Renoise 2.0 - New Features Faqs

Help, Support & Bugs
1

### FAQ: Automatic Plugin Delay Compensation (PDC) In Renoise ###

As noted in the release announcement, Renoise now fully and automatically compensates latencies which are caused by either plugin FX, instruments or Renoises internal FX. There is no configuration needed, except that you can turn PDC On/Off globally (next to the VU meter, or in the audio preferences tab). Whatever routing you use in Renoise (sends, routing to external sound-card channels), it will “just work” automatically. Latencies from rendering and sample FX processing will also be fixed. Meters (Track scopes and the mixers meters) are compensated/synced as well.

Why are there latencies with some FX? Depending on the type of FX, sometimes latencies can’t be avoided. For example many compressors have a very small latency for look ahead signals. Other FX like FFT filters and some reverbs process the sound with latency because of their algorithms. Finally some hardware FX cards which offer VST interfaces also add latencies, as the signals have to be routed to the hardware and back which takes a bit of time.

Why do you need PDC? Even if you are not using plugins, the small latencies from Renoise’s built-in FX (Compressors, Gate) are important to compensate and control when it comes to subtile things like the “groove” of a song.

How does it work? Latencies can only be compensated by “shifting” the other signal paths that are not affected by the FX latency (other tracks). Shifted by such an amount that the final latency of all signal paths “match”. So if you are using lots of plugins with high latencies you might notice a small “lag” in the whole song - an extra delay in everything you do in Renoise (for example Recording). To make recording easier you can temporarily disable PDC, record your stuff, then enable it again.

What does not work? Renoise can only fix latencies if the plugin correctly reports it. So if you notice a delay where none should be, try to find out which plugin causes the delay. Please note that bypassing an FX will NOT bypass the delay. You have to remove/delete the plugin to test this. Renoise will delay inactive (bypassed) FX to keep the overall compensation in sync when, for example, DSP bypassing is automated.

If you find a plugin which does not report the correct latency, please report the problem to the author of the plugin. We can not and will not add workarounds for buggy plugins. The authors of the plugs have to fix this.

Analyzing what PDC does: You can see how much delay an FX Instrument causes by hovering over the “?” button on the plugin in Renoise. Also in Renoise’s “View” menu you’ll find the option “Show PDC info”. This will give you a list of which FX/Instrument cause which delay and which delays Renoise compensates. This option will be removed in the final release.

There’s also a hidden internal FX to test PDC in Renoise. Copy the XML data below into the clipboard (Control/Command + C), then activate Renoise and right click somewhere in the free space of the Track FX chain. There, choose “Paste device”. This will add an internal test FX which does nothing more than add adjustable latency, so you can see how Renoise compensates the audio tracks for yourself…

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>  
<filterdeviceclipboard doc_version="0"><br>
  <deviceslot type="PdcTestDelayDevice"><br>
	<isactive>true</isactive><br>
  </deviceslot><br>
</filterdeviceclipboard>
2

### FAQ: Lines Per Beat (LPB), Ticks Per Line (TPL) And Note Delays ###

What is speed and why was it removed?

“Speed” used to change various timing related things in older versions of Renoise / other defunct trackers. Basically a line used to be divided into “ticks”. How many ticks you got per line was defined by “Speed”. For example, when you used Speed 3 you could not use retriggers or Note Delay FX higher than 2 (because there were only 3 ticks). So the “lines” scrolled faster, but at the cost of line resolution. Speed changed the duration of a line, while keeping the duration of a “tick” constant.

Now there are separate Lines Per Beat (LPB) and Ticks Per Line (TPL) which is much more “natural”.

Forget the ticks for now and just take a look at what LPB means: You define how many lines in a Renoise pattern make up a musical beat. For example, if you place a Basedrum kick on every 4 lines then you would set a LPB of 4, or on every 8 Lines then thats a LPB of 8. With LPB you let Renoise know how it has to treat a “line”. This is especially important when you want your plugins (which only know beats, not “lines”) to run in sync with the rest of the song. Same goes for the MIDI clock.

Now to the TPL. Ticks Per Line can finally be adjusted independently from the Lines Per Beat (i.e. how fast the pattern scrolls). This means that if you used to use Speed 3, you can now setup an LPB factor of 8, to make it scroll “fast”, and still have up to 16 ticks to control your tracker FX like retriggers, note delays/cuts, and so on.

