Focus Issues (With plugin UIs & Pattern Editor)

Hi all,

I’ve been using Renoise for a long time now, and recently switched to version 3. I have some issues which are making my workflow less fluid now, and maybe there are some options which I’ve not found which could help me out, so I thought I’d put this to you guys.

Firstly, I sometimes use my computer keyboard to play vst instruments, previewing presets etc, but I’ve found that if the window focus is on the actual vst then my keyboard no longer plays the synth, I have to click back into Renoise to enable the keyboard again. This makes scrolling through presets in a vst instrument tedious as after every change I now need to click back on an actual Renoise window to be able to play it. I never noticed this behaviour in previous versions of Renoise at all. Any ideas how to get this back?

The second one is a similar focus issue (I think). I’m trying to remember this correctly as I’m not able to get to Renoise right now but I think it has something to do with auto capturing instruments (Which again, is something I’ve always had switched on). When clicking on different tracks in Renoise, the newly captured instrument seems to take focus, meaning that when I key in a note, nothing happens because I need to click again on the pattern window (Even though I’ve already clicked where I want to key in a note). This never used to happen in version 2. Anyone got a work around for that? The whole auto capturing of instruments seems more clunky in version 3… perhaps this is because it’s always opening the actual vst when detecting, but I’m not entirely sure.

Anyway, any help with these issues would be massively appreciated. I know they may seem trivial but I’ve really noticed a disruption in what was a very fluid process for me.

Thanks!

Firstly […]if the window focus is on the actual vst then my keyboard no longer plays the synth

Sounds like you disabled the “keyboard focus” feature of the plugin window in 2.8, but not in 3.0.
Look for the little checkbox in the lower left side. When checked, the plugin is able to grab keystrokes for itself…

The second one is a similar focus issue (I think). I’m trying to remember this correctly as I’m not able to get to Renoise right now but I think it has something to do with auto capturing instruments (Which again, is something I’ve always had switched on). When clicking on different tracks in Renoise, the newly captured instrument seems to take focus, meaning that when I key in a note, nothing happens because I need to click again on the pattern window (Even though I’ve already clicked where I want to key in a note).

Hm, if I understand this right… you have enabled auto-capture, but the instrument does not switch until you actually click the pattern editor? Or switch track, somehow?

That does indeed sound strange. Have you checked that other factors does not come into play? I mean, auto-capture is actually quite stupid - if no notes are present, it will not be able to switch. So, only_because you are actually adding some notes_, auto-capture will start to work from that point on.

Ledger made a tool which tries to improve on how the auto-capture works:
http://www.renoise.com/tools/auto-capture-instrument-from-first-note

Hey danoise, thanks for the reply!

For the first issue, I am absolutely certain that in all my time using v2 I have never consciously disabled that check box in the actual VST window, but that was the issue here, thanks.

For the second issue I’ll try to make it a bit clearer… Say I have a song with two tracks and two instruments, the first instrument has been used in the first track and the second instrument is used in the second track.

Currently the cursor in Renoise is somewhere in track 1 of the patter editor, and instrument 1 is also selected.

I click in track 2 of the pattern editor exactly where I want to place a new note. (Doing this successfully captures instrument 2, so there are no issues with the capture).

I then press ‘Z’ on my keyboard to key in a C note. This is where the problem occurs because no new note appears in the pattern editor, because it appears that the pattern editor has lost focus or something. Maybe it’s to do with the first issue, as in the newly captured instrument now has keyboard focus or something.

So, I have to click again in the pattern editor, exactly where I’ve already clicked, to be able to key in the new note.

I’ve done some further investigation and this happens when you move FROM a vst instrument to any other instrument. If I currently have a sample based instrument selected and move to another track, the cursor remains in focus on the pattern window and you can key in a note immediately.

Edit - This is definitely to do with the pattern window losing focus (Despite clicking in the pattern window), as on the first click to change to a different track in the pattern window the orange focus brackets disappear, and then reappear on the second click.