Pattern Editor

Pattern Editor

The Pattern Editor is Renoises main editor: Here you will basically create all music in Renoise. As the name implies, the Pattern Editor is all about patterns: You can think of a pattern as a single notation page in a score.

Lets take a look how a song is structured in Renoise, to understand what patterns are about, what they do and what they do not. We do start from the top (song) to the bottom (beats, lines and notes):

Sequences

Multiple Patterns make up a sequence, which can be chained to a song. This is how you create songs in Renoise: by chaining patterns in the Pattern Sequencer.

Patterns

Horizontally, a pattern consist out of multiple tracks. Tracks have their own unique set of Audio Effects and a subset of columns. In columns you do place notes or effects for each tracks.

Vertically, patterns are divided into lines. Lines are the time axis in patterns; you write down notes and effects vertically. Every pattern can have a varying number of lines.

Tracks

There are three different types of track in Renoise:

Sequencer Tracks

Sequencer tracks are tracks which can play instruments, thus they contain note columns to play and edit them. They also have effect columns to apply effect command for the instruments and to control a Tracks DSP chain.

Send Tracks

A send track is used to apply the same set of Track DSPs on multiple tracks at once. Thus they only have effect columns to control their DSPs. Send Tracks are feed from other tracks with “Send Devices”.

Master Track

The master track is the track where all other tracks sum up. So placing effects on the master track will appy the whole song, all tracks. Just like a send track it has no note columns, can not play notes, so it only has effect columns to control its Track DSPs.

Adding / Removing / Duplicating and Reordering Tracks

To add or remove tracks, you can use the “Edit” → “Insert New Track” (“Control/Command” + T) and “Edit” → “Delete Track” (“Control/Command + Shift” + T) commands from the main menu. When the current cursor is on the master of send track, a send track will be added, else a sequencer track will be added.

To organize and reposition your tracks, you can simply drag them around in the Pattern Editor or Mixer. To do so, click and drag on a tracks name on top of the pattern editor, then move the track to the desired new position and drop it.

To Duplicate tracks, you can again use the “Edit” → “Duplicate Track” options in the main menu.

Columns

There are two types of columns in tracks:

1. Note columns, to place and edit notes and instruments.
2. effect columns to apply effects.

Note columns have several sub columns: a column to place notes and instruments: a volume volume, a panning column and finally a delay column.

Effect columns have two sub columns: The first one is used to address an effect, the other one to setup an effects value, like set cutoff to 100%.

Adding / Removing Columns

To add or remove note- or effect columns, you can use the small +/- icons on top of the tracks where also the track names are. Alternatively you can also use the shortcut CONTROL/COMMAND+SHIFT+ right or left arrow keys to either add/remove note or effect column depending where the edit cursor is placed.

Pleae Note: All numbers in the sub columns (except notes) are notated in hexadecimal (we count from 0 to 16 instead of from 0 to 10). If this is the first time you hear about this, please make your self familiar with this here first. Why uses Renoise hexadecimal numbers? Because hexadecimal notation is very suitable for music, and once you've used it its actually not that hard to understand.

Sub Note Columns

• Note: such as: C-4 or A#3. The first letters are the musical note number, the last letter is the octave. You do not write down notes like in a text editor letter by letter, but with the virtual keyboard piano or a MIDI master keyboard.
• Instrument Number: The instrument that should be triggered for the specified note. You can edit the instrument number by hand, but it will be .
• Volume: a notes velocity, volume (0-80) or effects that apply to the notes next to it like retriggers, volume fades and so on. More about this can be found in the Patter Effect Commnds section in this manual.
• Panning: the panorama for the currently placed note or again a set of commands which are applied to the notes left to it. Panorama values are valid from 0–80 (00=left, 40=center, 80=right). Please note that panning in pan columns only is applied to sample based instruments in Renoise. Note specific panorama values can not be transferred over the MIDI protocol that is used for external synthesizers or plug-in instruments.
• Delay: This column can shift the notes left to it within a lines timing, delay it. Delays are specified in fractions of 255 (FF in hexadecimal).

