How do you play live?

Raegae · December 20, 2013, 4:33pm

… just something I wrote while ago …

Using Renoise as an Ableton-like DJing Platform?

I think I now got it better what you meant.

I have been DJing a lot with renoise. For me the hardest part of djing with renoise is that You need different approach and different way of thinking. In my opinion Renoises power is in its simplicity, I mean in what comes to that how sound is generated in computers.

For example my workflow of DJing with Renoise could be:
I have Rhythmbox open that contains songs from my music folder, but the Rhythmbox is not playing anything. Then I open Renoise and use drag and drop to add songs from Rhythbox(sample is loaded to selected sample slot). I use play button in Sample Editor to get sound out in firsthand. Then in mixer view by adding DSPs to Mst track I can mix/master the sample playing, for example by adding EQ10, compressor, maximizer. Then by using “tempo tap” -tool I find the tempo from the sample. Allready at this point you can do pretty interesting things by adding for example Repeater, Filter or Dealy to the Mst track (By switching the hold button in Repeater device gives two different ways of alter looping).

When switching to next song you have at least two ways of doing it. First is to open another Renoise and prepare song/sample there also. But then you might need to fix your audio configuration to allow two Renoises at the same time. And I have not found a way to crossfade between two Renoise instances.

Another way is to use just one Renoise. I load a song to the first sample slot. And after finding tempo of the song I add it to the Pattern matrix on the first row on Track 01. Then just add enough empty patterns so the song have room to play completely. And by turning on Autoseek from Instrument Settings gives you ability to jump back/forth in patterns. You might need to pay attention to the beginning of the sample data, cut it little to get the beat and the matrix to run at the same time. Rulers in the Sample Editor can be set to “beats” to help recognizing the samples relation to the pattern rows. Then I add another song to the second sample slot, and add it to the Track 02. Matching the tempo of the second sample to existing sound playing on Track 01 might be tricky but if you manage that, then you can have two songs playing at the same time and mix them nicely.

I just found out that there is tool available called “DJ Tools - Crossfader”. This might help you to prehear the second track you want to switch in. Haven’ tested…

Quote from Crossfader tool page:
“”“When ASIO and multiple outputs are available, it is also possible to determine additional send tracks for cueing/prelistening the mixing with headphones. To achieve that, you have to set four send devices: two master and two prelistening sends. Then set per track two send devices: First the prelistening Send with “Keep source” enabled, and then as master with “Mute source” enabled.”“”

This is just an example of my workflow and I meant that you just need different approach to build the DJ mix in Renoise. Things like timestretching or automatic beat detection might be little trickier to accomplish but same time you have totally new ways to alter the way how your DJ set advance.

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