The “secret” is to learn only the basics at the beginning and ignore everything else.
Shortcuts
You don’t need to know every shortcut there is when you’re getting started. I would suggest to learn the few shortcuts you need for a quicker editing only. Check these shortcuts.
At the beginning you’ll need these:
Play and Record
- Space: Start/Stop playing.
- Enter: Only play the line that the cursor is on (play step by step).
- Right Alt: Start playing and looping the current pattern.
- Right Ctrl: Start playing the song.
- Right Shift: Start playing the song with Edit Mode enabled.
- Escape: Toggle Edit Mode.
Cut/Copy/Paste
- Backspace: Delete all notes and Effect Commands at the current line in the track and scroll everything beneath the current line up.
- Insert: Insert clean row into track and push all notes and effects in current track down.
- Left Shift + F3: Cut current track.
- Left Shift + F4: Copy current track.
- Left Shift + F5: Paste current track.
- Left Ctrl + F3: Cut current pattern.
- Left Ctrl + F4: Copy current pattern.
- Left Ctrl + F5: Paste current pattern.
- Left Alt + F3: Cut current selection in pattern.
- Left Alt + F4: Copy current selection in pattern.
- Left Alt + F5: Paste current selection in pattern.
Pattern/Phrase Editor
- Arrow Keys: Navigate through the Pattern Editor.
- PageUp/PageDown: Move up/down in pattern.
- F9: Move cursor to line 0.
- F10: Move cursor 25% of the way down the pattern.
- F11: Move cursor to the centre of the pattern.
- F12: Move cursor 75% of the way down the pattern.
- Caps-Lock/A: Insert a Note-Off when Edit Mode is enabled.
Workflow
Once you’ve memorized the basic shortcuts and created a few things the workflow is getting better and better by itself. Using a tracker is way more intuitive than using a common DAW, you’ll experience it by yourself after a while. And you can also adapt Renoise to your preferred workflow by creating your own shortcuts, by changing the look of the DAW and so on. All you need to get there is a little amount of work and time.