Live Performance Brainstorming

[genfu]

@s-n-s

just tried jamming today with my nocturn
some things that would be nice “live”

controll the internall renoise effects with nocturn

able to record the automation you are doing with the nocturn(as it does in ableton live)

a way to “loop” patterns by midi

easy enough to control renoise effects with the nocturn, just set the midi #cc of the nocturn controls to the parameters you want to control in renoise by right clicking.

one thing you could try is to make a fairly simple midi patch in plogue bidule (it was bidule you were using?) which goes between renoise and the nocturn. by doing this you can map nocturn controls to mulitple parameters in renoise (ie. one dial controls filter cutoff, reverb time and ring modulator freq. simulatenously). you would also be able to record automation in this patch without too much trouble. i actually thought of doing this a while ago in max/msp and posting it as an application build, where you can select all the midi parameters in the patch, save them etc. but i haven’t had time and besides can’t be too long before you can map multiple parameters to the same #cc within renoise… also i seem to recall someone posted something which did this more effectively for the korg nanokontrol which is mainly what i’m using for this over the nocturn.

looping patterns via midi would be a little more tricky, in theory it may be possible by converting midi to direct-input keystrokes which ‘press’ the keys to affect looping. but i think it would be a flawed way of doing it; for this really we need further control over renoise via midi…

[s-n-s]

also it would be handy to be able to loop more than 1 pattern(if its already possible please tell me)

[kazakore]

Highlight more than one pattern with the little select bit the the left of the box with the number in the arranger list and these will loop through in turn.

[s-n-s]

@kazakore

Highlight more than one pattern with the little select bit the the left of the box with the number in the arranger list and these will loop through in turn.

wow didnt knew that thanks alot

[ungleichklang (LXNDR TYLR)]

@vV

Perhaps with Linux and Jack you can already do some kind of this mixing. At least audio routing is a lot easier with Jack than with ReWire.

Warming up things here…
With Linux and Jack you can run multiple instances of Renoise into Jack. There are also Mixingapps for Jack, which whom you can do crossfading.
Two I found are Jackmix and Jack-mixer. I will test them over the weekend and give some feedback.

If you don’t need crossfading, simply connect the Renoise instances to your audio-outs.

btw. nice thread, I learned a lot

edit: and you can use timemashine or Jackcapture to record your livesession

edit2: jackmix didn’t compile on my system, so I gave jack_mixer a try.
jack_mixer runs fine. It has no crossfader but I can assign midi controls to each audioinput.

[danoise]

Bumpety-bump…
Skimming through this thread makes it very clear just how far Renoise has progressed the last couple of years, when we’re talking about doing a live performance. I’ll just summarize the things that I personally feel have made the biggest difference:

First of all, in Renoise 2.1 we got the optional song-follow mode. Before this, the editing and playback position was the same. Well, can anyone even remember that? To me, this version of Renoise represented a whole new paradigm in tracking - and pattern triggering/scheduling was also a very welcome addition. Also noteworthy was the introduction of the hydra device, which suddenly made it a lot more interesting to tweak a single parameter.

Shortly after came Renoise 2.5 with a expanded set of MIDI mapping options and the pattern matrix. With the special, non-destructive workflow that “matrix mutes” has enabled, IMHO this continues to be a strong sketching & live-performance feature in itself.

With Renoise 2.6, and it’s focus on scripting features, a whole world of opportunity opened up. For it’s emphasis on live performance, Duplex is an obvious highlight - and it continues to evolve. And the beauty is, that this is also true of the scripting environment itself.

Finally, with 2.7 we’ve gotten routing of MIDI inputs to specific instruments and tracks. Something I suspect a lot of people have been crossing their fingers about, and now it’s here and it’s damn powerful too!!!

I’m performing with Renoise, and I love it. And honestly, I’m not sure I would have felt the same way back in 2009 when this topic was started.

[Dr_Drips]

I did take Renoise Live on stage since 2.5
New things I planned to do is to map a drum instrument to my MPK49 pads.
I already mapped all other faders and buttons to specific effects, really cool for live!

for new brainstorming my input is:

• more abletonish functions to the matrix
• Playlist a-like thing to eliminate loading this silence between songs

[kazakore]

@Dr. Drips

• Playlist a-like thing to eliminate loading this silence between songs

Load in another instance of Renoise?

[td6d]

@kazakore

Load in another instance of Renoise?

And with AXYY command decide which instance of Renoise starts playing (X=Renoise instance, YY=pattern of that instance)

[Irthosis]

@td6d

(X=Renoise instance, YY=pattern of that instance)

Let me be the first to say that 10 instances is not enough.

