Configurations

There are many options you can configure in Renoise, some of which have nothing to do with sound or music.

  • Device Type - Determines the sound-driver used for input / output and how much delay to use.
  • In Device - (only appears when Direct Sound driver is selected) Selects recording device for the sample editor and #line-in routing device.
  • Out Device - Selects output source if you have multiple (ASIO supporting) audio devices.
  • Sample rate - Selects the sample rate for playback.
  • Latency - Controls latency buffering. A higher number will reduce any crackles, but also results in a less accurate response.
  • Use hardware buffers - These speed up playback processing, but some audiocards may mess up when recording. Experiment with using the sample recorder with this option first. If you experience strange results, then disable this funtion.
  • Limit to stereo in/out - (ASIO Only!) Only use the main line-in / out channel of the ASIO sound card, no other device lines are available for selection or routing.
  • Control panel - (ASIO Only!) Open ASIO driver control panel. (Not all audio cards allow changing ASIO preferences when it is in use by the audio app. Some preferences may be applied only when the app is restarted).
  • Cpu Load Threshold - Option to auto-panic when you have a CPU causing performance problems (usually when Renoise becomes unresponsive).
    • When the CPU is above - % value, For at least - msec value, then perform panic (instantly freeze all plugins).
  • Realtime audio CPUs - If you have a multicore CPU or you have a multi-CPU system, the number of utilized cores is adjustable. The default is, of course, all cores being used. The workload of the extra CPUs is divided across each set of four tracks. Then there is the workload that is being handled by plugins themselves as well. Not all plugins are capable of managing a multi-core CPU, e.g. many Synthedit plugins are known not to support multiCPU systems and may even crash the host.
  • Metronome - The Main click value controls the frequency of the stressed metronome click. The Sub click value determines the frequency of unstressed clicks occurring between each main click.
  • Master - Settings to apply to the Master track (Master output).
    • Dither - Dither sound-output.
    • DC Filter - Apply DC filter to overall sound output (may bring down peak-level point).
    • Soft clipping - Prevent occurrence of sound-clipping in mastertrack.
  • MIDI Master keyboard
    • In-Device A/B - Which MIDI Device to use for input / output.
    • Record and play velocities - Register velocity levels sent by the master keyboard.
    • Record and play program changes - Register program changes in the pattern editor when sent from the master keyboard.
    • Record and play controllers - Record MIDI controllers, like pitchbend / modwheel.
    • Record note offs - Add note-offs to the Pattern Editor if a key-release message is sent.
    • Ignore specific controllers - Prevent certain MIDI (CC) messages from being received/sent.
  • MIDI Clock Master
    • Out device - Determines the out device for MIDI clock data.
    • Send clock - Pulse for timing synchronisation
    • Send start/stop - Trigger to start / stop the external device
    • Send song position pointers - Send current song position to make the external device start/stop from the desired position (and remain in sync).
    • Send MIDI Machine Control (MMC) - Send specific device trigger messages to the external device.
  • Midi Clock Slave
    • In-Device - Selects the MIDI Device to slave to.
    • Offset - Delay compensation amount.


The Gui options supply you with several options to customize Renoise’s display behavior and global representation settings.

  • Global
    • Show tooltips - allows the display of tooltips when hovering above buttons in the application.
    • Enable Gui effects - Triggers various GUI transitions.
    • Use more compatible GFX updates - Specific trigger to supply a workaround for VST plugins that seem to update their GUI differently.
    • Frame Rate - Set the frame-update rate of the GUI. A lower number means the GUI will update in a choppier fashion, but this may free up more resources for audio processing.
  • Pattern editor
    • Delayed drag’n’drop If checked: When left-clicking upon a selected area, a small delay of a few msecs will pass before you can drag and drop the selected area. The checked mode corresponds to the old 1.9 behavior.
    • Framework - Show frames between tracks and around the pattern.
    • Hide 0′s in effect columns - Toggle between zeros and dots when effect column has no value.
    • View pattern continuously - Toggle next pattern / previous pattern visibility.
    • Syntax highlighting - Toggle on/off syntax highlighting for pattern data.
    • Position number format - Select hexadecimal number format or decimal number format.
    • Highlight lines default - Mark every x-line with a configured highlight color.
  • Pattern font
    • Horizontal spacing - Spacing between characters.
    • Vertical spacing - Spacing between rows.
    • Font size - Toggles between the large fontset and the regular one.
  • Scopes
    • Show tracknames in scopes - Display tracknames in the scope-panes.


Keyboard assignments

  • - Load a saved set of key-bindings.
  • - Save a custom set of key-bindings.
  • - Reset to default key-bindings.
  • - Display key-binding layout in default browser, with special print-layout (use print preview mode in browser).

