8 various questions about Redux

So I have had the opportunity to check Redux a bit and it’s a really great investment! However I have some speculations, as it’s almost a new program more or less compared to Renoise.

  1. Is there any ”pattern-follow indicator”?

  2. Is it possible to zoom in/zoom out in the phrase editor?

  3. Is there a panic-function somewhere? ( The ”show instrument info” button seems to work somewhat though, but only if playing samples and not phrases. )

  4. Sometimes there’s a dialog ”Instrument was successfully saved” after jamming with some presets, independently if there has been any modifications or not. Is it overwriting the instruments now and then automatically?

  5. Let’s say I’ve created a melody stretching over a few phrases, is it possible to play all the phrases like it was a song inside Redux? I know this isn’t supposed to be Renoise, but sometimes you want to listen to all the phrases in a preset for instance.

  6. Instead of creating several phrases for a melody, another workaround could be to create a very long phrase. But then I’d like to ”play from current position”, is that possible? As I see; nope, neither within Redux or within the host. When Renoise is rewired on the other hand, I could play from wherever I want and Renoise was rolling the ball no matter what.

  7. Would you recommend using several instances of Redux for each instrument, or would it be a bad idea in CPU matters? (I’m thinking, for instance I have a phrase with a synthriff and a phrase with toms which has nothing to do with each other other than it’s in the same host-project).

  8. I was thinking to manually integrate Renoise-Rewire projects into Redux-instances instead, so I’d like to know if Redux behave differently from the latest version of Renoise considering the pattern commands or not (such as Slice, Pitch Bend and so on)?

Edit: Changed the post to a better title, and now also solved.

Hi Chris,

thanks for the detailed feedback. This is really appreciated!

The answer to #1, #2 and #3 would be no.
Pattern-follow (phrase-follow) is something I miss as well, along with the ability to play from a specific line (#6).
As it has been mentioned, there are specific reason this is not currently implemented, but I believe this is a transitional thing. It should be possible to follow progress while playing, as long as it’s a “preview playback” triggered by you, and not the host.

#4: I have not experienced this myself, but will def. keep an eye out for that message. I know how it’s supposed to work though: presets should never be overwritten, unless you explicitly decide to do so.

#5: Currently there is no “post-trigger” or “follow” actions for phrases, so you can’t queue them up like that. Also, I wouldn’t really want something that did that, and only that - there is a much bigger creative potential here: think randomly picked phrases, repeating phrases etc…

#6: This should be an easy one, I hope it makes it into the first update :slight_smile:

#7: CPU usage of course depends on the preset, but creating an additional instance does not have a dramatic impact on neither CPU or RAM, as any additional instances will share the resources allocated by the first one. I usually run half a dozen instances - as I like to explore the new workflow offered with Redux, compartmentalizing my xrni’s and reusing them across songs. On a reasonable powerful computer you should be able to run at least a dozen instances or more.

#8: Renoise instruments would only sound different if you are using non-default TPL, or working off a different base LPB and having DSP effects which are synced to this tempo. Ticks Per Line are usually 12 in Renoise, and this value is hard-coded in Redux. Same for LPB, which is always set to 4 (yes, you can specify different LPBs for phrases, but it does not, should not, affect the tempo of DSP effects).

Thank you very much for taking the time!

I have an additional question which is connected more or less to #5.

In this case I have a melody with the same instrument (think: “synthsolo alike” if it helps) in a few phrases which in turn is out-mapped in the host on different keys (of course). I’m not sure if my mind tricked me but it didn’t felt quite right when it switched between the phrases which leads me to a concrete question:

  • What really happens when a note in the host - with the corresponding phrase - ends? Is it adding an automatic note-cut or does the instrument continue in some way? This time around it was like there was a continuation of some kind, and perhaps it has to do with what kind of settings I have on the instrument. If so, what should I think of while embracing this phrase-technique?

