Tracker Interface

Tracker Interface

Time runs vertically in a tracker, moving down line-by-line from the top of a pattern/phrase to the bottom, triggering the sequence of notes and commands found in each line. Notes and effects are recorded into the tracker interface in the order that they are to be played back.

The Pattern Editor and Phrase Editor both organise their note and command data in the same way. A phrase can be thought of as a single track from the Pattern Editor.

Columns

There are two different types of column: Note and FX. Note-columns are used to record instruments by entering notes. They also have three extra sub-columns, which are used to control the volume, panning and delay parameters on a per-note basis. The panning and delay sub-columns are not visible by default. To show/hide them you can use the keyboard shortcuts, "Left Control/Command + Left Shift + V (Volume), P (Panning), D (Delay)", or you can press the corresponding buttons in the Phrase Editor Controls.

FX columns are used to apply Effect Commands that can affect the behaviour of Instruments. They are set up in the format: xxyy, where xx defines the effect type (e.g. pitch glide) and yy defines the effect's value (e.g. the rate of the pitch glide). There can be up to eight master effect-columns and an optional local effect-column for each note-column.

The image below illustrates the typical column layout:

• Note: e.g. C-4, A#3. The first two characters represent the musical note, while the third character is the octave number. The notes are not entered letter by letter like a text editor, but like a piano, using the computer keyboard or a MIDI master keyboard.
• Instrument/Sample Number: The instrument/sample that will play the note. This is automatically entered when the note is recorded, but it can be changed by hand.
• Volume: (00-80) - The note velocity/volume, where 00=minimum and 80=maximum. Additional effects can also be triggered from here.
• Panning: (00-80) - The panning of the note, where 00=full left, 40=center and 80=full right. In Renoise, this will only be applied to samples (MIDI and VST plugins will be unaffected by values in this sub-column). Additional effects can also be triggered from here.
• Delay: (00-FF) - A time delay added to the note, where 00 is no delay and FF will result in the note being delayed until immediately before the next line.
• Local FX: Effect Commands entered into this column will only affect the samples being played in this particular note column.
• Master FX: Effect Commands entered into this column will affect the entire phrase.

Adding / Removing Columns

To add/remove Note or FX columns, you can use the buttons at the top of the phrase.

Lines

Each individual pattern/phrase can have a different length, from 1 to 512 lines, which can be changed by altering the value in the box at the top left of the tracker interface:

Lines, Beats and Pattern Resolution

In the Transport Panel there is a "Lines per Beat" option, which changes the number of lines in the Pattern Editor that make up a musical beat. The higher the LPB, the greater the resolution available to you for editing notes, effects and automation. This can be also be adjusted as the song is playing via the Effect Command ZLxx, where xx is the new LPB value in hexadecimal.

By default the LPB is 4, meaning that placing a note on every highlighted line will create a simple 4/4 beat in a pattern that is 16 lines long. How many lines you use for a beat is totally up to you, but it can be important to get it correct if you're using Renoise to interact with other beat-based instruments or sequencers, (e.g. plugins which use beat timings) or when syncing a Renoise song with other applications via ReWire.

When working with time signatures other than 4/4, it's useful to set your number of lines in a pattern to a factor of the time signature's numerator multiplied by the LPB. For example, when working in 3/4 and a LBP of 4, you could use a pattern length of 12, 24 or 48; when working in 5/4 you could use a pattern length of 20 or 40 etc. This will allow you to place your notes on exact pattern lines without having to delay notes with the delay column.

You can turn off the LPB highlighting via the Song Options menu.