Hello all, I’m new to Renoise although I used to track on the Amiga and later using Buzz. However I have a real n00b question.
I’ve got two tracks both playing different notes on the same instrument, the SuperTriangle to be precise. I have a feeling that may matter somehow.
The notes on both pattern tracks are being output to a single audio track. So I am playing notes on both Track 01 and Track 02, but all the sound comes out of Track 02. This is getting in my way because I actually want to pan the tracks separately.
I suspect that the reason all audio is rendered in one place is because the instrument has an effect chain. So ReNoise is being clever and just running one effect chain instead of two. Kind of makes sense, but it isn’t what I want!
UPDATE: It gets weirder, because this only happens when the notes are simultaneous. If the notes are separate in time, ie not on the same row, then Track 01 and Track 02 start making separate sounds!
Have I done something crazy or is this default behaviour? If it’s the default, can I control/deactivate it?
I assume you’re using a VST as an instrument. In this case this behavior is normal. If you want the same VST instrument to be played in two different tracks you need to duplicate the instrument first. Use the original instrument in track 1 and the duplication of it in track 2. You can duplicate the instrument in your instrument window by clicking on it with your right mouse button and select duplicate. Or you can select the instrument window by holding CTRL and press TAB until the window is selected and then hold CTRL and press D (which stands for duplicate).
If you’re using samples as an instrument you don’t need to duplicate it if you want to use it in several tracks. In this case Renoise behaves like SoundTracker, NoiseTracker, ProTracker and all the other trackers you already know from the good, old Amiga times.
Unfortunately though no, I’m not using a VST instrument, just the SuperTriangle “sample” that comes with Renoise.
I did find a way to get the desired effect here, but it means I have to set the panning on individual notes all the way through the song. I may try your way as another workaround though, it sounds like that would work and involve less effort than mine.
I checked the “SuperTriangle” instrument, which is an xrni file. There is no weird behavior in terms of sound. The notes in track 1 and track 2 are played as expected. There’s a chord when you play several notes at the same time and there are normal notes when played alternately. In this case the instrument behaves like a sample. But an xrni file obviously isn’t a usual sample, so if you pan track 1 hard left and track 2 hard right, both tracks will be panned hard right while playing your pattern. This wouldn’t happen if you’re using a common sample (wav, mp3 or else). With a common sample all the notes in track 1 would be panned hard left and all the notes in track 2 hard right, just as desired. So what should you do to get track 1 panned hard left and track 2 hard right? Two options:
Duplicate the instrument as described, use instrument 1 in track 1 and the duplication in track 2, then pan the 2 tracks the way you want it
Use pattern effect commands for panning and pan each note separately
If you choose point 2 you have to know that you don’t have to edit the whole song manually. There’s also an option called copy and paste. Use Shift and F4 and F5 to copy and paste your melody including the panning column. So you just have to edit one single pattern, the rest can be done via copy and paste. No big deal.
I would add that its not really bahaviour that is that different to other DAWS, both Reaper and Ableton links instrument to track, so in reality Renoise give slightly more fluidity, because you can use different tracks for example different arrangment reasons.
