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Is there a sub forum for memes related to Renoise? I kinda wanna make some but I don't know where I'd post lol

Steps to reproduce:

 

1. Download and install Rob Papen RAW synth demo (VST/AU 64 bit): https://www.robpapen.com/download/RAW_Demo.dmg |  https://www.robpapen.com/raw-demo.html

 

2. Open Renoise 3.11 64bit (plugin bridge disabled) on macos 10.13 or later

 

3. Try to open the VST version's GUI. It should be empty.

 

4. Open the VST plugins GUI in another DAW like Bitwig or S1, it should be normal

 

 

Notes:

- I think this already happens since 10.12 and Renoise only

- I remember the AU version did work, at least in 10.12

 

 

Hi,

Can anyone confirm that current Renoise version is compatible with latest MacOS version (10.14, Mojave)?

Regards,

Adam

I think there hasn't been made a topic yet where fellow Renoisers can tell what they're listening at the moment.

Give the usual info; artist, title and album.

I just listened to the latest album of wAgAwAgA 'Jinjanoon Bus'. I loved it, such an amazing sound that guy creates. Beeg Spenda track was a brilliant finish.

Thanks to us scripters now being able to select the automation parameters in our scripts    I have been upgrading a tool that I`ve had on the backburner:
Automation Single Slider:
 
On tools site:

http://www.renoise.com/tools/automation-single-slider 


 


 
 

 

Menu entries : 
 
Tools menu:Ledger`s scripts:   Automation Single Slider
Automation List:                       Automation Single Slider
AutomationLane:                      Automation Single Slider
---------------------------------------------------------------
 
MIDI mapping:
 
Large Rotary is MIDI mappable to a rotary/ slider with 0-127 range.  Search "rotary" in midi assignments: (Ctrl + M in renoise will open the Mapping selector)
 
----------------------------------------------------------------
 
Renoise shortcuts:
 
Open the tool gui with:
~`AUS` Automation Single Slider"
 
Add a new automation device with:
~`AUS` Add Inst. Auto Device To Track"

 

Add a renoise Instrument Automation Device to the current track (same as [+] button on gui):

~`AUS` Add Inst. Auto Device To Track"

 

Cycle through already automated parameters with (same as lower popup):

They will open the automation lane if it isn`t already.  Unlike the tools gui selection method, you don`t have to choose the next device manually, these shortcuts just take you up and down the renoise automations list.
`~AUS` Next Automated Parameter
`~AUS` Previous Automated Parameter

 

When in the automation editor, duplicate the selection with:
`~AUS` Duplicate Automation Selection"

 
----------------------------------------------------------------
 
It should be fairly straightforward to use.  It syncs the selected automation parameter with the selected device in renoise.  Both can be chosen from the GUI.  You get a second parameter dropdown showing you your already automated parameters, selectable too.

 

Note:

Pattern Follow needs to be enabled in renoise for the tool to work as expected i.e. drawing the envelope as you go along, otherwise you will be just changing the value of the current line.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------
 

GUI OVERVIEW:

 

 
 

[+] button adds an `Instrument Automation Device` to the current track in renoise  (or selects an already present one).
 
[Selected DSP Device] Choose DSP device to automate, it is synced with selected device in renoise.

 

En. Checkbox  Enable/ bypass selected device.

 

EXT. Ed. Opens Gui of plugin if it has one.

 

 
[G] button to grab a moved slider of a vst effect or instrument (instruments need renoise`s native *Inst. Automation Device to be loaded first, this can be achieved simply via the [+] button)
 
1) Select a VSTfx and the G button appears along side the Ext. Editor button
2) Press it with the song not playing* and it will turn red.  If the VST GUI is not already open it will open too.
3) Move the gui element in the vst that you want selected.
The parameter should now be selected in the "Selected Param:" popup of the tool, the G button will turn green for a short while to confirm it worked, then grey.
 
If you want to select a different parameter then repeat 2) and 3) 
 
*If the song is playing the button is disabled, as the feature would not work properly if the device is already automated.  When a plugin is already automated the parameters are moving when the song plays and the grab function would just select the first one of those moving parameters it comes across. 

 

----------------

 

[ ~ parameter name ~  ]  ` ~`  symbols added in popup lists mean that a parameter is automated.  These only appear in the Automated parameter list once more than one parameter is automated as visual freedback that there are more entries in that popup to select.
 
[X] button --shows green when parameter is automated (also pattern automation),
press to delete current pattern graph-automation for selected parameter,
press again to delete for whole track
if yellow, press to set parameter to its default value

Lock Button  means slider will set whole pattern automation to single value --still  controlled by the rotary

 

Checkbox (next to [view] button) means the view will change automatically to the automation lane when rotary is used, switch off if want to control the view manually (state only remembered per session but will be pref in future) 
 

Large rotary starts recording automation as soon as used

 

When enabled the the Latch mode button has two colours; red and orange.  When orange it means it is armed so the next time you use the large rotary the overdubbing will occur.  When the overdubbing is occuring it remains red.  It automatically goes back to orange (armed) when the transport stops or you change parameters.  You can also toggle it off again by re-pressing the button.
 
Bottom Slider  is just a readout, interacting with it will be fruitless!

