I am new to Renoise. I only started my eval of the demo version a few days ago and so far I am highly impressed.
And as a Python software engineer I am pleased to see a well featured group of Moonscript APIs. Well done!
One of my all-time favorite instruments which I have used day in and day out since I bought it new in 1999 is the Akai S6000 sampler. And it’s little buddy the MPC1000.
Soooo, I found this: AKP File Spec
Then started reading around line 1062 in Renoise.Song.API.lua.
Then a lightbulb started to dimly flicker in my head. Are you pondering what I’m pondering Pinky?
It seems feasible to create an import export tool between a Renoise instrument and an Akai Program.
Reading/parsing the .akp file will be the biggest hurdle IMO. But Awave and CDXtract figured it out so it isn’t insurmountable and perhaps their engineers can throw me a bone too.
So that said, what obvious obstacles am I not seeing through my noob glasses?
And importantly, would this be a worthwhile effort? How big a herd would potentially graze here?
Well, just updating this one to the API 4.0 version in Renoise would then do the trick, perhaps checking if the Akasi S6000/S1000 import is still working as desired, else patch it up.
The current version is still Renoise 2.8 and lower so it does not work in 3.0 Beta yet.
Sweet the heavy lifting was done already!
How about an export tool, has that been done already too?
If not, I could use the additional file import support for an example to create it I guess (personally I’m more interested in going that direction).
I’ll checkout the code and as mentioned look into patching it up…
The general problem here is that Renoise has less features than the Akai, so you would lose functionality on the way. I would first ask (again) for an advancement of the Renoise sampler to be on par with an old Akai sampler.
Quite true but since my workflow is to flesh out compositions in the puter and then transfer over to hardware this could still save me some steps along the way (e.g. keymapping).
Ultimately it would so very nice to have a Export All type tool which could spit out not only AKP files but AKM (Multis) too along with FX routings (mapped as closely as possible to the sampler’s quad FX card) and a Midi file. Then dump this all over the USB link to the sampler, create a setlist and hit play from it’s front panel.
Instant gratification stage setup. I have spent countless hours working this process manually over the years and it gets old.
Regarding the code update, is everything I need to know for this in the posting - API version 3 to 4 changes - Renoise 3?
It should be, but i haven’t tested everything out yet. I have had to deal with a few to convert some of my own tools.
If you install the old tool 2.8 tool, the log-file in the Renoise preferences folder will give you API hints which parts of the plugin were not compatible (thus why the automatic conversion failed) so you can actively seek out the lines that are involved.