Renoise Multitrack Recorder (Realtime Session Recording)

Ideas & suggestions
1

After discussing about possibility to create a tool for realtime multitrack recorder here, danoise told me that the idea was already on his mind, but it seems it is not so easy to create this as a tool for Renoise and itll have it own downsides, making this tool not for everyone and not so easy to handle. Also im very very lazy what comes to programming and coding, so i found another one tricky solution.

You`ll ask, what for is it? For many reasons, i dont like automatizations, arranging and preprogrammed (for sure i preprogram some patterns, fx and shit) stuff like this, i like mix and perform my music by hands in realtime (the famous “hands-on-desk” method, think dub music style for example) using controllers or just typical pc keyboard and mouse.
So i did this thing, i tested it mins ago, loaded up multitrack wavs to Reaper, everything is there, all works )

I think most of users here heard of brilliant vst plugin called Recorder by Voxengo (available only for PC, i asked Voxengo if there is a Mac version coming, and they told me its not coming soon, i hope asap), so we can just place this plugin on every channel in Renoise at the end of the chain and here we go! )

But this is not working out of the box.

So i`ve prepared some explanation how to handle this trick. This is not a tool, its just an *.xrns song where you can see how it works and simply apply this to your projects.

The first of all:

How to do it yourself:

  • Place the Voxengo Recorder on every channel you want to record
    (If you want to record aux/bus channels too, always place recorder plugin before Send device!).
  • The sync trick. You need to create a pattern before your song starts (any length you want). In fx column you must set all your voxengo recorder plugins to OFF on all channels by typing “xFxx” command (see picture). Go to the end of this pattern and set all recorder plugins to ON on all channels by typing the same “xFxx” command (see picture again). Now ill explain how this plugin works, when plugin is bypassed (OFF) and you pressing start (to record) (and even if your song is playing) nothing happens. It starting to record only if its ON (not bypassed). Next you must open all your recorder plugins manually one-by-one, set the "out file" and bit depth settings and other parameters if you need to for each opened plugin and press start (be sure the plugins bypassed!). Yes, if you have from 16 to 64 tracks it can be a pain-in-the-ass, but i see no solution right now to automate this thing with just one button or a shortcut or a tool and yes, the start button in voxengo recorder isnt automatible too (if someone can make a solution for this, itll be great!).
  • Hit play! Voxengo Recorder plugins start to record all your track separately!
  • When your song is finished and stopped, once again open all your Recorder plugins and press STOP button.
  • Go to your favorite “horizontal” DAW and throw all your wavs in it on separate tracks. The only thing left is to fix silence at the start/end of the wav files.
  • Finally you have your project as a wav multitrack!

I didnt tested this trick on big projects yet, so if your song have lotsa channels and you record in 24 bit, i think u`ll need a fast HD (high RPMs, hi-speed bus, SSD disks and shit like this).

Also i dont know how this trick will work on tracks which have lotsa fx plugins with small/big latencies. So its up 2 u to check it out.

Any comments, advices and ideas how to ease up this trick are welcome!

Thank you )

2

[s]If you have a registered copy, you don’t need to go through all that pain:

[/s]Forget that i said that, this ofcourse won’t work for live alterations :(
But if you just want to bounce the tracks and then manipulate them live in another DAW, Voxengo is overkill.[s]

[/s]One other thing:in your last option you only suggest to remove the silences off each track. In that case, why not simply add a voxengo recorder on the master track and bounce it through the master?

3

It was very late here in Moscow and i was playing Quake Live while this idea appeared in my head, so may be i wrote this manual not all so easy to understand, so sorry vV. Yes, this trick is for Realtime Multitrack Recording (live alterations as u said). So it has nothing to do with offline rendering.

2 Admin> Please can you change topic title to Renoise Realtime Multitrack Recorder?

p.s. And yes, i have a reged copy of Renoise, for sure )

4

Session recorder actually should say enough, but can easily become unpercepted. Made a minor alteration to the topic title.

5

I admire your effort Atarix, thinking, setting this up, circumventing Renoise limitations, though it looks like to much work for me :) … will try it with two tracks first.

6

Thanks mate!

Already tried this with 8 channels. It was 16 bit recording, on a 5400 rpm 2.5inch HD. Works fine.

p.s. Also you can use Voxengo recorder to write not to file but memory. I think this can help too (i didnt tried this myself yet).

7

[/s]One other thing:in your last option you only suggest to remove the silences off each track. In that case, why not simply add a voxengo recorder on the master track and bounce it through the master?
[/quote]

Dont get you here, sorry. What for?

p.s. There is a recorder already on master channel too for mixing it with other tracks a little.

8

i have said this before in another thread but there’s an easier way to do realtime-multichannel recordings that are all synced. instead of using the Voxengo Recorder there’s a plugin called Silverspike TapeIt 2 that can do syncronized recordings out of the box. so there’s no need to deal with pattern commands like atarix explaines, just put one instance on every track you want to record, set all the recorders to sync to midi start-stop and record-ready, press play in renoise and every recording starts/ends at the same time. easy.

only downside is the plugin’s not freeware. costs 19$, which i still think is fair though, considering how simple it is to use. i also work exclusively by jamming live, so rendering has never been an option and using freeware recorders and having to deal with pattern commands and stuff to make that work is to clumsy for me. when i feel a song is right i just want to start jamming as fast as possible and not having to prepare for it for half an hour…

it’s still not ideal cos it needs preparation too but much less (p.s. some functions of tapeit2 can be set for all instances at once by clicking ALT).

nevertheless it’s good that there’s a freeware way of doing these kind of recordings too so thanks for setting up this guide atarix!

9

I`ll take a look for this, thanks mate.

10

You don’t mention mixdown in the other DAW:

If you are not going to mix your tracks and blantly output to wave, it is just as simple to bounce the whole bunch to one output on the master-track from Renoise.