RenoiseRE (Rack Extension)

This suggestion will probably get shot down very quickly, but here goes…
I’m having wet dreams of a stripped down version of Renoise for the Reason rack. It should have all the main features as the full version, including native DSPs and synths, but without VST and midi capabilities. It would act as a hybrid Matrix (pattern sequencer) on steroids, sampler/Redrum/Dr.Rex/Recycle-unit.

When you flip it around you’d find several audio ins/outs, aswell as several CVs ins/outs to hook up and control other Reason-units.

I’m thinking the Renoise RE should cost something like 30-40 dollars/euros (or 100 for both the RE and the full program), I’d even gladly pay the same as the normal license.
The RE would have its’ own fileformat ofc, but this should be able to be opened and saved in Renoise aswell.

There are several features in Renoise that are sorely missed in Reason/REs, and that alone would ensure big salesnumbers;
-proper sample editing
-proper pattern sequencer
-many of the native features in Renoise would compete with allready established and expensive REs.

The Rack Extension SDK is, afaik, free to developers, and the developers themselves set the price of their product. I am clueless when it comes to programming, so I have no idea of how difficult it would be to port Renoise as a RE.
I’ve been keeping myself up at nights, just fantasizing about this. So I’ve got plenty of ideas when it comes to workflow, features and smart integration-capabilities.

:unsure:

Info on Becoming a Rack Extension developer.

I guess you missed this Bad Ideas Thread

Umm no, I didn’t miss that. As I think this is a great idea, I don’t think it should belong there. Thanks for pointing it out tho!

Reason’s pattern sequencing is fine. And Renoise’s sample editing is pretty basic, even if it’s more than what you can do in Reason.
This seems like a silly idea. Why put a DAW inside of a DAW?

I don’t think this is a bad idea. If you want to use renoise functionality in Reason, why not. The real question is whether there is a market for it, and whether devs have time to do it.

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ReWire, no?

Yea since you probably have to build a whole new Renoise version that fits into 739px horizontally :P (or sth)
We got ReWire, it’s Reasons fault that it can’t really, without workarounds, act as a ReWire Master.

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Yes, that’s the biggest problem I have with Reason. I love the sample-based power and control a tracker provides. It’s basicaly a really powerfull sampler (and more). To have this functionality inside Reason would be a dream for me.

I believe there’s a huge market for this among the Reason users, and I’m quite sure someone will make a RE like this somewhere down the line, like Sunvox perhaps. But I use Renoise, and would prefer the developers to beat the competition to the punch. It would be a gamechanger in the world of Rack Extensions, looking at the prices and functionality of the current RE’s available in the Prop-shop.

I hope Taktik decides to apply as a developer, so that he can get the SDK and familiarize himself in the development-environment. It’s free, so it can’t hurt. :)

I honestly can’t see the use for this. Reason and Renoise both play nicely together on my machine via Rewire as it is. As I understand it the RE SDK is still pretty basic when it comes to visuals and would not support the kind of GUI required for this and I absolutely can’t see any way of making Renoise fit comfortably in the rack anyway - judging by some of the current REs they’re struggling to get complex instruments in the rack let alone a whole DAW interface. I think a much better and more feasible way to get improved integration between the two programs would be for PH to either finally add MIDI out or Rewire master capability to Reason. Never really understood why PH didn’t update the Rebirth input device into a Rewire input device when they discontinued Rebirth.

I agree with many of the other posters; Reason behaves perfectly fine as a ReWire slave…

If anything, I’d like to see REX support in ReNoise, so I don’t have to load all of Reason to get at something in one little REX file.

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Hi to all!
I think that the Rack Extention version of Renoise for Reason is a very good idea!
The thing is that probably it should be better to develop a “basic” version with the main tracking functionalities plus a limited number of tracks (of course they can be assigned, with a proper rear panel, to different Reason modules…via gate/CV out) but this thing is not a problem, because Reason racks can be builded infinite times…so a 4-channel tracker can be fine (think to the great protracker :rolleyes: ). There should be a question: how do you want to write your songs? Using the Reason main sequencer? In that case you could treat tracker patterns “as patterns” to be pasted in the horizontal timeline…
In the other hand, if you like to write music with a tracker like Renoise…yes: use Renoise as a Rewire Master and Reason as a Rewire Slave…and that’s it…
Anyway, the RE version of Renoise as a sort of sketch pad inside Reason environment could be nice…

I still don’t see any advantage over Rewire here. You have access to both sequencers simultaneously with Rewire as well as access to all Renoise’s native effects etc without resorting to a severely cut-down RE version.

I’ll spell it out for you…

Personally I’m not all that blown away by the Reason mixer - it doesn’t have very flexible routing and doesn’t really do anything that you can’t achieve with a few decent plugins. No matter what DAW I put a track together in, it all ends up getting mixed and mastered in Reaper anyway but that’s just me. I’d still have to say that, if you really want your Renoise stuff going through that mixer, rendering it and importing it in to Reason for final mixdown will be just as easy (or not) as having a tiny Renoise inside the Reason rack.
I tend to use Reason as a giant modular synth that plugs in to Renoise (and adds additional sequencing options) rather than the other way around as I find Renoise to be by far the more flexible and ultimately more powerful of the two. It would be nice if PH could develop better integration with, say, MIDI out or Rewire as more of a two-way street (like ARA) which I think would payoff better in terms of effort-to-benefit ratio than a Renoise RE.

maybe you don’t?

That is the most strangest thing that ever occured to me… the inventors of ReWire not allowing their DAW to act like a Master.

Very strange and something I’ve mentioned many times.

But I also think it’s strange that one of the most well known VST manufacturers don’t have VST support in their mixing software, whereas many others do. (Or have NI finally given VST support to Traktor?)

That is a neat tool. It would be even neat-er if it supported REX2…

Specially since their sequencer is a mixture now of awesome on one side and spot-on on the other

Uh what? Renoise’s sample editor is rocket science compared to that joke of a sampler in reason.