No-one says “back in the day” in the UK
‘wow’, ‘like’ and ‘half a year’ are Americanisms
UK version = "Uh. Ok. I joined 6 months before you did (dickhead)*
*optional
@fu53b0x: thanks! no, seriously, i know about the ‘like’ thing being american, ‘wow’ is pretty obvious now that you mention it, and ‘half a year’, i said that because i couldn’t remember how to say it properly (‘half a year’ is a literal Dutch translation), but now i know, ‘six months’. didn’t know about ‘back in the day’. but i rarely say that.
i’ll be more careful with my pretend-English words from now on.
Back in the day is fine mate.
Think with UK English is there is so much variety over what is such a small area it is unbelievable!!
Hi
Sorry this is an introduction and reply so bare with me. I have just bought a Renoise license as there was a Linux version, which is nice! So I thought I’d support it…um and it was low priced.
I have only just got back into playing with music this year after a long gap. I am not a pro or even amateur and I havn’t done anything major in the past; I just like to play with stuff. I am also 100% Linux so no Windows for me so things are slightly more fiddly.
I havn’t played with tracker software since 1994 and I can just about play a guitar. So my music production knowledge isn’t great. I have been a closed minded metal fan for years but I’ve always liked electronic sounds and influenced by stuff like Depeche Mode, NiN, Gary Numan, Vangellis, Prodigy, etc. Never been a dance music fan or anything like that I just like certain sounds. Don’t even know what chiptune, dubstep, D&B, breakbeat are. I always thought all music had a drum and a bass in it 
Anyway back to topic. It’s a bit of a shame that the OP can’t get the hang of Renoise, also like to echo the sentiment that no one is poking fun and have given loads of help and been quite patient. I am also at the start with this and all I can do is echo all previous posts. If it helps from a noob perspective and I was also daunted by the interface. Here’s how I have got the hang of it, well the basics anyway, also I have started from 2.7 beta although I did look at the previous demo versions.
First of listen to the demo songs. Get an idea in your head of what Renoise is capable of. Perhaps push a few buttons here and there and see what happens. Click the Mixer tab and the Sample tab to see what’s going on. Mute tracks and solo tracks to see what they sound like.
Watch the first 4 video introductions. There are only around 10 minutes each but explain a lot. With the first video it should be clear an easy enough on how to add a sample, edit a track and put the notes down.
Download some sample songs, I fetched the indamixx competition songs and examined them. Some nice tunes there. Again just poke around and click buttons. You won’t break anything. If you accidentally overwrite a song just uncompress it again from the download.
I also looked on youtube for more videos. There’s loads there.
Also read the Quickstart guide. And get the full manual and read it. Don’t worry about loading Renoise. Just read through the manual as there is a lot of stuff in there, even randomly flipping to subjects of interest. It will sink in subconsciously.
The OP didn’t really say what kind of music experience they have so it’s hard to guide. Do you have access to a midi keyboard you can plugin? This can make things a bit more fun.
The key to this and all music has been mentioned already and that is just experimentation and having fun. Perhaps you have come to Renoise with an idea in your head and just can’t put it into the tracker? Me too and that just comes with practice. Forget running and try crawling first and keep things simple. I couldn’t put names to effects before but now I know that that weird fading sound is a highpass/lowpass filter automated.
I was using a free program called LMMS, it’s a nice idea but a little too simple and awkward at times. But it does have a lot of stuff in there. The triple oscillator helped me understand sound generation.
Would just like to add thanks to the devs for making a Linux version 
Also I say back in the day. I used mod trackers back in the day And the advantage of UK English is it’s like Borg as it can and will assimilate anything 
Yep; that’s what I did and I knew absolutely nothing of trackers until I downloaded Renoise in October of last year eventhough I used Cubase since year dot
+1E06
I have never been so productive by just messing about with some plugs and samples…even just during a 30min lunch break
Must be just my end of town…sure it’s not “Aye, back int’day, all we 'ad were blessed mod trackers, I can tell thee…” etc
Pardon me sir, but i do not appreciate your language. If you do not improve your vocabulary i shall take away your Renoise license and banish you to eternal tracking with Screamtracker 3.
- prints renoise license onto edible renoise panties, and eats them, slowly.
Don’t forget it’s not American or British English what’s spoken here, it’s Internet English. This is a new language, spoken by Argentinians to Icelanders to Germans to Koreans to Canadians to Afghans to Nigerians, etc. & vice versa. We take whatever we think sounds good, and make it our own language. Colours or colors ou couleurs, who cares? It’s farben anyway. 
