Just having some fun…
From my perspective, Renoise is far away from being dead. The forums are thriving, the product page is reasonable modern and filled with a lot of information which is very accessible. Renoise is a modern product which runs without difference on all major platforms and there are fine tracks being produced by the community and even whole albums which are professional grade (I like the work of Easily Embarassed). No, not dead to me.
The OP has a point regarding activity and as has been stated elsewhere, the real, the forum activity is barely visible on the front page.
For what it’s worth, “The Joint” at pixeljoint.com looks like it could be a compatible community for Renoise users.
In short, “The Joint” is a compilation of 21 pixel art rooms done by several pixel artists. A “soundtrack” compilation to these rooms would be motivating… or possibly not.
Somebody made a group in G+ for that kind of thing, but basically I agree with kejkz, we are simply using the tool that is best for us, “alive, dead, active, inactive” are beside the point.
Heck, Renoise is not dying, but we obviously suck big times at everything but working on Renoise itself.
I don’t have access to the blog, I wouldn’t mind having it. But my biggest problem at the moment is time, haven’t managed to put out any community content for ages, too busy with personal projects and work. If anybody else wants to volunteer for content creation let us know.
Though OP is overreacting in a big way, his frustration due to lack of updates is understandable. To put the solution simply: Renoise needs a community manager (of some sorts).
By the way, a quick (selfish > 
) solution for right now would be a nice preview for one of the upcoming features
First of all - excuse me for trollish name of the post and the humorous style. But I really need your attention.
I am here for many years so, Technik, dont look at my “3 posts”. First time I wrote Taktik when he released early version of Renoise and for all these years I think that the program is brilliant. Nothing changes and this is so good! And I dont think that everybody here needs version 2.9 immediately. I speak here about marketing and demos cause this is really the problem.
You know that modern times have some rules. There are MANY DAWS and it is not enough to be just good. You need promotion, you need FRESH BLOOD, new ideas, you need money to those people who programming this soft and for those who share information with us. You need some famous music bands that play with your software. IT-Alien said - “everybody here are volunteers”. You really think that it is good? Maybe it is time to earn money on your knowledge?
Here, in Russia we havу several Renoise communities. Every day(!) I see newbies who said - wow, this is great! this is different! But what you have to attract their attention? Yes, they are newbies and dont understand underground things (if it isnt on so - they already knew Renoise cause we had big tracker and demoscene communities not long ago). So give them Oakenfold-Tiesto-Guetta stuff and take the money! Give them simple funny tutorials like Evernote, give them “step-by-step-prodigy-composition” like Future Music or Ableton on youtube. It is not bad!
You already have one post at one year so what will be next? Little group of strange people who post kittens and trombon-at-the-ass pictures at forum? You really like this “independent future”?
By the way, Renoise is one of 4-5 programs in Russia that respects authors rights. At torrent trackers you see something like - “TAKTIK is brilliant so buy Renoise and dont steel it”. Believe me - it is really quality proof. And you missed so many people…
And the last thing. How to refresh website and demos.
a)I think one of the ways is… to present commercial demo-competition on Kickstarter. Trying to collect big prize pool to promotion and money for winners. What do you think? This competion must be different from mutant breaks not because of my tastes. I think it is really interesting to hear - is it possible to make commercial trance or euro pop or scrillex-gangman-djigurda things in renoise 
?
And second thing. You need some materials at your website. In our country some copyrighters take 2$ per 1000 signs. Some social-website managers earn only 500$ a month or less. Try freelance sites or something like that but please, dont bury your only way to communicate - official website.
I’m working in the field of professional marketing business myself, so I see your point. But it seems you’re assuming that Renoise is easy to learn. It simply isn’t, because it’s a creative tool that differs radically from the established paradigms of electronic music production. People who master Renoise relatively fast are most likely old-school trackers who have aquired the skills in past times, the hard way. In contrast to this stand today the kind of commercial, social media marketing mentalities you speak of as potential Renoise customers: they are not “there” in terms of being able or willing to aquire that kind of skills. They just want a quick-fix. Heck, I’d bet most of them wouldn’t even want to pay for a Renoise license (especially this seems to be true in Russia and other Eastern countries).
However. In my judgement, Renoise could reach out to the quick-fixers by implementing this:
- A clip based system (file explorer) in the tracker, making it possible to load entire clusters of samples+instruments+pattern data (yes, all of them and more in a single container that could be placed out as longer loop sequences, with user options to transform them)
- Making it possible to load, crossmix and playback several .xrns files at the same time (think “tabs” where one tab is a Renoise song, and then a separate Master tab).
- Make it possible to distribute clips as encrypted containers, making it possible for commercial beat makers to distribute “song maker packs” in various genres (think “eJay”)
- Distribute a separate .xrns player for multiple .xrns files that could stream the files directly from servers (think Soundcloud et al).
