I wonder what is the “best” way to get really started in Renoise.
My musical history: I’m interested in EDM production, already played around with several DAWs (mainly Garageband on iPad, Ableton Live), finally went for FL Studio and spent some weeks with it working through several video tutorials. I like the concept of patterns in FL and the easy way to just “paint” them on tracks to produce a song. I should add that I consider myself to be a semi-beginner when it comes to music theory, scales etc.
But then I remembered that there is Renoise (already had a quick look at it some years ago) and for the past few days I tried out the demo version. I have to admit that - though I successfully worked my way through the Quickstart Guide - I still have some problems to wrap my head around some concepts of Renoise. I can understand the fascination for the Tracker approach but at the same time the absence of a graphical representation of the notes (don’t want to write the P.R. word) discourages me a bit.
On the other hand I feel strangely “attracted” by the clean user interface of Renoise and the program-like appearance of the edit window (I’m an IT guy - this might explain it). So I would really like to give Renoise a serious try and dive into it. Think I have to finish a song (or something like it) to achieve this goal.
I already watched quite a bit of YT video tutorials (official Renoise channel and by @midierror, @grooving and even the incredible @slujr (MrZensphere) ) but I still don’t feel “at home” in Renoise.
Does anybody have suggestions, tips or something like a best practice approach? Any help is appreciated!
Also check hunz channel he has many but lengthy videos creating songs from scratch.There is a song by him included in the renoise demos and tutorials inside your renoise not here in the forum.His track soon-soon is the main reason i got in Renoise
It’s just a matter of time mate, break down what you want to do into chunks. For me the less visual nature of writing chords and melodies was a block, but it’s just more space efficient, it ultimately shows the same information still. Just keep practising is the only advice. Ask plenty of questions as well, ignore the inevitable RTFM crowd - but if you can answer a question with a search or get part way to an answer to make your question better targeted to what you need then you’ll swerve that.
With Renoise, you may get a better idea how whatever key you’re writing in will sound, because you’ll have to write the music a different way. It does take practice. For me it just feels better.
I got into trackers through Milky Tracker. Coming from something like that, or something even more limited like ProTracker, which I’m using a lot now, makes Renoise seem extremely comfortable and user friendly in comparison. If you aren’t really enjoying the workflow or experience with Renoise, it might just be because trackers aren’t your thing. That’s cool, don’t force yourself to use something that isn’t gelling with you. That said, you might also just need to spend some time with the program, finish a few small tracks like you suggested.
Also, there’s always Redux, if you want the occasional tracker workflow inside a non-tracker DAW.
In the meantime I bought Renoise and I even find myself launching it just like that because I like the clean look of it so much.
Step by step I begin to understand what each button, switch, slider etc. does (for example I worked through the layered instrument tutorial - and succeeded doing it!). So things start to find their way into my brain - and I have to say, everything in Renoise looks extremely logical to me.
My next step will be building instruments from a basic waveform using modulation, effects etc. in the sample editor and after that making a little track with it.
After reading your reply I got MilkyTracker and experimented a bit with it (using MOD classics like Space Debris and the like). Now I completely understand your point: Compared to MilkyTracker Renoise really is extremely comfortable!
But I learned a lot by playing around with MT and studying the “good old” MODs from the 1990s. Still fascinated how good they sound even today when taking into account the restrictions of the MOD format.
Just keep in mind that what yoiu’ve seen in the old MODs is just one method of composing in a tracker like Renoise. In Renoise you have much more options. You’re not forced to use samples anymore and therefore you’re not forced to use pattern effect commands to create effects, you’re not limited to 4 tracks (which was the number in most 90s trackers) or to any RAM. Instead you can use as many tracks as you want, you can use external software like VSTs, you can even use hardware, and depending on your computer you’ve got more than enough RAM to create the songs the way you want. Back then I also used loops to get 16 tracks out of 4, therefore I always sampled all 4 tracks of a pattern and created a loop out of it. And as far as I remember the biggest file size of any of my MODs was around 800 KB (on Amiga). The old MODs still sound good today because people were forced to be creative to make the best out of 4 tracks and other limitations, so they used a lot of “tricks” to achieve that goal.
and the program-like appearance of the edit window (I’m an IT guy - this might explain it). So I would really like to give Renoise a serious try and dive into it. Think I have to finish a song (or something like it) to achieve this goal.
) but I still don’t feel “at home” in Renoise.
