Not sure what you meant by the first part. My own rule? Keep it simple. Yet, I also tend to break that rule myself 
But I think that Finnishcoffeeās scenario is not that uncommon, and that it can be solved in a way that feels ānativeā.
Btw: I somehow thought I could write the tool yesterday night. Well, only got about 70% of the work done. Hereās a screenshot:
It was enough to prove that the idea is working, but not enough to release the tool. Itās simply not in a functional state, yet.
Iām out of town for a few days - will be back middle of next week. So you lads can expect something to appear by thenā¦
That looks promising. 
In the end, thatās all I need. A way to turn off MIDI in/out on select tracks and the VSTi routed to them, from the controller.
Playing music is all about the instrument (In most of our cases, the MIDI keyboard/controller). Remove the need to look on the computer screen and mouse-klicking or pressing shortcuts like CTRL+T and weāre set.
This is why I fell in love with ReNoise to begin with. It was so simple to map things to the MIDI sliders/knobs/buttons compared to most other DAW out there.
Not only did ReNoise instantly recognise my controller and all itās available controls, it did it so much better then Studio One for reasons I wonāt go into here. 
How I work with VSTi and ReNoise:
On a sidenote, 8 tracks have been sufficient for me for the most part simply because of the wonderful ability with some VSTi to combine instruments inside the VSTi in itself, the so called āmulti-timbralā ones.
In most cases, I have 2-4 tracks with the background sounds, such as a string section, brass, maybe some woodwinds and choirs. Each one of those types may in turn consist of more then one actual sound. All of that done within the VSTi itself. Then there is 2 or more instruments that I play as solo, one at the time, together or taking turns in real time (the volume sliders).
On some occasions, I do percussions, but those are so different from other types of instruments that I tend to make a seperate recording for those alone, on a track outside of the 8 instrumental ones. Track 10 usuallyā¦
I then use the Matrix to make notes for myself when they come into play and the matrix also holds the chords for such compositions.
When the chords and percussions are all done, I then begin the real time recording and only glance at the screen to reminds myself of what chord is coming on next bar/beat.
From there on, itās very often improvised with a basic idea inside my head of what shall be done with the volume sliders to tone in and out selected instruments per track.
The problem arises when one playthrough does not work for whatever reason, usually the limitation of having only two hands and ten fingers <_<
Then I have to play other nuanses and variations on a second and maybe third recording. That is when all the notes being recorded previously that are āsilentā become a real problem.
I tried to do this at first by simply adding another 8 tracks right next to the first ones. but then I realised I also had to re-route all the same instruments to those as well as not having the volume sliders on the controller maped to tracks 12-20.
If ReNoise had not recorded all those āsilentā notes to begin with, I could just continue Loop Playback of the song and add little things here and there in real-time as I saw fit.
This is what the Arm Record is for and why ReNoise need that as well. 
Thanks to all you guys interest in this. I donāt regret so much buying the license for Renoise now. Those of you doing these scripted tools and stuff should be paid for your efforts with a piece of that license fee. :wub:
