I think future versions of Renoise should come with a special “Training” button for beginners. This concept is widely used in computer games today, where you can train to e.g. shoot on targets before going into the real action.
It doesn’t have to cover all aspects of the software, for this there is a manual. I’m suggesting a quick start-up feature that anybody, even little children, can launch and follow. The main idea is that such a training guide would be highly interactive within the training ground borders. So, for instance, if you can practice to enter notes the guide will prompt you to “Press Q” and you can’t then press anything else. When you press Q the C-4 note will appear on the track (a preloaded sample, let’s say a kickdrum). In the next step you’ll be able to listen to the note, pressing Play. Etcetera. Everything will be supervised as if you had a teacher watching over your shoulder.
Now, I’m quite certain that many (if not most) users on this forum might think this sort of training is overkill. But I believe that seasoned trackers are biased into thinking that tracking is intuitive and easy for beginners. I don’t think this is true. I would even guess that quite many people who download Renoise today out of curiosity, because they want to try it, won’t explore it for long because they lack the “dummies guide” – the INSTANT gratification.
Also I’m speaking of the demo version, not the registered version. And it might even be a special training version, separate from the demo version.
Ehh… I don’t think you understood my suggestion. You could just comment with something like “there are video tutorials, an instrument starter kit and a manual”.
I might add that my suggestion is made within the context of marketing and expanding the Renoise user base (targeting specifically those who are beginners to the entire tracker concept).
First… How much would this sink the developing of lets say, delay compensation or the arranger?
Ofcourse there are people who dont have the patience to learn how it works but if a program does not fit a person then there might be another one that does. I have tried em all and after many attempts on finding the “ulitmate composing software” I found out that Renoise and Cubase suited me and my needs the best. I can tell you that I had to study the “manuals” hard to get a grip of it. And since the manual for Renoise is highly interactive it is very easy to find what you are looking for.
The idea of an interactive tutorial is good but why when Renoise allready has a great interactive manual?
Without trying to be elitistic: The problem (as I see it!) is the lack of some peoples patience.
Is this how you reason in other areas too? “Of course there are women who don’t have the patience to listen to me, but if I don’t fit her conception there might be other guys who do…”
Yes, and that’s exactly the problem my idea/suggestion addresses.
Let’s see beyond the immediate given and concrete-bound. Distributing such an interactive concept in music magazines etc could be part of an aggressive marketing campaign.
Yes it is quite an aggressive marketing policy but the main task for music composing software is NOT to learn people how to make music, they are tools for get down your ideas.
And No I dont always reason this way. Im in the game industry and to get back to your paralell with game tutorials there is a couple of things that differs a lot from making music:
Games are (almost in every case) 100% entertainment.
You can not go to schools and learn how various games are played but with music you can. Therefore you need a tutorial in every game.
When making a game-tutorial, you have approx. a !maximum! of 15 minutes to teach the player how to play the game or 90% of casual gamers will loose the interest.
What I was trying to communicate was that it is far from impossible to learn how Renoise works with the existing manuals and tutorials, all you need is a little patience… If one lacks the amount of patience needed then maybe music is not the right thing.
I (like many others) started of learning fasttracker the hard way and belive me… If I can then everyone can
But Renoise is actually more than a tool for composing music. You can use it for producing ANYTHING that has to do with audio playback. And in this sense there is also an entertainment value in the software.
My suggestion is not a tutorial on how to compose music, but a safe way to quickly get your hands on the software and see instant results. I’d even say that in this regard (for an interactive tutorial) it might be much better to ignore instrument samples and just introduce pure FX samples.
Fair enough, music can be fun to but what Renoise can or can not do is not important here.
And Still… Why would someone who lacks patience care more if there were a fancy tutorial?
Just a hypothetical quetstion…
I might be a bit at ease with Renoise but I simply cant see whats wrong with the existing manual.
but why when Renoise allready has a great interactive manual?
but the 