Option To Link Instruments To Tracks.

A way to assign instruments to a specific track.

When the option to link instruments to track is turned on using option up + to change instruments would also change the track you are on. When instruments and tracks are linked the instrument number or name could become the same color as the track color. I propose drag and drop from the instrument box onto the track header to link them. Command or option drag to assign instruments to multiple tracks, vice versa to assign the instrument to all tracks.

In addition when this was turned on tracks would lock out samples that weren’t assigned. That is, it would only allow samples you’ve associated with a track to be placed in a track to keep from accidentally placing samples you don’t want in a track.

Of course you could turn this off at any time.

Hi Jonah, you can already assign instruments to specific tracks:
See the midi-in panel. You have to route your midi signals to that instrument by setting the in-device for it though.

Thank you. That’s Interesting (I’ll have to explore that later), but I don’t think I explained myself clearly. As far as I could see with the MIDI in assignments you could still place note triggers anywhere and it was more about mapping external MIDI outside of renoise to a track?

Maybe this image will explain better.

Again when you select the instrument it jumps to the track it’s linked to in the pattern editor and you could not insert notes triggering that instrument in a track you haven’t assigned it to. This would really speed up working with lots’s of instruments and tracks as you wouldn’t have to search as much.

As another example you could select all the instruments you want to use for your rhythm section and drag them to a one (or more) tracks/groups and those assignments would be reflected in the instrument box. This would make resuming work on a project easier as you could quickly tell what each track does and how your instruments are grouped. Right now you have to look at the track number next to the note value in the pattern editor and spend a lot of time naming tracks and groups, which can be cumbersome.

I think it would compliment the (awesome) new pattern matrix and grouping features. Big thank you to the renoise team!

Because basically, I’m saying (optionally) mirror the functionality of the pattern matrix in the instrument selector box, not only will it offer workflow improvements, it’ll be a more unified way of interacting with renoise.

That you can set a track for an instrument doesn’t reserve that track exclusively to that instrument no, but if you have assigned a midi device to it, a channel and a track, notes would not be recorded anywhere else when recording with that midi device (not even if the instrument was selected and the cursor is in a different track). So the situation that you show in your image more or less applies.

You can also try this tool out:
http://forum.renoise…gement-console/
It is still beta, but the setup is a bit quicker with this tool, it makes things more obvious and a lot easier to assign several instruments to several different tracks.