this is an idea i’ve just had whilst playing around in cubase and getting lost - but thought it applied to all sequencers so thought i’d see what people think
how about a free hand pen tool that allows you to do this: 
or something more sophisticated - sorry for the cubase screen but you can imagine the principal on renoise. I like the idea of a pen tool - but any other detailed hi-lighting system would be cool. don’t you reckon?
Um, are those markings supposed to stay in relative place when the window is scrolled/zoomed/switched? If so, this would be a total nightmare to program and it would look mega ugly. But if this is just for marking a static screen, then I see no reason why not.
the badly drawn markings would be pinned in place so would scroll with the sequence- otherwise it would be no good - but having a ‘show annotation’ shortcut would be needed for sure.
You can put comments/annotations in the pattern sequencer, isn’t?
Yeah, that’s right. You can leave all the neccesary bollocks in the patternsequencer.
Unless I’m missing the point of what it is exactly that one would want to “annotate”,
if it isn’t part of the composition…
yeah - it could go in the pattern bit but my entry would be like
“remember to end the automation on row twenty track 3, ex command on the bits on track 5 in the middle, drum breakdown at teh end…etc etc”
when i’d quite like to just play through the track and quickly highlight different notes and areas of tracks so i can see immediatly which bits i want to go back and edit - with optional text as in - “automate” attached to a highlighted area - would just be really quick and easy way to visualise the entire track at the mixing stage… well i reckon anyways
Edit: merged topic
Hello, probably suggested before, like almost everything in this forum 
Often I have a bunch of little ideas for a composition (volume swells, automations, sample choices, where to go next etc, etc) things I’d like to do within a track, but then move on to the next song because of time/interest restraints, leaving the previous song and pretty much forget about all the ideas. I then sometimes return to old projects thinking wtf was I doing here? Have trouble getting back into the song-making flow.
Sure I can jot down some notes in notepad with time markers + maybe add hints (like I do now) into the pattern-names in the arranger, but imo this is not the most intuitive way.
In Max/msp you have a hints function, where you can drag/click/draw a rectangular shape around an object with the mouse, then define/write down some info in the ‘hints’ options screen. Every time you hover above the ‘hinted’ object afterwards, after a small (user definable) time-interval, your written down info is shown (very similar to how Renoise shows an info dialog when hovering above gui elements) .
In Renoise this could be translated to (global) hints by hint-selecting patterns in the arranger and/or by (in-depth) hint-selecting sections in the pattern editor. You press an ‘H’ button or whatever -> select section to be hinted with the mouse -> add info into special dialog (maybe set a time interval) and voilà. Next time you return to the hint selected block (visually the hint-selected portion could be shaded) you can retrieve your ‘plans’.
Future things ‘to do’ like:
I want the timbre to change from the current bright mood to a more eviller sound here, search + add good distortion dsp/vst device on a send, and automate the tone across these patterns.
Current reverb isn’t working in this part, kicks sound to heavy, next time automate the mix setting in the automation editor.
I want this beat to go mental here, find a good modulation plug/combo, not sure if the current drumsounds are working.
etc etc