DAW vs Tracker

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

The downsides are why I personally haven't used trackers for years and years. But they are great for provided instant results and knocking up quick ideas.

I'll agree that trackers may not be ideal for certain types of composition, but not so sure about them being relegated to "knocking up quick ideas".

Some of the most intricate and detailed music I've heard has come from trackers e.g Venetian snares.

Also, there are other artists that get more than minimal techno from Renoise:



Also, HunzMusic (His 'Soon Soon' is a great track which is available as one of the Renoise demo tracks), does Electronic Pop.

This was recorded for the RPM 2019 challenge:

https://hunz.bandcamp.com/

He streamed most of the process, and those videos can be watched here:

[xbitz]

best starting point is the beginner tutorial series on their channel

[chk071]

I hate trackers.

You asked.

[Charlie Firpo]

Renoise is great! Also take a look at Radium music editor. Tracker combined with a pianoroll. And totally zoomable interface. It has really matured nicely! You can sequence Daw style with it.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

best starting point the beginner tutorial series on their channel

Indeed!

Also:

[apoclypse]

I use Redux. Best of both worlds imo. I can use the Tracker to do intricate phrases for samples, drums etc. but still keep my Piano Roll and traditional DAW workflow for other parts.

[antic604]

I'm guessing trackers have probably evolved over the last 2 decades, so maybe some of this is out of date...

Pretty much all of it, at least when talking about Renoise

[audington]

A few quick words to defend trackers, and to sing the praises of Renoise. I am an ex-Amiga tracker and currently use Renoise. I have written music & songs in Renoise that have been published in some big video games like the Grand Theft Auto series (for Rockstar Games) and Madden NFL (for EA Sports), and have even written some film music in Renoise, so don't let anyone say that trackers are limited The only time I jump away from Renoise is when I am writing orchestral music, but anything else I write in Renoise - it is my number 1 choice.

[perfumer]

The main benefit of the tracker layout is the way automation is set in additional columns alongside the notes. I find it much easier to do per-note automation this way compared to typical piano roll views; this lends itself well to glitchy or information-dense music.

That's not your typical DAW automation. Those are note fx, pattern fx, BPM fx. They make all the difference between trackers and DAWs. If you'd use your vst instruments in a trad way, just don't use a tracker. It's that simple.

e.g Venetian snares.

+1

Also, Aphex Twin 'Hangable Audio Bulb' EP is one of my all time favourite tracker works. Some Luke Vibert, Squarepusher, etc.

[sjm]

I'll agree that trackers may not be ideal for certain types of composition, but not so sure about them being relegated to "knocking up quick ideas".

It's more about "is this the best too for the job?" for me. Sure you can do it, but is it the quickest route to success? I'd say no for a lot of genres where variation is key. Techno on the other hand doesn't thrive off velocity variations and the like, which is why it's so quick to knock something up in a tracker and you avoid a lot of the tedium that you'd have for something like classical or jazz.

Which isn't to say I haven't made classical or jazz with trackers. But I definitely wouldn't do it today, nor recommend it as the tool of choice for new musicians looking to do that.

I mean, it's essentially like programming your parts in the MIDI event list. It has it's uses, but it's really not the ideal interface to work with for a lot of tasks.

I'm guessing trackers have probably evolved over the last 2 decades, so maybe some of this is out of date...

Pretty much all of it, at least when talking about Renoise

I haven't used Renoise for yonks, and remember finding the interface wasn't to my liking - I believe the key mappings were based on FastTracker, rather than ST3 and IT, whose key mappings I far preferred. But it wasn't a different paradigm or anything - if it were, it wouldn't be a tracker.

I did like some of the innovations that Buzz brought about, separating out the individual instruments so you didn't need mammoth patterns. That was a huge step forwards. I think Renoise has done similar things, right?

[xbitz]

created a preset where fx chains of Redux can be controlled using tracker style

will a bit tricky ) so it's just the simplest case the proof-of-concept
should create an empty sample and draw a dc offset signal into it by hand then should assign it to an fx chain and a triggering key-zone, Redux doesn't have Instrument macro device it can be downloaded from here https://forum.renoise.com/t/no-way-to-m ... rs/46921/3 (should be dropped into Redux) or https://files.renoise.com/forum/uploads ... Macro.xrdp the Instrument Macros has the same macro set as the Renoise instance
itself so it can be used to a control anything in it (I've controlled a filter in the video) next step is connecting the Phrase editor and the Instrument Macros together I've used a Volume Stepper, Volume Stepper can be controlled from the Phrase (EXX) it drives a Signal Follower which drives the Instrument Macros and the whole stuff can be triggered from the host DAW ... we're done ... phew

https://www54.zippyshare.com/v/F774BlXe/file.html

as it can be seen Redux is quite versatile worth to learn it even if u don't want to use its big brother (btw Reason 11 plugin version will be similar just without the phrase-based programming interface )

[bundoo]

Music gear that I consider classic and beautiful:

Akai MPC 1000
MaxMsp
Renoise

[ls1xxx]

A fantastic musician by the name of Mitch Murder uses Renoise!

[xbitz]

check his channel

[Skupje]

I have other daws with piono rolls, but always sample edit in Renoise. Wierdest thing the best editor for samples was Cool Edit and it's ancient. Comes back to the market being satturated, think it's yust designers trying to tell you you don't want skills to do things on the sample accurate high def way, but about there using massive amounts of windowing and timestretching so it automatically gets destroyed and theres nobody to respond to your plees.