Render or Freeze Plugin Instruments to Samples

Rendering Plugin Instruments To Sample Based Instruments

The Plugin Grabber in Renoise allows you to create sample based instruments out of any plug-in based instruments (like VSTi or Audio Units). You can also quickly render and replace replace a plug-in instruments this way.

Replacing a plugin with samples has several advantages: When sharing your Renoise XRNS song file, your song can be opened and played back on any computer which has Renoise on it, and does not need the plug-in to be installed. Sample based instruments also always use less CPU than plug-ins, because samples simply can be played back and pitched instead of being synthesized and generated on the fly.

When not replacing, but creating new instruments with the grabber, you can quickly sample your favorite synthesizer sounds and create a small sample library out of it for later processing and sound mangling. Samples in Renoise also can be manipulated in many ways which you can't with the real plug-ins. You can for example control the playback pitch, direction and offset at any time in the pattern with Renoises Sample Pattern Effect Commands. So you can use some plug-ins as a base for new sample creation.

Replacing a plugin with samples also has disadvantages you should be aware of: Automation of synth parameters with for example a Automation Device will only work with the original plugin. Also samples always are limited in length. Even though you can apply cross fading to create smooth loops in Renoise with the grabber, such automatic loops may not always sound like the original.

Opening the Plugin Grabber Dialog

To directly replace and sample a plugin instrument, you can use the record button in the Instrument Settings. Left clicking the record button will setup the grabber to replace the plugin (render the plugin and then unload it). Right clicking it will setup the grabbed to render the plugin into a new (render it into a not yet used instrument).

Alternatively you can also right click plugin instrument based instruments in the Instrument Selector and then choose "Render Plugin To Instrument..." or "Render Plugin To New Instrument...".

Finally you can also bring up the grabber in the main "File" -> "Render Plugin To Instrument..." main menu.

Overview

Instrument Selection

• Source: The plug-in that should be rendered. Only plug-in instruments that can be grabbed will show up in this list. Plug-in aliases and plug-in FX aliases can not be grabbed explicitly, and thus will also not be included.
• Destination: Where the resulting samples should be placed to after rendering. "Current instrument" will overwrite the source instrument.
• Remove the source plugin after rendering: When enabled, the plug-in will be unloaded, removed from memory after the rendering successfully finished. Unloading the plug-in can be undone just like everything can be in Renoise. So if you're not happy with the rendering result you can rewind this action without loosing any plug-in settings.

Note: All those options will be set up for you automatically when either left or right clicking the record button in the Instrument Settings. You still can change them afterward if you're planing to record a batch of instruments without having to close and reopen the grabber.

MIDI Options

• Range:
• Step:
• Velocity:

Sampling Options

• Auto-loop samples (cross-fade):
• Duration:
• Tail:
• Fadeout Tail:

Sampling Format

• Bit depth: