As 1.2 is getting closer, it will soon be time to decide what to do next. I suggest we start a little brainstorming now. I will here present a list of ideas, many of them come from you here on the forum and some are my own. It is in no way a complete list, and it is not a list of promises or planned features. Come with additions, start new threads to discuss ideas in detail and tell us what you think! Note that many of these ideas are previously discussed in older threads. (btw: this list is originally a list I’ve kept for my own thoughts, so there might be some unclear and a bit messy things here. if you wonder just ask).
– More flexible view management –
Larger (any) screen resolutions
Full/extended screen effect and instrument parameter editing
(it quickly gets crowded down there…)
Full/extended screen pattern editor
Full/extended screen discop (combined with improved discop,
would ease finding all those samples)
One suggested model:
the upper, lower and middle sections can be hidden or shown,
or perhaps shrinked into a thin bar, to let the other parts use a larger
part of the screen. or even make it possible to adjust the vertical size
of each part when shown.
– Improved discop –
entering filenames
renaming/moving files
filetree
RNS sample/instrument browser (browsing samples and instruments
within a songfile like it was a folder, maybe even patterns,
track settings and other song parts as well)
browsing zipped files (and/or other compressed formats)
Shortcut for prehear of currently selected sample/instrument
(without loading it into an instrument slot)
File search (searching for songs and instruments matching misc criterias)
Rendering directly to .ogg
Loading .ogg and .mp3 samples
“Lock instruments” option (Never overwrite/always overwrite/ask to overwrite)
to protect yourself from
Ask wether to save if song changed and you quit or open another song
— INSTRUMENT RELATED —
Instrument effects (ie effects affecting all output from an instrument like it
was part of the instrument rather than part of the track it’s played on)
Improved RNI instruments:
more (unlimited?) multisamples
layers
multiple lfo’s
multiple envelopes
“velocity to XXX” settings etc.
VSTi to RNI “conversion”, automated creation of multisample instrument from VSTi’s.
(this will of course be lossy, but it can perhaps make it easier to share modules
in addition to .ogg/.mp3’s)
— MIDI RELATED —
multiple midi in ports
midi(N)RPNDevice
midiSysexDevice
— OTHER —
Exporting/importing track settings, effect presets, patterns, envelope presets, instrument banks, and perhaps other parts of a song.
erm… looks great. but i’d like suggest these additions again in chaos order:
sample/instrument “keep on disk” option
“render block to sample” feature
some commands additions
sf2 import
more features in sample editor
loopstart/loopend sample’s parameters as envelopes
scratching position envelopes
sample’s timestratching
“constantly execute tracker’s command xxxx” option for an instrument, i think that is not so complicated but will give much more power in playing live and creative searching. (btw, with 05xx it will give global portamento effect, just remind you about it)
I like this option the best, I think. I’m not sure if larger resolutions would be the best idea – the font sizes might get to small to easily read without a great deal of eye strain.
Discop:
I would like a few more preset buttons – I would be happy with just two more!
Also, I posted this in another message, but I would really like to set a default rendering directory for wave output.
I certainly vote for this! I can’t count how many times I’ve loaded a sample over one I already had.
I’d like to see longer patterns possible, or at least some way to better record “live” sessions. I work with minimal progressive techno, which means I can sometimes have one pattern with everything, hit play and loop it, and then just tweak it back and forth from start to finish. Problem is that once the session’s over, it’s lost. So, what I’d like to see in a future version is more buttons by the sequence-editor;
New (next blank pattern available not used in sequence)
Ins (same as before)
Xerox (copy current pattern into a new pattern not used in sequence, and add it to next position in sequence. This already exists in Psycle…)
I’ve got tons more ideas, but they don’t spring to mind here and now…
Boy that was a lot of words to express one simple idea!
I would like to see an option that makes the delete key actually delete a row from the track (i.e. shift everything below it up one) instead of just overwrite what is already there with a blank row.
Context sensitive on-line shortcut advice would be very good (on-line in the sense of it being an integral part of the app).
I know I have a biased opinion, after having used WT/ST/IT for [insert large number here] years, but I much prefer the IT way of pattern navigation and entry into the playlist.
As a consequence, it would be great to see an option to use the grey ‘+’ and ‘-’ keys to navigate through the various patterns for editing purposes. To create a new pattern, you could then simply press the ‘+’ key until you get to an as yet unused pattern, and under normal circumstances, you just press the ‘+’ and ‘-’ keys to navigate your patterns.
As for making the playlist, how about this (In addition to the usual one).
This does assume some kind of resizable window scheme being adopted.
In this large, dedicated area there would be two rows.
One would be a list of all of the patterns that have been used (e.g. 00…24).
The other would be the playlist.
