Hi! I have been using renoise for a few days, and here are a few major questions that have been flooding my head:
[SOLVED] How can I view the notes that I am playing at the moment with the keyboard? To know which notes I am playing, I have to actually record them and see what they are. I know I can memorize these, but it would help to have some visual feedback. And with ScaleMate, memorization wouldn’t work since some keys start replicating other keys (would be nice to turn them off instead).
[SOLVED] It would be cool to see a visual showing the key positions on the keyboard which were used in the track. So I don’t have to find the positions myself. Does something like this exist, as a plugin maybe?
[SOLVED] How can I make “space” both play from the current cursor position and stop the song?
[SOLVED] If I download some sample, how do I make sure it’s in tune? That is, if I play D#, how do I know the sample really is in D#?
When I play around on the keyboard and find something good, I usually want it recorded. And sometimes I would make a nice piece of sound with my keyboard, but can’t reproduce it anymore. Is there a place where my keypresses are constantly recorded, so that I could easily copy it without having to try to record it again? I find myself losing a lot of time trying to reproduce even a melody that I have nailed, because the escape + space makes me temporarily reposition my fingers and that breaks the flow. And then, to do a retake when I fail, I have to ctrl+z to restore the previous state. (by the way, why the 512 limit on the pattern length?) The solution looks simple: always run a pattern in some other window, which records all you play (and removes the long pauses). If this doesn’t exist, would it be possible to write a plugin and how hard? I am willing to write such a plugin, if it is possible. This is the biggest workflow problem I have so far.
Are there any plans to open source renoise? It’s marvelous software. I have read that it’s developed by only a handful of people, which view it mostly as a hobby project and not a truly commercial venture. Which is great, but all the more begs the question of why not release the code? The tools whose sources aren’t released to the public are at a natural risk of becoming defunct (for whatever reasons), and that would be a shame. Have the authors shared their views about this?
Modes (like in vi) and key combinations
(a) A text editor called vi has a concept of modes. Vi has several modes: normal, visual, insert. When one is in normal mode, only the keybindings for that mode are enabled. Normal mode is typically used for navigating the file in a super fast way using all the keys you want. When modifying the text is necessary, one can press “i” (for insert) and now the editor behaves like any other editor. I know there’s isn’t such a thing in renoise, but there is a discussion of this below, please join.
(b) Is there such a thing as a leader key or key combinations? A leader is a key which you can press to define the action of the next key. This is like the usual combination like <modifier>+<key>, except with <leader> <key>, you don’t have to hold the <leader> before pressing the <key>. The <leader> can be any key (like apostrophe), unlike a <modifier>. For example of usage, one could define and jump to position marks with ' <any letter>. Vi does it that way in normal and visual mode, allowing to place marks with m <letter>. And it many other things that way, like deletion, etc, even allowing to prepend commands such as 10 o (o stands for “open”) will insert 10 new lines below the cursor.
[SOLVED] Is there a function to “hard stop” all the sound? Currently, after you pause, the sound just continues till it fades away.
Would be glad to hear any insights.
EDIT #2: added #7, #8
EDIT #3: expanded on #7. marked #3 as solved: an action to bind to exists for that. marking #4 also as solved, though more suggestions are welcome. #8 solved (“stop twice”). #1 and #2 solved: should memorize this stuff.
The Instrument Editor has a keyboard at the bottom which shows the notes playing for the currently selected instrument. It’s possible to detach this section if you want to see this at the same time as the Pattern Editor.
5.Maybe this tool can help you but i suggest to always keep record mode on Noodletrap | Renoise
I guess I could if I keep some special track for recording, yes. But the pattern can’t be larger than 512 lines it seems, so, there will be looping. Is this a demo-version limitation? But it’s all a hassle anyway and if it’s possible to write a plugin, I will write the plugin. Will API allow such a thing, to create a seperate tab, where there’s basically a pattern sequencer w/ recording always on, and listens to the keys when not in focus? Even the 512 limitation wouldn’t matter there.
Will check out the tool.
Added a few questions to the op, btw, thought it better not to create a new topic.
Nice, thanks! Just a piece of text shown somewhere would be more succinct, though. Anywhere, really, even in the title if adding a textbox is troublesome. But I guess I will try to hack up the ScaleMate plugin to no-op the keys instead of redirecting them (I think this will help me memorize what keys various scales use), and then will just memorize the keyboard. This will be a better way to go.
I think you can change the keyboard mapping for this
You are right, it was the Pause/Continue (from cursor), thanks! #3 is solved.
question 4 5. AutoClone Pattern Auto Clone Patterns | Renoise
I use this when I want to just play around and record the notes for later (re)use. It will endlessly clone one or more patterns as you record.