The default TPL is 12 because that makes the most sense musically (12 can be divided by 4,3 and 2). You are of course free to change it to whatever you want.

This means there are still “Ticks” in Renoise, but only so you can use your beloved tracker FX like retriggers and so on. Internally ticks are no longer the Engine’s timing resolution, which leads us to the next topic:

Note Delays:

Besides having new LPB and TPL settings, which vastly improve note resolutions, you can now tweak everything with an extra delay setting. This is done via a new “delay” column, which has a fixed resolution of 256 (100h) “sublines”. So if you want to trigger a note exactly between two lines, you can now simply write:

  
Note, Instr, Vol, Pan, Delay, FX   
C-4 01 .. .. 80 ----

If you want to place two notes between one line, you can use multiple columns:

  
Note, Instr, Vol, Pan, Delay, FX  
C-4 01 .. .. 40 ---- | C-4 01 .. .. A0 ----

Everything left to the delay values will result in a delay. So you can delay all FX in note columns (like retriggers, vol, pan slides changes and so on):

  
Note, Instr, Vol, Pan, Delay, FX  
C-4 01 .. E2 40 ---- -> delays C-4 AND the retrigger FX  
C-4 01 .. D2 40 ---- -> delays C-4 AND the tick delay FX as well!  
--- .. 10 .. 40 ---- -> delays the volume change

Same goes for MIDI related commands like Pitchbend, CCs and Channel Pressure:

  
Note, Instr, Vol, Pan, Delay, FX  
--- 01 .. C0 40 0710 -> send a MIDI CC number 07h with a value of 10h to instrument 01 by 40 sublines delayed

Also note that commands that are applied right to the note columns will not be affected by the delays, so

  
Note, Instr, Vol, Pan, Delay, FX  
C-4 01 .. .. 40 0110 -> will only pitch the C-4 by a "fraction" of 0110 - will NOT delay the 0110 (pitch up) command!

Usage of the new delays & Future plans:

In tandem with the new LPB settings, this means you can now place/humanize notes in a resolution that has never been possible before. But this is only the beginning: Future versions of Renoise will allow you to “zoom into a line” and directly place notes in this 256 subline grid. So you will be able to, for example, program retriggers manually with volume/pan changes, zoom in, edit them, zoom out again and continue at the resolution you where before.

When doing live recording (with the computer keyboard or your MIDI masterkeyboard) Renoise will automatically use the delay column to place recorded notes as precisely as possible (to play them back exactly as you recorded them). If you dont want this you can set up a realtime quantization amount in the Transport pane (look for the button labled “Q”). Or, you can use the new Advanced Edit quantize section. There are also on the fly quantize shortcuts for selections, tracks, and columns. Right click on the pattern editor for the context menu and take a look in the sections track/column/selection. There you will see some quantize commands together with their default keyboard shortcut assignments.

Backwards compatibility:

Speed and LPB/TPL are not compatible, so if you load up an old song you will get the old Speed settings. If you want to use the new settings on an old song, go to the Song Properties pane and hit “Upgrade”. This will !try! to automatically upgrade the song but in many cases will not sound exactly as before. Use this feature wisely, preferably only on songs which you you plan on finishing with the new version.

3

### FAQ: New Sample FX (pitch/glide and others) Behavior ###

In newly started Lines Per Beat “LPB” songs (old songs will NOT use the new behavior for backwards compatibility reasons) some sample FX will behave differently than before. We’ve done this to make things easier to use and understand.

Here is what has changed in detail:

  
+ Volume/Pan slides will slide up/down by 1/256 of the full volume PER LINE  
 (so you can choose whatever TPL you want/need)  
  
+ Volume/Pan slides in the column (via 9X, AX) will slide up/dow by 1/16 of  
 the full volume PER LINE  
  
+ Pitch/Glide slides will slide up/down by 1/16 half-notes PER LINE  
 (so 0110 will pitch up by a half-note, 0150 by 5 - easy, isn't it?)  
  
+ 0 value Volume/Pan slides in the columns (via 9X, AX) will repeat the   
 last non 0 values as you know it form the FX commands  
  
+ The panning command to send MIDI CC or program changes, changed from 90   
 in the panning column to C0 in the panning column  
  
All those tick effects are applied on the second tick first, so the initial  
volume/pan/pitch does not change on the line. One exception though:  
A TPL of 1 will nevertheless do, as the FX would have no effect at all...  
  