On first-run, the playlist is empty and the pattern list is populated with the patterns from the current song. By clicking on a pattern in the pattern list you can preview it (i.e. play it), making sure it is the correct one. You can then copy it to some position in the playlist by dragging and dropping it. This would then be repeated until you are satisfied with what has been done. If you click anywhere within the playlist, the song is played from that point forward (this is to allow for simpler pattern arrangement), there would also be some button to press in order to play the whole song, and ways of moving blocks of patterns around (in the playlist).
If anyone would like a better explanation I have a diagram available for email.
another pain in the ass for me is possibility of putting only 16 samples in one instrument - would be nice to make it 2 to 4 times more ( at least 4 ocaves ) - this would stop cutting i.e percussion instrument into 2 or 4 seperate instruments which tends to happen now
we oldskool hypertechnical musicians ( ) are waiting for the ability to route a command column to a specific note column, by the use of a hideable “assignment column”, as previously explained to taktik
some others:
SHIFTDOWN,SHIFTUP,CUT©&PASTE for a specific note column, not just for all note columns in a track/block
(SHIFT/ALT + F1/F2/F3/F4/F5 + column_number?)
“from pattern” and “to pattern” combo boxes in the WAV writer window
about what was listed by martinal, my best choices are:
Larger (any) screen resolutions
the upper, lower and middle sections can be hidden or shown
Try ctrl+shift+fX in the 1.2 beta… This is already there! (at least copying etc).
The column number is not necressary, it applies to the column the cursor is in.
One thing that’s missing from Renoise is a ‘song layout’ screen where you have movable parts like sequencer’s do which can be copypasted, shifted about, etc (having pattern 0a, 23, 05, etc glued to one another somehow, constituting a part).
Playback-synched audio recording(!) is what I’m most anxiously waiting for. I want to put my hardware to use.
MIDI-controllable sliders (DSPs etc.). I have tons of knobs but I can’t use them for anything with RNS
Some solution to the quantization typical to trackers. Audio recording is a kind of solution, especially if I can record VSTi-input, too. Special piano roll type tracks would be another solution.
I’m not so concerned about the visual layout, diskops, instruments or pattern arrangement, though I understand if somebody else is.
Playback-synched audio recording(!) is what I’m most anxiously waiting for. I want to put my hardware to use.
PLEASE, YES! this is a feature i have been long awaiting in a tracker. renoise is already better than most trackers in being midi-accurate, but it still slips after 30 seconds.
just midi accurate timing!
this way, no midi cables would have to be attatched. just press play on the tracker, press play on your gear, and everything is working on the same tempo.
it would be my wet dream. if it becomes a reality, i will sell my soul to renoise.
well, i say that to them, you are right, this is a tracker and not cubase or any other shit. just copy your sequence from one pattern to the other with Shift+F4 + Shift+F5, done.
About the ‘song layout’, I agree with #hcys# and it’s not a feature that sucks.
It’s just a convenient way to give you a global view of your song, to manipulate it easily, and this is very important when you have lots of tracks/patterns. It’s easier to see what are the parts of your song, move tracks… There are lots of things that can help to compose a music with a global view (for example, adding some comments for consecutive patterns and say “this is the intro”…etc)
It’s like in Powerpoint. You have a slide view (pattern/track in renoise) and you have a thumbnail view (song layout in next renoise )
It’s not very open minded to say that because Renoise is a tracker, it should not borrow good ideas from other music software. I’m happy to have VST/VSTi in Renoise, and it doesn’t come from the tracker world…
there are actually a few things which are solved way better in MIDI-programs, and I dont see a sense in putting suggestions like this down just because its not “tracker-like”. I guess Fastmaster is just afraid it might change towards MIDI-Style, but I guess (and hope) Renoise will someday feature “the best of both worlds”, like a tracker with all the stuff we know from trackers plus the best from MIDI-Programs. And I repeat, there are things which are handled better in MIDI-Progs.
yeh, renoise is still quite raw in some features. but it has got the features i waited many years for. the problems is there are not much of coders, and they got not much of experience in coding of revolutionary trackers.
current renoise’s minuses to me is:
old type sampler - no revolution here, still old ft2 just with stereo support
ticks timed engine - still the same algorithm command effect scalling, envelopes also seems timed by frames that worse than even ticks.
no new fundamental ideas. (that’s btw good subject to talk about nowadays)
old type diskop gui
and a lot of small details.
but renoise is renoise, i can’t ask my dream for $45. my dream is thousands coding hours, a couple of independent coders can’t do that anyway.
also i should say renoise is stable enough to be sold, anyway, don’t like it - don’t buy it.
) are waiting for the ability to route a command column to a specific note column, by the use of a hideable “assignment column”, as previously explained to taktik