By default the panning and delay column are not visible in the tracks, because they are not so often used. To hide them or make them visible, you can use the keyboard shortcuts CONTROL/COMMAND + SHIFT + V (Volume), P (Panning), D (Delay). Or you can press the corresponding buttons in the pattern editors track control bar on the bottom of the editor: File:Vvoois renoise pc track.png

Sub Effect Columns

• Effect Number: Two digits define the effect that should be triggered (like a cutoff parameter in a DSP effect or a sample effect like pitch glide). Please see Pattern Effect Commands reference for more.
• Effect Value: The next two digits defines the effects value, amount. For a cutoff parameter change command the frequency, for a sample glide command how fast the glide happens.

Lines

Every pattern can have its own length in lines. To setup or change this, you can do so with the small number on the top left of the Pattern Editor:

As you see in the picture above, each 4th line gets highlighted in teh pattern. Those highlights do show you by default how many lines make up a beat in Renoise:

Lines, Beats and Pattern Resolution

How many Lines make up a beat, which resolution your patterns should have, is set up via the Transport Panels Lines Per Beat setting. The higher the LPB setting, the more notes or effects you can place individually for a beat, the higher the resolution. By default the LPB is 4, which means when placing a note on every highlighted line, you get a simple 4/4 beat in a pattern which is 16 lines long.

When working with time signatures other than 4/4, it's useful to set your LPB to a factor of the time signature nominator. So for example, when working at 3/4 you should use an LPB of 6, 12 or 24. When working at 5/4 you can use an LPB of 5, 10, or 20, etc. This will allow you to place your notes on exact pattern lines without having to delay notes with the delay column.

How many lines should be used for a beat, actually is totally up to you. No one forces you to treat lines like beats at all. The only case where this actually is needed, is when Renoise interacts with other beat based instruments or sequencers, like plug-ins which use beat timings, or when syncing a Renoise song with other applications via ReWire.

You can also customize the highlighting in the pattern editor to not show the LPB values. This is done in the Song Settings tab.

Editing and Navigating in Patterns:

!! Before anything can be written, recorded into the Pattern Editor, you have to tun on the global edit mode. This is done via the ESC key, or by hitting the record button in the Transport Panel.!!

Basic Shortcuts

To navigate around in the pattern you do use your keyboard. Basically it works like writing text in a text editor, so the right arrow key moves the cursor position to the right, left to the left, the page buttons to jump quarter wise and so on.

To quickly jump the the next note column, you can use the TAB key. SHIFT + TAB will jump back to the previous note column.

F9, F10,F11 and F12 will quick set the line to the beginning, first quarter, half, last quarter of the pattern.

To select something you can hold down the SHIFT key while moving around in the pattern with the keys. This can also be done with the mouse. The selection also uses the the standard Cut/Copy/Paste keys you know from other applications: CONTROL/COMMAND + X (Cut), C (Copy), V (Paste).

Alternatively to the shift key you can also start a selection with CONTROL/COMMAND + B and end it with CONTROL/COMMAND + E.

Column/Track/Selection/Pattern Shortcuts

To quickly edit copy and paste in the pattern editor, you should memorize the basic editing shortcuts for different sections of a pattern:

• F1 + MODIFIER: Transpose one Note Down
• F2 + MODIFIER: Transpose one Note Up
• F3 + MODIFIER: Cut
• F4 + MODIFIER: Copy
• F5 + MODIFIER: Paste
• F6 + MODIFIER: Flip
• F11+ MODIFIER: Transpose one Octave Down
• F12 + MODIFIER: Transpose one Octave Up

Where MODIFIER is:

• ALT: Selection in the Pattern
• SHIFT: Current Track
• CONTROL: Whole Pattern
• CONTROL + SHIFT: Current Column

Drag & Drop of Selections

To quickly move and copy selection of notes or effects you can also use the mouse: First mark something in the pattern, the click and hold on the selected area with the mouse button. Then drag the selection to a new position. Holding down the CONTROL/COMMAND key while dropping will copy the selection instead of moving it.

Recording of Notes into Patterns

Instead of editing notes step by step you can of course also simply record what you play. This is done by playing back the song, enabling edit mode and then recording the notes you play. For a more detailed description take a look at the Recording and Editing Notes section in this manual.

Recording of Effects

Just like notes, to quickly record DSP parameters changes into pattern, you can click and drag any slider in the Track DSPs with the right mouse button. Again have a look at Recording and Editing Pattern Effects for a detailed description of this topic please.

Applying Effects

Finally, to get an overview of the available sample and other effects that are edited in the effect columns, have a look at Pattern Effect Commands please.