Screenshots

Renoise's main areas: The Pattern Sequencer, Pattern Matrix and Pattern Editor

The Pattern Sequencer and Pattern Matrix on the left (Pattern Matrix is new in Renoise 2.5) allows you to view and edit multiple patterns, that is, your song's structure. Here you arrange your song either offline, or improvise and edit in realtime by jumping in sync through multiple patterns.

On the right: Renoises main editor, the Pattern Editor, which shows note and FX data of a pattern in a numerical sheet. This sheet can be easily navigated and controlled with the computer keyboard. A bit like a text editor, perfect for repititive and precise tasks like beat contructions and other generic editing.

On the bottom you see the FX device chain of the currently selected track. Renoise has a large set of native FX, but also supports VST, AU or LADSPA plugins.

Renoise ReWired

With ReWire you can harness the combined power of trackers and sequencers. In this picture each track in Renoise is linked to a track in Reaper. By the way, also notice how the pattern sequencer has a new column with triggers.

Screenshots of Renoise running on Linux

Here we have the native Linux VSTi Loomer Aspect running on Renoise 2.0.0 in Ubuntu Studio. Also featuring Automatic PDC and an awesome 0.3 ms ultra-low latency.

In the following screenshot you can see Renoise driving AlsaModularSynth through MIDI. The connection between the clients is setup directly in Renoise. Both Renoise and AMS are set to playback through JACK.

Demonstrating the Editors

Renoise has no floating windows, each component stays where it belongs. There are 4 fullscreen tabs, each of which represents an editor.

Sample Editor

Renoise has 3 types of Instruments: sample-based, plugin-based, and MIDI-based. The Sample Editor allows you to modify samples as you would in a wave editor. Besides the regular functions it has some features that are unique, such as running the waveform through a chain of effects used in a track.

A recent addition is editing and drawing waveforms with a pencil tool.

The Sample Editor transforms Renoise in a software sampler. You can record external line-in audio to a sample and use it in your song. It is also possible to run the audio through a chain of effects in realtime.

Pattern Editor

The Pattern Editor is the main attraction of the program. This particular type of editor, the tracker, has a long history. Originally a tool for game programmers to efficiently add music to their products and later on becoming the defacto standard in the demoscene, the tracker within Renoise has evolved and expanded to an inspiring and hands-on alternative to the nowadays prevalent piano-roll type editors. Just listen to cutting-edge electronic artists such as Venetian Snares, ASC and Enduser to hear what Renoise is capable of.

Actually, the Pattern Editor is kind of like an abstract piano-roll, with the notes being represented textually instead of graphically. The benefit is that in a lot of situations, textual notes are faster to navigate and record than lanes of blocks. Also, the pitch dimension of the piano roll has been translated to alphabetic character and numbers to represent the octave. This allows Renoise to display multiple tracks at the same time.

The Mixer

Mixing is an important, perhaps even underestimated aspect of music production. While traditionally outsourced to mixing engineers, bedroom musicians and digital studio aficionados have taken matters into their own hands. Especially in electronic music genres, mixing has become part of the composition rather than of post-production.

Renoise`s Mixer panel has been designed with a non-traditional approach. For starters, there are no default EQ strips: you build your own effect chain from the ground up. Moreover, the Mixer panel also functions as a speed dial to access and manipulate effects.

Instrument Editor

Trackers and piano-roll sequencers have a different interpretation of tracks and instruments. In piano-roll sequencers you think from the perspective of a multi-track recorder, in which each track is linked to a single instrument. Not so with trackers. Tracks are much more flexibel, allowing multiple instruments to be used in the same track. This way you can have a dedicated multi-column percussion track.