Hi. New user. Just downloaded Renoise lately. So far, I’m digging it.
A little background: the way I generally compose my music is by composing my MIDI tracks in ZTracker (freeware MIDI tracker) and then exporting the MIDI file to Sonar and recording my hardware synths from there. Then, I layer on guitars, vocals, bass, etc. My biggest annoyance with this process is that making tracks like this requires that I use a hardware sampler. Hardware samplers are awesome, but they have certain limitations such as requiring that I load in .wav samples in some rather lengthy processes. In the case of my ESI-4000, I have to sample in digitally via S/PDIF, wait for the sample to autotruncate and normalize, then once I’ve got a collection of samples together, I have to key map the little bastards.
Enter Renoise: instant sample gratification while being able to handle hardware MIDI synths. And the best part is, since I’m dealing with software sampling, I can arrange my drums into parts for individual tracks (kicks, snares, cymbals, loops, etc.) without having to set up individual patches that in turn have to be tracked in individually. Hooray! What a time saver! The only problem before was that Sonar and Renoise wouldn’t sync correctly, so I can’t get my synths recorded in proper timing.
And now the new version comes out and allows me to record my synths. Hooray! Stable recording timing! No MIDI timing slips! Everything’s cool. …but there’s just one little problem: I compose with quite a number of synths. Somewhere in the number of 18 in fact, with nine or ten in use at any one time. Even in Sonar, I have to multitrack my synths with an Edirol UA-1000 that has 8 inputs with two or three passes. Since Renoise can only record one track at a time, I have to make nine or ten passes.
So, what I propose is that if Renoise enables a multitracking ability, not only would people in my position be able to record in fewer takes, but considering that awesome new mixer that was just put into Renoise, I can stop using Sonar altogether! Either adding a multitrack option in the sample record dialog, or maybe putting a record button on the mixer tracks would be great, allowing one to assign each track to a different input.
I just think that this is a possible addition that would not only benefit myself, but others who are looking for an all-in-one DAW that can control/record multiple hardware synths while sequencing in a logical/simple/expedient manner. I hope that this idea will be taken seriously into consideration.