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
--AVOID HAVING THE "ONLY" AUTOMATED BUTTON IN THE PARAMETER LIST ON while the tool is open, it will cause problems. Also using the search feature in that list can have a similar effect.  The tool gui will go blank to warn you in these situations that no parameter could be selected.

 
 
note: thanks to danoise for a snippet pointing me in the direction of rawequal() function and to taktik for implementing the new selection stuff!   
 
Updates:
Spoiler
Latest Version 0.82



-Added a [+] button that adds an "Instrument Automation Device" if one is not present on the track. If one is already present will just select that one, ready for automating.



---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

version 0.8

Shortcuts now prefixed with `AUS` so will need updating if already set

`AUS` Automation Single Slider",

(NEW shortcut) --adds an instrument automation device to the current track
`AUS` Add Inst. Auto Device To Track"


(NEW) Now the [G] (grab) button works on Plugin (VSTi etc.) instruments: (As with fx-grab renoise needs to be stopped to use this feature)

Simply add your `Instr. automation device` to your track and with it selected and **THE CORRECT TARGET INSTRUMENT SELECTED IN THE INSTRUMENT LIST, press the [g] button. It will turn red, and open the selected instrument gui. Move the parameter you want to grab and it will be selected in the automation list and shown as selected in the tool.

The `Instr. automation device` only has about 35 parameters that can be active, so if the newly selected parameter is not already included, then the first unautomated parameter popup will be changed to accomodate it.

**As the API/ script can`t see which is the target instrument in the `Instr. automation device` you will need to make sure that the selected instrument in the renoise instrument list (above the renoise browser) is the correct one. If for some reason this goes wrong a warning will fire with some explaination to try again.






v0.82
-Added a [+] button that selects the last Instrument Automation Device present on the track.  If none are present then a new one is added
 
v0.8
-[G] grab button works for instruments aswell as fx
-New shortcut to load an *Inst. Automation device, to speed up workflow-
-bug fixes, code tidying
 
v0.78
--Bug gone on selecting mixer device error
--NEW parameter readout underneath minislider
 
v0.77 --gui more efficient when updating parameters, update timer more efficient, general small bugs squashed
 
v0.74 --bug gone where timer wouldn`t be released if top right [x] was used to exit the tool
 
v0.73 --left an active print in the tool so minor update removing it

v0.72
--menu entry for tool added
--large rotary midi mappable
--[G] Grab button added to select Plugin fx parameters via their gui

Hi Renoisers,

 

I've recently started recording interviews with all sorts of music industry folk, hoping to span a broad range of subjects and people working within the musical world. Please give me  shout if you know anyone I can speak to.

 

First up is bass godess Cheryl Pinero:

 

 

Each episode is out at the beginning of the month.

 

I'll keep posting back here - soon to be available on stitcher / itunes and more! 

 

Regards,

 

midierror 

 

 

 

 

Since High Sierra 10.13.2, AU settings (here ambience AU freeware), won't remember settings anymore. If you load a song, the plugin will always have the default settings. Strangely after reloading (and changing settings), it seems to be ok, again. Also loading of some plugins now introduces a looooong pause, where no hdd action or cpu action appear.

Could be related to Apple's "new" way of managing AUs? There seems to be again a new system service, responsible for validating AUs?

 

 

EDIT: ABOVE IS OUTDATED PLEASE READ BELOW

Title says it all.

 

Dunno if this has been done before but seeing as how there's a "What You Listening To ATM?" thread I thought it'd be cool to get a "What You Watching ATM?" going on to.

 

I'll get the ball rolling. Found this documentary this evening randomly on youtube and it's really fucking good. It's about homeless dudes collecting beer cans for a living and racing shopping carts down the hills of North Vancouver, not your average documentary but it's well shot and paced. Definitely worth a watch.

 

Hi all,

 

I've upgraded to MacOS Mojave and Renoise stopped working with the Steinberg UR22mkII audio interface. The play button doesn't work and I can't hear any audio (output or input). If I change the sound card to the internal audio in the preferences it works well, but not with the interface.

 

I checked the Steinberg site and the interface is supposed to be supported by the new OS. In fact, it's working with Cubase, but not with Renoise. It's a shame because Renoise is my favorite piece of code for electronic music and this audio interface has always served me well.

 

Do you know any solution or workaround?

 

Cheers,

André

I finished my links between renoise and my MCU Pro this week.

 

Tough  i will share it if someone need...

If you are used of duplex you should know what to do with those files.

I use the actual duplex version ( not the beta), and i needed to modify 2 files in the Duplex code. Those files are under "core modifs" folder.

 

I couldn't make work the displays of the MCU for now. I'll keep invastigating for that, but i'm kind of pessimistic about the result.

 

Anyway this layout give me good controls during masterisation and live sessions too.

Hi

 

I'm using ROLI blocks… and basically I can't record any of the gestures within the sequencer. 

 

SO unless there's a way to record complex midi messages… I figured I could maybe record my VST as I would record an external instrument. 

Is there internal routing options in renoise ? (NOT RENDERING TO SAMPLES as gestures would be useless)

 

 

I could easily do so with a highend soundcard with internal routing option… but I don't own such a device

 

An idea ?

Hi

I've recenlty bought an Akai Mini MK2 with Reason 10 lite inside... but Renoise 3.1.1 (64bit) can't recognize it on Rewire...

Please, can you help me?