[kazakore]

@Irthosis

Let me be the first to say that 10 instances is not enough.

Let me be the first to say: Please learn Hexadecimal

[rhowaldt]

@danoise: i don’t use Renoise live (may have to do it once i start actually performing though), but i truly appreciate your short summary of some awesome Renoise features, especially in the wake of the 2.7 betas where everyone on the forums seems to be requesting features more than appreciating what they already have. thanks for that.

[Irthosis]

@kazakore

Let me be the first to say: Please learn Hexadecimal

Alright, you caught me offline…
But seriously, we really do need tetrasexagesimal .

[danoise]

@rhowaldt

@danoise: i don’t use Renoise live (may have to do it once i start actually performing though), but i truly appreciate your short summary of some awesome Renoise features, especially in the wake of the 2.7 betas where everyone on the forums seems to be requesting features more than appreciating what they already have. thanks for that.

To be fair, I think most of the feedback for 2.7 has been dealing with the “feel” of the new features, instead of just being an endless list of suggestions. Seemingly small stuff (like single-click vs. double-click to insert a envelope point) can actually be a really important discussion to have. Also, the developers don’t hold all the answers - some of us even have very little experience with other music apps. So constructive beta-time feedback is basically invaluable, always has been.

My post was simply a realization that Renoise has become a damned fine live performance tool over the last couple of year. I’ve played concerts before (using Renoise and various other software), but last Saturday was a lot more enjoyable than any of those. Later, I’ll share some details about the setup too, keeping this thread on-topic

[kazakore]

@Irthosis

Alright, you caught me offline…
But seriously, we really do need tetrasexagesimal .

There are 10 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary and those that don’t.

Have said for a ling time I would like to see Renoise go alphnumeric in the pattern commands (obviously only for names and not values) though.

@Irthosis

I’ve played concerts before (using Renoise and various other software), but last Saturday was a lot more enjoyable than any of those. Later, I’ll share some details about the setup too, keeping this thread on-topic

Have you ever recorded and shared a live-set? Can’t remember seeing one… Would be interested

[mSepsis]

@taktik

I think the most necessary thing for live playing is an ability to play multiple songs in Renoise with one app only, and then also the ability to mix them. I am not sure how this multi song iinterface could look like though…

why bother?
Use two laptops and a mixer. I “performed” with fasttracker this way, and it worked like a charm… i guess it’s also kinda why you don’t find many dj’s bringing just one turntable (or these days ipod) to the club. . .

It’s also wise to have a redundant system anyway. what can go wrong will go wrong, so clone your workstation/laptop, bring backups of your songs on storage other than the system HD and oh by the way I’d recommend SSD drives, not spinning magnetic plates (HDD) that will bounce around on the stage from your phat ass beats

[mattnasty]

I use Renoise as slave to Live, live.

-to control Renoise, I use a launchpad running the duplex stepsequncer in conjunction with a nanokontrol. knobs on the nanokontrol control the track volumes which go to a separate soundcard output for preview/auditioning. the nano’s faders actually control a send volume for each track. the send output is what is rewired into Live.

• the time consuming part was making the instruments, which were done pre 2.7bX. i took 1 bar drum and full loops and sliced them in to 1/8 note lengths or left bass/synth/topmusic as 1-8 bar loops. i used the slicing tool.

why 1/8 lengths?

A)1/16th is the default resolution on the step sequencer, so 1/8ths provide extra sound for overlap and cutoff for a junglist/dnb/hiphop approach.( i tend to stick with tech and house performance, thats why it might be an interesting application)
B)also assuming the origin of the sliced loops was boom-bap structure, C will be a kick, C# a hihat or music note, D a snare, D# maybe ghost snare, hh, or music slice,etc.
C)since we know Kick slices are all C’s, I can use Shift+F11/F12 to change between kicks.extrapolate this concept for other slices and the other SHift+F1/F2. this provides 10 sliced loops per instrument

-the 1-8 bar full loops are kept with autoseek on. i trigger them at whatever start on the launchpad, but once a long loop is triggered, the note is then turned off and sample allowed to play via autoseek. if i wanna alter that loop, i can do so with the re-insertion of the same note(retrig), or a different sample’s note(replace), or mute the track(remove).

-if i wanna play a 16 bar loop or longer, it’s done in Live. Trying to follow and manage everything from the 1/16th notes to over 16 bar loops on one launchpad becomes headachey.

-i just ordered a luxeed keyboard specifically for renoise, so this system is gonna get expanded with many keyboard functions.

[mudpeople]

so, Ive been working for a few yrs now trying to get a live set of my own psychedelic trance and hoping to find a way to do it with Renoise.

And, Im now around 90% Renoise based in my live set.

