A friend of mine recommend Renoise. At first, as most of the users, I cursed the interface (my friend laugh till today). But bit by bit I’m getting used to it. However, I work heavily with MIDI files, from creating chords progression to drum patterns. So, my thoughts are:
Renoise is not MIDI “friendly”, is that correct?
If the above is correct, how do you write your chords? How do you overcome the use of MIDIs?
If #1 is correct, it means that Renoise is more sample based and MIDI is not its thing. Is that correct?
I’m into synthwave production. Is that a style that Renoise can do?
Sorry, if those questions are dumb, but trackers are new to me and I still don’t know what they can do, and how they do things. So, any help here will be very appreciated.
Im pretty new to Renoise so hopefully some of the more seasoned veterans can chime in.
Will try to add some answers inline:
1) Renoise is not MIDI “friendly”, is that correct?
It is more MIDI friendly than any of my previous trackers.
it handles MIDI Out with ease, no problems controlling external gear so far!
it does MIDI in, but the real benefit to a tracker is composing your notes in the tracker.
2) If the above is correct, how do you write your chords? How do you overcome the use of MIDIs?
I just put a note in each column …also there is a good tool for doing chords called ‘chordgun’.
3) If #1 is correct, it means that Renoise is more sample based and MIDI is not its thing. Is that correct?
You can use samples or vst’s. but samples of waveforms too.
4) I’m into synthwave production. Is that a style that Renoise can do?
Yes, quite well in fact.
Recommend to check out some tracker tunes and see how they are made;
we have some legendary composers on the forum and perhaps if you had
a look at some of their amazing works you might get the idea more quickly.
No, that is incorrect. Among some of the MIDI features is MIDI-mapping so you can control parameters from MIDI controllers, and being able to split what tracks, instruments get what messages based on channel, etc.
If the above is correct, how do you write your chords? How do you overcome the use of MIDIs?
I use an Akai velocity-sensitive MIDI keyboard, but I will also enter notes by hand or tweak the notes entered by keyboard. This easy manipulation of data is important to me.
If #1 is correct, it means that Renoise is more sample based and MIDI is not its thing. Is that correct?
No. I also drive several external synths by sending MIDI from Renoise. I then use the Renoise sampler to capture the results and turn that into samples, etc. But one can just “play” through Renoise using it’s assorted MIDI out options…
I’m into synthwave production. Is that a style that Renoise can do?
Not into that so I can’t say, but offhand unless you are used to entering actual musical-notation then I doubt there’s any genre Renoise can’t do.
There is a piano tool here but i recommend you learn to use Renoise as it is meant to be used , it is way faster than a piano roll to input notes with the pc keyboard.Be sure to check the official Youtube Channel also check this playlist from Composing Gloves
Ah… so are you saying that a piano roll is not necessarily needed? So, for example, if I want to use Vital, synthv1 or any synthesizer plugin, I can add the notes directly to the tracker, right?
Yes piano roll is not needed .I see you are totally new to trackers be sure to check the videos so you can wrap your head around how Renoise works and of course we are here for additional help.Note don’t just watch the videos follow along what they are doing and you will be making tracks very soon
FWIW when I learned about Renoise and gave it a try I knew nothing of trackers. My experience had been first with hardware (cassette players, then 4-track open reel) then some basic software (Music Construction Set on C=64, later CoolEdit 2K on PC).
It just seemed to fit me. I also tried out Ableton but didn’t care for it. Also too pricey.
In fact it took me a while until I “got” what a tracker was; for whatever reason Renoise seemed like such a sensible way to compose and create it seemed odd it was based off some (now) arcane software concept.
A feature I would like in Renoise would be an option to see tracks as waveforms (much as say Reaper does with stems, etc.) but it’s an odd problem since the actual waveform comes from assorted Renoise machinations, often times changing on each pass-thru.
In practice I have little trouble looking at the pattern matrix and track names, etc. and understanding where I am in a piece and what to expect.
I’ve often had the feeling that some people dismiss Renoise because of the tracker history, and this is a mistake.
to 2.: just have a look on the instrument’s phrase editor. There you can create whole chords with it. You even can map them note by note with different chords.
