Tho I think, perhaps the hardware is not that of an issue - it needs and OS, that runs on that hardware, and there is enough performance headroom to play some tracks and effects.
I wonder - is it possible to make something like modern day ‘dos’ … ‘mini-os’? - single user, minimal multitasking - just enough to run one program, but run it good
From the programs pov it would look like e.g. Linux, with all the APIs etc.
Sort of like Ubuntu Studio, where the settings are optimized for real-time audio, but focused entirely on running Renoise (so maybe a bare X Windows instead of a normal desktop).
I’m mainly interested in being able to load a song onto the device, then start Renoise to play that song. And probably then interact via OSC. Being able to compose on the device isn’t a need for me.
In fact, if I could manage all of this via ssh I’d be very happy. : )
Renoise never needs a window or desktop environment to run. This gives you the possibility to run Renoise in a stand-alone environment. The primary advantage is that quite all the system resource are dedicated to Renoise (is that enough?).
If you are using a graphical login manager, a smart way to get a stand-alone Renoise environment is setting up a dedicated Renoise session. Prerequisites: you need a Renoise installed system-wide and you should be able to get root privileges.
Let’s start. Open you favorite editor an write the following text in it:
Save this file naming it renoise.desktop. Open a terminal and get root privileges. Copy renoise.desktop file into the xsessions directory (it is usually located in /usr/share/xsessions/).
Now, when you log into your machine you will be able to change the session to “Renoise” and run it stand-alone.