hello folks…
a technique i often used in other trackers when trying to identify better sounds (for my tracks in progress) was to start playback of a pattern and load different samples/instruments into existing slots, listening to how they sounded during play once swapped in. i see that Renoise cleverly reorganizes sample/instrument IDs in patterns so that inserting samples/instruments doesn’t break anything, but this also keeps me from swapping sounds like i did in other trackers. is there a way to change this behavior so i can swap sounds? is there a better way to do this?
You can use the Advanced Edit swap/replace function with desired scope.
Yes, I agree, this automatic swapping should be optional. It is quite annoying not to be able to prelisten/test different instruments/samples on some melody/beat one created.
Using the swap function works, but if you want to briefly test 20 instruments, have fun! 
fladd
Shouldn’t be hard with the swap function either. Also one could write a “Instrument Tester” tool. 
how can it be easier than pressing +/- to select different instrument slots and double clicking/selecting and press return to get the sound you want to try out from the file browser? am i missing something here? (except that you have to remember which instrument you originally had before you tried others out.)
you can cut/copy/paste instruments in the instruments panel…
thank you very much. i didn’t know that was there at all.