Speaking of patience, thisparticular forum post from taktik is worthreading again today:
https://forum.renoise.com/t/some-news-about-the-upcoming-renoise-release/38691
Yes!We hope to continue having surprises… but really the forums would be dead.
yes renoise is dead , all the developers have been bought out by apple , they are now working on a ios tracker with piano roll
You do not make jokes, some users may take your words seriously! 
still learning Renoise not sure what is the easiest way for layering, AFAIK there are two easy way
using theSync All Notes In Group toolhttps://www.renoise.com/tools/sync-all-notes-in-group
or using some modular VST host (Metaplugin by DDMF, MUX etc) and dropping the VST(i) into them then driving them from a common trackcurrently the second one, especially with MUX seems the easiest, especially if I’d like to create common automation(without using tons of Doofers) macros to all the included instruments
I will look at all this. However, I am happy using each VSTi for each track separately, and if I have to group, use groups in pattern editor and then the effects on group work with VSTi.
But I recognize that users starting, it will be difficult to handle VSTi at first. It happened to me.My great desire is to improve the Automation Editor drastically for the future.This will help to better control the VSTi to compose.Also use automation parameters in the pattern editor, but I’d rather have cleaner…