RML - Renoise Music Language

Ideas & suggestions
1

What about a XML public format (RML - Renoise Music Language) replacing the proprietary RNS format???!

Looking around the topics for the past days, it’s seems that import/export of midi files is the next dev in Renoise.

So i have one suggestion on this : why develop a proprietary and costly midi2rns converter instead of concentrate on a new renoise music file format using XML? With this solution, all converters will be easier to develop by third party or the community??!

Something like :

  
<renoisesong><br>
<br>
	// General Configuration Here<br>
	<general><br>
 <bpm value="120"></bpm><br>
 <speed value="6"></speed><br>
 <br>
 <br>
 ...<br>
	</general><br>
<br>
<br>
	// Instruments Configuration Here <br>
	<instrumentlist><br>
 <instrument id="15"><br>
 	<name value="VST xxx"></name><br>
 	<settings><br>
  <vstsettings><br>
  	<vstproperty name="xx" value="xx"></vstproperty><br>
  	...<br>
  </vstsettings><br>
 	</settings><br>
 </instrument><br>
	<instrumentlist><br>
<br>
<br>
	// Patterns Here<br>
	<patternlist><br>
 <pattern id="1"><br>
 	<track id="1"><br>
  <trackrow row="1"><br>
  	<note value="C3" instrumentid="15" vol="127" pan="50"><br>
   <effect value="0550"></effect><br>
   <effect value="xxxx"></effect><br>
  	</note><br>
  	<note value="E3" vol="67"></note><br>
  </trackrow> <br>
  <trackrow row="2"><br>
  	...<br>
  </trackrow><br>
<br>
  <trackautomation><br>
  	<trackautomationeffect id="0" type="Global"><br>
   <volume value="50"></volume><br>
   <panning value="60/&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
   ...&lt;br /&gt;
  	&lt;/TrackAutomationEffect&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  	&lt;TrackAutomationEffect id=" type="Delay"><br>
   ...<br>
  	</panning></trackautomationeffect><br>
  </trackautomation><br>
 	</track><br>
 	<track id="2"><br>
  ...<br>
 	</track><br>
 </pattern><br>
 <pattern id="2"><br>
 	...<br>
 </pattern><br>
	</patternlist><br>
<br>
<br>
	// Pattern sequence Here<br>
	<patternsequence><br>
 <patternsequenceitem id="1" patternid="1"></patternsequenceitem><br>
 <patternsequenceitem id="2" patternid="3"></patternsequenceitem><br>
 <patternsequenceitem id="3" patternid="2"></patternsequenceitem><br>
	</patternsequence><br>
<br>
</instrumentlist></instrumentlist></renoisesong>

Of course, there are some issues and workaround :

  • Wav Instruments (And problably VST Settings?) must be saved in a separate file. But still, you can store both RML and all RNIs/VSTSettings in a single Renoise Music Archive (kind of zip, like for jars in java)
  • You don’t want the format to be public (no workaround :( )
  • …

And for Renoise, it will be a good point “Renoise has just released the first Tracker Music Format in XML”… eheh??! ;)

Is it a dream? :rolleyes:

Greetings!

2

nice idea, i was thinking about similar thing - script recording and stuff…

3

a script-language for song actions may be usefull and saving of samples seperate too … but why an XML-description for the whole song … i see no advantage?!

and SMF0/1 (MID) should feature every professional music-software … coz its standart in the music-world (on soft and hardware) … and it’s today the only possible solution to share digital note datas without big complications

if the Renoise format-description is puplished it’s also simple for third party or others to develop additional software … but i’m not a coder … i’m a musician and i really need MID im/export - fast as possible!

4

I agree. The old MIDI binary file format is still the only cross-hardware-software solution to exchange music description and probably for a long time…
But as mention in this article “Representing Music Using XML” : … XML provides the technical foundation for a more powerful and expressive music interchange language. Developing converters between existing formats and a single music XML language could greatly simplify the tasks of music information retrieval…

There are lots of resources and discussion on Midi/XML :
Ideas::Music & XML
WMML: XML representation of MIDI data
XMidi

From a technical point of view (i’m an eXtreme coder :) ), with today’s XML technology, it’s much more easier and powerfull to convert and to manipulate a XML format than a binary format whatever the programming language you choose.

Oh…And just to remind that Renoise is already using XML… for Themes! So it’s probably just the beginning?! :rolleyes:

Anyway, i totally agree with you… I need a MID import/export too, so…

5

Alex :
Yes, our goal is to use xml everywhere, but I cannot tell you when we will manage to do this for the whole songdocument.
The main problem is currently how to handle dynamic lists and large blocks of binary data. Maybe we can discuss this via ICQ. Contact me if you like …

6

taktik - i think you mean alx ;)

sounds interessting … xml/midi … but as taktik said … i think .RNS is a complex thing - also as a non-coder i feel that .RNS in XML i a lot of work for a coder … B)