+ When using New Note Actions other than Cut on instruments:  
  
 Glide/Pitch/Vibrato FX used to be applied to sustained notes which are  
 triggered by NNAs. This behavior changed as well: Now only Notes which you   
 "see" (not the hidden NNA notes) will be affected by the Sample FX.
4

### FAQ: Monophonic And Polyphonic Aftertouch In Renoise 2.0 ###

If you are using a MIDI master keyboard which sends aftertouch, Renoise will automatically record it for you when live jamming something into the pattern. If you don’t want that you can disable it in the MIDI preferences.

To play Channel Aftertouch (also called Channel Pressure), use the MIDI pan value C3:

  
Note, Instr. Vol, Pan, FX  
--- 01 .. C3 0060 -> sends pressure of 60h to instrument 01

Important: You need to specify an instrument, otherwise Renoise won’t know where to send the MIDI data.

To play Polyphonic Aftertouch, use the volume column with no note:

  
Note, Instr. Vol, Pan, FX  
C-4 01 .. .. ---- | G-4 01 .. .. ----  
--- .. .. .. ---- | --- .. .. .. ----  
--- .. 10 .. ---- | --- .. 20 .. ---- -> sends AT 10h to instr. 01, Note C-4 and 20h to G-4  
OFF .. .. .. ---- | OFF .. .. .. ----

IMPORTANT: Poliphonic aftertouch will (because of backwards compatibility reasons) only work in newly started Renoise 2.0 songs (in songs where you are using LPB instead of Speed)! You can “upgrade” your songs in the Song Properties panel though…

Aftertouch will only work with MIDI gear and VSTis that support it. For example, plugins like Albino and Kontakt support Polyphonic Aftertouch, but otherwise it’s rarely supported. In contrast, Monophonic Aftertouch is widely supported…

5

### FAQ: Channel Routing For VSTi/AUs & Sending Notes To VST/AU Fx ###

Renoise 2.0 adds support for two important VST (Audio Unit) features:

Multi Output VST/AU instruments

If you have (for example) a VSTi sampler which offers more than one stereo output, you will see a new button named “Setup Routing” in the VSTi/AU instrument properties panel. With it, you can enable/disable channels (only the first stereo pair is enabled by default for performance and backwards compatibility reasons) and adjust the channel routing to Renoise tracks.

Obviously, the first thing you have to do is to enable the channels. Then you can route (hardwire) specific channels from the VST/AU to specific tracks in Renoise. This way you can play and process a Basedrum on one Track, a Snare on another Track, etc - This allows you to apply different FX for different sounds from one VSTi/AU.

Please note that VSTis/AU channel configuration info cannot be updated in realtime. This is a limitation of the VST protocol. Many VSTs offer channel configurations in their preferences, or offer multiple VST dlls for multiple channel configurations. So after changing the channel setup you have to reload the VSTis (simply reload the song in Renoise to do so). Do it once for every plugin before starting to use the multiple channels. If you change the setup afterwards, Renoise might not be able to correctly assign the channels in old song.

How to trigger different sounds on different channels?

How this is handled is totally up to the VST/AU you are using. Often you can layer new sounds by using a different MIDI channel. You can do so in Renoise by creating a VSTi/Au instrument alias. See http://tutorials.renoise.com/Renoise/UsingVST (Using a VST Instrument Alias through channelling) for more info about this.

Sending Notes to Track FX VSTs/AUs

Some FX support note or controller input but don’t show up as instruments in older versions of Renoise. In Renoise 2.0 you can send Notes or any other MIDI messages to any existing FX by creating an FX alias in the VSTi/AU instrument properties panel.

To do so, add a FX which supports Note Input into any track. Then choose a free instrument slot in Renoise, click on the device chooser in the Instrument panel and select the FX Alias node. There you will find your FX (if it supports note/MIDI input!). Then simply place notes / play / record this instrument on any track you like (you dont have to put the notes on the track the FX was added to).

You can now also send for example MIDI CCs to this FX by adding a *MIDI-CC Device" which is linked to the FX alias instrument. Another usage is to send program changes to FX via the MIDI commands in the pattern editor…

Please note: Some FX may show up in the FX alias section even if they do not support note inputs. This usually means that they only support automation of their parameters via MIDI Controller Change commands. Please refer to your plugin manual/tutorials to find out if/how the FX supports this feature…