 

Regards,

Fabrizio

am i the only thinking ''why renoise doesn't come  with a native multi-band compression device''

 

for processing in the mixer tracks..

 

 

do you guys use it at all....it seems that renoise users dont multiband compress .

Redhoot Oboemonger has just put out his second release on iTunes and Spotify. Not only that, but he has shared all 7 tracks from the album as Renoise playthroughs on Youtube (awesome!), and is also an accomplished visual artist.

Granularity (video edit) from redhoot on Vimeo.

Hello there Redhoot. Can you tell us about that artist name of yours?

"Redhoot Oboemonger", I've used a lot of different names over the years but for some reason this one stuck with me for the last couple of years.

And when did you start producing music?

I have an older brother who got into the demoscene in the early 90s late 80s, he got me hooked on ScreamTracker2 (the text-mode one) then I was around 9-10. I always wanted to play with instruments and synths but as a kid you can't really afford anything. ScreamTracker3 came along just around the time my paper-boy job bought me my first proper soundcard; The Advanced Gravis Ultrasound. Then FT2. BUZZ and Renoise, These days it's mostly Renoise for the main work, but with Reaktor, SuperCollider and PureData thrown into the mix to help out.

Can you tell us how you approach a new song?
Do you have an idea before you start, or do you experiment until something interesting catches your attention?

I love building procedural and fractal systems, for both my visual arts and music. Then find moments, sounds or sequences in them that I can develop into a track. Sometimes it would start with just the samples that inspires me, or other times its coming from some of my generative sequencers I've built that I feed Renoise. I've built some really simple LUA scripts for Renoise to help me with doing rapid prototyping if ideas based on simple probability triggering. Phrases have been really cool in this regard to abstract some of these workflows.

But in the end, I think how I start a track has the same answer as how do you finish a track. Its mostly just happy accidents that I like and then take them to completion. I have about 60+ hours of music kicking around that never got finished. Just by doing volume SOMETHING has to be decent right ?

Starting out with trackers at such an early age was probably an advantage. So what do you think of the theory that we settle in our musical taste in the early teenage years? Or, to put it differently, which artists have you discovered since those early years that inspired you to rethink what music is, or could be?

There weren't really any alternatives to trackers when it came to music software for us on 286/386 PCs. My brother got a hold of a bunch of floppies with all these unnamed great Amiga mods on them, and it made me obsess over the idea of using the computer to make music. The idea that I had not just the song; but the entire formula behind it right here in my bedroom was amazing to me. I would definitely say that post-pop 10 year old me suddenly got very heavily influenced by the Amiga mods. Travolta/Spaceballs, Zodiak/Cascada, Purplemotion/FC were all on my walkman at some point.

Later in the 90s as I got more and more esoteric interest in how music and sound is made; I have to give credit to Lassi Nikko (DUNE/Brothomstates) for opening up my eyes to how far you can take trackers, mixing musical styles and sound design through minimalism. Other artists at the time I were discovering like Aphex Twin and Squarepusher (this was around 95?-97?) were also pivotal, but Lassi made his mods available for anyone to look at. And seeing the inner workings of his songs made it even more enticing.

Trackers in general have a tendency to not focus on the graphics representation of sound; which in turn makes you focus even harder on the sounds and music. It abstracts the compositions into some kind of advanced looking spreadsheet where you're not distracted by moving bars, sample waveforms, instrumental representation through things like piano rolls and frequency analyzers. The notes, the composition and structure is at the center where everything is a first class citizen. This is the same reason why I love SuperCollider and other visual programing tools for creating sound, you don't sit in front of your screen and look at the sound, you just sit and listen.

I appreciate and enjoy a lot of different music, from jazz to pop to weird noise performances. But when it comes to making music myself I just like to make something I haven't heard or made before.

Your sound is very complex and layered. Do you use a lot of processing on the sounds? The videos you've shared seems to reveal that source samples are very "hot".

I love the Renoise sampler for how much you can mangle a sound, but I also generate a lot of my sounds through my own granular samplers I've built in Reaktor and SuperCollider, then tweak and finess them in Renoise for use in the compositions. I have a pretty terrible sample library, but if you have some minor DSP skills you can turn that limited data-set into an infinite resource. And by that design; some of the sounds come out as "happy accidents". Sometimes that means during recording the sound might be a bit messed up/hot/wrong phases etc. But If I like it I like it and just use it regardless. In the context of the Renoise where I make the actual tracks the sounds usually works for me.

OK, it's sort of a tradition that these interviews also turn to Renoise, and what you'd like to see from it in the future. So, if you could name just one or two features, what would that (they) be?

My unrealistic wish would be to look at modular frameworks for building DSP instruments, samplers and effects, and would love to see a nodal approach to not just routing but low level access to sound manipulation. Its very large undertaking to develop something like this so I've got my fetish satisfied elsewhere for the time being. But there's something to be said about having a framework that is almost entirely user driven from a content point of view. I would argue that Reaktor gets is money worth from its user content alone, despite of the lackluster software updates. This has given some software a very long lifespan.

