Using Renoise For Live Drums And Samples Triggering

Hi,

I recently bought a MPD clone, and I’m watching on youtube all the great performers (Araab Music, Jeremy Ellis, Justin Aswells, etc…) using that kind of device (MPD, MPC, Maschine, etc…) for live drums and samples oriented performance.

Reading Renoise forum everyday for the last weeks, it seems that a lot of users have that kind of pad controllers these days (apc, launchpad, istage, MPD, MPC, , korg padkontrol, nanopad, LPD8, CMC etc… and other clones).

I wonder if it’s possible to build that kind of setup using Renoise ? Any tips for that ? Or maybe plans of building such a tool for that purpose ?

thanks

I don’t understand. Load a drum kit instrument. Make sure it starts on the right note for your controller (easily done using Generate Drumkit function if it’s not already.) Jam away.

Might want to either turn off Note Offs in MIDI Preferences or set up a Envelope so the drums always play all the way through, especially for longer samples.

No Sample Mute Groups in Renoise as yet unfortunately, so can’t have different hats or snares (etc) muting ones which are already playing but that’s not a major point to start and will hopefully come in one of the instrument revamps.

Maybe some specific questions as what you find is problematic with it at the moment?

thank you for your answer;

I have to admit that I’m a (total) beginner in Renoise, so maybe (probably) I missed some things… I’ll try your solution (about generating drumkits).

The things is that I want to create “sets” including differents elements : percussions of course, but also loops, synths, etc… wich I can trigger with my drumpads. I didn’t thought I could make my own “enhanced” drum kit containing all these elements in one instrument. So I was thinking about a workaround consisting of mapping differents instruments on the same drumpad…I’m not sure I’m clear on this, translating thoughts from french to english is not easy when it comes to “complex” ideas :lol:

Anyway, I’ll try to do what ou’re talking about and come back later.

Thanks !

It’s working ! I first created a drumkit fitting my 16 pads, I tuned my controller to not send immediate note off, turned off note off in renoise midi prefs, and add sustain ON in envellope. And now it’s working, I can play fast as I wanted to.

Thank you. Alone it would probably took ages before I find the settings combo. Now I have to fine tune everything. With my controller I can map 3x16 pads, 2x5knobs, 2x8 faders and around 2x25 CC buttons, so… :lol:

Renoise is really the “swiss knife DAW” :w00t:

EDIT : speaking too fast : the sustain works not everytime : if I hit 2 pads in the same time, the sustain works. But if I hit one pad (quite long sample) and fast hit another one, the sustain of the first pad is cancelled.

edit2 : the behaviour doesn’t appear when I use the pc keyboard. With the same envellope setting, the sample is played fully, no matter how fast I play 2 samples combination. :huh:

I found the solution : in the samples zone/instrument settings, I changed the NNA (new note action) from “cut” to “continue” for each sample of the drumkit. Now it’s perfectly working so far.

Hi,

I’m having a lot of fun with that use of Renoise, I wonder if you know websites or tips to progress in that way ?

Music creation : preparation of the drumkits, of the samples (seeing videos, they seems to use special double ou triple hithat sometimes, for example)

Performance : improve the gesture skills, improve the pads.

I’m googling right no, but without any success for now :blink: I found websites and tutorials for scratching and stuff like that, but that 's all for the moment… I guess with trying and error, I’ll progress anyway, but if I can get a little help…

thanks !

Hi there,

I’ve got a new problem I don’t see how to resolve :

I’m making my own drumkits for mpc live battle style performance, using Renoise to edit the samples, create the drumkits and play the whole stuff. For drums and short samples, I use “continue” or not off" NNA (new note action) so the samples are always played entirely, no matter how fast I play.

But for loops (for example, piano, bass, etc…), it’s not satisfying : What I want is 1) the loop sample can be triggered and played entirely with one push on the matching pad 2)I can cut the loop with itself, pushing again the matching pad. I hope it’s clear. I can’t find a way to do that.

If I set NNA on cut, the 2) option is working. BUT the loop sample can be also cutted by any other sample of the drumkit.

If I set NNA on continue or note off, when I push again the pad, the loop sample is played again and again, simultaneously.