Regarding music production: You don’t need to bind yourself to a specific style of music in order to be capable of using Renoise. If you are into metal, you can produce metal with Renoise, the only only thing is, who else does the same thing because producing Metal is a specific style of music that requires specific tricks to get a certain feel out of it.
In that regard, you would get the best help of musicians who are into Metal and have experience with trackers or Renoise. This is the reason why the manual cannot be too specific because we don’t know what you want to produce, we assemble it in a way that you can learn all tricks but we cannot provide you the info which trick belongs to which style or with which tricks you can achieve certain effects. There are many thousands of combinations you can make to reach a certain goal.
It’s up to you to puzzle that out if you are the first pioneer or perhaps get help from someone who has experience on that area.
If there is something in the beginners footage that was somehow not clear for you to get the first time or still not clear, you are invited to give us your feedback about what wasn’t clear and what you did expected. We highly value the impressions of first time users and try to improve the documentation for this group as well.
Who me? Ooh! Now I am confused 
. I’m not looking to produce metal as such. Maybe something like Rammstein/Ministry with heavy distorted guitar samples. But I’m not at that stage yet 
. My first couple of paragraphs were just to say hi and explain my background. But if anyone wants to point me to some metal style Renoise made songs would be nice.
I was just trying to explain to the OP how I have attempted to learn Renoise. I think so far the documentation and intro videos are quite sufficient. I really think the emphasis should be on those first 4 videos as they have really helped. But OP seems to have disappeared!
I don’t want to sound like I am being disparaging to the OP by saying that I have really got the hang of Renoise. I just want to point out that with a little effort and experimentation it doesn’t take long to learn. I am now cutting and slicing sound samples from youtube. I have probably put in about 12 hours with it now and have made a sample tune.
Great people on here to learn from as well. By way of contribution I found these orchestral samples that ppl may be interested in http://sso.mattiaswestlund.net/
Patience, enjoy the ride
I remember being in these shoes back in 1996, totally clueless with FT2 - but I KNEW I wanted to make music, very strongly.
I think it was a full year of studying other modules (e.g. by Mick Rippon, Hunz, Xerxes, many others…) before I actually made my first tune. It wasn’t until about tune number 8 before I started to get excited about what I was writing. Number one bit of advice for beginners: study other modules. In our case, study XRNS files.
I think after at least 3 years I felt I was ready to share a full album of songs with people, despite having composed many times that amount. Now, after doing this for 15 years, I still feel my best work is yet to come, and I still have so much more to learn! It’s fun.
And you’ve come to the right place: you’ve got some of the tracking masters here right at your fingertips. Lots of knowledge you can tap into if you ask the right questions. Welcome
Hello everyone!
Sorry guys! I’ve been reading the posts (like I’ve said in the previous post before this) and trying to take in the all the great and useful information that everyone has posted in this thread. I’ve been really caught up in schooling trying to study for my finals for my 1st year of University Double Majoring in Neuroscience and Biochemistry with a Minor in Immunology, as well as trying to learn Renoise during my study breaks. Due to the intense workload and focussing on school, I never really had a chance to make a decent reply. However, after a long and hard two weeks, finals are finally over, and the studying has paid off, but now, it’s time to begin summer and start getting more intense about Renoise.
Anyways, after basically telling you guys the last month, month and a half of my life, looking back through this thread, yes, there has been some amazing, awesome and very informative information and posts. I really appreciate people taking the time out of their days and schedules to post these in depth replies as well as share their knowledge of the program, and for that, I could literally, never thank you enough. Words can’t describe the gratefulness and appreciation I have for all of you guys giving me this informative information.
Furthermore, when I said I don’t appreciate getting made fun of, etc, in my previous post before this one, all I have to say is, you guys are right. This is an online forum, and I can’t read feelings, emotions, moods, and attitudes from people posting on the forum, screened and hidden behind a computer. I shouldn’t have said those words nor even posted that reply. I guess stress and frustration got the best of me while studying, and I guess I needed to let it all out, knowing that I’m behind a computer screen and could just rage and say all I want. Yes, I know, this behaviour was unacceptable, irrelevant and not necessary. However, we all have different perspectives right. I could be thinking one thing, while other people could be thinking another, and I guess I thought people were making fun of me by the posts they were posting. In regards to these comments, the past is the past right, and you can’t do anything about it. I have moved on from the comments that I may have thought were hating on me, and just forgot about them. I’m on the better things now, right?