On a more realistic level, 3.0 brought so many new things that I'm still overwhelmed when it comes to exploring phrases and the new instrument possibilities. It’s definitely made tracking a whole lot faster. That said; sample handling is at the heart of Renoise, so I'd love to see some more advanced options for pitch, time and other granular (prehehe) DSP functions. I know proper pitch and time warping are very complex procedures if you're going for quality so as far as feature requests I'd be happy to just see envelopes smaller than 25ms so I can roll out my own crappy resynthesis phrases for now (ed: this just settled the headline)

That said, I think I could spend half an eternity just exploring the possibilities with the current features.

You mentioned having quite a lot of music in the redhoot vault. Are we going to have to wait another decade for your third album to arrive?

I’m hoping to do more frequent but smaller releases. I do a lot of visuals (https://www.instagram.com/redhoot_/ - NSFW) that tie into the music, so by doing smaller EPs there's room for even more experimentation in various other formats.

Redhoot Oboemonger’s new album is out now

• On iTunes
• On Spotify

The whole album as Renoise playthroughs Category: Artists

The eclectic music competition known as Mutant Breaks (or MBC) has returned for the 10th time.

The competition is already in full swing, with a dozen entries and counting.
Join the challenge to vote, win prizes, or just for lulz. You decide!!

Deadline is December 10th

Forum link with rules, entries, etc.

Category: Competitions

We're happy to announce that another round of beta testing has passed. Renoise 3.1 is ready for production.

What's new?

In case you missed it the first time around, new features in 3.1 include:

• Support for VST and AU MIDI generators: This means that you can use specialized tools such as harmonizers, note matrices or arpeggiators - things that can “drive” other instruments in Renoise.
• Improvements to the sound engine: Completely new, rewritten filter section as well as optional oversampling and bandlimiting on sample playback. Various improvements to Renoise's native DSP devices.
• More love for Phrases: Phrases have become a lot more powerful and streamlined too - when working within the phrase editor, you could describe it as “feeling more like the pattern editor”. And when working in the pattern editor, you have more options for controlling phrases.
• Presets everywhere. And now, libraries too: Renoise 3.1 includes a more powerful preset system. You can now store/recall samples and keyzones as presets too, and the whole preset browsing experience has been improved.

... and much more. A detailed description of what's new can be found on the Renoise 3.1 launch page.

Category: Releases

Mutant Breaks; the exceptionally well disorganised annual Renoise competition has returned!! The rules are simple – submit a Renoise track between 3-7 minutes long, based on this year’s theme.

You can win a programmable force field, sample packs and more...

Link to the forum topic

Category: Competitions

We are happy to announce that Renoise 3.1 is now in public beta. We would like to invite anyone with a Renoise license to download the software and try out its new features.

This version of Renoise represents the integration of features from Redux, the VST/AU plugin we released earlier this summer. This means that any instrument created with Redux can now finally be loaded into Renoise, and vice versa.

While Redux is a large part of the story, it’s not the whole story. We have squeezed in a few long-requested features too, in an attempt to make Renoise 3.1 the best possible release.

Check out the full release notes here

Category: Releases

Early in 2014 the excellent Create Digital Music/Motion news site published a brief notice regarding an interesting tool for the Renoise DAW. The tool incorporates the power of software created by the Composers Desktop Project (CDP), a collective of composers and programmers guided primarily by the work of Trevor Wishart. The CDP software includes a suite of audio processors that perform a fantastic variety of sound-altering functions, some of which are found only in the CDP suite. The software was sold as a commercial product until February 2014 when it was released as an open-source project licensed under the LGPL.

The following presentation provides detailed instructions on installing the CDP software and subsequently installing the CDP Tool for Renoise.

The CDP For Linux

I've assumed that your system has been set up for compiling software from source code. If not, see your distribution's documentation on configuring a software development environment. I've also assumed that you know what is a terminal window, the command line, and a prompt. Beyond those basics I'll walk you through the entire process of downloading, compiling, and installing the CDP software for Linux.

To begin, go to the CDP Free Downloads page :

https://www.unstablesound.net/cdp.html

Read the page, then download the Linux sources (beta, 64-bit compatible) :

https://www.unstablesound.net/downloads/CDPrelease7src-linuxbeta.tar.gz

Open the package in your source directory (e.g. /home/dave/src), and enter the newly created directory. If you don't already have a source directory either create one using your file manager or follow these steps at the command-line :

cd $HOME mkdir $HOME/src cd $HOME/src/CDPrelease7src

Read the file named linux-howtobuild.txt, then read it again. If you've never compiled and installed software at the command-line you're going to need some help, so here's the step-by-step method. Follow it exactly as presented. First, let's satisfy the need for libaaio :

cd $HOME/src/CDPrelease7src/libaaio bunzip2 libaaio-0.3.1.tar.bz2 tar xvf libaaio-0.3.1.tar cd libaaio-0.3.1 ./configure --prefix=/usr/local make sudo make install

The howto includes instructions on building the Portaudio library. Portaudio isn't strictly necessary for our purposes, so you can safely ignore the instructions. However, if you do want to build the CDP programs that require it, you should install Portaudio from your distribution's software repositories. Be sure to install the development package as well. On Fedora that package is called portaudio-devel, on Ubuntu it's portaudio-dev, so you might have to use your package manager's search and info functions to find the correct files.

