Renoise allows multiple tracks to play the same instrument. It seems that if the instrument is a sound file, then each track will get an independent output signal. If the instrument is a plugin, then it seems that the highest playing track gets the summed output signal. Can someone describe how this is suppose to work and, if possible, some of the design rationale behind it. I suspect it’s relatively cheap to route a sample to multiple ouputs, but not so with a plugin.
For multi-channel plugins, you have the ability to specify tracks that should receive the audio. But for single-channel (well, stereo) plugins, you are correct.
This really is the standard amongst DAWs - you create an instrument track, and that’s it. Renoise is a bit unusual in this regard, as the instrument is not fixed to a specific track.
I guess that technically, it could be possible to create a pseudo multi-channel router (“cloning” the original audio and forwarding it to specific tracks), but the same result could be achieved simply by using send tracks?
You can use a single, standard stereo instrument plugin (VSTi for example) in different tracks at different times. If you want to use it in different tracks at the same time you will experience some weirdness and unpredictability and there is nothing that can be done about that. Use Instrument Aliases for this purpose.
Thanks for the replies. Instrument aliases seem really useful. This section from the documentation helps explain the sample based behavior.
http://tutorials.renoise.com/wiki/Instrument_Settings
“As already described in the Instrument Selector section of this manual, instruments play an important role in Renoise. An instrument in Renoise (such as a piano sound) is not necessarily bound to a single specific track; you can play the piano instrument on any track you want. Additionally, in the case of sample based instruments, they can even be played on multiple tracks simultaneously.”