Anyone using Renoise?

The Lounge General Discussion
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I’ve been experimenting a lot lately using song mode with the MNM and MD, running the sequencers at different speeds using tempo multipliers, and chopping up patterns with song mode to create fills and variations. I love the results, but it can be tedious work, as pattern changes don’t always line up and I often have to start playback from the beginning to ensure I’ve got the timing down.

Thus, I’ve been thinking a lot more about using Renoise, after being an Ableton user for years. I’ve never really used trackers, but find Song Mode inspiring and easy to use, and am hoping that using a full tracker might help with editing and arranging. Does anyone use both? If so, do you sequence from Renoise, or just chop the audio up in it? I’d hate to lose the Elektron sequencing, but maybe there are advantages to sequencing in Renoise?

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I use renoise, and might I add that you should check out this thread Elektron IRC!

Both #renoise and #elektron are on the same server. You can probably get much more detailed answers there.

To the main questions, sequencing with renoise as a matter of sending midi can be a bit of a pain. It is very easy to layout your project, but there’s a lot of editing procedures that can be tedious depending on how you are used to working.

It’s fairly rare for folks to sequence by sampling parts from hardware and chopping them up. That doesn’t mean you can’t do it, and in fact I would say it is the most flexible way to do things.

There are a lot of things ableton live is better at when it comes to sequencing hardware though. Simply editing or arranging in the session view and using the various sequencing features offered by clips gives a great deal of immediate sequencing ability. A lot of the benefits of using renoise come from the meta devices and having a trackers interface (which is irrelevant if you’re not used to it).

You’d really have to just try and it see if the workflow fits for you. I would definitely say though, that if you don’t already know how to work with a tracker, then it’s going to be a steep learning curve for relatively little benefit.

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I’m falling in love with renoise. It’s so fun to use! There is a learning curve, but it’s worth it.

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Hear hear!

Renoise is the only way I can want to make music on a computer

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It may sound odd, but it feels almost like an instrument. It is particularly inspiring for drum sampling and sequencing.

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I’m SAYING duder!

Never would have expected typing notes into a spreadsheet would feel more instrumental than using Ableton + Push!

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If I can’t afford a polyend tracker is this the next best thing ?

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sample library

in to renoise for super quick sample browsing editing / vst process / mangling or timestretching

record sample in mpc or octatrack

I find this process a lot more enjoiyable and useful than simply filling up my gear with sample libraries. especially in the case of the octatrack.

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  1. Fixed it for you
  2. Yes
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It might even (depending on your needs/workflow) be better than Polyend Tracker. I love my Tracker but it’s my first experience with them. Renoise is far more evolved and meticulous from what I understand but it depends on if you like using computers to make music. Each to their own.

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@Ryan @craig. Thanks for the advice. I’ll go get it then.

I actually like using computers for making music. I also like the flow of making tracker / video game BGM music.

One last question. Can I use and external midi controller to play chords and scales with this?

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Yeah, fairly easy to figure out. Just midi tab, select your input

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Another thing- Renoise offers a trial period for their software.

Though, I’ve downloaded the trial a couple times over the years- but wasn’t able to really dive into it without just taking the (minimal) financial plunge of 65 big ones

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It is crazy how deep you can go in sequencing a single bar of music.

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i’ve been tempted by redux lately, anyone using that but not renoise proper?

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I can’t get on with redux - bug fan of Renoise - Redux is very powerful, but I just can’t get behind the pattern paradigm in redux. Having said that renoise is soooo cheap for what it is, and you get redux with it I think.

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Something people don’t seem to mention much when they talk about renoise is that it just sounds so good. I don’t know why, but to me it sounds just crisp and clean, and the inbuilt effects are great.

You can use fx chaining basically like a modular synth, the sound creation options are just so deep.

I’ve been beating myself round the head trying to enjoy ableton as much, because there are a couple of things you just can’t do in renoise (like work with long vocal tracks or real instrument recordings easily).

Also arranging whole tracks in renoise basically hasn’t been bettered. It’s so easy to create pattern, structure and variation with the arranger section. I wish they’d put something like that in ableton session view.

100% sequence in renoise. If you can get your head around hexadecimal then, as an Elektron user, you’ll transition quite well - I found the journey in the other direction pretty easy.

Don’t know about sequencing hardware though. Never done it with that.

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Here’s a track I made with all native and onboard renoise effects

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I need to get into redux badly.

I’ve just been using Renoise as basically electronica sheet music.

But if I got into the phrases, and maybe sequenced with Nodal…

You’d have a stew going

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Wish there were comprehensive tutorials online, like on macprovideo/askaudio. I find the official tutorials quite dry and not very in depth.

I’ve tried YouTube, but most of the tutorials feature Jungle or DnB, which I really dislike. Not into Chiptune either. Haha. Makes it tough as far as tutorials go.

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