Renoise looks like a very nice piece of software, but I’m wondering a few things which I couldn’t find in the FAQ:
does the MacOsX-version of Renoise have JACK support like the Linux version?
do JACK capabilities include JACK Midi (I believe to have read somewhere that it doesn’t yet, but I want to make sure, because this is something I would really like…)
((edit: screw this point, I found the answer on the features page: -if purchasing a Renoise license, does it include all three platforms?))
Jack on MacOSX:
There is Jack for MacOSX but there is also ReWire for MacOSX. Renoise side-host hooking is based on ReWire on Mac and Windows so you won’t get Jack linked from within Renoise on Mac (Just as you won’t be able to do this on Windows either as there is also a compiled version of Jack on Windows.)
There is however also a discussion going on to switch to jack on Windows and Mac as well due to the fact that ReWire doesn’t support 64-bit and there aren’t plans to update the ReWire structure for 64-bit.
Jack Midi capabilities:
I didn’t had problems routing midi in and out of Renoise using Jack on Linux. Limitations are however on the plugin area and Renoise doesn’t support internal midi routing between plugins yet (on any platform)
I can not tell anything on Renoise for MacOSX …
But on Linux …
Renoise works fine with Jack. Jack-Midi is not jet very well implemented, but that is a problem of Jack, not Renoise. Midi works normally parallel to Jack by using Alsa. So If using f.e QJackCtl you will be able to route Audio AND Midi.
Never the less: I mostly use Renoise with Alsa only, for Jack mostly gave me some issues and latency problems. I mainly use hw-synths, samples and DSSI Plugins and they work fine, plus my audio-latency (with an old M-Audio Audiophile 2496) is down to 1.3ms and runs stable.
