Renoise, Bidule, and Rewire

Greetings! I need some advice. I am considering moving to Renoise, but there are some things I need to understand before I make the leap.

Background: I currently use a MIDI keyboard with a built in sequencer, feeding a MacBook Pro running Plogue Bidule. I don’t do any audio tracking; all sound sources are virtual instruments. As a result, I am able to save the sequence data, and the entire Bidule setup, per piece of music. Very simple.

The problem: Although this system works very well for me, there is one area where it is horrible ; the tweaking of any type of time varying modulation, especially tempo changes. I really need a GUI and the proper software to make these tweaks possible.

I believe Renoise may be the answer for me, BUT I want to make sure that this will work simply and reliably. So, finally, here are my questions:

  1. How easy is it to make time varying tempo changes in Renoise? (Outside of a mention in the manual that it is possible, I couldn’t find anything explaining the nuts and bolts of it.)
  2. If I move my Bidule environment into Renoise as a VST plugin, will I be able to save the entire thing as one file?
  3. If I use Bidule as a plugin within Renoise, does that remove the need for Rewire?
  4. If I use Bidule within Renoise, how is its I/O handled? I imagine the connections directly to my MOTU 828 Mk3 would be replaced with connections to Renoise. Renoise would then connect directly to my MOTU interface. True?
  5. If I used Bidule as a standalone application outside of Renoise, I believe that will require Rewire; is this true?

Sorry for the long-winded short story, and thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to help me out. :slight_smile:

  1. Easy. e.g. use the Set Tempo pattern commandhttp://tutorials.renoise.com/wiki/Effect_Commands#Global_Commands

  2. Your Bidule setup will still be an external file referenced by the plugin in the Renoise song I think

  3. Yes

  4. Yes - you can see in the bottom of the screenshot here how to route a plugin with multiple outputs to specific Renoise trackshttp://tutorials.renoise.com/wiki/Plugin#Plugin_Instrument_Properties (which can then be sent to specific hardware outs)

  5. Yes

Edit: The demo of Renoise will let you try out the bidule-as-VST version of this setup. I think the demo doesn’t allow Rewire? Correct me if wrong.

  1. Easy. e.g. use the Set Tempo pattern commandhttp://tutorials.renoise.com/wiki/Effect_Commands#Global_Commands

  2. Your Bidule setup will still be an external file referenced by the plugin in the Renoise song I think

  3. Yes

  4. Yes - you can see in the bottom of the screenshot here how to route a plugin with multiple outputs to specific Renoise trackshttp://tutorials.renoise.com/wiki/Plugin#Plugin_Instrument_Properties (which can then be sent to specific hardware outs)

  5. Yes

Edit: The demo of Renoise will let you try out the bidule-as-VST version of this setup. I think the demo doesn’t allow Rewire? Correct me if wrong.

Thanks for the quick reply, the info, and the links, radian. The loading of Bidule into Renoise sounds a bit messy. I downloaded the Renoise demo and loaded one of my Bidule setups into it. It loaded in, but the size of the window it sits in seems to be fixed (is it?). I could find no way to change it. It is a bit cramped for Bidule.

From a sequencing standpoint, it looks like Renoise is exactly what I need, but I find Bidule indispensable as I currently use it. This would be a no-brainer if Renoise was a VST I could plug into Bidule, but I can find anything that will, that isn’t a step sequencer. I know Redux can be loaded in as a VST, but its functionality seems crippled in ways that I would need. If you have any other suggestions, I’m all ears, but I think I need to keep looking . . . unfortunately.

Thanks again!

IIRC VST2 windows can’t be resized, but maybe, like reaktor, you can change the size in the settings and re-open it?

Again, IIRC, that limit is removed in VST3, which Renoise does not support.

IIRC VST2 windows can’t be resized, but maybe, like reaktor, you can change the size in the settings and re-open it?

Again, IIRC, that limit is removed in VST3, which Renoise does not support.

Thanks, radian. I didn’t know that. There doesn’t appear to be a way to set the size of the window, but what do I know. :unsure:

As I mentioned, I wish that Renoise was available as a plugin, but the flaky Rewire problems I’ve seen so far in running Bidule external to Renoise is a place I just don’t want to go. I think all of this is a deal breaker for me, but I really appreciate your taking the time to give me hand. Have a good one.