A few slicing questions

Help, Support & Bugs Beginners Questions - Redux
1

Hi,

A new Renoise and Redux user here, and I have to say you should be really proud of both products. Especially Redux; as a first release of a VST plugin it is a really polished product with exceptional attention to detail! I will certainly be using it extensively.

I actually have a few questions and suggestions from my first use of Redux.

First, can you just clarify whether samples within Redux are automatically embedded within the the host/DAW project? That is, there are no external files saved anywhere that would also need to be backed up to ensure the project is self contained? I know that if you save a preset within Redux it bundles the sample into the preset, but I’m talking about not actually saving the preset within Redux but just saving your project within the DAW. There are only a handful of VSTs I know of that do this (New Sonic Arts Vice, IL SliceX and TW16Wx sampler are the only ones I can think of) and it’s such a brilliant approach to ensure projects play back as intended!

Secondly, I am really using the slicing features extensively and wondered if there was a simple way to preview an individual slice without having to press the appropriate MIDI note on the keyboard. It would be great if it was like Recycle, where you set the slicing sensitity and then can click within the waveform (maybe Ctrl+Click, or a separate slice audition button/mode you can choose from the toolbar) between two slices and this automatically plays just that one slice so you can then go in and edit the start/end slice markers to get things perfect.

Also, would it be possible for the slices to automatically adjust as you change the sensitivity value? Rather than having to change the value and then click the detect button, change the value a bit more, click detect, etc.? That would be a real time-saver. A few other features from ReCycle would be great additions too - the ability to right-click on a slice marker and lock it (so you can then drop the sensitivity and it remains) or “mute” (i.e. mark it as ignored)it so you can take the sensitivity higher and, unlike deleting aslice,it will stay muted.

Finally (for now!) the “Render slices to phrase” command is awesome (hopefully coming to Renoise soon!) but I think it would be better implemented as a dialog box rather than all the options being in sub-menus. If you want to tweak the options you need to right-click, navigate down a few levels of the menu, click on one of the options and the menu closes, so you right-click again, navigate down a few levels of menus to choose the next option, etc. It seems this would be simpler as a dialog that pops up with all the options available (and remembering your last used options) and a render/cancel button. Ideally a little button on the toolbar in the slice section to launch this directly would be great too as you’re likely to use this often when you slice samples. I wasn’t even sure the option existed until I explored the right-click context menu.

I’ve also had a few instances where I’ve tried the “render slices to phrase” option and it created a phrase of just one line with all notes on the one line. I’m not sure how to recreate this but it happened quite frequently. Is this to do with how Redux works out the length of a sample (number of beats, etc.)? I’m not sure how to set that actually and whether it makes a difference.

Many thanks - and again, great product!

2

Hey, welcome aboard!

First, can you just clarify whether samples within Redux are automatically embedded within the the host/DAW project? That is, there are no external files saved anywhere that would also need to be backed up to ensure the project is self contained? I know that if you save a preset within Redux it bundles the sample into the preset, but I’m talking about not actually saving the preset within Redux but just saving your project within the DAW. There are only a handful of VSTs I know of that do this (New Sonic Arts Vice, IL SliceX and TW16Wx sampler are the only ones I can think of) and it’s such a brilliant approach to ensure projects play back as intended!

This is how Renoise works so Redux should be that way as well. Not 100% sure though and can’t check on this computer.

Secondly, I am really using the slicing features extensively and wondered if there was a simple way to preview an individual slice without having to press the appropriate MIDI note on the keyboard. It would be great if it was like Recycle, where you set the slicing sensitity and then can click within the waveform (maybe Ctrl+Click, or a separate slice audition button/mode you can choose from the toolbar) between two slices and this automatically plays just that one slice so you can then go in and edit the start/end slice markers to get things perfect.

You can middle click to preview. There’s also a shortcut for previewing the selected slice. But in my experience, I usually find myself using the computer keyboard hitting the appropriate note for hearing the slice. This works pretty well when you get used the layout (z, s, x, d, c, v etc…) as you can have something like three octaves (bunch of slices) on the computer keyboard.