Now you're ready to compile the CDP processors. First, enter their source directory :

cd $HOME/src/CDPrelease7src/dev

Next, open a text editor and load the makeprograms.sh script. Make sure that the PABUILD variable is set to your preference - it's either "yes" or "no" - then save the file and close it. Now run this command to insure it's an executable file :

chmod +x makeprograms.sh

Now run it :

./makeprograms.sh

The script will build the processors and install them to the Release directory. Enter that directory to view the binaries you've just built :

cd $HOME/src/CSPrelease7src/dev/Release ls -l

The ls command should yield a listing like this one :

-rwxr-xr-x 1 dlphilp dlphilp 48469 Sep 18 11:36 abfdcode -rwxr-xr-x 1 dlphilp dlphilp 52865 Sep 18 11:36 abfpan -rwxr-xr-x 1 dlphilp dlphilp 52802 Sep 18 11:36 abfpan2 ...

To verify your build, run one of the commands, e.g. :

./blur

You should receive a helpful text that tells you how to use the processor. For example, here's the help from running the blur effect :

./blur CDP Release 7 2014 BLURRING OPERATIONS ON A SPECTRAL FILE USAGE: blur NAME (mode) infile outfile parameters: where NAME can be any one of avrg blur suppress chorus drunk shuffle weave noise scatter spread Type 'blur avrg' for more info on blur avrg..ETC.

Most processors have multiple modes of operation, and each mode has its own parameter set. For instance :

./blur avrg CDP Release 7 2014 blur avrg infile outfile N AVERAGE SPECTRAL ENERGY OVER N ADJACENT CHANNELS N must be ODD and <= to half the -N param used in original analysis. N may vary over time.

And here's the report for another mode of the blur effect :

./blur spread CDP Release 7 2014 blur spread infile outfile -fN|-pN [-i] [-sspread] SPREAD PEAKS OF SPECTRUM, INTRODUCING CONTROLLED NOISINESS -f extract formant envelope linear frqwise, using 1 point for every N equally-spaced frequency-channels. -p extract formant envelope linear pitchwise, using N equally-spaced pitch-bands per octave. -i quicksearch for formants (less accurate). spread degree of spreading of spectrum (Range 0-1 : Default 1). spread may vary over time.

And so on and forth. Given 147 processors, each with multiple modalities, that's a lot of possibilities. It's also a lot of parameters. An actual run of a processor can involve a lengthy command line with arcane parameters in which any misspelling or invalid data ends the run. Adding to the joy, some parameters take text files or specially formatted analysis files that require preparation with external software, i.e. a text editor or a phase vocoder.

The CDP processors were created in the spirit of the UNIX philosophy that favors one good tool for one job. However, UNIX also provides powerful scripting capabilities and the ability to pipe output from one process to another. Thus, a script can be written to automate a lengthy series of transformations upon a single soundfile. Your script could be written as a closed system, with no user input beyond running it, or it could be designed to accept user input. Input values can be specified as variables when the script is started :

foo.scr $1 $2 $3

where foo.scr is your script and $N takes a value intended for a processor parameter somewhere in the script.

Scripting a CDP processor chain is a powerful working method, but your workflow will likely require a soundfile editor and other GUI-based audio tools. And so at last we come to the CDP tool for the Renoise DAW.

The CDP Tool for Renoise

From this point forward I'll assume you know how to use Renoise.

The Renoise DAW is designed to load tools created by 3rd-party programmers coding the Renoise Lua scripting language. The CDP interface is a good example of a Renoise tool, and yes, once again you'll need to download it and install it yourself.

First, let's get an annoyance out of the way. Open a terminal window and run these commands :

cd $HOME vim .bashrc

I've assumed that your system shell defaults to one called bash and that a bash resource file exist in your home directory, i.e. $HOME/.bashrc on most Linux systems. Vim is merely my favored text editor. It doesn't matter what editor you use - gedit, emacs, vi/vim, LibreOffice, whatever - as long as it supports the plain text file format. Open the file and add the following lines anywhere before the end of the file :

# For the Renoise CDP tool export CDP_SOUND_EXT=wav

The first line isn't really needed, it merely clarifies the purpose of the export, but it's a good idea to comment your code for clarity's sake. Save the file, exit the editor.

Now log out and log back in again. You've just set an important item called an environment variable, without which the CDP tool will fail to produce any output. You can set it at the prompt per session, but why bother ? Set it in the shell resource file, do the login/logout two-step, and let's proceed.

Visit the Renoise tools repository and download the latest version :

https://www.renoise.com/tools/cdp-interface

Open Renoise, open your file manager. Find and drag your newly downloaded file onto Renoise, drop it anywhere in the program display, and voila, you have installed the tool.

Open the Sample editor and load some soundfiles into the samples browser. Add a few extra empty slots and rename them. Select the first file in the browser to load it into the editor. Now open the Renoise Tools menu where you should see an item labelled CDP Interface. Click to enable it, set the path to your CDP binaries, and you're good to go.

The tool defaults to the blur processor. It's a good example, so let's explore it before a first test. The EXE Filter is a drop-down menu of your CDP binaries. Next we see a drop-down menu for the modes of the processor, followed by buttons for parameter reset and activating the process. The terminal output box displays messages to let you know if things succeed or fail. Heed its error messages, they provide the keys to resolving failed runs.

