Advocating for native gamepad support in Renoise. Existing external methods have large drawbacks, while the ability to run Renoise on Raspberry Pi and Steam Deck makes the native solution highly desirable.
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I’ve had good results via ReWASD, but it’s commercial software and only supports specific devices.
Native gamepad support would actually be amazing for things like being able to map an analog stick to a XY Pad device. I can also see mapping a filter cut-off to a trigger and riding the trigger for more natural filter sweeps and effects.
So yes, much yes.
I have a lot of experience with this using puredata, maxmsp and other apps like Virtuasonic MIJOY + more.
My experience is mostly in a Windows environment and there are some considerations with any of these methods and apps, and there have been breaking issues over the years that are at the OS and driver level.
Typical issues involve:
- DirectInput vs XInput
- Older drivers for xb360 compatibility vs the newer xb1 drivers that affect how “games” vs “apps” detect the controller.
- Window focus problems with the host, standalone app or vst affecting whether data streaming from the controller is received or blocked, seemingly pertaining to OS level issues where it thinks you wouldn’t want to send input to a “game” that isn’t focused.
- Some combinations of controllers and drivers affect whether the triggers are a single unified control or two separate triggers
- I can see with the Ocean Swift app it still requires downloading and installing older xb360 drivers to support it, which many users might not have the skill level to understand. Xbox Midi Controller – Ocean Swift Synthesis
- The link to the old xb360 drivers is now dead.
- A fix for window focus and xb1 controllers is here. Install at your own risk! xb1usb.11059.0.140526x64.msi https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/lqb2x5/is_there_any_way_to_use_an_xbox_one_controller_on/
- (I’ll add more as I think of them)
Maybe there’s an OSC based solution that can be combined with an external cross-platform OSC background app and a Renoise tool?
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The Steam Deck obviously has more controls than a gamepad. I knew this, but when recording ad-lib you’ll inevitably say things that’re wrong.
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The main problem of this approach is related to the fact that the renoise interface does not quite correspond to such control. if you remember lsdj or m8, then all the software was originally built for such control. I like the idea itself, but there are doubts that the development team will go for such radical changes.
or if you consider it from the point of view of a live performance, then I would see it as something like that.
3 Likes
I thought it would be something relatively easy to implement, but seeing @protman s post, this looks like a hassle supporting. Can something be added to the lua api so scripters can take care of this?
and some emulator support for old games systems 
Could use the xyz axis to control midi ccs and assign to automation parameters.
I want some kind of api or environment in which you can not only control the instruments, but also create your own sequencer, which could be controlled from the gamepad. I do not know how possible it is now in lua, but it would be fun to have the tracker sequencer in the tracker.
Something similar the developer of Elektron did for ableton live
or as an option, you could rethink redux. and add a similar function to it, where it could be handled in the same way in other music applications.