I’ve been too lazy to ask about this for some two years now, so I figured it’s time…
I love the new versions of Renoise, but I’ve kept the old 2.8 version installed because of a specific function I never managed to find from the new ones.
Here’s what I do in 2.8:
Whenever I render a version of a track, I open it up in the sample editor of Renoise 2.8 with a few other similar-style tracks for reference (and/or other mixdowns of the same track) next to it in the instrument list and then click on different parts of the tracks and play them on different pitches, sometimes back and forth using different speakers and headphones. This is an old habit I’ve always had and it helps me gain perspective with worn ears. A similar thing to how listening with L/R switched can help spot weirdnesses.
Sometimes you can’t see the forest from the trees after having mixed a track for long periods of time, so it helps to play different parts of the track pitched higher and lower. It’s also very useful if I quickly want to check whether a really low sub bass is in tune or not, if there’s weird stuff happening just above my hearing range (but still within a childs hearing range for example - or a cats for that matter, har har) or if I just want to compare several mixdowns of the same track (simply using the mouse wheel to change the version from the sample list at an instant - Renoise always remembers the spot which is selected for playing, so this is ultra smooth for going through several mixdowns at several different parts of the track - at several pitches). This is about a billion times smoother and quicker in Renoise than in sample editors such as Sound Forge.
Cutting to the chase now: on the bottom part of the sample editor, on 2.8 you can select the note/pitch which is used when playing the selected spot/area (=by pressing enter). Since 3.0 it’s not there and I never managed to find it again. So whenever checking my mixes I have to use 2.8.
Anyone know where I can find this button in the current version? (Just using the keyboard to play at different pitches isn’t the same thing, since I want to be able to quickly scan to different parts of the track / reference tracks - using the keyboard always starts the sample at the beginning)
Yes, this feature got removed with the release of Renoise 3.0
You’re not the only one missing it - DJ Terrabyte and others have been campaigning to get this feature reinstated ever since then.
Sometimes you can’t see the forest from the trees after having mixed a track for long periods of time, so it helps to play different parts of the track pitched higher and lower. It’s also very useful if I quickly want to check whether a really low sub bass is in tune or not,
Haha, yes I know what you mean. Those subs can be quite elusive
Yes, this feature got removed with the release of Renoise 3.0
Thanks, ok well, I can only hope you guys are considering to bring it back at some point. UI-wise, there’s room for it…
I can imagine that, at first thought it’s one of those features that can seem dispensable - but having gotten used to it, I could never imagine checking mixes without it.
But if you feel there’s too many buttons crammed down there already, perhaps there could be a keyboard shortcut, something like pressing shift while using the keyboard to play the sample - which would cause the played note/pitch to behave the same way as when pressing enter (=playing the selected spot/area instead of the beginning and holding the note even when releasing the depressed key).
But if you feel there’s too many buttons crammed down there already, perhaps there could be a keyboard shortcut
[…]
I have suggested a very simple solution which I think could also be useful in other ways.
Basically, I would like Renoise to offer an extra feature in the prehear dropdown menu:
So, make it optional
What I like about linking to the transpose mount is that, in the sample editor, transpose is never far away, and also, the selected note/transpose amount would “persist”, making it easy to try different spots in the same pitch.
Great! But please add another option to that menu: “add keyboard to transpose”/“trigger by keyboard” (or something like that). I imagine it cool to prehear selections in a fixed pitch, but most of the time you would want to pitch the sample/selection instantly by triggering some (midi) note. Otherwise it would suck to first change pitch with some mouse/keycombo and then switch tediously to a playback button/key, with that note-keyboard just in front of your nose being useless that could make the task repetition as easy as just hitting different notes. So with that option enabled you just hit that “prehear” button which will be sticky until you hit it again & jam on the keybed at will while selecting different portions of the sample with the mouse in the other hand, bypassing the normal instrument while you explore the sample. Other solution than that or at least similliar - would be a pretty half-assed solution. Make mr terrabyte and me (and probably lots of others) happy with this.
It’s funny, I started using Renoise when there was a poll for its name, this was somewhere around 2004 - and the software was always remarkably “perfect” for me, compared to other DAWs like Cubase and Logic back then, which felt buggy and slow to use in comparison. Never had any issues and to be honest, I always thought it was a bit silly when people complained so much in the forums, always needing this and that at the same instant after a new, shiny version was released.
But now that we’re at the very last (I guess) updates and the software is finally “there” in a sense - I find myself complaining here, haha. It’s the first time I’m having annoyances with it, sure, they are tiny little issues but it’s frustrating 'cause they were already both “fixed” with the earlier versions.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind it at all, if this functionality (as well as the “renaming sample preset” topic I linked above) was exactly the same as before, I’d be completely 100% happy with it just as it was (ok, sure, one of the suggested methods in this thread would suit me as well, just as long as it works).
Currently, as I’m using Renoise every day, I constantly have to jump back and forth using the old and new versions (with the sample pitch functionality - which is _ excellent _ for rapidly checking out large chunks of soon-to-sample records and final issues with pre-masters) - it’s like “why can’t the old button just be there” - and as a workaround to that second issue (linked above), I have to copy selected area (selecting the whole sample) into new instruments to get that sample filename text removed, which is also… Euh… Awkward to say the least.
I don’t know whether there will be a final update and I’m not saying these types of tiny issues are top priority or more important than others - especially the second one which isn’t even really an “issue” but falls under the category 1st world problems - but I thought I’d write a final request anyway, seeing as I still haven’t found another DAW to use and I don’t feel comfortable going to the old Renoise version at this point for other reasons (I already got used to the interface improvements etc.)
Great! But please add another option to that menu: “add keyboard to transpose”/“trigger by keyboard” (or something like that). I imagine it cool to prehear selections in a fixed pitch, but most of the time you would want to pitch the sample/selection instantly by triggering some (midi) note.
Just in case someone missed it: there is a workaround for previewing samples in any pitch from any offset:
It’s not necessarily a replacement for what saine is looking for (because, well what if you are actually using phrases?) - but infinitely better than nothing.
It’s not necessarily a replacement for what saine is looking for (because, well what if you are actually using phrases?) - but infinitely better than nothing.
While this doesn’t help in my case ( = whole point being, how fast it is to just bang away with mouseclick+enter - never having to prepare or ‘enable’ anything beforehand, or drag any markers around. When it comes to the rather tedious process of looking for samples and snippets from hours and hours of material, which get-dragged-and-get-deleted from the project in a machinegun-like manner, and wanting to check the clips at different pitches throughout, a low threshold workflow is everything - and this is what the old Renoise version excels at, even taking into account the super fast loading time of the DAW itself - it’s bliss) - this is still a fantastic tip for many different purposes. And of course, for many other purposes, even way better, as it can achieve more than the functionality discussed here.
Also the phrasemate tool -tip at the end of your post is great, thanks for sharing that.