I was a bit worried over this so I was able to (for now at least) copy&paste all the phrases into one single phrase which did the job correctly this time. However, I’m not yet sure the last phrase (contained only a note-cut) had any affect on the previous phrase. Also, in future projects there might be a longer sequence (perhaps over 200 lines which is the maximum). In either way, it’s a bit messy to work with just one long phrase so I’d prefer working with a few shorter ones.

Oh, and using the Program-mode is a mess (not really sure how to do it) with Logic Pro so I’ll stick to Keymapping for now. But that shouldn’t really make a difference for the above purpose?

What really happens when a note in the host - with the corresponding phrase - ends? Is it adding an automatic note-cut or does the instrument continue in some way? This time around it was like there was a continuation of some kind, and perhaps it has to do with what kind of settings I have on the instrument. If so, what should I think of while embracing this phrase-technique?

If the phrase has an “open ending”, with no note-off at the end, the voices are sounded indefinitely, until you release the triggering note.

If you release the triggering note before the phrase completed playing, all playing voices within the phrase are released (note-off).

Phrases are not chained together, triggering a phrase containing a note-off will not somehow release other playing phrases.

Imagine that I would play two open-ended phrases (C3 and G3), and then I hit C4 containing just a note-off. That shouldn’t affect the two playing phrases in any way.

Another to think of it is, that phrases are always triggered in their own “track”, and as such, doesn’t share any note-columns…

If the phrase has an “open ending”, with no note-off at the end, the voices are sounded indefinitely, until you release the triggering note.

If you release the triggering note before the phrase completed playing, all playing voices within the phrase are released (note-off).

Phrases are not chained together, triggering a phrase containing a note-off will not somehow release other playing phrases.

Imagine that I would play two open-ended phrases (C3 and G3), and then I hit C4 containing just a note-off. That shouldn’t affect the two playing phrases in any way.

Another to think of it is, that phrases are always triggered in their own “track”, and as such, doesn’t share any note-columns…

Thank you!

All right, so the phrases can’t get connected to each other then. Good to know. :slight_smile:
With that said, I guess my mind tricked me then? Since there were nothing between the phrases in this example (for instance a note-glide between hex-row 70 in phrase 1 to hex-row 10 in phrase 2). So multiple phrases vs one big phrase should have the same effect in this example.

Also while we’re at it, just to be sure I’ve understood the effect-columns regarding Redux correctly. It appears that in Renoiseyou are more flexible with the effect-column (copying/pasting etc) corresponding the track in question plus you can add more effect-columns, but not in Redux. However, my question is:

  • The note-column in Redux is only affecting the relevant instrument in the “track”, and the effect-columns to the right affects the whole phrase?

In this caseI used only the effect-rows to the right because of the before-mentioned limitation of the “single effect-column”, even though there’s only one instrument through all the phrases. But since I’ve only used one “track” with one instrument it shouldn’t matter?

You can still have 8 global effect columns thateffect all the note columns like you do inrenoise and override the same effects commands (if present) that are in each of the notes’ effect collumn

You can still have 8 global effect columns thateffect all the note columns like you do inrenoise and override the same effects commands (if present) that are in each of the notes’ effect collumn

Ok so the “global effect-columns” overrides the “single/note effect-column” in Redux, good to know!

(yes, you can specify different LPBs for phrases, but it does not, should not, affect the tempo of DSP effects).

Should not?

I experience #4 very often running Redux on linux and #5 I have also wished for, well more a case of the phrases being exposed to the host so that they can be automated to change, I’m guessing as there will always be a different amount of phrases present so maybe the control would work in a range of 0.00 - 100.00% or similar?

I experience #4 very often running Redux on linux and #5 I have also wished for, well more a case of the phrases being exposed to the host so that they can be automated to change, I’m guessing as there will always be a different amount of phrases present so maybe the control would work in a range of 0.00 - 100.00% or similar?

Can be done via MIDI program changes or by using the keymap mode: seehttps://forum.renoise.com/t/trigger-phrases-in-redux-by-midi/43767 for details

thanks @taktik, this is great info that I will really benefit from… loving using Redux inside Bitwig as I still struggle with the workflow of using a tracker for my primary sequencer ( I really need to RTFM from start to finish tho ) :wink: