Offtopic
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Open sourcing stuff is a great way to ensure longevity. And I would love it if that some how magically would happen. Some kind of dead man switch or something. For example, after 2 years of not confirming you’re still alive all your code appears on GitHub or whatever as open source. And yes, I’m sure there are plenty of reasons why this a bad idea.
Anyway, with Renoise being a small team it’s less like to die if one of the developers falls away. But still, it be good to know if such a contingency plan is in place.
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In case of any problems with further development, the project will become open source.
And even in the case of normal development, the engine code may become open source in the foreseeable future.
He’s a very reasonable guy. Good to know he’s considering open sourcing it at some point.
I hope Renoise does the same, eventually.
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I’m a supporter of openoise
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Signature:
This person supports Openoise (Renoise Open Source)
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The plan is to keep the project alive. But making Renoise open source won’t work IMHO.
Making Renoise open source would just kill it softly, because the Renoise codebase is so old (grown) and huge that no one on earth could be keen enough to dive into that pile of source code and make something useful out of it. Maybe some people will manage to tweak a few things here and there, but it’s extremely unlikely that someone or a bunch of people will take over the whole project and make some major changes.
To give you an idea of the size of this project. It’s ~ a million LoC. Yes, a million. It’s really a lot easier to start new projects than to tinker with other people’s old codebases.
Also, the only “big” open source projects I know of that have survived have always been built as open source software from the start. You can’t just take an old project and make it open source. That’s a great way to archive it, or allow people to copy and paste a few snippets out of it, but not to move it forward.
I do my best to devote as much time as possible to this project, as it’s still my favourite thing to do, and has kept me alive and happy for many, many years.
But I’m also involved in many other projects, yes, so I can’t promise anything - especially not a roadmap.
Renoise has never been made by a company trying to make a profit. It was built by people who put a lot of love and time into it because they love the project. And that is exactly what I wanted Renoise to be and nothing else.
At some times there were a lot of people, at other times almost no one but me. At the moment, there are only me and achenar as “active” members. This may change in near future or not. I honestly don’t know. But if you want to help and do something for Renoise. Just ask.
And if you are considering buying Renoise, but are unsure whether or not it will be updated in the future, buy it for what it is, not what it might be.
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Thank you for taking the time to address the community here. I think whatever concern gets voiced for renoise’s future is coming from people who love the software and want to see it thriving into the future. It’s encouraging to know that it is a project that you still feel passionate about as well, and I’m glad to hear you’re open to help from others who also want to see it thrive.
Long live renoise 
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I’m not in favor of open-sourcing either. I used to be, until I became more aware of how lukewarm most open-source projects become. I think it could jeopardize Renoise’s very strong, clear vision/spirit, demotivate further official development, and thus should only be considered as a last resort.
I also try to be careful not to ask for too much to be added to Renoise, because I don’t want to bother, due to how much of a steal Renoise already is. I feel I’ve already got 10x my money’s worth. But sometimes it’s hard to not want more for Renoise, because of just how incredibly fun Renoise is! Anytime a new update is announced/released, the excitement is real! It’s honestly, better than Christmas morning as a child!
Thank you for all that you do. Please let us know how we can find your other projects and support your developments. If there are any ways that we can specifically incentivize further Renoise development (buying Renoise merch, buying more licenses, etc), please let us know! I would happily pay for more Renoise-related stuff!
Happy Late New Year!
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Thanks for this taktik
Best wishes for you for 2024!
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I second everthing MrZensphere wrote. I’m 100% positive all the suggestions given by everyone here comes from a place of love and admiration for Renoise.
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Thanks for being so transparent. I can say this. I’ve never actually been apart of DAW community before and it feels pretty cool TBH.
I would definitely like to support further development of Renoise.
What would it take to ask the developer to invest time into the the development?
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Mmmhhhh these statements don’t really convince me. In my Softwarecompany we have a few middle Projects with around 16 Millions LoC Delphi/Pacal and 23 Millions LoC Java code. I self coded a little project completely exclusiv by my own with 1,7 Million LoC. So this argue is not valid in my eyes… It sounds nice yeah, but nothing more.
For code organising, refactoring and modification are good tools avaiable in nearly all languages except the scripting stuff maybe.