So I wonder if there is any way to set one sample of a drumkit to be cutted only by itself, and not the other samples of the drumkit. It would be usefull for intros, special effects, etc…

thanks !

Currently there is no MPC style Mute Groups in Renoise. Unless you can somehow have them in different instruments (keyboard range and midi assigning?) then you can not have different NNA actions to different note values.

thank you for your answer.

I’ll try to find a way, and come back with my tests results.

Usually, you can set such a button behavior in the controller itself or by the controller’s editor.
At least I know that MPD26 and Korg’s Editor have such “Momentery or Toggle” button behavior setting (though MPD18 doesn’t have such ability).
Doesn’t your controller have such option??

My controller doesn’t come with an editor or dedicated driver. It’s “pure” midi controller (wich is OK since I wanted that kind of controller, since I’m using linux when dedicated drivers are rarely available for this kind of devices), with assignable notes (3 banks of 16 pad) and CC (2banks of around 30 buttons + 8 faders + 5knobs). The only features (I believe) you can tune are the pads envelope, full level on the pads, and immediate note off or not. But these features can be overrided by the software you’re using (in my case, renoise of course). For what I want to do, for example, I disabled (in Renoise) the velocity of the pads.

So I don’t think you can try that type of workaround ;)

Hmm, in the case of MPD26, it can be set on the LCD window at upper right corner, so not needed driver or editor.
But indeed, such info is meaningless here. :(

In your case, probably, it will be difficult to realize as you wish exactly. But I thought of one workaround.
If you input required loop phrases to Renoise’s tracks and mute all tracks beforehand, then release each mute one by one (or using GridPie partially), can’t you perform similar as you want ??

Or, maybe I misunderstand what you want to do??

Hi Satobox,

thanks for your answer. My controller’s got also a LCD screen, but I don’t believe there is such an option in the menu (but I may be wrong, the controller stills a bit new for me, especially with the lack of time to test it deeper).

Another friend of mine on a french linux music forum (using Tango Studio low latency distribution) maybe had found a workaround, using PureData to mute samples the way I wanted, based on notes sended by the controller (if I understand correctly). Using a typical “patching/wiring technic” linux soft setup (using JACK+GLADISH), it should work. Renoise is a really good linux software concerning Jack and midi soft wiring/patching possibilities.

I’ll post results ASAP.

I (at last ;) ) found the home page of your controller.
I guess that your “Fame Tweak 100” is a kind of OEM version of “Worlde Panda 200” by a chinese company.

Then, it seems not to have such option for the button behavior indeed (though Panda mini has such option :( ).

Anyway, if the workaround by using PureData works, it’s good enough, I think.

Hi,

Digging up this topic,

Do you think Renoise 3 would allow the kind of things I’m searching for, now ?

thanks

You mean, without using pure-data? :slight_smile:

I think so. Mute groups just made it into the latest beta, and is being discussed over here:

Great news. Yes, without using pure data. I choosed Renoise because I knew trackers (amiga) and wanted to have everything in one software. My hobby time is limited, music is not my only one hobby, so I cannot spend time to learn diferent softwares to fill my needs.

That’s definitly a good news, thanks ! I downloaded the beta (I’m a registred user up to version 3.7, I believe), I’ll try it next week.

If you manage to make the new mute groups work, please let me know and tell me how! Thanks. See the other thread for more details.

I’ll do !

I’ll make some experiments (using my controller) tommorow evening and come back with results.

I made some fast experiment tonight, using my controller. I don’t think I found how to mute groups. I used a drumkit, with each sample of it on one pad of my controller. That’s working so far (even if I have to put “loop forward” in Renoise to play the entire sample), now the samples are played entirely, and are not muted when they are in diferent groups.

But the problem is that when I use one group even if they are in the same group, they cannot mute each other. Now it appears that nothing mute nothing (except one sample mute itself if I push the controller pad twice, for exemple).

Maybe it’s a noob mistake, I’ll make further tests tonight. If you see a big mistake in my tests feel free to tell.

edit : the group mute seems to work fine if I play the samples (of a drum kit) with the pc keyboard.

I have to investigate deeper.