Rewired Renoise into Live 7, 2 sets of kick, bass, and percussion tracks, one active one passive, that toggle with a microKONTROL pad press. Drum kit set to a pad rack scene, and whew was it stupid-easy compared to the headache i got trying the same thing with Live.

Some synth tracks too, still building up a bank of em, so far an ABL2 for acid flavoring and various low cpu virtual analogs.

Everything is routed to their own Live channels, bass and kick taking advantage of Live’s handy single-channel (IE mono) through-put option. The pads on teh microKONTROL come in very handy for channel volume that I dont want changing, which is everything but the synths really , set em to toggle off/on. Fun too, basically channel kills this way that let me stutter, cut, and in the case of the toggles for active/passive channels in Renoise, slap back and forth btwn patterns. Fun stuff

Previously i was using Renoise mainly as a bass box rewired and an xrns with racks of basslines to choose from. This was an ok setup, but TOO ABLETON! Too much MOUSE!!! too much frustration trying to sequence on the fly in a piano roll with a mouse, too often finding that some Live quirk made me wish it was Renoise-easy…

Now all sequencing is in Renoise, no racks of basses, nothing pre-sequenced, which is what I really wanted to accomplish, something I can improv with. Still working on smoothing the flow but happy that the only thing I need Live for is syncing audio. Ive got a rack of nice percussion loops in Live to add more meat, and a rack of speech samples, and a dj channel with my own tracks. So basicaly its a live/dj set, i bounce from live sequencing to studio tracks now and then when i want to have more time to sequence. Surprisingly i dont really play the tracks as often as i thought

My problem though is that ive used Live for too long, Ive gotten too used to its interface for live play. Its a different approach, both using REnoise and going full-improv. But Im loving it.

Since its psytrance, using 2 nonsynced Renoise instances isnt ideal. I prefer smooth uninterrupted dancing when im dancing, so i try to make my sets smooth and flowing, get the trance going, forget the body, ignore teh boundaries btwn the music and self, and get into That Spot, that had people making rhythms to dance to thousands of years before musical instruments were available (they still do it the old way in the Kalahari I was pleased to find). Also Ive worked hard trying to make a live set that never repeats itself, avoiding using full tracks, even broken into pattern loops. Tried that, it was fun, but I really got bored pressing play all the time, wondering how one can justifiably call that live… I really hope to be able to realize the goal, and im CLOSE! And its all thanks to Renoise.

I just have to find a good set of master channel effects to break up the doof doof a bit more, and smoothly. So far, MDSP LiveCut, K Kammerle vinyl-esque plugs, and some others are what ive got on there right now. LiveCut in particular is really cool once you get the hang of what its doing. And oh yeah our friend dblue’s fancy plug gets in tehre usually. Ive even had teh idea of setting 16 instances of the Glitch all with randomized sequences and fx, setting them all to the pad rack, and going nuts with randomizations randomizing random randomness . I like it random, its almost as if the Glitch is playing live itself , and its very much in tune wiht the idea of non reproducibility.

But more fx suggestions are welcome !

[plasmaniac]

I haven’t done any live performances yet, but that may come soon, as we’re experimenting with our band to use electronic elements.
That is of course a little different from a 100% renoise live set.

But here is my planned setup:

• PC/Notebook running Renoise
• Launchpad with Duplex for pattern matrix/playback control
• Oxygen 49
• keys for instrument(s)
• faders for mixer (track vol)
• knobs for fx parameters
• NanoPAD
• for percussive stuff/hits
• sample triggering
• XY Pad for fx
• ???
• PROFIT

[agargara]

I’m playing a live set in a week and I’m planning to use Renoise. My planned setup:

• monome for the Pattern matrix or step sequencer depending on the track
• BCF2000 for effects and mixer
• NanoPad for drums/xy pad
  I’m probably not going to bring keys for the practical reason that I have no way to carry them.

Now, I’m having trouble getting this set together. The problem is my tracks tend to be too pre-programmed or have too many tracks, so it’s hard to keep control over the sound at all times. I sort of feel like there’s not much to tweak, so I might as well hit ‘play’ and drink a beer, which is no fun for the audience. Any ideas on how to rework or reorganize old songs for live performance?

One thought I had was to sort every track into one of eight send groups, like one send for drums, one for melodies, etc. Then load a bunch of fx and stuff on each group and use that to control the sound. The only problem is this process is somewhat complicated when you already have a lot of sends going around.

Another problem is transitioning between tracks. My current plan is just to load two instances of renoise and crossfade between them, though this isn’t the neatest solution.

Bumping this topic in the hopes somebody has some ideas to jumpstart my live performance!