**brand N00b, Tons Of Questions**

Help, Support & Bugs Beginners Questions - Renoise
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Hey Trackers,

I’ve decided to take up learning Renoise as a potential new way of making beats. I just recently downloaded the 2.0 demo and I’ve been having a bit of a hard time picking it up. I’m still very new to it, and still in the midst of learning the basics of the program. However, so far, I am IN LOVE with renoise!

As would be expected, I’ve had some questions come up while learning about it, and I’d love to hear what you chaps have to say about it. Please excuse any naiveté on my part

Here’s my questions:

  1. Do people make “normal” electronic music in renoise too i.e. NOT breakcore :D ??
    Are there any examples of such music?

  2. Obviously, one of renoise’s strengths is it’s ability to highly edit rhythmic music. How does it do with longer more sustained music? (i.e. “liquid” DnB, Ambient or anything with pads & reverbs) Will decay tails trail out into the next pattern sequence?

  3. How is renoise for making twisty “massline” type composite basses that are common in Drum and Bass? Does it work well for this, or is this the wrong tool for the job?

  4. How the feck do I control groove to get things like swing, tripleted rhythms, semi tripleted swings, different groove/feel on unique instruments??? I make hip hop tempo/rhythm style music. It HAS TO groove. Do I need to make the BPM like 800 to get the resolution to get my tracks to have amore natural groove to them??? Yes, I already know about the groove thingy in the song settings pane, but it’s a little unintuitive, and I’m looking for a bit more subtlety and control…

  5. How Do I layer drums in renoise to make larger composite hits? Is there a way to do this without having to bounce- a la battery or drum racks in ableton?

  6. Is there a way to record 2 patterns to 2 tracks at the same time from 1 MIDI controller? For example, I want to record a kick & snare pattern realtime at the same time, but on 2 tracks so that I can mix them individually. How would I do this?

  7. The Sample Editor: When I edit a sample, does is destructively change the original? If not, can I destructively change the original if I would like?

  8. Instrument envelopes: Is it possible to automate the envelopes or other parameters on an instrument (i.e…- increasing the decay time/shape of a kick drum over 4 bars, changing the pitch parameter on the instrument, etc…)

  9. Audio with long attack and short no release: stuff like sweeps, reversed cymbals, etc, how do I line them up so they start in the right place and end in the right place?

  10. how do I quantize notes to different values (straight time, 4ths, 8ths, 16ths, triplets, dotted, etc…)???

Obviously, I come from a DAW/sequencer, and am used to seeing the audio in the arrangement. While renoise is different in this regard, it’s kind of refreshing to relate to music by hearing it more and not looking at the audio all the time. Still, it means learning a new way of thinking about the music, and it’s a bit of a learning curve.

I still haven’t gotten to the part where i learn about how to record audio into renoise, but I’m fearing that It’s nothing more than recording into the audio editor, and then triggering it with a sample. I hope there’s someting better than that!

Oh, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why they haven’t added rewire yet.
That being said, this program is mond bogglingly sick! I’m so inspired by it, and curious what my music will sound like once I’ve gotten a deeper hold of how to use it !

Thanks in advance for any input you can offer :)

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  1. Also, is there a way to automate sample start point in a sample/instrument?

for example, I make a Hi Hat pattern and want to not only vary the velocity/volume, but sample start as well to get a more natural sounding hi hat…

3

AHEM

  1. yes check the song forum.
  2. they can sustain indefinately. it’s up to you to edit the sample loop, instrument envelopes and when OFF notes are placed, etc.
  3. uhh what? yeah you can do anything. it’s up to you to make the synth patches.
  4. renoise 2.0 is much better in regards to this with the new delay column. there are now 256 degrees of delay for each note on the line. there’s also the song groove setting which has been around forever but it isn’t automatable.
  5. layering drums like you want is incredibly simple. just make a new column in the track and add the 2nd hit. it can have its own volume, pan, delay, etc. you can even resample both samples to make a brand new layered sample that will show up as a new instrument.
  6. nope… it’s not so tricky when it comes to midi stuff. it’ll just record note after note in the track. you can always drag the notes across tracks though.
  7. as soon as you load a sample renoise makes it lossless. all samples are saved as lossless FLAC . you can upsample any sample in the sample editor all the way up to 32bit, 96khz .
  8. no the xrni instrument’s parameters aren’t automatable atm. there’s been hints that this will be in future versions. you should use a vsti sampler for now if you really want this.
  9. the commands 9xx and b0 work wonders. you can always render selection to sample (resampling) and cut waves up manually. it works very well and you’ll get quick at it.
  10. again, 2.0 now has quantize finally ! you can quantize notes whenever to whatever grid value. you can also quantize live as you hit the notes on the keyboard which is great for beats. there’s a little number value at the top left of the screen where you change the quantize grid value.
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http://remixta.net

