I’ve been thinking about this for a long time because I consider it essential for piano composition.
I would like to know if there is a way to do the following (I’ll give a concrete example):
Use an 88-key USB MIDI keyboard
Assign 2 tracks somewhere, track L and track R
Assign a centered cutoff note somewhere, for example C-4.
Record live in the normal way only one instrument, for example a VSTi or a native piano instrument.
Have the live recording cumulatively deposit from note C-0 to note B-3 on track L and from note C-4 to note B-9 on track R.
Is there any possible way to do this?
Points to consider:
The native Renoise configuration.
The API and your MIDI input.
The API and your OSC.
In short, I think composers should have a method to be able to do this, to be able to split our physical piano and record live playing with two hands.
This is very useful because it allows us to separate the notes into 2 tracks according to 2 frequency ranges (at least) and treat them separately. For example, if you want to modify the left hand accompaniment melody to make it much more complex, this would allow you to do so.
If all the notes are recorded live on one track, we have the note recording completely mixed together and this is impossible. Remember that Renoise has a peculiar way of recording notes live, accumulating them in the leftmost note column that is free. The idea would be to achieve the same thing but with at least 2 tracks at a time.
I am working on a post-performance function that can separate the notes in some way, but it is tedious and I think if direct recording on multiple tracks was possible it would be great.
Does anyone know if this is already possible and I am missing something?
If this is not possible I would like to formally request this capability for a future version of Renoise. I am surprised that as a tracker these things are not possible.
go to the midi tab and set up your midi keyboard in the inputs plus different tracks where you ant to assign your instruments in each instrument;
Now when you play the keyboard, the instruments are recorded onto the different assigned tracks. You can set the splits in the midi tab as well the start and end note.
This panel is a feature of the individual instrument.
The problem here is that it doesn’t allow you to assign multiple tracks and assign a specific range of notes to each track.
For example, using the same MIDI In Device for live recording:
Current instrument, assign the range C-0 to B-3 for track 1.
Current instrument, assign the range C-4 to B-9 for track 2.
I don’t think this is possible, or I don’t know how to do it.
What is possible is to assign multiple instruments to a single MIDI controller.
But I’m simply looking to assign 2 (or more) tracks to a single MIDI controller by note ranges for live recording with only a instrument.
I think this should work on native instruments and on VSTi or equivalent virtual instruments.
The way note reception is designed for Renoise live recording, wouldn’t it allow recording on multiple tracks doing the same thing, instead of just one track?
Even doing this setup on a native instrument, the sound routing goes to each separate track based on each sample’s routing. By the way, this setup is not recommended by Renoise. I’m trying it out and the sounds on track 2 sound horrible. I’ve always had trouble understanding why this limitation exists. And I don’t know if this would prevent an instrument from being recorded on 2 separate tracks.
But then in live recording, Renoise always stacks all notes of the same instrument on the selected track. I don’t see an option to redistribute the notes to different tracks.
And this should be possible regardless of whether it’s a native instrument or a virtual instrument.
I think it’s a matter of how notes are routed from the MIDI input, that there should be some way to assign tracks by note ranges, or even by note.
Or another thing I can think of, a track device, which only accepts a range of notes from a particular instrument. So each track can be assigned a range of notes from the same instrument, and when recording live from the MIDI keyboard, each track will record the notes from its specific range.
Just duplicate the instrument, and use the assignment in the midi tab as I screenshotted above if you explicitly need the same sound across more then one track? If you set the same midi input in the instruments you can control the different instruments with the same controller and record the duplicated sound across multiple tracks.
This could be an indirect solution, and a bit convoluted.
The problem is that if it is a virtual instrument, it may be necessary to use a heavy library. Then you are forced to load the same instrument twice, it is not practical.
The same thing happens with a native instrument. I have a piano made of many samples. By duplicating it, it would take up twice the size when saving the project. Then I could split the instrument in 2 (a group of samples in instrument 1, and another group in instrument 2). But every time I want to change something in an instrument, modular, or instrument effect, I would have to do it in duplicate. In short, duplicating is not practical, and this is just a case of splitting in two. If I wanted to split into many more tracks, why doesn’t Renoise allow it? For example, splitting a drum kit into different tracks using a single instrument.
By checking this setup, I’ve come to the following:
I select track 2, and still, when recording notes live, all the notes are accumulated on track 1. But the sound of the notes is routed to their corresponding tracks. And sometimes track 2 sounds good with an effects chain with some effects device like a reverb on the FX Chain 02 and sometimes it sounds bad, like with distortion, randomly. Track 1 always sounds good, even if I add more effects devices in the FX chain 01.
What happens here is not coherent at all. We have these sound problems, and also, there is no coherence between the sound playback and the recorded notes in a live recording.
I’ll try this out thoroughly to see if I can do it with a virtual instrument. However, this capability would be lacking for a native instrument.
Ok, with VST alias is possible to record live on multiple tracks at once. Seeing this in action is amazing!
So one solution would be to bring an “alias” equivalent of a native instrument. Something like loading a native instrument, and then a native alias that doesn’t involve loading the samples of that first instrument again, nor the need to split a native instrument into two native instruments. This way, as Renoise is built, it would be possible to do it with the native instrument.
Is there an alias equivalent for the native instrument?
Seeing this in action is amazing!