To conclude this post all up, I’m very sorry for that last post, being rude and sarcastic, and like I said, I should’ve never even posted it in the first place. With all this information, techniques, and tricks I’m receiving from you guys, I really do greatly appreciate it a lot and need to learn from it. Some of you guys probably have lost a lot of respect for me, and I know second chances are hard to gain, but I’m putting everything behind and starting fresh. So if you would like to be on my journey and adventure through Renoise, I’m starting over. Feel free to hop on the boat with me, and I, with all the unbelievable help of you guys, can probably get through it. If you don’t want, or want to, by all means, do whatever you want. If, however, you do, jump on the boat, welcome aboard partner(s)!
You guys are awesome, great, and amazing. I will now be more active on the forum since I am all done school, and can finally get this journey started!
- Michael.
@michaeldalo: good of you to decide to turn around, look at things afresh and realize people here aren’t all that bad. in that vein, you shouldn’t assume people won’t give you a second chance just because you had a bit of a harsh reaction (probably while under exam-stress, of which we all know how hard that is). i, for one, have forgiven you already for that, especially after so much ass-kissing
no seriously, it’s a good thing that you explain your behavior and apologize for it, and i think i can safely say this is enough (unless someone else here still thinks you should redeem yourself even more). in all honesty, i just hope you use all of the advice you have gotten here, and do something cool with it. now that your exams are over, aside from hoping you passed them, i am hoping you will have a great time with Renoise in your well-earned free time.
I’ve already got all my marks back, and have passed every single one, so I’m pretty stoked, once again, I really am truly sorry. Thank you for forgiving me. I’m going to reread all of the advice and try to come up with something just using the stalk program… no samples or anything, just Renoise and Renoise only. I’m not going to go for a specific genre as I stated when I first started this post, I’m just going to try and come up with something that I like and build on from that… seeing as I’ve learned it takes a really long time, just like everything else, to learn Renoise.
I’m going to try and figure out things, if I don’t know how to do it, I’m going to try and figure it out, if I end up not figuring it out to the point where I’m pulling out my hair I will ask of here. Hopefully I can really learn from this and start doing things more toward the stuff I want to be doing. Thanks again for all the support guys! It really, really, and truly is appreciated by me.
I’m going to go try and start something now!
Bye!
Michael.
Kudos bud
a wise man once told me “You don’t ever have to explain yourself.”
I add to that “just be who you are.”
Puts things into perspective, when you don’t feel the need to constantly explain yourself, I use to do that, made me real defensive. Although now I can be mildly if not largely offensive, but I try to be polite and a gentleman around women.
I made another dubstep xrns, this one gravitates more toward garage,
the intro is oldschool kungfu sounding flutes/horns that have a device chain that can do some droneish feedback,
that abruptly goes into robot funk.
**forgot the link:
https://sites.google.com/site/101010renoise/files/xrns/patternstep5-kungfuhorns-slyFuckinRobot.xrns
I can’t actually see or figure out how to see if anyone is getting any of these so that’s probably a good thing.
Wow, 101010, good quote!
Okay, when downloading your xrns’ I download them right, and I open them in Renoise, but it seems as if something goes wrong and that everything is out of place? I don’t think it’s the fact that I’m on a Mac, but maybe you’re using plugin’s or VSTs that I don’t have?
Could that be a problem? I’m really looking forward to learning from your examples, but I have no clue why they’re not working :S! I’ve tried everything I can from filling in certain instruments with my own, and trying to do what you told me from comments etc, but for some reason, I don’t know what’s wrong!
Do you know anything that I could do?
- Michael
Edit: Okay, so I downloaded this one (the one you uploaded before this post) and it seems to have worked perfectly ! I really, really look forward to learning from it! However, with the other you posted (the first one) that was the one I was talking about, how it wasn’t working.
Thank you so much for doing this, really, I could never thank you enough, and I really, really appreciate it a lot !
I think there are 3 total so far, totally compatible with everything renoise is compatible with.
Don’t worry about the one that doesn’t work, just open it, close the song comment that says “don’t close this” and hit the spacebar. I think I made a mistake in the way the song comments work.
If that doesn’t let you play it, don’t worry about it, it was last month, take a look at the last 2 so far.
how do you learn? do you really need instruction (as in authoritative instruction) or can you analyze?
I find this pretty important, because if you learn best with authoritative instruction, I could potentially mess up the way you use/understand renoise.
Also, if you get stuck on something, and just can’t figure it out, the people in the IRC room might help you, or ask here.
Reason why mentioned the part about learning:
It’s that renoise might be a puzzlebox, but as long as you understand the main concepts of what everything on screen is doing as to what you are hearing. It will take hold.
For instance, pretty much everything you see happening in the pattern editor.
you will hear or not hear through the speakers.
