Renoise's ease of use

Help, Support & Bugs
1

Hello,

I’ve been missing the ease of composing with trackers ever since I stopped using Modplug Tracker. So every once in a while I try Renoise to see if I can get the hang of it. I like it a lot, but I have some issues regarding ease of use that really bug me and draw me back to Logic Pro:

  1. Every time I want to delete certain areas of notes, I tend to select that area and hit backspace as practically every piece of software I know works that way. It’s kind of awkward that Renoise doesn’t and I can’t figure out how to fix this or map this myself.

  2. Automation has mixer and vst effects set up as standard, but why not midi control? Now I need to do that manually with every instrument. Not a biggie but still, it would be nice if automation had a standard tab with all the midi cc’s too.

  3. Record mode records modulation in the pattern sequence but not in the automation, so when I record notes played with my keyboard (using modulation wheel) and then add midi control automation, it creates a separate modulation which conflicts with the one recorded in the pattern. Why aren’t they both the “same” modulation?

  4. Selecting a bunch of notes to assign a different sample/instrument to them with one click would be nice.

  5. When I change lines/beat to get a 3/4 tempo signature the metronome stays 4/4 (unless I change that in preferences, but then I need to change that back every time I load another song). It would be great if I could link those two.

Cheers,

2

For your 1, the easiest way is to use cut (ctrl x). It does put it on the clipboard like copy, so be careful, paste whatever you wanted to paste before cutting something. The del button will delete whatever the cursor is on, which is why it won’t delete selection, that’s just the way it’s setup. If you have an entire pattern you want to delete the pattern matrix makes that very easy, so in between that and ctrl x it works pretty well.

For your 2, I agree having a midi section in automation would be very nice.

For your 3, there is a toggle button below the pattern editor, 3rd button from the left, that will make it record the automation into automation instead of the pattern.

For your 4, have you tried the advanced edit menu on the right? (have to click the little button to make it pop out)

For 5, somewhere there is a tool to change the metronome. I’ll see if I can find it for you.

edit: Here it is, Jenoki’s post: Way to change time signature of metronome?

3
  1. Not sure how that would work, since tracks are not linked to instruments. If the track had native CC automation like you want, how would it know which instrument to apply to? What if I have multiple midi instruments in the track?
4

Hi Carbonthief and Veggies,

  1. I was afraid you were going to say that. Guess I have to get used to it (or not and go back to Logic), but it is indeed a dangerous method and implementing a delete selection option shouldn’t be that difficult, right?

  2. Veggies, I get your point and that would indeed make it harder to implement. But like I said it isn’t a biggie.

  3. It’s toggled but it doesn’t pick up the modwheel, it only works for right clicking the slider. Do I need to assign my midi input to the track somehow?

  4. Yes I have, but that feature replaces all notes with a specific instrument, instead of just a selection. Like I said, It would be nice if I could do more with the selection tool like in most other programs

  5. That’s great, I’ll download that.

Thanks for the replies guys.

BTW can someone from the dev team tell me if the other points I made are useful suggestions?

5

  1. You might have to insert a instrument automation meta device and use renoise’s midi learn for it to work.

  2. The top section of advanced edit controls what you’re changing, and there is an option for “selection in pattern”. It’s actually the default option.

6

  1. Awesome, that works great :)

  2. Yeah that somehow didn’t work the first time I tried it. Maybe I was just screwing around too much.

Thanks!

7

Know what, I just remembered there is a instr midi control meta device that satisfies this need entirely.

8

Expanding on number 2, I just realized you can save and load presets in the Instr. MIDI Control device. So all you need to do is make your presets once for each midi instrument you have, and you can easily load them up any time you want, and have all your CCs mapped out. Or take things even further by creating a song template that has tracks already set up with these devices for instruments you typically use.

9

If I have understood your issue, anyway in Pattern Editor Control Panel there is a button which toggles recording on pattern or automation

you can specify advanced edit’s range of action by setting it via the radio buttons at top of its panel.

also, give a look at this tool

10

Thanks guys, I’m starting to get a hang of it now.

Still would be nice to be able to delete a selection by pressing backspace/delete…

Just one other thing: two times in a row now Renoise gave me a serious heart attack by suddenly outputting a burst of noise at maximum volume. Is this a known issue?

The first time I was using Project Sam’s OE and the second time it was with Adagio Cello’s, both in Kontakt

11

Thanks for the link to the time sig tool. Awesome :D

~od

12

Renoise has multiple clipboards (alt-1 (default and system clipboard), 2, 3, 4), if you are worried to loose stuff, change clipboard buffer first and then perform all your “cut” actions you want, then change back the clipboard.