- Pro marketing
- $$$
No. We need to improve the quality of our originality. The world is full of sell out commercial noise and we don’t need to add to it. Make stronger original music, show the path of the New Way. The people who are hungry for new ideas and methods will be the most loyal, as evidenced by many long term supporters here. If the Devs wanted mountains of income more than what they are getting they would have changed their business strategy by now and started to invest in other traditional ventures, say like a plumbing business or mining stocks.
We need to come together and get over our egos. I don’t know how, but surly with our combined ability we can make a very cool hive of positive activity, rather than trying to be another soulless grab for cash further propping up crippled culture. Let’s evolve past genres, using just one piece of software or hardware militantly, being difficult because it is apparently cool, and be willing to learn and make an effort. Let’s use our talent and imagination to create something new that isn’t the same old timid pithy submission in hope that the masses will approve. Lead. Stand. Strive.
Most people here have no deep knowledge in music, in harmony, no special education so please, dont speak about “new Way”. Lets be honest without big words
Afraid I have to agree. David Guetta, Paul Oakenfold, will not create organic growth of the community. What they could do, is provide a bump in sales, and not so shortly thereafter an array of license transfers.
@ DrumanDabass
Do you perhaps know, a couple of cool underground Russian artists that are true users of Renoise that would be good for the blog?
Totally agree with you exсept one thing. Many years ago I wrote my first composition in Fasttracker in one hour! No special skills at all, no tutorials etc. Look at fruity loops - many windows, instruments, effects. It is really hard to “start from the scratch”. So for me - one of the huge advantages of Renoise is - yes, it looks like submarine interface but so simple to start 
Nice idea about clusters of samples-instruments-styles. Really nice!
I do not think that is true. There seems to be a lot of people here with knowledge about music theory and production. Whether they taught it to themselves, learned it in school, or have a mixture of school and self teaching is irrelevant.
I dont. I saw here russian guy - Jalex who was so angry couple weeks ago at renoise forums but at the same time posted russian tutorial about this program here: http://zwook.ru/cont…jalex_renoise_1
Try to ask him here: http://forum.renoise…ser/6304-jalex/
Maybe you right. But this is not the point that I am trying to speak here. And I dont like all conversations about “our unique way in this life”. It is really babish cause we speak here about PRODUCT and PROMOTION.
Excuse me for such a question but who are you? “We”, “we” - who is it? “Me and Taktik”?) “Live US alone” 
US? You create this program? Or maybe you create some nice and famous tutorials? In this topic there are real monsters of Renoise and everybody are trying to speak calm and polite. What I said - this is MY opinion and I already explain why I use this tone of conversation. But what about you? XRNS have some ideas and this is good!
You really think that official website without any news (last is from spring 2012) is normal? OK, I am the moron but who are you - the person who is trying to spittle in everyone?
OK. My ideas.
It would be nice to have some tutorials like: “breakbeat at 5 minutes” or “dnb in 1 second” or some rhytmic patterns like here: http://pro100video.com/viewtopic.php?f=201&t=2412 but in renoise. Sort of different styles vocabulary in Renoise
It is also really good idea to have some different style presets in Renoise. Sound pack and several tracks with names, FX and something like that. And also couple of songs made in this preset.
Also - it would be nice to see comparison - usual DAW VS Renoise. “What I can in 10 minutes”. Just to see that it is easier than it looks)
And indeed you need a community manager with some creative ideas and copywriter skills
Our licence fee does not cover our desire to be entertained. Making an appeals to a niche community that uses niche software to adhere to economic rationalism and promote McSoftware isn’t going to go down well. Better to stick to existing strengths and foster them so that healthy solidarity and integrity is achieved. On whole the software development direction shows no signs of broad stagnation, and anyone who makes the effort to understand with acuity the cautious method of the developers will let things be and make their own contributions as circumstances see fit.
I think there is an ongoing problem of vagueness with the forums that allows for idlers to be distracted and fill up the space with noise. I propose the following alterations:
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That the General Discussion forum being renamed to Renoise Announcements and be run a lot more formally than it currently is. This implies careful moderation so that this forum focuses on official Renoise discussion pertaining to annoucements. Off topic posts will be immediately moved to other appropriate forums. Normal members cannot start topics here.
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That the Competitions and Collaborations forums be split in two. These two concepts are not the same thing and in certain contexts are dissonant to one another. Perhaps volunteer effort can be put into the Collaborations forum to foster productive activity there, which is something I would have a small amount of time for. …These two forums should then be moved down to the same region as the Songs forum.
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The Songs forum could use some sort of added functionality to make it more enticing for genuine community involvement. It would need to be something more complex than an ‘up-voting’ system - allowing for review of qualities other than sheer popularity, for example: innovation, soulfulness, sonic quality, pathos, and insightfulness. These could be colour coded so that when one is skimming reviews one decide what is worth attention. A culture of peer review will raise the bar and encourage writers to improve their work.