The notes and commands in there are accessing the sampler, and there are many different ways for the commands to work on the samples inside the instrument inside the sampler. I didn’t put any commas in that because I just just described the hierarchy of the sampler. sample in instrument in sampler.
When you first open renoise you will only see the sampler, up in the top right corner.
The instruments are seen as instrument slots, the names of the various instrument slots designate your instrument then in your instrument you can have 1 or many samples.
Select one.
Now in the middle is the pattern editor if you press Esc on the keyboard, you can edit that shit! Start in the left side of the columns first, that’s where the notes are, that is where the music is being made, the notes. You can switch those all up.
As long as when you press a key like Z for example and you see it get entered as a C note, and hear a sound, you will hear it in the pattern when you press the spacebar.
moving right each set of dots and dashes it gets more complicated, but you don’t actually need to use any of it yet, until you are ready.
hi michael !
[i]the satisfactions are as high as the challenge
[/i]you perfectly express what most of people
that are 100% new to tracking and trackers
globally feel at first : they are lost.
if you like music and have one or more
instruments at home (a synth, a piano,
a guitar for example),
the way you learn to play music
on those instruments (scores, theory, pratice)
has often nothing in common with the
- pattern logic and vertical scrolling,
- qwerty keyboard, virtual keyboard
- and the A-0 to G-9 english notation
- pattern commands, 09xx,…
- tracks… multiple columns in tracks
- hexadecimal numbers
- sample theory (slow sample playback = low tones, faster playback = high tones)
- the instruments “concept” (an instrument is built with lots of small sub-samples)
- terminology (FT2, Amiga, pitch, beat, cutoff, resonnance, lfo, BPM, ticks, offset, slice, width, DC Offset, amplitude, Hz, KHz, fadeout, 0 crossing, vibrato, tremolo, arpeggio, note off, NNA, velocities, retrig, MIDI CC, crossfade, glissando/glide)
- graphics (enveloppes, nodes, curves, points, presets, scopes, dots, spectrum, loop)
- shortcuts…
There is a “learning curve” for all this.
It’s like learning to drive a car.
At first, it’s not really natural.
But in the end : your body arms and legs move automatically.
Same thing for trackers.
The problem with Renoise, is that it is probably the most “evolved and advanced” existing tracker actually coded.
It has all the features of a tracker, but much more functionnalities that makes it potentially more complex.
- native internal sound effects with their specific parameters : reverb, delay, multiband eq, high pass, low pass, band stop, band pass filters, distorsion, compression, ring modulator, phaser, flanger, chorus, gater, stereo expander, lofi…
- effects can be “chained” in a track, and the sound result can be “routed” to destination tracks (send tracks): you can organise rationnaly your fx chains and build complex mix setups with those features
- in the fx chain, you can insert “logical controllers” named “meta devices” that modify any fx parameter in function of mouse position on a virtual pad (xy), oscillations of a virtual oscillator (LFO), notes played in the pattern, amplitude of sound…
- renoise can also use external fx or instruments with their own parameters (the VST fx and VST instruments)…
It also means that Renoise introduces you to the dimension of sound mixing and engeenering. The only way to understand, is to experiment, and hear the result.
Imagine that you’ll have to learn everything, step by step.
Make small patterns,
Use the native renoise sample / instruments library
with one, or two tracks, not more.
Click on buttons, unclick, test,
compare, with, without a parameter.
Explore one thing after the other.
First : the basic principles of a tracker.
Then advanced renoise functions (fx).
Keep focused on first tutorials more than
achieved and complex demo songs.
Demo songs are examples of what
you can do with Renoise when you
completely know and control it.
If you load a xrns song :
understand it by muting tracks,
disabling effects, tweaking
parameters, modifying
presets, you’ll get the picture faster.
It took me a long time to fully use
well know other and simpler
trackers (Protracker,
FT2, Impulse Tracker 2, Sk@ale,
MadTracker, ModPlug Tracker,
NoiseTrekker…). I’ve followed the
slow evolution of these softwares
during a decade, with a lot of patience,
curiosity, and hoping I’ll be able to
sound like… electronic musicians
I admired when I was very young.
What are the benefits of your patience
and curiosity ?
Simple : you’ll be able to make a unique
music.
There are musicians that have a vision of
computer music, though softwares like
“music maker”, for example, where you
drag and drop sampled sounds and pre-
programmed loops on a timeline.
It’s simple, the learning curve
is fast. You’ve got your first results very quickly.
But if everybody use the same loops,
the music won’t be unique at all, and not
as satisfying as expected.
thanx for reading