Not sure if I am using it correctly, but I don’t see any changes in the pattern matrix while recording with playback running. AFAIU, a new pattern should be created and the current pattern should be cleared, but none of that happens. The tool is enabled. Renoise version is 3.2.1.
Sort of off-topic, but the idea of modes, which would allow the same key strokes to have different meanings, is grossly under-used in software (anecdotally speaking).
For example, it would be nice if while recording and using the PC keyboard, I could set the mode to CC, so that keys would enter change control info instead of notes.
I wonder if there’s a way to swap out entire keyboard shortcut settings while Renoise is running. If so this could maybe be done as a tool.
There is a plugin called Gtune, which I think is free, which will display whichever note is played in the track you put it on. You should really memorize this, though. It doesn’t take too long to do so.
I don’t understand this question.
Shift + space doesn’t take long to get used to; I don’t know any other solution.
When I do this, whether it’s on a guitar, a piano or on the Renoise keyboard, I just keep replaying the bit I like until I remember it. Renoise suck for this kind of thing, though, it has to be admitted.
I think the answer is a firm no.
No idea.
Press stop twice.
Edit gtune will even allow you to tune external instruments, if you use the line-in metadevice on the track.
5.Maybe this tool can help you but i suggest to always keep record mode on noodletrap
Checked it out, looks promising. But I can’t seem to be able to make it record anything when the tool’s window is not focused on. How did you make it work? And when multiple keys are played in succession (w/ the mouse focused on the tool’s window), sometimes a key will stick and keep playing (can be seen on the midi keyboard), do you get the same behavior? This only seems to happen with this tool.
There is a plugin called Gtune, which I think is free, which will display whichever note is played in the track you put it on. You should really memorize this, though. It doesn’t take too long to do so.
Thanks for the suggestion! Too bad it’s windows only : (
I don’t understand this question.
So, imagine that when you select a track, the notes which are used in it are highligted on this picture. The problem is that when I try to reproduce some track I recorded a while after the fact, I have to find these keys myself. But you are probably right, memorization is the way.
Shift + space doesn’t take long to get used to; I don’t know any other solution.
Surely, I could get used to it, but it’s all about comfort! It turns out there’s a mapping “Pause/Continue (from cursor)” in global/transport.
Did you select one or more patterns, over on the left? That determines what patterns get auto-cloned while recording.
After a fair bit of trial and error, I found that the little rectangle has to be clicked near the pattern number box, and not the box itself. Had no idea that was the selection. Yes, the pattern gets cloned alright now, but none of them ever get cleared.
PS I also can’t figure out how to make a pattern wrap around during playback (not necessarily while recording or step-by-step editing). Is there a button for that which I am not seeing?
Sort of off-topic, but the idea of modes, which would allow the same key strokes to have different meanings, is grossly under-used in software (anecdotally speaking).
For example, it would be nice if while recording and using the PC keyboard, I could set the mode to CC, so that keys would enter change control info instead of notes.
I wonder if there’s a way to swap out entire keyboard shortcut settings while Renoise is running. If so this could maybe be done as a tool.
This would be pretty slick. Navigating w/ tab + alt+tab + arrows and all those alt/control/shift+key stuff all feel like a major pain and unnecessary suffering, having some vi background and knowing that it can be different.
I could take a good use of navigation mode + play mode (to play notes on the keyboard). Transitions for me would probably look like:
navigation “p” → play
navigation “i” → play + record
play “escape” → navigation
Escape would be a no-op in navigation. Just thinking out loud here, but it feels this could work pretty well for me, having the whole keyboard cleared up in navigation to do anything I want.
Ideally, I imagine it like this:
There would be a list in preferences/keys, where one could choose/add a mode for any particular section (global, automation, etc.)
A set of empty keybindings should automatically be defined in every mode that allow switching to every other mode in the section.
[Optional] It should also be possible to programmatically control the context switch between modes, something like “if mode A1 in the previously focused section A was enabled and the focus has now switched to section B, enable mode B1.” Having an actual rule set instructing such transitions is better, but not essential.
If that won’t be done, updating a keybinding on the fly could allow for a working (but hacky) solution. Reloading the whole settings list and manually swapping the settings file on the disk on the fly could also work, but that sounds pretty atrocious even to me as someone who really wants this now : D
Cleared? The tool should be duplicating whatever is in those track patterns in the pattern selection. This way you can always hear what’s on the other tracks as you record new stuff.
Select one of more patterns (same as you select patterns for AutoClone)
