Renoise Mutant Soundpacks -- Kicks, Drums, Percussion

Tips & Tricks
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(Originating thread: Renoise Mutant Sound and Processing Department)

Hello Everyone!

This is the first in a series of 12 threads that I’ll be starting this year to host collaborative renoise resources. This month, the “format” is percussion (you can view the planned “theme” for each month in the original topic linked above).

I am staying true to my word that I will be paying out $100 of bounty money to those who submit samples, instruments etc. There is no system for how that works so if someone submits 100 oneshot samples and another person makes a 32-channel cybernetic drum-machine submitted as a single xrni, I would say those could be potentially equivalent. The main idea with the money is that it’s just a little fun so maybe some of you have some beer money at the end of every month, it’s nothing super serious lol.

The main goal with this project is to produce renoise-native tools that are free, interesting, well thought out, and USABLE I ask that participants keep this, as the final and hosted selection may not include all entries.

To say more: entries (in whatever format) should use only native renoise processing and royalty-free samples – simple test: any entry, in whatever format, should load into a clean install of renoise and it works just like it’s supposed to. that said, nothing is wrong with using samples rendered from VST.

Original, self-generated samples are preferred, though if you have royalty-free samples to submit I would ask that you be judicious :wink: For this month (probably in general too), instruments are much preferred to samples, but if you’ve got some really cool one-shots then by all means share them.

Since this month is percussion, and there isn’t going to be a month dedicated to breaks, I would say that breaks are the one exception to this rule. That said, please don’t submit break-samples all by themselves – put them in an instrument and do some fun things with them!

I would greatly encourage any participants to submit early and with a large spread of submissions, for a couple reasons – one, in the name of collaboration, I would find it fun for others to tweak or give feedback to my instruments, and to be able to do the same, so that at the end of each month, we have a truly collaborative product. If you want to submit multiple “versions” of an entry, just let me know which one you would like to be the “definitive” one (if applicable).

I’m sure I’m missing something but just let me know your thoughts or questions and I can add it to the OP.

I’m looking forward to see what people are making!

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Here are few xrni’s that I pulled from songs. I plan to continue tweaking these and eventually add comments to the files, but here are some basic descriptions for now.

808_cymbal.xrni (121.7 KB)
decent 808-style cymbal generator – changing the noise pitch relative to the pulse-wave pitch changes the tone. The pulse-waves have a slight randomization to their pitch.

feedback_hihat.xrni (8.3 KB)
feedback_hihat2.xrni (12.2 KB)
A couple of “hihat” type instruments I made after watching @slujr 's video using delay → sfw → feedback

KickV0.3.xrni (171.2 KB)
A pretty cpu-intensive instrument that I use to generate kicks – I haven’t found a kick/808 sound yet that I can’t at least get close to using some combination of parameters with this xrni – I typically then render the sample for detailed tweaking. However, the Bass-gen knob will turn up a delay signal-path that can create fun melodic counterpoint against a boomy sub-setting, when using this instrument as is.

hihat_multiple.xrni (2.8 KB)
sample_multiple_template.xrni (2.1 KB)
These are the start of my attempt to make a one sample → many variations instrument. I enjoy writing trap-styled drums, and I wanted the possibility of having a more organic “suite” of samples, especially for hats. Basically, each octave is a different “variation” (achived by different modulation sets). I’ve been trying to think of how to accomplish this without duplicating the samples, but I’m not sure if there’s a way (at least in the form of a renoise instrument). If anyone can see what I’m after here and has any suggestions, let me know!

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cool stuff. I especially like the cymbal generator and KickV0.3

I wasn’t getting any sound out of the last two instruments. had you intended to post them without samples loaded?

will post some instruments here soon :metal:

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Oh hell yes! This shit is really happening! Let’s go! :w00t:

I’m gonna cook up some drum machines for this months submission. Got plenty of ideas for those. :drummer:

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PSY KICK 4.xrni (4.0 KB)

Tight, punchy psy-style kick drum generator. Good for tight, dark style kicks, rounder/softer prog kicks, or add some distortion for a passable 808 style bass kick.

Very simple, just using a single cycle pitch bend sine wave with macros assigned for sound tweaking. Multiband compression set up in the fx chains, which is bypassed by default. Turn off the BYPASS device if you want the multiband compression.

Key tracking should be true to pitch, depending on your pitch dive envelope, so this is useful if you want a tuned kick if you’re working harmonically.

Macros should be pretty self explanatory, the first three control the pitch dive envelope, the next two control the amplitude envelope, and the last three control LP filter characteristics

Once I’ve dialed in settings and have the kick at a pitch/key I like, I almost always resample for consistent timing and clean low end :slight_smile:

HAT GEN 4.xrni (82.0 KB)

Closed and Open HiHat generator, based on filtered white noise with an optional comb filter added for more metallic/tunable harmonic content. Tweak macros to your liking, then I will usually resample both a closed and an open version for cohesive hat sounds that work well together. A fairly neutral, synthetic hat sound with not a lot of character, but good for a basic rhythm element that can let other percussive elements shine through in the mix

SNARE GEN 4.xrni (85.0 KB)

Harmonically tunable snare drum generator good for a variety of synthetic snare sounds. You can get neutral noise snares, clonky dubstep style harmonic snares, and other sounds in between. Sine body, filtered white noise tail, and a fractal sine transient for added pop if you want it. Multiband compression, distortion, and Haas effect in the mids and highs in the fx section if you disable the BYPASS device. There is also a shelving unit for low and high cuts. Again, I usually get a sound I like through macros, tweak the fx section and resample for a consistent sound.

