider’
While I could imagine Renoise could be able to save ‘expanded’ effect chains with routing information, I think most of the time it would be hard to understand, and as a result, hard to use. For example, imagine you have a bunch of different samples with different effects chains assigned to each one, and you want to load an additional effect preset containing routings?
Now, loading such a preset could either choose to expand the imported effect chains (creating new routings each time). This would be highly inefficient, lead to duplicated fx chains all over the place. Or it could attempt to match and merge with existing chains, but this process would be based on educated guesses and not easily understood.
Instead, I think the way forward would be to allow nested sends within effect chains - a bit like racks in ableton live. Then, an effect chain would still be able to be self-contained.