Below the terminal output viewer you'll see the help for the selected processor, followed by the data entry widgets for its parameter set. The input and output selections default to the currently edited sample. The selectors on the left refer to macro definitions that we're going to ignore for now. We're interested in the selectors on the right. They default to the active sample for input and output, i.e. the transformation will be in place of your original file. You can change the output destination to any other slot listed in the drop-down menu. Likewise, you can select a different input file.

By the way, the help text is very informative. The tooltips also provide valuable assistance for every parameter of each processor. Even more help is available from the CDP home site where you'll find links to original documentation, workshop material, soundfiles, related sites, et cetera.

The blur processor depends on the results of a phase vocoder analysis of the input file. At the command-line the processor requires a separate analysis file, but the CDP tool automates that step in the Analysis Settings subpanel. If you don't know what those settings signify you can leave in peace. If you know what you're doing you can fine-tune the analysis resolution. And again, if you don't know you can just play with the settings and learn things.

So much for the blur processor. Other processors add a few other widgets, including those for text input and breakpoint data, but the format just described is the typical layout for the whole suite. If a text file is required, the tool kindly provides a pop-up text editor for creating, applying, loading, and saving such files. Yet another widget calls the active envelope generator in Renoise's Modulation editor.

The tool is seamlessly integrated into Renoise. When a process is complete it automatically loads the output into its designated sample slot. Which means, of course, that it is now subject to the sample editing powers abundantly provided by Renoise.

A Demo

And now, a brief demonstration in six figures.

Figure 1. Load a percussion loop into a sample slot, open the CDP tool.

Figure 2. From the blur mode menu select the Blur Shuffle mode.

Figure 3. Verify that your selected sample is the input, set the output to an empty slot.

Figure 4. Edit the domain-image definition. (Edited here to abcd-adcbabcda.)

Figure 5. Set analysis resolution. (2048 here. Value must be a power of 2.)

Figure 6. Process. If successful the output will automatically appear in the designated sample slot.

At this point your newborn sample is subject to the attentions of the Renoise sample editor, the operations of which are beyond the scope of this demonstration. See the Renoise documentation for detailed information about its sample editing capabilities.

Tool Tips

In lieu of a manual - and in no particular order - here are a few tips and tricks I picked up while learning to use the tool.

Add a series of empty sample slots in the Sample browser. Fill some with soundfiles but leave some empty. Use the empty slots as output destinations for the CDP transformations to avoid any accidental overwrite of your original samples. Add more samples and empty slots as needed. And by the way, the CDP tool doesn't pick up the default slot labels in the I/O drop-down menus, you'll need to rename them if you want visible names. Which can be helpful.

If you receive an error regarding mismatched soundfiles, use the sample editor's Adjust Sample Format function to prepare your files with matching sample rates, channel number, and bit depth. Fast and easy, you never need to leave Renoise.

Avoid tedious slider positioning. For direct entry, right-click a parameter's numerical value at the right end of the slider. Type in the desired value, press Enter, move on.

Edit/Undo is your friend. The Ctrl-Z keystroke combination is your faster friend. Learn some of Renoise's valuable keystroke accelerators. Ctrl-Z (Undo) is a good combo to know, particularly when you're doing a lot of experimentation. And it's easy to assign new keystroke combinations. For example, the sample editor's playback control has no default keystroke assignment, but a quick visit to Edit/Preferences/Keys resolved that issue in under a minute. I assigned the alt-spacebar combination for playback start/stop, it's easy to operate with my left hand while my right stays in control of the mouse. Again, when you're doing a lot of tests and experiments you need an efficient workflow. Take advantage of Renoise's customization, learn some keystrokes.

If you add/remove samples or alter their order in the browser just click the button to the left of the Process button. Its tooltip says it recalculates the slider ranges, but it also updates the I/O file drop-down menus. Beats closing and re-opening the tool just to reset those menus.

The Powers Behind The Power

The CDP tool relies on three convergent development efforts. The CDP software is first among equals here, sharing the position with the Renoise DAW and its internal support for the Lua programming language. Lua is easy to learn, its integration with Renoise is splendid, and the Renoise community has responded to its implementation by creating a variety of add-on tools to extend the host's already-rather-awesome capabilities, another strong selling point for Renoise to the modern coding musician. Alas, I can say no more on the topic, but I'm happy to report that the Renoise developers have prepared an introduction to programming Lua-based extensions for their host. See the Resources listed with this article for more information.

Outro

The CDP software suite has been justly praised for its powers, but alas, those powers were available only to users proficient with a text-based interface and the command-line. Likewise, the project's Soundloom and SoundShaper GUI utilities are currently available only for Mac and Windows users, leaving Linux users with scripting the command-line processors. Scripting batch processes is a powerful method of using the CDP suite, but it is tedious and error-prone.

The CDP tool for Renoise eliminates those concerns entirely. The software's powers are at last easily accessible to any user, and the capabilities of the Renoise DAW are immediately at hand for viewing, auditioning, and editing your new sounds. Indeed, it's difficult to imagine a better workflow for experimenting with and using the CDP processors. Major respect to developers/users afta8, Djeroek, and EmreK for their work on the tool. Consider it highly recommended for regular Linux audio folk, consider it essential for anyone into unusual sound design possibilities.

Resources

Renoise

Lua Scripting for Renoise

The Composers Desktop Project (CDP)

CDP Downloads page

The CDP Tool for Renoise

Trevor Wishart biography on Wikipedia

Peter Kirn's article for CDM

Category: Tutorials

Hello, tell us about yourself and what you do.