TWEAKY DRUM v2 AUTOGEN.xrni (144.9 KB)

Auto generating tweaky drum for all manner of lofi auxiliary percussion. Write a note, resample, chop, render slices, ???, profit

roboperx2 GEN.xrni (21.2 KB)

Karplus Strong type percussion generator with adjustable pitch macro and feedback control. Similar to tweaky drum in use, but a totally different, more harmonic character. Some nice sounds, to my ear at least :slight_smile:

more later…

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A variation on the HAT GEN 4 - replaced comb-filtering with the Lofi module - lots of crunchier tones, or beautiful lofi clicks/pops.

Lofi Click Hat.xrni (523.7 KB)

Replaced the noise sample with a pink noise instead of white. Add in some more harmonic samples alongside the noise if you want to hear a bit more of the Lofi module’s bit reduction graininess.

Also a variation on the 808 cymbal above, different type of waveform, still very metallic.

Fake 808 Hats.xrni (413.8 KB)

Not looking for any kind of anything - just want to share my variations of the above tools.

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amen break generator v1.xrni (295.5 KB)

a generative beatsynced breakbeat generator. Sounds best between 120-200 bpm.

how to use:
place a c-4 note in the pattern editor, render several patterns worth, cherry pick the best bits to slice, now you have new amen breakz :grin:

some slight compression in the fx section to give a little more punch, but otherwise minimally processed

a brief example of the output at 140 bpm:

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Wow, lots of interesting stuff here! :exploding_head:

I got something cooking too, but I’m super busy. I’m going to get back to Renoising in a day or two.

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belly dancer.xrni (1.9 MB)

minimally multisampled doumbek (I played and recorded) with 4 traditional bellydance rhythms and variations in keymapped phrases beginning at c-3, single hits and flams beginning at c-4

a decent enough sounding doumbek for fills and good for adding a little world percussion spice to your 4 on the floor

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Any new submissions will always be welcome, but I’m going to extend the period of entry elligible for the payout for another week, since I started the thread late. I’ve also got another couple of kits that I’m still procrastinating on finishing :wink:

I did however start the March / Bass thread today. Thanks all, and take care!

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My last minute contributions. A lot of stuff still on my to-do list, so I’m going to add/upgrade stuff here later. Been really busy lately. I got 15 instruments, 3 FX chains and a little under thousand samples. My FX chains will probably need some documentation, especially the transient EQ thing might be a bit difficult to understand without a tutorial (you need two parallel channels to use it). I’m gonna try to get to that ASAP.

The samples are mostly percussive foley chops, but I did record and process couple of drum machines too, and some hits from a children’s djembe and a LARGE frame drum. Recorded the frame drum and a bunch of other sounds on my binaural DIY setup. I’ll make instruments out of the djembe and frame drum later, and maybe some other stuff too. Feel free to put any of the samples to your own contribution instruments to give them a fresh spin! Let’s make this a community thing!

Some instruments still need some more work and organisation, and I got some ideas I haven’t yet put together. But this is what I got so far, going to update/add some stuff once I got some time for it. I figured it’s better to share the WIP instruments too, since they might spark ideas for other people. Especially the “polyrhythm” instruments could use some fresh perspectives and maybe new sounds.

I got everything in my dropbox since I don’t know how the forum handles large folders (samples). I’ll update this post later with direct downloads for everything (except samples?).

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Yeehaw!

Thank you everyone for your entries! I’ll be reaching out to you all about payment methods

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this is fucking brilliant. Want to make sure I understand what’s going on here (in case I want to apply to other things):

  • The slices are bits of the amen break, carefully selected/sliced to incorporate pieces of the break.
  • Each slice is beatsynced appropriately (eg some are synced to 24, some 16) - this is why you can change tempo and it all still works.Can you explain how you determined what beatsync value to use here for any particular slice?
  • For the phrase, each time it runs through the 16 lines the Y00 at the end randomly selects one of the slices. Is there a reason you use Y10 next to each note?

THANK YOU

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I’m away from my studio today, so this is to the best of my recollection…

The beatsync values correspond to the proportional number of beats/16th notes in each slice. So, 16 should be 4/16ths; 20 would be 5/16ths, and so on.

The Y10 may in fact be extraneous with the Y00 on the end of each line, but I usually include an even weighting by default. You could change the probability of any given slice triggering by changing the Y values associated with each note. Which can be very useful in many instances of generative music!

Glad you dig :metal:

And yes, this method could be applied to pretty much any source material, rhythmic or melodic, and often yields really cool results I’d have never consciously chosen to realize

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Fannnnnntastic. Thanks for taking the time to explain!

Yeah, this is awesome - definitely lit some creative fires. Appreciate it! :pray:

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Dope. Love to hear what you come up with using this method!

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Ok, not much, but was able to apply the theory of the Amen Break generator to Hot Pants. Just to try and get my head around the correct sync I beatsynced the original to the song tempo but realizing it’d be better to start off w/ the song at break tempo and then apply slices etc.

Anyway, just wanted to make sure I gave back. When I make more progress/make others I’ll post here.
Hot Pants Generator.xrni (998.1 KB)

LMK is any issues

Oh, also @SimulatedZen def would love some documentation on your stuff - particularly the FX (I tried to figure out the one with the repeater but couldn’t make heads or tails). TY for sharing!

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Ooh, cool. psyched to check this out. it would be fun to craft a library of native, classic breakbeat generators. would make renoise even more of an obvious choice for breaks-based music

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Yep, some documentation would be appropriate. While looking at my FX sequencing chains today, I actually noticed one slight mistake I made on one of the formula devices routing, so here’s the updated version:

SimulatedXen - FX sequencer (repeater version).xrnt (175.9 KB)

So this FX chain is basically made for the easiest possible sequencing of effects. It functions by having a set of modulation devices that turn effects on and off one at a time. At the heart of it is a key tracker device, which is routed to multiple formula devices in a way that allows mapping one note per FX device. So in essence, every note between C#0 and A#1 turns on a single FX device, which in this case are all repeaters with different divisions (aka, one division/mode combination per note). The basic idea is that with this chain you can either “play” your effects live, or easily sequence them with notes straight in the pattern editor (without cumbersome right clicks on effect devices/automation etc). The repeater versions of this chain are configured in a way that C0, and any note above A#1 bypass all effects.

I recommend using a separate “dummy” instrument for sequencing, and maybe moving the key tracker device named “-> INPUT <-” to a separate track dedicated only to the effect sequencing, otherwise any other notes you put on the track might interfere with your effect sequencing. You could also turn the key trackers’ range to the “soft” mode if you don’t want to move it to another track. That way any note above B1 is simply ignored. Also note that if you decide to play your effects “live” via midi/keyboard input, you can turn on the quantisation in the instrument tab, so that every new effect is triggered in a quantized timing.

The formula devices are named with the notes that makes them send out a value of 1. This allows you to easily map specific notes (via mapping the modulation target of the formula devices) to the effects of your liking.

And this idea obviously doesn’t work with just repeaters, they just made this idea very usable with drums and other percussion stuff. Here’s a version without the repeaters, so you can hook the formula devices to any effects/doofers of your liking:
SimulatedXen - FX sequencer.xrnt (64.5 KB)

And then there is this generative version of the same idea:
SimulatedXen - Generative FX sequencer (repeater version).xrnt (191.9 KB)
SimulatedXen - Generative FX sequencer.xrnt (75.4 KB)

The generative version is basically exactly the same idea, and functions exactly the same, with one key difference: any note between C#0 and A#1 turns on a RANDOM effect mapped to one of the formula devices in the chain. So essentially, when the key tracker device called “-> INPUT <-” receives a note between C#0 and A#1, it makes a random formula device send out a 1, which then in turn can activate one effect device hooked up to the formulas. The bypasses work the same. So the generative version can basically be played/sequenced with just two notes, e.g. C0 (=bypass) and C#0 (=select a random effect).

One final thing to notice about this technique is that this is completely “mono” in the sense that you can turn on only one effect at a time. AFAICT the most recently played note is always the defining one. This is a limitation of Renoise. It could theoretically be circumvented with separate key trackers on separate tracks, but I think that would sort of defeat the purpose and just make things more complicated for no real benefit. Another way to beat this limitation is to just render your output and resample it again through the chain.

Hope this helps! If you have any question, hit me up! :heart: :alien: :heart:

The transient EQ thing is a bit more complicated, I’ll make a video or a pdf to explain how to use it. It’s basically a way to crudely separate a sound into to two dynamic layers which makes it possible to process them separately. It’s kinda hacky to set up and needs two channels with identical audio input, but it is nevertheless an interesting idea and I’ve managed to get some very useful results out of it with drum breaks etc. I’ll try to make some sort of an explanation of it during this week.

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Fantastic, and thank you. It took me a couple of read-throughs but got it/got this up and running last night. Really appreciate you uploading the empty/unhooked version, going to have a lot of fun playing with hooking up different effects and playing around.

In some ways, this kind of functions like a stutter-edit (or, perhaps, Artillery) but natively in Renoise. I know people tend to slag off stutter edit but, personally, it’s one of my favorite effects (particularly v1, because you could control the buffer position with modwheel). I love the ability to use keys (or program notes) to quick turn on/off effects. It’s funny/synchronistic - been trying to bend my brain around how to do this in Renoise recently - I know you can achieve the same effect (programmatically) by putting a effect on a chain and then programming note on/offs - but (to me at any rate) it always feels so much more organic if you can “play effects” in w/ some tweaks afterwards.

Anyway, all to say this is SUPER FUCKING AWESOME and really appreciate you sharing!

Look forward to the transient EQ info too, thanks for that too!

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