Forever on the look out for inspiration, I have been toying with the demo.
I have no experience of Trackers.
Before I shell out any dosh for Renoise, I wonder what it can actually offer over and above traditional “modern” sequencers (Cubase, Live etc.).
Also, does it offer things over and above the sequencer/hybrid FLStudio ?
Are there things that Renoise can do better / faster ? Are there unique things impossible or very difficult in other hosts ?
I am having fun with it, and the community seems very friendly & helpful (unlike some others… Reaper for instance).
But I do get the impression that, to some extent, it is mainly popular with diehard tracker fans rather than your average electronic musician. It would probably take me months to produce anything respectable out of it - but I might have great fun trying !
I know Venetian Snares produces some amazing stuff with trackers / Renoise, but he probably doesn’t have an exhausting day job & 2 young children to distract him
If you are curious about composing you should try learn this tracker, it just might have the work flow that makes you compose twice as fast, or maybe not, but then you have tried and know tracking is not for you.
I’ll give you my thoughts on Renoise: I used Cubase, Sonar and FL before, I hadn’t used a tracker previously. I was up and running with it quickly and I’m pretty dumb at figuring out software. I found I wrote better songs and it was more fun doing it.
You can do everything you’re used to doing and more. You have total control over everything, down to what a single note does.
I’ve had on 2 PC’s now, it’s 100% stable, fast, CPU efficient, and the people on this forum don’t give newbies the condescending treatment you get elsewhere.
Spend some time and learn all you can, the docs are good, as are the demo songs etc.
For the record, I also have a day job, 2 young kids but still manage get music out of this little beauty far quicker than I did before.
Trackers are known to have a much faster workflow than traditional sequencers once you’ve learned them… mainly because the keyboard controlled step sequencing is much faster than editing notes by hand with a mouse, and because the pattern effects offer precise control over effects that’s hard to get with a heavily mouse based system. (not to say that Renoise isn’t mouse based )
Renoise melds what’s traditionally great about a tracker with what’s great about most sequencers… making it perhaps the most innovative sequencer on the market aside from something like Ableton Live, which excels more in live performance circumstances.
Renoise is the most useful piece of music software I’ve ever tried… which is why I will support as much as I possibly can. (btw, come join the official chat room, #renoise on irc.esper.net)
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