I'm both a musician and a producer so I have one foot in composition and performance and another foot in sound design. I've never been too interested in staying in a specific genre but I tend to lean in an experimental direction rather than a pop direction... both as a musician and as a producer.

Electronic music was something I fell into initially based on convenience in the sense that I didn't need a band. Once I started recording at the age of 15 or 16 I didn't want to wait on collaborators to help me finish songs. I didn't have access to many instrument so I ended up using bad synth patches and editing drums using mostly samples I recorded in my room with a computer mic. By the time I left high school I think I had recorded nearly 300 songs. I still work very fast and I work constantly.

I don't think I found any true grounding as an artist with something to say until I made the album "Form" at the age of 22. That album was about the illusion of control and both the production and compositions weave in and out from stable to unstable. It was the first group of songs I recorded after I got clean from drugs. It was the base of my simple understandings of adulthood and trying to break free from the cultural mindset and depictions of Millennials. That album was also the base of what the various themes of my music would be.

A year after I recorded "Form" my best friend and musical collaborator, Shawn Dickerson, disappeared. There's a lot of unsolved specifics to the case but I have good reason to think he's no longer alive. Shawn wasn't the first death I had experienced but he has definitely been the most important person I've lost. He was an amazing talent and unfortunately only released one track... a remix of my song "Cleare" which was released on "Uniform" and if you have time you should give it a listen. My EP "Peter" was a dedication to my relationship with Shawn and more or less based on the world we lived in together.

There are a few releases after those ones but my creative work at this point centers around death, control, addiction, identity and I try to switch back and forth between a light-hearted playful aesthetic and a dark aesthetic as to hopefully give these topics many dimensions to live in.

Could you give us an insight into your latest release, Sibbe?

"Sibbe" (pronounced Sibby) focuses on information, the technology that proliferates that information and cultural identity. Both of my parents were born in Iran but my brother and I were born in the United States. I've only been to Iran once when I was 12... this was pre 9/11 so the Middle East wasn't as large of a cultural topic as it is now. I was just old enough then to understand what Iran was and how it connected to me but not really mature enough to understand what identity is in a larger worldly sense. I especially wasn't ready to become a "professional" on the Middle East, Islam, religious fanaticism, international relations and Iran post 9/11.

Granted, I definitely knew more about these topics than my peers did, which actually became part of a problem. It took quite some time for me to understand that my knowledge of Iran, Islam and the Middle East was informed by a very specific diaspora. My family, their friends and other Persians I knew all come from a specific slice of the greater Iranian culture. In other words, I only heard one story and I heard it frequently. I had always thought I knew the full picture. Even the news I'd hear from Iran came through major Iranian cities... for example the media tends to focus on Tehran. It's not uncommon for people to ask me about Iran or the Middle East and my thoughts on specific things happening in the news because I am seen as an authority on the topic. In reality, I am removed from the true source and experience and in some ways even my sources are removed.

"Sibbe" is about that inaccuracy and also the wanting to understand. Some of the source material was sent to me from Iran by my dad and my girlfriend who were visiting at separate times and all the source material for the track "Sibbe III" was sent from Teipei by my friend Nicole who lives out there now. The source material was recorded secretly using cellphones. I wanted to use things like cellphones in this project because it is a way information is spread and collected whether that's reading the news, talking to people in other countries, or NSA spying and data-mining (which is also why I appreciated the recordings were done in secret.)

I've also been listening to a lot of re-releases of older music from all around the world which have become more and more popular in the last decade. It's always been easy for Western, English speaking countries to proliferate their media and influence to other countries but we're finally at a time and place where the Internet and the greater interest in information has opened up the doors for this music to come back to us.

I look at "Sibbe" as an American album through and through although a lot of it is influenced by music outside of the United States. I also made a point to nonsensically mishmash cultural tones and ideas to show ignorance, appreciation and a push for something new.

To what extent do you make use of Renoise in your music creation process and what is the blend of hardware and software in your setup?

The only D/I I use is an Alesis Ion synthesizer and then everything else is either recorded through a microphone or sampled. When making experimental music, Renoise is my main instrument. Every track on this album and even going back to all the tracks on my first album "Form" were made using Renoise. I may write segments on instruments but I never plan a full song before I start recording because I'd rather filter it through the creative process of production while I'm writing.

I don't know if this works for everyone but I'd definitely recommend not planning out an entire song before you record it if you're the only person working on the song. The benefit of having collaborators is that there are many minds working at the same time. You can recreate that effect if you record and then write with what you've laid out. The problem with a big idea for a song from beginning to finish is that you'll leave no room for flexibility or serendipity.

Do you involve live instruments in any way?

Yes. On the new album "Sibbe" for example I used piano, glockenspiel, violin, synthesizer, vocals, Turkish Tar and melodica. I'll record passages on instruments and then if I don't like the way it turns out I might cut them up and sample them to create something I would never have thought of just sitting in front of the piano, for example.

The track, Vietnamoses, caters to the dance floor, while the others are more ambient in nature. Was this planned in advance? Why not focus exclusively on one or the other?