Check out Remixta ep. 2 and 3. Yes, the sounds trail to other patterns, you have lots of flexibility with vibrato, slides and stuff like that, so it’s not really hard to make. With renoise 2 you can make very fluid music.

Sure, it’s easy, you just have to stack enough effects on top of the bassline. :) It takes some practicing to get used to, but I think Renoise is best tool for that kind of stuff.

Someone recommended using LPB 12 which divides with both 3 and 4 for triplets. LPB stands for Lines Per Beat. Which is how many lines Renoise scrolls during one musical beat. Also you should learn to master the renoise Delay column, this lets you do craziest rhythms with even the lowest LPB values.

Sample editor has “Mix Paste”. Also you can put all the hits on the same track but create several columns (little plus sign on track left corner). Experiment until you like the sound and then select the hits in pattern editor making sure you have enough tail, right click, “Render selection to sample”. (Only available in registered version).

Not sure right now if you can do this. I don’t think you can. But you can later filter the notes with a special script available on the net. Trackers are mostly designed to be operated with computer keyboard or midi keyboard in non-realtime mode, and the midi recording is still bit experimental in them. Although Renoise has best midi recording capabilities that I know of.

The sample editor loads samples in the memory and later saves them in the song file, it doesn’t touch the original sample on disk where you loaded it from, but you can save back to the original file using Disk operations panel bottom right field for filename and disc button next to it.

Not as far as I know, although you can do most of the fun using track DSP effects.

With experimentation or some easy calculations. Sample editor has useful information on the rulers. The top ruler shows musical beats how long the sample is when played back on normal tempo (usually C-4). Beats are marked in renoise with hilighted row. So basically if you have reversed crash, make sure it’s for example exactly 4 beats long in sample editor, and place it 4 beats away from the place where you want it to hit. :)

If you don’t want to cut the sample up to make it match reasonable time, you can use 09XX effect. The bottom ruler in sample editor show you the values to enter to 09 command. Also to reverse a cymbal you don’t need reversed cymbal sample, you just play normal cymbal together with 0b00 effect or B0 in volume column. :)

Well, that depends on the LPB value you have. If it’s 4 you can go up to 4th notes, if it’s 8 you can go to 8th notes by filling every row between two hilighted rows. To get more precise you have to increase resolution or use delay column. I usually use LPB 8, but as said triplets are easier to be done with LPB 12. So set the LPB to what feels the most comfortable to you, and use it. If you need to go with faster higher notes, use delay column.

Using Enter key plays only the current row. Very useful for debugging the tunes.

Fortunately or unfortunately this is how it is, you can record to sample. Renoise does not (yet) have advanced audio recording capabilities, it’s all about sampling, phrasing and cutting. It’s about the ideology. ;)

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Use the sample offset command 09xx.

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09xx is the pattern command that alters the starting offset of a pattern… both pattern effect commands and volume can be humanized.

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Just in case you confused the hell out of the poor tracker noob… it should read:

09xx is the pattern command that alters the starting offset of a sample…

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The thing I can’t discern form this reply, is:

Does “offset” mean that it is starting the whole sample at a later tick/place in the pattern,

OR

does it mean that the starting point inside the sample is moved?

BTW THANK YOU GUYS!!!

I really appreciate all this great feedback. You guys are very kind and patient with my N00b-ness, and I feel that I am starting to get a better idea of what renoise is like.

Thank You :yeah:

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This one

10

Cool. Good to know.

thanks, Suva.

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for example, 980 makes the sample play from the middle, 940 is one quarter of the sample and 9C0 is last quarter.