Sound Generation In Renoise

Hello everyone. I am using Renoise for few months now, and i have one problem that needs resolving.

This problem relates to sound generation, melodic sound in particulary - Bass, synth-like melo, stuff like that. I’ve allready learned the rhythmic part, with kicks, snares, hats etc. - and you can get REALLY creative with beat on Renoise.

But lets get back to the main issue. I’ve come from Ableton, and i’ve used abletons sampler for most of the part, and i’ve made crazy synth like sounds, just with filter and reverb and stuff like that. Also with Operator (abletons soft Synth)- I could create any type of sound i want.

I’ve thought that Renoise sample editor / instrument editor + track effects can replace and even offer better sound generation than ableton. But many times i’ve tried and rearly i got any good results.
I’ve even tried recording abletons synths wave sounds like Square, Saw, Sine, and then editing them in Renoise, but still no results.

I understand that renoise is also VST based program, but at this point i really want to go with samples, not with soft synths.

I would really appreaciate your help.

thank you

pfke

Hi pfke,

really appreciate that you want to try using Renoise’s native (and powerful) sound engine. I’ve always found it sad that many musicians here stick to VSTi’s and make Renoise seem almost like a VST host.

Renoise is capable of generating sounds if you use the basic waveforms you mentioned as short samples in a loop.
Using the Instrument Envelopes (Click me) in the Instrument Editor you can make Renoise act like a synthesizer by defining envelopes for Filter, Volume, etc. on each sample. Basically a sample together with its envelopes is considered an instrument (in many trackers).

Check the tutorial songs in the Renoise songs folder. The song “On My Mind” by gemini should give a good example how sounds can be generated in Renoise.

You can also pm me, if you should need more help on this.

Welcome aboard :)

also, use the drawtool in the sample editor to create waveforms, loop them…play with the envelopes in the instr editor + learn the patterncommands & add some dsp/vst effects. Crazy shit can be accomplished. Somebody should do a youtube tutorial.

Hey, thanks for the help Gilli and jonas the plugexpert!

The tips really helped me. ‘Renoise’ generated synths can be preatty good, allthought i dont think that i can escape of using soft synths, because im interested in multi-osc soung generation, and renoise generated ones are preatty analog. Simple multi-osc synth with renoise fx could be a damn good sound generation method.

But still have some questions that relate to this topic if you dont mind:

  1. Can you manipulate RNS Instrument Editors envelopes, during the songs, (i mean like with effect column commands that would shape your filter/volume/pitch envelopes or turn them on/off) ?

  2. Also i was wondering about Renoise effect algorithm. It is a little bit tricky in Renoise with effects. In renoise it DOES matter in what order you place your Effects.But i still didnt figure out what order does the Instrument editor take.

I mean when a press a key does the audio signal get affected by the DSP effects 1st and then by the instrument Editors effects 2nd and vise versa? Can you do anything to change the order of that( i know you can in DSP effects, but im talking about the DSP and Instrument Editor)?

thanks again for the previous help

Hi pfke,

regarding your first question about manipulating the Instrument Envelope effects patternwise - no, unfortunately you can’t. Once there was a discussion about a missing Decay effect. Once this is implemented, I think it will be some kind of Instrument Envelope manipulation. It’s a useful feature and I belive that it will be implemented in future. Also because the next xrni (Renoise Instruments) structure aims to have more intelligent abilities like multilayered samples and so on. I’m excited about this.

Regarding your second question about the DSP order - the Instrument Envelopes are processed first, then the track DSPs follow.
If you want a practical demo:
Load a looped sample and let it fade out quickly with its volume envelope.
Then load a distorion effect with a high drive on the track DSPs.
Now play the instrument.
You will notice that the loudness of your instrument remains the same until the envelope totally mutes its volume.

But you can’t change the order. As you mentioned, you can use successive effects on the track DSPs and yet you are forced to do so for your goal. Certainly I see the problem that you need to do all the automation manually then. If it helps, you might reach your aim by processing the loaded track DSPs on your sample. There is a button for that in the Sample Editor. Then you will have a sample that is manipulated by Track DSPs before it gets through the Instrument Envelopes. It’s clear that this aditionally saves CPU time but you might be unhappy about the pitching artifacts and such.

Best regards,

Gilli

edit: corrected a ‘second post’ by ‘second question’. Damnit, I previewed like 100 times :)

Hey Gili,
THanks a bunch for the help again =]

Those questions were pain in a neck for some time now. As i see things are probably going to get fixed in the future.

What a wonderfull software it is, it is very exiting for me to see, that the forum comunity is actually helping to shape this wonderfull piece of software.

i have 1.8 at this point, and i’ve read the changes in 1.9 and its just amazing how many great things were added in, personnally im most exited about the LFO-device changes in 1.9, hard to work with it in 1.8.

enought about that,

thanks for the help again

cheers!

you can create some serious crazy shit with the distortion filter …get creative with the envelopes …loop them etc …