Currently we use numpad 1-9 for selecting instruments. The issue here is that the instrument starts at “0”, so instrument “0” means you press “1” on your numpad, and instrument “5” means you press “6”, which is confusing behavior for newcomers.
I see 2 ways to fix this:
Make numpad 0-9 select instruments and move “open editor” to the numpad period key, which I don’t believe Renoise uses otherwise.
Simply change the display number of the first instrument to “1” instead of “0”, moving every number up by one.
I’m in favor of the first option as this would allow you to select an additional instrument with your numpad compared to current behavior. Also, this would arguably be BETTER for people used to the old behavior as they can simply rebind keys to the previous way, whilst removing “Instrument 0” would be a permanent change that may throw older users off.
While not a solution for the default behavior, adding “Select instrument 10” as a keybind would let me be able to use my 9 key, which currently doesn’t do anything due to the limited number of instrument keybinds available. (Can I fix this via lua scripts?)
Personally I prefer shortcuts like “select next/previous instrument” instead, also for step width and similar. By that you save shortcuts, have to remember less and imho it is even more comfortable.
Good idea, I can make say, 32 Instrument Selection shortcuts available in Paketti. Let me make a ticket for that and build it quickly.
Ok, I’ll be adding this to Paketti soon. let me know if you need something else in this vein, @valleyperson - and yes, it starts from 0.
p.s. i can also add a midimapping so that a 0…127 knob or slider can be used for selecting instruments. would you like that?
EDIT: I added protection against going over the limit of current instruments. the Shortcuts for selecting 0…32 instruments still exist, but if no instrument exists, then it shows an error on the status bar.
Ok, let me know if you want the Midimapping for selecting instruments, or anything else, and keep me posted. I’ll add the Midimapping for selecting instruments to my GitHub - there it is. Issues · esaruoho/org.lackluster.Paketti.xrnx · GitHub
I have a command palette tool which can also be used to select instruments quite nicely imo.
There is only one shortcut you need to set to open the palette, then press i and type a number, which can also be multiple digits long. Alternatively, if you have a lot of instruments and don’t know the index you can press Enter after i and get a search field where you can narrow down your target by typing fragments of its name.
The same kind of thing works for many other things like tracks or dsp devices, but instead of i you press t or d and so on.
@unless, is there a command already available to switch back to the last selected instrument? Like CMD/CTRL+TAB? But for instruments?
I would like to use it for more call/response type of programming inside a single track. Currently I have to move through each line to find the instrument again. Or place the instruments on adjacent lines.
I’m working off of a laptop so missing the numpad makes this solution more efficient. The Command Pallete is very useful for quick commands.
No, unfortunately the tool doesn’t keep track of any state like “last selected instrument” and this will most likely never change.
However, it does kinda remember your previous commands, while this doesn’t work well in all cases, if you’ve previously selected an instrument by index like i 3, you can open the palettte and press left to quickly get to previously called commands, much like you would in a terminal. It’s a bit less ergonomic than what you asked for but it’s something…
