Simple Pianoroll

A simple piano roll for Renoise with many useful shortcuts. Just right click in the pattern editor and choose "Edit with Pianoroll ...". Its also possible to map this to a keyboard shortcut.

More Information / How to use it / All shortcuts:
https://github.com/ryrun/com.dufte.SimplePianoroll.xrnx/blob/master/read...

Features

• Piano roll workflow (inspired by FL piano roll)
• Mouse support for note moving, scaling and drawing
• Mouse scroll wheel support for scrolling through grid or change the velocity of selected notes
• Follows Renoise user interface scaling option
• Polyphony support (automatically adds and remove note columns, if needed)
• Note preview via Renoise inbuild OSC Server
• Ghost Track
• Many useful mouse and keyboard shortcuts (inspired by FL, Bitwig, Ableton and Reason)
• Show several tracker related effects like note cut, note retrigger, delay
• Scale highlighting support (None, Minor scale, Major scale, Instrument scale, Automatic scale)
• Many useful options to change the behavior for your own taste
• Chord detection for playing and selected notes
• Chord stamping
• Tool Updater support
• Step sequencing via computer keyboard
• Histogram for note property manipulations
• Basic MIDI Input support for playing (no recording yet)
• And more...

Update history

01.06.2025 v4.4:

• All fixes from the test build have been bundled into a stable release.

23.03.2024 v4.3:

• fix: loop timeline indicator (blinking / wrong states)
• fix: rectangle selection: only select notes, which are visible (overlapped notes will be skipped)
• new: add option to restrict playing notes to current active scale (midi and computer keyboard)
• new: add new note sorting options (None / Force new Note on first column / Sort by Note pitch)

20.11.2023 v4.2:

• new: add option to support wide fonts
• changed: minor optimizations for view builder dialog code
• fix: broken window size, when note is longer than piano roll window

26.08.2023 v4.1:

• new: waveform analyzer keyboard shortcut: add "Oszillos Mega Scope" and "VISION 4X" support
• new: add preference to change note scaling when new notes are drawn (more like logic / bitwig)
• new: option to change text style of timeline
• new: Mouse warping info dialog, when its enabled
• changed: add color option for loop range selections
• changed: increase upper notes count of chord ghost tracks
• changed: don't switch to pattern view, when piano roll is opened via mixer context menu
• changed: allow y movement on scale button click, when note wasn't scaled
• changed: muted note columns are now internally skipped and will not be visible in the piano roll
• fix: broken loop range detection for timeline
• fix: don't restore focus on note control refresh
• fix: missing mute / solo states
• fix: handle track off state also as mute, similar like in mixer view

22.04.2023 v4.0:

• feature: note eraser function
• feature: chord ghost track for easier chord melodies
• feature: upgrade filter + aa of instruments
• changed: note deletion doesn't read out note length, delay, velocity and other values anymore
• changed: don't play the note when removing
• changed: optional tools flag just for context menu related one's
• changed: ignore selected notes in preview mode for chord detection
• fix: also use midi targets for edit with piano roll from instrument box

12.02.2023 v3.9:

• feature: new optional tools (sample, workflow tools)
• feature: ctrl + shift + r to deselect random notes
• feature: add option to swap ctrl and alt key
• changed: change fix for focus issues

16.12.2022 v3.8:

• new: add possibility to set loop range via mouse on timeline bar
• new: set editor cursor pos via timeline with mouse
• new: add edit instrument settings button
• new: workaround for stuck notes in note preview
• changed: ctrl+space will now disable follow player
• changed: allow note labels without octave
• changed: add panic to stop button, when song is not playing
• fix: losing Q effect, when change note size
• fix: swapped horizontal and vertical grid lines settings (you need to change the settings for your taste again)
• fix: code cleanup, change note drawing code
• fix: polyphony preview

25.09.2022 v3.7:

• new: vertical grid line setting (none, per octave, per root note)
• new: horizontal grid line setting (none, per bar, per beat)
• new: shading amount option per beat
• new: keyboard shortcut to change note length via micro steps
• new: keyboard shortcut to open preferences
• changed: setting for use track color for note color or note highlighting
• changed: headline draw style in preferences to be similar like the Renoise once's
• fix: note width display, when cut fx is used on pan value

14.08.2022 v3.6:

• improved: add audio preview scrubbing
• improved: also set last note length, when drawing chords
• fix: midi support, broken note off, add all channels for note on / off
• fix: wrong audio preview, when multiple instruments per pattern
• fix: wrong note width when mixing cut effect in volume and panning column
• fix: wrong note width when cut fx was set for end-velocity

08.07.2022 v3.5:

• feature: add chord stamping with many useful options
• improved: add group option for ASC modifier of histogram for easier strums of multiple chords
• fix: only detect second dominants on full major or major7 chords

13.05.2022 v3.4:

• feature: add basic midi in support for keyboard playing (no recording yet)
• improved: better secondary dominants detection
• fix: some cases of hidden notes
• fix: wrong scale, when instrument scale highlighting is used or changed
• fix: nil error when instrument scale highlighting is enabled

16.04.2022 v3.3:

• feature: new histogram to manipulate note properties (vel, pan, dly and pitch)
• improved: change modal dialogs to non modal ones (scale select, histogram, preferences)
• changed: reorder note property controls in the top bar, so it's more tidy (instrument, length, vel, pan, dly ,...)
• changed: move preferences button to the bottom right
• changed: bring back the old switch to ghost track button next to the select box (more convenient to use)
• changed: set follow player only back, when it was automatically disabled for editing actions
• removed: old humanizing buttons (not needed anymore)
• fix: wrong notes shown of ghost tracks with more than one column
• fix: nil errors when preferences was opened via main menu, when piano roll wasn't opened before
• fix: bad note off state of notes

09.04.2022 v3.2:

• feature: add instrument selector, so it's easier to switch instruments in patterns or mix them
• feature: mirror notes of the current ghost track
• improved: reworked scale degree and roman numeral detection (bVI, bVII and more) and added missing chords
• improved: automatically use different note colors, when instruments are mixed in pattern
• improved: allow also note duplication, when note move and scaling in pen mode option is enabled
• improved: allow to delete notes via backspace
• improved: click on piano grid without an active selection will set the play cursor position
• improved: set follow player back to old state, when piano roll closed
• improved: add ctrl as alternative for scrolling horizontally
• improved: sort notes in piano roll before render, so a note button will always be visible
• changed: renamed ghost note color, not needed for ghosts notes anymore
• fix: scale button was visible, when it should be outside the grid
• fix: wrong coloring, when track color is used
• fix: sometimes wrong note block coloring, during scrolling
• fix: note column switch during selection was not working

02.03.2022 v3.1:

• feature: easy switch between relative minor / major (button in set scale dialog or while holding ctrl key and click current scale)
• feature: edit pattern with simple pianoroll from instrument box
• feature: add option to set Renoise computer keyboard velocity to the current preview velocity
• feature: add option to allow move and scale of notes in pen mode
• improved: also automatically remove note columns, when option for automatically add note columns is enabled
• improved: add mouse warping compatibility mode (fix mouse jumping, when mouse warping is needed)
• improved: realigned input fields in preferences
• improved: add menu entries for piano roll and preferences
• improved: reduce full piano roll refresh on selection changes
• changed: when removing notes, move other notes on the same line to free columns
• changed: try to force new notes always on the first column for better legato portamento without delaying (playback order new notes first)
• fix: missing undo description for step sequencing
• fix: also sort notes by column, so notes doesn't jump between columns to often
• fix: click issue with scale note button on overlapping notes
• fix: wrong fake alpha blending coloring

01.01.2022 v3.0:

• feature: add chord and scale degree detection
• feature: add step sequencing with cursor keys and currently playing notes
• feature: add option for shading root notes
• improved: better handling of losing window focus (try to get focus back)
• improved: add edit with piano roll to mixer view
• fix: wrong root key labeling in scale auto mode
• fix: note doesn't move instant sometimes, when using mouse
• fix: shading was going to default color value "{0,0,0}"
• fix: bad preview polyphony for transposing
• fix: wrong piano key coloring, when playing notes during scrolling
• fix: bad ghost track index error, when ghost track was deleted
• fix: some more nil errors

19.12.2021 v2.9:

• feature: add option to specify what key labels are shown (all notes, in scale, root notes, none)
• feature: set scale highlighting shortcut via button under piano keyboard
• feature: add visible selection rectangle and improve performance abit
• improved: show edit cursor position, also follows now note selections
• improved: add option to disable centering view, when opening piano roll
• changed: ctrl+space/shift+space starts playing from edit cursor position
• changed: change rectangle selection to select notes when "touched" instead of inside
• changed: cursor keys left and right move the edit pos, when no note is selected
• changed: allow ctrl also for note duplication, removed move notes in scale while holding ctrl (use cursor keys shortcut instead)
• changed: rebuild piano roll dialog once or when the grid dimension was changed (will improve opening time)
• fix: too long key labels
• fix: grid clicks outside pattern handled wrong
• fix: play from mouse cursor shortcut removed selection
• fix: delay column was enabled, when it was not needed during scaling with mouse
• fix: possible stuck notes during previewing while transposing

07.12.2021 v2.8:

• feature: note scaling via mouse is much easier, because notes are split in move and scale part, which are shaded differently
• feature: scale notes by micro steps with mouse (using alt key) with snap to grid option
• feature: scroll through grid during mouse actions, when the current moved note hits the border
• feature: use track color as note color
• feature: add option to disable vel, pan, dly and len readout of last selected and drawn note
• improve: refresh only selected notes on mouse action (some performance optimizations)
• fix: too long note width, when it hits the right grid border, when end delay is set
• fix: copy / pasting sometimes wrong note position and nil error