I’ve seen similar suggestions before, but here’s my take on it:
What about a macro-editor, like in photoshop, where you can record a sequence of commands and re-use them with a press of a hotkey or midikey? or the right click menu
So with one button you could for example…
- select a specific area in the pattern editor
- copy the selected area
- jump to a specific track
- paste selection
A couple of macros could be really useful for live remixing… or just useful for tasks you do repeatedly. Imagination sets the limit I guess.
And if all the keys and key-combinations on the keyboard had a simple editable macro assigned to them to preform the tasks they are set for today, we would have an extremely flexible setup.
And like the spacebar you could have several sets of alternating macros assigned to one key (play and stop).
Right now all note keys are assigned to play a note using current instrument in current track with current octave… would be a very simple macro, like: <NOTE “C”> or something better than this html-like example.
So you could assign keys to do more specific things, which would be great for live use. You could split the keyboard into different octaves, different set instruments, different tracks, or other functions. Some keys could be set to a macro that sets a different keyboard mapping. So one could instantly switch between keyboard mappings.
This could also be used to switch between different midi-knob setups - could be really useful if you only have a few knobs on your midi-keyboard.
And together with the suggested scripting language, something like this could make Renoise into an extremely powerful tool, for both normal tracking and live use.
This could also include “time”-macros, and triggering envelopes and stuff like that - for some really complex tweaking with the push of a button or turn of a knob.