More Than Two Midi Input Devices

This issue was touched on in this thread, but not adequately discussed since the original poster was happy with the two-input solution that exists.

But is there any reason why Renoise shouldn’t support more than two MIDI input devices like, for instance, Ableton Live does? For those not familiar, Live shows a big matrix in which all MIDI inputs and outputs have on/off toggles for Track, Sync and Remote. The nature of those toggles doesn’t matter - the distinctions between them are particular to Live’s behaviour - but the principle is sound: if an input exists, let the user do something with it.

To preempt the inevitable “aren’t two MIDI inputs enough?”, the answer is no. My first main input is from my Axiom 49 (sits in front of me on the desk, used for almost everything), my second input is from my Korg NanoKontrol (just next to the Axiom, used for mixer functions). I also want to be able to record knob movements and program changes from my hardware synths with built-in MIDI interfaces and have another controller (such as my X-Station) on standby for dedicated control of VSTs and VSTis.

I guess a scripted tool could be a solution to this…but I really feel that, if there’s no technical reason why not, it should be a built-in part of Renoise in Preferences->MIDI.

there are more reasons why we should have more then 2 midi inputs …
For example when slaving renoise to bidule ( rewired ) …;2 midi inputs means we can only control instruments from the host software( bidule ) .because of renoise’s 2 midi inputs
More midi inputs yeahhhhh .

would love to have more input devices :w00t:

The old reason is that you cannot control more than one instrument at the same time and in the past mapping controls was not as extensive as it is today.
Ofcourse there is now no real reason to keep the limit to two devices.
The bottom-side of this part is, this however will conflict with devices that you use with scripts though!

Regarding scripting: When looking at what we have now…
All midi stuff in the scripting is real-time and can control objects in Renoise real time. In that manner it is very easy to add more than one controller.

It cannot control instruments and send notes to track realtime but…
OSC is realtime and you can control instruments and notes with OSC.

I already created a Taktik-disapproved method to control multiple instruments at the same time… still using my own one and only midi master keyboard, just simply translating the midi messages to OSC and send them back to the Renoise OSC server.
So it is also possible to use Midi to control multiple instruments and thus also use multiple controllers for that.

Is that how we should deal with this? no: Because many are still awaiting the XRNI overhaul and with this update, chances are probably big that more midi-control natively is being added as well.
But it is certainly not impossible to do all these kind of things now.

Yes, the Instrument concept in Renoise needs an overhaul…or maybe a ‘sidehaul’, to bring it into line with standards that exist elsewhere :) Combine XRNI’s great features with other great features, like - as you say - having unrestricted control configurations available to the user (similar to the way the signal-follower and the VST routing opened things up).

When you say “with this update”, do you mean 2.6? Might a few Instrument section improvements appear this time around?

No not quite, because that would involve a half assed solution and i personally want everything on the plate if possible. Currently the aim now is mainly for Bug squatting as announced with the B3 release.
“With this update” means: As soon as this feature-update is being implemented… then expect something like multiple midi-in devices to come along with it.
And that is no promise either, but my humble logical way of thinking.

Sure, that’s cool - just good to know it’s being looked at :)