For productive quick entry of coding its needed to know important basic workmechanics and partfunctions of the codesystem. Used external Librarys, Classlists with description, important used Patterns and Interfaces and so on. All this could be exchanged via voicecalls. It only needs someone actives that share their knowlege about this. If the rest of code is sensefully commented it would not give any problem.
Code normally should explains itself and comments help understanding comprehensive functions.
All what is needed to judge if it worth the investment of mantime is to have a short look in the codebase.
If it all undocumented spagetty what none understand anymore, then forget it.
Is there a VCS? (Git, SVN)
We are both germans, thats would be a plus for communications in difficult questions or problems
Anonymity is a problem? I give you my Adress and Data.
I would want to contribute in the following points.
- upgrade or migrate of used graphic librarys for better graphics and theming support and especially better **
** fontrendering - native integrated pianoroll
- better Dialog and Filemanagement (usage workflow, extended projectinfo preview on loading dialog, more history entrys).
If you are really interrest in growing the developer pool you can contact me over Renoise & Stuff discord. Simply leave me a line in private area, where we wrote for the themes for new Renoise release.
happy tracking
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I would be interested to help to code/ improve it, but i also quite sure that i am not experienced enough with cross platform coding. I imagine this will be pita to improve and test system level stuff, compiling it for three platforms at once. For example switch to dir/ file event watching instead constantly reading the Directories, e.g. adding support for external lua editors.
Imagining how to implement parallel containers in a technical conceptual way, without breaking the current api, seems to be very difficult, at least from an outside perspective. I would imagine that it requires massive api changes, switching from numeric indices to an actual tree object / node structure. Though i have no idea how this is handled internally.
It seems to me that you could benefit from help with solving those conceptual puzzles in an optimal way more than actual coding….
Does the api structure reflect the internal processing structure, or it it a simplified mapping of it?
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That makes me happy to hear. Three days from now it’s exactly 8 years since I got my Renoise licence. And Renoise has been part of my life virtually every day since. Making me happy. Thanks! 
That’s probably true. Though keeping it closed sourced does take away the option for people to keep things running well into the future. If one day you decide you’re done sitting at a desk and go for a walkabout. Travelling the world on foot. It’d be nice that people can fix support issues for a new Windows or Mac OS. And they don’t have to wait for when you find your way home, so to say.
Though I’m sure we’ll find a way to run it through emulators / VMs or something. My point is that your passion project has also become our passion. And want to make sure we can enjoy it for many, many years to come.
I’m not arguing for open sourcing it right now. But somewhere down the line. It’d be a comfort to know that it’s at least possible to keep Renoise alive. Even if it doesn’t happen.
On the flip side of what I wrote above. I also think there is real value to a tool that is one person’s vision. With a love it or leave it attitude. Try to please everyone and you end up pleasing no-one. So I am also very glad that you went this route. And chose not to try to turn Renoise into a cash cow. Respect.
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The LoC number wasn’t mentioned to impress anyone. It was about whether and how an open source version of Renoise could make sense. The bigger and more “custom” a project is, the less likely it is that people will jump in and contribute for free - in an open source project.
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@taktik Thanks for taking your time to reply, and also for the honesty.
I love Renoise and it’s my favorite DAW. When I said I wanted it to become open source, it’s just because I care about it and fear it becoming abandonware at some point (in case of your death or retirement, for instance - something people are also worried regarding SunVox). However, considering the points you brought up, maybe opensourcing is not really a good idea. So I appreciate you taking the time to reply.
And this is very comforting to read! I already own Renoise and will gladly pay for another full version once my license expires.
This 100%.
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Love Renoise and thnx for this instrument!
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I said roughly the same words to my ex before we started dating. 
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It shows,Renoise is awesome.
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Exactly my thoughts ever since! 
Renoise is pretty complete, so there’s no reason for not recommending Renoise to anyone who wants to create music. I will continue to recommend Renoise to anyone who’s asking what’s my DAW. As long as future VST stuff (just like VST3 recently) will be supported and perhaps some minor stuff will be added, everything is totally fine. And if my 11 years old nephew wants me to show him how to create music from scratch, of course Renoise will be the chosen DAW, even if he’s currently playing around with GarageBand. So for sure there will be new young Renoise users that are convinced of trackers, because it’s simply the best…
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