Also, would it be possible for the slices to automatically adjust as you change the sensitivity value? Rather than having to change the value and then click the detect button, change the value a bit more, click detect, etc.? That would be a real time-saver. A few other features from ReCycle would be great additions too - the ability to right-click on a slice marker and lock it (so you can then drop the sensitivity and it remains) or “mute” (i.e. mark it as ignored)it so you can take the sensitivity higher and, unlike deleting aslice,it will stay muted.

Good ideas. I just end up manually slicing things…

Finally (for now!) the “Render slices to phrase” command is awesome (hopefully coming to Renoise soon!) but I think it would be better implemented as a dialog box rather than all the options being in sub-menus. If you want to tweak the options you need to right-click, navigate down a few levels of the menu, click on one of the options and the menu closes, so you right-click again, navigate down a few levels of menus to choose the next option, etc. It seems this would be simpler as a dialog that pops up with all the options available (and remembering your last used options) and a render/cancel button. Ideally a little button on the toolbar in the slice section to launch this directly would be great too as you’re likely to use this often when you slice samples. I wasn’t even sure the option existed until I explored the right-click context menu.

Didn’t know that function exists! That’s cool. There’s a “Slices to Pattern” tool for Renoise. I think they’re the same things?

3

This is how Renoise works so Redux should be that way as well. Not 100% sure though

You’re quite right. The Redux VST/AU plugin instance is self-contained, so its state and contents are saved with the song/project, no matter if you’ve saved a preset file or not.

There’s a “Slices to Pattern” tool for Renoise. I think they’re the same things?

Indeed, Redux’s native Slices to Phrase function is based on my own Slices to Pattern tool, and will eventually be coming to Renoise 3.1 as a native function as well.

I’ve also had a few instances where I’ve tried the “render slices to phrase” option and it created a phrase of just one line with all notes on the one line. I’m not sure how to recreate this but it happened quite frequently.

At the moment, the Render Slices to Phrase function expects the original sample loop to contain at least one full bar (4 beats). It won’t work correctly with shorter loops.

4

Hi there.

I’m almost convinced to buy Redux, just wanted to check a couple of things before I do.

Is it possible to have multiple sliced samples in a single instance of the plugin? When I’ve been working with slices in the demo, it won’t let me load any further samples unless I render destructively. This is a minor annoyance, and one I could live with (although I’d prefer to have the option to continue editing slices without interfering with my ability to add further samples).

However, even if I’ve committed to a destructive slicing of the sample, while I can now load further samples, if I go to chop them, “This will delete all sample slots apart from this one.”?!?

The main reason I’m interested in buying Redux is for chopping soul/funk/disco samples and putting them back together - very impressed by the degree of intuitive control the tracker workflow gives me as opposed to my MPC, Maschine and Live. I realise that I could just open a new Redux instance for each chopped sample, but having 6 instances each with a half bar sample and having to jump around between them for phrase editing pretty much negates any workflow improvements.

Am I doing something stupid here? Would imho be a pretty major oversight if the plugin is only capable of handling one sliced sample at a time.

I can see that in the Redux demo I can set up multiple sampler instruments, each with a sliced sample, and run them on adjacent tracks. This would seem to solve my problem - the main thing that was putting me off was that Renoise rewire was crashing Live after the El Capitan update - has this been fixed in 3.1? The demo is still 3.0.1 and still crashing. Would rather steer clear of Rewire if I can help it, though, find it a pita in general.

I’d also agree with chrispy above that the Render Slices to Phrase function should be more prominent, both on the plugin and in the help documentation - took me ages to find it, was beginning to think that it wasn’t in there, which would’ve been a deal breaker for me.

Also, I’m not sure using ctrl-z to undo is a great idea - a couple of times I’ve had my DAW highlighted rather than the plugin and ctrl-z has undone inserting the plugin - certainly, in Live while you can redo, you lose all your work.

5

Actually ended up buying Renoise in the end - primarily for use as a rewire slave to Live. Loving it, even though I’m still very much on the learning curve.

6

Also, I’m not sure using ctrl-z to undo is a great idea - a couple of times I’ve had my DAW highlighted rather than the plugin and ctrl-z has undone inserting the plugin - certainly, in Live while you can redo, you lose all your work.

Ouch, haha. Luckily the undo/redo keys can be assigned to something else (true for both Renoise, Redux)
Open Preferences > Keys and search for their names (or “document”)