A Few Suggestions

Here’s just a little list of things that would make using Renoise a bit easier for me (and hopefully for others as well) in one way or another. Most of these have been discussed to death already, but I decided to put them all in the same post with my comments.

Moving the recording window around
This has been stated one or more times in the past, but I’m going to mention it one more time. Just for the sake of using two monitors, stretching Renoise over them both and getting the record window right in the center of the two screens. It’s very awkward.

No autosaving enabled while recording
I’ve experienced this several times. In the middle of recording something the program starts to autosave and I’ve gotta record all over again, because saving bigger samples takes a while and the whole program kinda jams while it saves. No fun. Just for comparison, e.g. Cubase has this feature (it won’t autosave if the rec button is on).

Windowed version of the mixer view (and if any luck, other views as well)
This has been discussed to death already, but the good factor in a windowed version would be remarkable, at least with two monitors. The mixer view is one of the crucial ones for me, so having the mixer view together with the pattern view is something I’m craving for.

Pressing stop two times no longer puts you in the beginning of the song
I rambled about this some days ago already, so enough of that. Anyone who finds this feature usable, hands up. Might be your last chance, if I understood correctly…?

(At least) 6 command lines instead of 4 in one track
I tend to automate stuff a lot nowadays and I usually do these live (this way the automations get recorded in an effect command line or whatever those are called) and I tend to find myself out of command lines when doing this. 4 isn’t enough in one track, need moar!

Some tweaking with saving a song
Not sure if this would be possible or not, but saving a song with a dozen of samples is a pain in the arse. My idea for a suggestion would be: when saving a song, Renoise automagically detects if a certain sample/instrument has been modified since the last save or not, even when saving into a whole new save file. This way Renoise wouldn’t go through every (long) sample again and again when saving and this could speed saving up a lot (for us long sample users). Or am I completely off the hook here?

A hot key for Renoise commands/effects list
Yeah yeah, I should’ve printed out the command lines text file and put it up my wall by now, but I didn’t. In the meantime, I’d love to have a button and/or a shortcut for some compact list of the Renoise command/effect parameters. This would help a lot every time I forget about a certain command, 'cos I tend to misplace the original list from time to time.

Here’s for starters. Might remember some others later on.

You can allready manage this in preferences.
Just check “auto save backups”
and uncheck " save while playing"
or am I wrong here?

I’m giving my +1 for the rest. Allthought I think about the “stop/back to begin button” behaviour it is better to change your workflow in stead of changing a program.

I can definitely see that as a benefit. +1

+17!!

Especially 6 command lines instead of 4. I need moar!

what is the benefit of recording automation into the effect command lines in the pattern, instead of recording dsp slides straight to envelopes in the automation editor?

I’d like to have the pattern clean from automation so I can still input the 'normal effect commands.

You can easily turn the dsp’s on and off in the effect command.
Plus, I want to pitchslide backwards with a sample offset and vibrato while switching between dsp’s ;)

+100 for more columns for pattern commands!

@Jonas, I can’t speak for everyone but I prefer having the automation in the pattern because it’s much easier to copy arbitrary sections between patterns. This task is a hundred times more awkward to do with the automation envelopes, which you’d have to copy and move separately from the note data.

Moreso, It’s imperative to keep notes and automation together when automation serves a more pronounced sound design purpose, rather then simply notching a dry/wet mix, making filter sweeps, and whatnot.

Ah I think this does the trick about autosaving for me. Cheers.

About the functions of the stop button, the question was that how many people use its current function? It would be very usable if it only took you to the beginning of the current pattern afaik. And changing a 10 year workflow habit, nah… not right now. For me it’s the same thing as biting fingernails to some. :)

I know the feeling … I have that with crack :P

Which is exactly why I think the horizontal automation envelope should be unified with the command/effect data, to become one overarching vertical automation/effect column next to the notes. This way, you can copy and paste arbitrary sections like you said, and also drag the (now vertical) curve around at will. (a simple button can toggle between showing the corresponding command data next to the curve too - i.e. 3xx for velocity data).

Widescreen monitors will pave the way for all this extra horizontal real-estate.

Got a new suggestion idea! How about…

…an option to turn an effect command line into a graphical command line? This would work just like a regular automation curve, only that it would follow downwards together with the song. (oh yes, I guess Twinbee had the same in mind?)

Then couple of other suggestions I had forgotten all about:

Importing video files

Some Renoise users tend to work with video files as well, so importing them to Renoise might make syncing a tad easier.

Audio tracks

Yeah yeah. Anything that would make working with several vocal tracks easier. Along with audio tracks we’d need some multiple sample editor so that you could edit several long samples at the same time. Which reminds me:

Multiple sample editor

As said above, I’d like the current sample editor to stretch a bit so that you could edit several samples (or if we’re getting audio tracks, you could edit several audio tracks) at the same time. Naturally all the samples would start from the beginning and add silence in the end as long as the longest sample in the current multiple sample editing goes on. This way you could easily work with e.g. 3 vocal tracks (1 main vocal track, 2 doubling vocal tracks) and sync them together nicely.
This feature would easily diminish my need for using Cubase to edit audio.

Some added functions to the sample editor:

  • Selecting an area in sample and dragging the selected area in real time.
  • Combining instrument edit’s volume/pan/filter/whatnot automation curves with the sample edit window so that you could toss the automations above the sample currently in the sample edit window, along with switches that lock and unlock the envelopes.
  • An easier way to change the gain on a sample (like in e.g. Cubase).
  • An easier way to make fade-in and fade-out (it’s not like it was hard at the moment, but doing this like in Cubase is just so easy).

Yeah yeah, Cubase this and Cubase that, but I can’t help it.

Yes and the topic was very hot, i doubt emphasizing it here again would put any heavier weight into this :)

For this we would need to add a “Project” option.
Currently all samples and songdata is stuffed inside a zip-archive.
The regular routine to add stuff in zip files seems unpacking the archive and repacking the whole archive with the rest so the risk is that adding only changed samples/instruments to the archive would actually make this process only slower instead of faster.
If we can save the whole song as a project, we could save samples and instruments seperately from the other data in their respective folder and then you get a speed gain if only the latest modified samples are stored.

Exactly. There are a couple of ways of going about this, but they all lead to the same general idea. Everything becomes vertical and therefore aligned nicely.

Can we please have a “Project” option? :D

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