DAW vs Tracker

[Skupje]

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.

That's so cool, trying out the demo. Buying it tomorrow.

[Winstontaneous]

Wow, excited to see the new Renoise version, my license expired at 3.0 and 3.2 is a great reason to re-up. Can't say that I've mastered Renoise, but it definitely is a different way of doing things. Thanks to the person who posted the John Frusciante album, I was really impressed by his solo work I've heard in the past (not to mention RHCP!) and meaning to see what he's done more recently.

[stearine]

It's a very different way of working. To anyone curious I'd say just get your feet wet.

Start by using samples only - not because it's purist, but because it will help you in forming the habits as you punch in note data and manipulate the sounds by punching in the parameters to tune volume, pitch etc. on the fly. Do simple manual crossfades. Learn to love punching, and let your every punch assume intention.

When you work, be alert and sensitive at all times to any repetitive tasks you do and find the fastest way to achieve them so that you can keep in constant motion, and when you feel like you don't need to pause too much to think about things in between actions, try also to prune out all the redundant actions and adapt the order of repetitive tasks for the tracker environment.

Think consciously about your "directions of movement" within the tracker, e.g. the order of instrumentation, beatmaking, when to duplicate, think about what you're doing when you're moving verticallly or horizonally and could your paths be shorter.

Without time-stretching you'll find a lot of different uses for the same sample just by changing the pitch, which is one path to that "organically artificial" tracker sound.

Allow some of the discreteness and discontinuity to guide your artistic expression instead of fighting against it. Become digital. Then sweet-talk and coerce it into doing your bidding.

Be experimental, go crazy. Use ugly sounds, try to make them sweet. Use aesthetic sounds, make them scream like rocket fuel. Sample, resample, mangle. Make a melody out of a snare drum, turn a drum loop into a melodic instrument.

Getting comfortable with using primitive techniques to create rad sounds in the compact, constrained and streamlined tracker environment ought to have a positive effect on your creativity, whether you work inside or outside a tracker in the future. If you're having fun you're doing it right. :-)

[EnGee]

@stearine
I like your hints and tips especially this one "Be experimental, go crazy" I think it fits the tracker's environment (and Bitwig to some lengths!).

[gentleclockdivider]

THe nicest thing about trackers is how to achieve the lofi-rudimentary time stretch ;
A short sample , placed on every line over a 512 line pattern and interpolate the sample offset from 0s00 to 0sff , placing re-triggers or pitch up/down commands , be it locally or globally for added spice
No other piece of software gives you that amount of freedom

[EnGee]

I have found some trackers for Linux (also available to other OSes i think). One is called buzztrax and the other milky(something). The first supports vst but I haven't tried them yet. They are free not commercial like Renoise though.

Anyway, after reading here and there and thinking about it more, I believe the ideal way to use trackers is just by simple short sound sources. But one good synth for ambient might be great for one track, otherwise I'm imagining 'computer music' with numbers and bits when I hear the word 'tracker'.

Anyway, let's see how buzztrax is now

[xbitz]

my biggest problem with Renoise is the automation things which are part of the patterns, if u check the picture here viewtopic.php?p=7506146#p7506146
the cross-pattern automation handling still hasn't been solved in Renoise, they are part of the clips using normal DAW terminology if a pattern is duplicated or moved to somewhere else in a project ... bang

so IMO the best solution currently is buying Redux and use/automate it in/from your original DAW

best of both worlds

from the channel of Sparvnätter

[imrae]

As I said before, automation as part of the pattern data is a feature to me. Way better for doing detailed stuff. Not so practical for slow mix automation. Renoise has a useful render feature to export tracks/patterns individually as a batch process, so you can take the detailed patterny stuff from Renoise and mix in another DAW. Made this track that way: https://imrae.bandcamp.com/track/marks-on-the-window

Redux looks great too, though!

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

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.

Clearly you have more experience with the software (I'm just starting out). And while I tend to agree with most of what you say, I still think that there is no such thing as the "Ideal" tool. It might seem like a cliché, but the "ideal" tool is the one that gets the job done. There's no point having the industry-standard application for a given genre, if opening it fills you with dread

[ls1xxx]

I would like to know can you record into this daw with a midi keyboard similar to how you would with say Cubase? I dont want to punch in data with the computer keyboard.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I would like to know can you record into this daw with a midi keyboard similar to how you would with say Cubase? I dont want to punch in data with the computer keyboard.

You can do. Although things can get a bit confusing if you play more than one note at a time i.e chords.

[xbitz]

^^^ have u seen my video from the first page

this extension can record your materials into different phrases(clips) automagically if u take X seconds break (can be set other triggering conditions too) pause in your playing

https://www.renoise.com/tools/noodletrap

after the recording at the phrase can be cleaned with https://www.renoise.com/tools/voicerunner as it can be seen in the video then the phrases can be triggered from the main arranger can be resampled the resampled materials can be sliced into smaller parts the smaller parts also can be triggered from the main arranger etc.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

^^^ have u seen my video from the first page

Yes. I've actually been subscribed to your channel for quite a while. It's definitely interesting to watch your approach to different daw's. However, as i mentioned earlier in this thread (I think), I want to meet Renoise on it's own terms, as they are presented to me.

For me, personally, the main reason to use other daw's is to see how the different workflows influence the creative process. I'm not so interested in using hacks and tools to try and make one daw behave like another. Not even really interested in using my keyboard with it (I've got LPX for that).

QWERTY, all the way

[xbitz]

there are no hacks in it, https://tutorials.renoise.com/wiki/Phrase_Editor is part of the program, with the extensions just don't have to do the create phrase/start-stop recording into it/clean the phrases at the end etc. loops by hand

[bharris22]

I would like to know can you record into this daw with a midi keyboard similar to how you would with say Cubase? I dont want to punch in data with the computer keyboard.

I am thinking about trying to learn Renoise, too, and was thinking the same thing. I saw this, which looks very interesting: https://forum.renoise.com/t/new-tool-3- ... 2019/49722.