I recorded many songs during this period, some of which had drum tracks. My EP "Czarat" was made during this time and the B-Side was "Vietnamoses."I was originally only going to focus on the experimental non-percussive stuff for "Sibbe" but I thought "Vietnamoses" added something other songs couldn't.

There may be a sense of elitism in experimental music that sees rhythmic music as lesser than. Or at least this may have been a driving point in the 20th century when people really wanted to challenge what we know about music and now it's just part of the cultural understanding that songs with beats are in one box while ambient experimentalism is in another box. But truthfully, there is an overlap between the two. When done in a specific way, robotic rhythms and free-flowing sounds can each have a trance like hypnotic effect, which I think "Vietnamoses" captures. You can see this connection in cultures that chant or create drones when praying or meditating while other cultures will use drums and poly-rhythms in their religious practices.

This release just came out on the Audiobulb label. Do you have any upcoming shows or new releases planned?

I don't really play my solo stuff live because I always create it with home listening in mind, but I am a part of a duo that performs live. I collaborate with Daniel Blomquist and we have two shows planned in San Francisco. We'll be playing with Thomas Dimuzio and two other acts on Saturday, October 17th at Thee Parkside and we'll be doing a collaboration set with a yet to be determined acoustic musician or group curated by Danny Clay on Saturday, December 12th at the Center for New Music. Daniel and I have enough songs recorded for an album, but we haven't shopped anything out quite yet. Our songs are generally in the 10-15 minute range with long, slow builds and towering peaks.

I also have an LP called "Agnys" coming out digitally and on vinyl on Spring Theory sometime in January or February of 2016. "Agnys" is playful and joyful without being overstated or saccharine sweet and all in all pretty much the opposite in aesthetic when compared to "Sibbe"... all the songs have beats to them for example and they definitely give into a pop sensibility. "Agnys" was initially based around ideas Shawn and I never got to complete, but eventually grew into a bigger world of ideas as I developed it.

Who would you say have been your biggest musical influences and why?

Early on the two big ones were Nine Inch Nails and David Bowie. I was mostly into bad metal bands before the age of 14 and both of those guys showed me you could be dynamic with sound and style. I listen to a lot of music now but the artists that I am really inspired by would be people that are widely dynamic. To name a few I'd say John Zorn, Mike Patton, Trey Spruance, Moondog, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yoko Kanno, Nobuo Uematsu, David Bowie, Aphex Twin, Daniel Lopatin, Bjork, Can, Demdike Stare, Dungen, Fennesz, Floating Points, Four Tet, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, The Haxan Cloak, William Basinski, Debussy, Chopin, Googoosh, Satie, Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, Holly Herndon, Richie Cunning, Opiate, Pole, Andy Stott, Ata Ebtekar, Dariush Dolat-Shahi, Selda, Isao Tomita, Leyland Kirby, Dr. Lloyd Miller, Murcof, Pan Sonic, RAUM, Ryoji Ikeda, Secret Chiefs 3, Tim Hecker, Tortoise...

Are there any other things that you would say have an influence on your music?

I get bored very easily so my mind is always racing. I would never be able to pay attention in Elementary School because I was always day-dreaming. Even up until college I never found school to be that challenging... it was always hard for me to pay attention. There are some serious downsides to not really having to work in school... mainly you just don't learn what it's like to struggle to accomplish something but it taught me something about creativity I wouldn't have learned otherwise.

When I would daydream I would think in ways that were productive. One thing I still do is I take some sort of visual stimulus or an object and I think about what it would be if it were a sound. So not exactly what sound it makes if you hit it but rather what tones, textures, notes, lengths, moods and so forth would this non-sound based stimulus have. I don't mean that you then go ahead and make a concept album based on this or anything... I just did it to keep my mind thinking of sound in a different way.

One of my favorite musings was light trails on film from old footage of boxing matches in the 70/80's and what that would sound like. I also like to look at plain uninspiring things like pencils and post-its and think about their sound because it's a little more of a challenge.

How did you find out about Renoise and what attracted you to it in the first place?

Shawn had introduced me to it through a video Aaron Funk, aka Venetian Snares, posted on YouTube. I had no idea what a tracker was at the time. Renoise is much cheaper to buy than a lot of other equal quality DAWs, so I didn't see the downside of spending the money for a product good enough for someone like Venetian Snares.

I didn't touch the software for a while though. It wasn't until I went to visit my parents for a week sometime in 2007/8 that I actually used it. The first night I was in town I met up with a good friend and she was at some turning point of her life and needed advice. I didn't know what to say at the time. I went home and recorded an EP over the next 5 days using Renoise for the first time... I was forced to in a sense because I didn't have any instruments to record with. I named the EP "Advice" and I gave it to her at the end of the week. It was just some sweet gesture... I didn't know what else to do. Regardless, I've used Renoise ever since.

Finally, is there any particular new feature you'd like to see in a future version of Renoise?

The ability to automate instrument modulations and Autoseek tracks with pitch modulation. It'd also be nice if the pitch envelope could span more than 6.144 seconds like it did in previous versions.

(Editor's Note: Technically, you can get longer envelopes. Set the envelope to beat synced mode, extend it to the maximum 24 beats, set your song tempo to the lowest 32 BPM, then switch the envelope back to milliseconds. It will now be around 45 seconds in duration, and you can switch the song tempo back to normal.)

Sibbe is available now from Audiobulb Records.

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Category: Artists