Renoise seems to be what I was always looking for, without knowing

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Hey all ! sorry for this kind of “listen to my life” post, but I’ve been reading Renoise forums for a few days now and it brought back some memories from my younger days.

I didn’t find an Introduction section or topic so this post will also contain some context about me.

First of all, even though I speak about my younger days, I’m only 26, but started music production when I was around 12, spending most of my times between my DAW (ableton live / logic at the time) and some french forums about music production.
I mostly produce electronic music, but I explored different kind of sounds over that time, mostly club-oriented: electro-trash, fidget-house, house, hip-hop, techno, rave, trance, breakbeat, drum n bass, minimal… I may forgot some. (I had different alias depending on the period, maybe some soundcloud/beatport/itunes links are still out there)

Growing up, I became a Software Engineer and, spending already a lot of time on my computer for work, stopped music production slowly.

Every now and then, I felt like I had to start again and tried, but it didn’t last long for different reasons: with all that time without producing anything, I lost my habits and I feel my level is a bit lower than it used to on some points, and have to re-learn basic features of my DAWs.

My last attempt at getting back at music production was focused on breaks music with techno sonorities and a touch of idm, but was a failed attempt because I felt pretty limited with drum programming. Actually not limited, but it took ages and what not that enjoyable.

A few days ago, I bought a new laptop and decided it could be time to start doing some music production again. For the reasons above, I wanted to try out Renoise, mostly to make my drum programming process more enjoyable since this is one of my favorite parts of the electronic music I listen to and can add a lot. The first few hours, I understood nothing and could barely place a note on the grid, when reading the forum, I understood nothing about vocabulary. I almost gave up, but decided to watch the beginner tutorial series of the youtube channel, which are amazing!

When I finally felt I grasped the feel of Renoise, I realized that this workflow what was I was always looking for, but without knowing it: with classic DAWs, I was stuck in some kind of “way to do”, really really conventional, even though it’s been years I’ve been looking to leave this aspect of my music to go to a more rough and natural form art, putting some of the “codes” in the trash.
With renoise, I finally feel that I can focus on what I like the most, and make what I used to find boring in my production process enjoyable, so I bought it after 1 day of experimentations, and it’s been 2 days I’ve been working on different ideas.

I now have a pretty advanced track ongoing, and hope that Renoise will also help me finish tracks, since I was always bored with adding details, but I feel it will be different now !

Also, it happens often in my life that I focus a lot on something I like for a few weeks and then leave it forever. It happens a lot with music production, so we’ll see if Renoise will finally make me stick to it again, and meet back with my passion…

Sorry for that long message, you can take it both as some love toward renoise, and my introduction post to this beautiful community.

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Hello, welcome.
not only can you create music, sounds or whatever you want,
but you can also program :slight_smile:

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Oh right, didn’t really dive into it, only installed 3 tools I used, I may looking into the scripting part as well but maybe only once I feel I’m 100% efficient with the creative process.
To be honest, I’m not even sure I completely understand what we can actually program, is this only some “tools”, i.e some kind of helpers for the creative process ?

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you can program everything the API allows you to do.

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Welcome!

Here you go.

I’m sure about that. There’s no easier and faster way to produce drum beats (your favorite part) than using a tracker. And Renoise combines a tracker workflow and modern possibilities (like using VSTs).

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An update after a few months. (kind of exposing my life, but still, maybe this will help people with same issues as me)
My Renoise hype didn’t last long, I stopped making music after one track and a second one almost finished, that I couldn’t finish…
This made me question why, and I realized it might be because the only times I like producing is during the night (I mean, the real night, I usually get to sleep between 2 and 4 am, but I like producing between 3 and … never stop). I actually like producing all night, then go take a walk listening to some music (my tracks taking notes, or other music to clear my head, depends).
This got confirmed, I just took some holiday, without having anything to do or move, just to make music and it worked ! I finally got to make music again, and hope to finish a few tracks during that break.
Anyway, even if I finish nothing, I spend quality time making music alone at night :smiley:

So… the Renoise hype is not over yet !!

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Just wait until you have passed 40…

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Haha, right?!
I still end up producing at 4 or 5 in the morning, but that’s after falling asleep at 9:30, lol :sleeping:

But seriously, morning production works best for me these days. I have the most cognitive firepower available in the morning, and creativity comes more effortlessly then

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Absolutely. 44 now, up at 3 AM to drink my coffee and surf the 'net. I often get to making music in the AM because my mind is not garbled with the day’s thoughts yet.

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I wonder how you guys manage to produce at night or even in the morning and to work at day, provided that you’ve got a normal job. Even me as someone who doesn’t have a normal job (self-employed) cannot manage this anymore. A couple of years ago between 4 AM and 5 AM was common (on holidays even between 6 AM and 8 AM). Since 2 years my body usually wants me to go to bed at 2 AM at the latest. I don’t need much sleep, 5 hours is enough. The problem is that you can’t force creativity, and creativity usually appears at night, at least in my case. So I mostly produce in the evening. There’s no other option.

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I must admit, I wonder if the tiredness from those sleepness nights helps.
If I go to bed early and wake up earlier, pretty sure it won’t work the same.

To answer you @TNT, I manage to produce during the night since I have the opportunity to wake up kind of late for my day job.
Anyway, when I’m working and I know I have to wake up the next morning (no matter the time) I feel my creativity is limited, dunno how to explain it

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I would say “unfinished business”. If there’s unfinished business what bothers you, your mind isn’t free, and if your mind isn’t free your creativity is limited or even completely gone. But if you’ve got sorrow and/or problems it might be even good for your creativity. I know exactly what I’m talking about. That’s what I’m facing every single day.

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