The Renoise Thread

GurtTractor · 2025-06-03T04:59:04.714Z

I was looking for a full size keyboard for use with Renoise recently, and was 5 minutes away from pulling the trigger on buying a Keychron V6 Max as I had a good experience with my V1. Then I followed up on some reports I was seeing about issues with keys not registering and it seems like there’s been a real manufacturing issue with their boards recently. Someone’s been compiling all the issues here - https://www.reddit.com/r/Keychron/comments/1ip03k0/comment/mhlga9b/

It seems like the soldering on the hotswap sockets on the PCB has been shoddy, and is causing chattering (inconsistent electrical contact which leads to double presses etc). So you could get it and it would seem fine, but weeks/months/years down the line a socket solder point might come loose and start giving you issues. Not worth bothering with for that kind of money IMO. I’ve seena lot of reports of bad experiences with the warranty service too. It’s a real shame because Keychron have been my go to recommendation for a bang-for-the-buck mechanical keyboard for a while now for their build quality and features.

Fed up with worrying about this kind of problem I ended up getting a used Realforce R2SA for a really good price (150 euros-ish) on ebay, my other Topre switch Leopold keyboard has been my favourite for the last 5+ years. I’m glad I ended up going this way because the Realforce is close to the ideal board for my use case. Topre switches use contactless sensing that have built in hysteresis so are ultra reliable and will never chatter, and because this board is a silenced variant it doesn’t make distracting clacky noises when I’m inputting notes. I have done a bunch of mods to it to get it how I like though, new DES domes and some foam in the top panel to make it feel more solid.

You might also want to look into other contactless switch designs, there’s been a lot of hall effect and optical boards coming out in the last few years. They’re usually linear though, which may or may not be to your taste.

Mumdad · 2025-06-03T09:42:50.049Z

As time’s gone on I’ve become more and more convinced that hot-swappable keyboards aren’t a great long-term investment. My GMMK2 gives double presses all the time and it seems a common complaint on their subreddit in general. The newer hot-swappable Ducky ones (One 3 etc.) also have a lot of chatter (lol) about it. That older Shine I had was soldered and just super functional at all times.

On paper you’d think being able to swap switches will mean you can keep the keyboard going indefinitely but in practice this one has had more issues already that some of the cheapo rubber dome ones I’ve had, despite probably costing £200 in total. That feels pretty bad really.

The next one I get will probably be soldered (actually a bit tempted by that Shine 7 I linked to), I might even be tempted to move back away from mechanical. Most of my Renoise use is on a ThinkPad anyway.

GurtTractor · 2025-06-03T10:02:48.052Z

Every electrical contact based switch that I’ve used in any board (hot-swap or not) has had some kind of chattering occur, though to be fair the Keychron K-Pro Browns in my V1 have been the best in that regard. It’s just a problem that is inherent when closing two contacts. Hot-swap sockets add an extra layer of possible failure, though as long as they’ve been soldered properly and you’re not swapping them constantly I don’t think they should be any less reliable than standard boards.

I’m strongly of the opinion that there’s really no excuse for manufacturers to continue using them, for higher end stuff at least. Like Elektron and others absolutely should be using hall effect or optical switches that will last forever.

I’m seeing small hall effect boards being sold for as low as £50 now, not sure what the quality of those is like but clearly the tech is cheap enough that they should see much wider adoption.

Mumdad · 2025-06-03T10:21:11.372Z

Yeah, it’s definitely not the only factor but in practice/real-world manufacturing they do feel problematic. Another layer, as you said. I guess in mechanical keyboard world if you throw enough money at it you could get it done ‘right’ but even then I doubt there are guarantees really.

I’m half tempted just to get a wireless Cherry Stream next time and be done with it, though going back to scissor switches feels a bit like the keyboard equivalent of selling off all your hardware and going back in the box

I have daydreamed a bit about Renoise supporting velocity on Hall effect keyboards. That could be pretty fun.

snake-soap · 2025-06-07T16:55:00.731Z

Just purchased Renoise. I’ve used trackers on and off for years. Planning on exporting my multitracks from Ableton and doing some additional beat mangling before mix/master

fredugolon · 2025-06-15T15:33:55.542Z

Renoise question (from a noob):
Most of the time I find 8 lines per beat to be detailed enough, but sometimes I want to “zoom in” more than that. Is the easiest way to just make the patterns where I feel like I want higher resolution a higher LPB? How do I make just one pattern have 16 LPB, when the rest are 8?

Mumdad · 2025-06-15T15:42:49.947Z

You can use the ZLxx FX command to change LPB within a song, so in this case you’d use ZL10 when you want 16 LPB then ZL08 afterwards when you want to switch back.

homealone · 2025-06-15T16:42:58.930Z

You can also use phrases with a different LPB for the bits where you want higher resolution. The nice bit about this is it can be applied to single instruments instead of the whole song.

fredugolon · 2025-06-15T19:01:42.532Z

I have yet to mess with phrases at all, but that’s good to hear!

homealone · 2025-06-15T19:06:50.506Z

They are amazingly versatile and useful, and can even be manipulated using some of the same effects as for samples.

fredugolon · 2025-06-16T13:07:02.473Z

Tried this now, and it works.
However, if I have a pattern which already contains information at 8 LPB and I then change it to 16 LPB, it (obviously) goes off at double tempo. Can I somehow “convert” a pattern I have programmed at 8 LPB to 16 LPB?

Mumdad · 2025-06-16T14:27:25.840Z

If you bring out the advanced pattern editor sidebar (A<–>E button to the right of the pattern editor) there’s an ‘expand’ function there. Highlight your original pattern info then use that (with the pattern length doubled too, of course) and it should do what you’re after. It defaults to alt+F9 on Windows.

fredugolon · 2025-06-16T16:55:40.238Z

Awesome, that works great! Never even knew that menu was there.
Cheers.

Ryan · 2025-06-16T17:06:26.901Z

fredugolon:

I have yet to mess with phrases at all, but that’s good to hear!

I dont dabble in them too often, but the one time i did was for that extra resolution lol

afta8 · 2025-07-08T08:38:10.880Z

New update to v3.5 just dropped:

Renoise Forums – 7 Jul 25

⮚ Renoise 3.5 and Redux 1.4 Released

General Discussion

Welcome to a new Renoise release: Download Registered users can download the update at the Renoise Backstage. Demo versions are available at the Renoise Download page. Features General Enhancements Phrase Scripting Engine:...

Reading time: 3 mins 🕑 Likes: 15 ❤

jm2c · 2025-07-08T08:48:11.169Z

What a colossal update! I am going to buy Renoise for sure now. Thanks for the heads up

Zelio · 2025-07-08T08:48:38.497Z

afta8:

⮚ Renoise 3.5 and Redux 1.4 Released - General Discussion - Renoise Forums

Damn, this is a huge update !
And midi out for Redux finally !!!

Mumdad · 2025-07-08T08:54:33.191Z

Zelio:

And midi out for Redux finally !!!

Being among the many* beta testers is a weird taste of what it must be like for developers/manufacturers… Seeing forum threads of people screaming for Redux MIDI out etc. and you can’t say anything even though you know it’s coming

I was so happy to see microtuning in there, I never thought it would happen but it’s implemented in just the way I’d have hoped too. I had fun microtuning the LFO demo track in various ways.

*I’m pretty sure half their forum users must be in there!

Uneton · 2025-07-08T11:56:42.295Z

Great update! Tidal cycles notation inside renoise seems very powerful.

GurtTractor · 2025-07-08T13:34:44.758Z

Yeah for those into generative stuff it seems like Renoise is well worth a look now.