To seek a specific function, click the searchbox on top of the binding-list and type your search-phrase.

(←The cross-button will clear the textbox)


The droplist shows the shortcut key assignments for each region (Global shortcuts are currently shown).
The bottom part of the panel displays the current assignment related to the choice made in the list. In the New assignment field, you can press any key-combo and it will indicate whether that key combination is already assigned and to what it is assigned. You can also clear the current assignment and do not assign this function to any shortcut at all. You can also assign keyboard shortcuts to functions that have no default short-cuts. Your configuration will be saved automatically when Renoise is closed.

To assign a keyboard shortcut, click on the text-field, then press your keyboard shortcut.
When done, click on Assign to submit the change.
Please notice the status of your shortcut combo. Renoise will indicate if any existing shortcuts conflict with your new assignment.

Tip: If you have a media keyboard, you may be able to assign Play/Pause etc. media keys to Renoise functions.
If your media keyboard is wireless, this may not work. But it is possible to assign keyboard shortcuts in the driver software designed for your keyboard to match the keyboard shortcuts used in Renoise.

  • Keyboard Repeat rates
    • Keyboard Repeat rate - Sets keyboard repeat rate.
  • Mouse Repeat rates
    • Leftclick repeat rate - Sets left-click repeat rate.
    • Rightclick repeat rate - Sets right-click repeat rate.


  • Color setting
    • Category
      • First droplist: Category
      • Second droplist: Category-option
      • Colour-box: Click to show the colourpicker. *
    • Mode
      • RGB - Use Red, Green, Blue as base options to configure application colors.
      • HSV - Use Hue, Saturation and Value as base options to configure application colors.
  • Color filter
    Apply Hue, Saturation and Value filtering to total configured color spectrum.
  • Graphics
    • Knobshade - Set the 3D-look of the buttons
    • Bodyshade - Set the 3D look of the panels and complete application-body
    • Textureset - Use a texture map for the application body

(*) If you click the colour-box, the colourpicker shows, you manually then don’t need to use the sliders to define the colour for your option.




  • Wave Import options
    • Ignore loops - Do not load saved loop-points within the wave file samples.
  • Raw audio import options
    • Bits - Set bit-rate of the raw sample (8 - 32 bit, signed and unsigned - if you know it).
    • Sample rate - Set the sample rate of the raw sample (if known).
    • Skip header bytes - Skip header bytes that are not part of the sample, yet unrecognizable by Renoise.
    • Big Endian - Trigger between Little Endian stored or Big Endian stored sample data.
  • Midi Import options
    • Create instruments - Create instruments based upon instruments from a MIDI file.
    • Create MIDICC devices - Create MIDICC devices for instruments that use these commands.
    • Speed - Set the amount of ticks to use per row.
    • Lines per pattern - Divide the partitures in xx-lines of patterns
    • Midi device - Choose MIDI device to select MIDI instruments from (and send output to).
  • Song/Instrument export options
    • Sample format - Save samples in Flac (up to 24-bit are exchangable with other applications), uncompressed wav or gzipped wav format.

I will add some extra information about the use of the raw audio import options. Some samples are simply not stored in a recognizable format. They may come from Amiga or other platforms that save samples in a proprietary format. However, if you know its frequency-rate, its bit-size, and its endian form, you can still load them up in Renoise. If you do not know these values, you can try guessing the different settings.

Some handy tips

  • If the sample sounds very distorted: try the opposite bit-size of the sample (unsigned instead of signed or vice versa) and fumble with the Endian trigger.
  • If your sample sounds too quick: try lowering the frequency rate or lowering the bit-size.
  • If it sounds too slow, raise the frequency rate or raise the bit-size.
  • You can try to skip “header bytes” or you can just cut them out in the sample-editor.


  • VST
    • Browse - Select folder where VST (instrument) plugins are.
    • Rescan - Rescan for new plugins (if you added any during Renoise run-time).
  • Backup
    • Autosave backup - Toggle autosave mode for backups.
    • Save while playing - Save while song plays.
      Note When saving while playing, VSTI playback is deactivated during save which is nessesary as there are known VSTI plugins that crash Renoise during saving.
    • Every x minutes - Autosave every x minutes. if save while playing is off it will save at the interval when the song is manually stopped by the user so if you save each minute and the song plays at save time, it skips saving and saves at the second minute if the song is stopped at that moment. Renoise does not autostop the song for saving. (in discussion:Renoise does not save during Record mode.)
    • Keep x backups - Keep x separate copies of the backup.
    • Save at - Save the backups to a custom place (by default it saves it next to the song in its own folder).
  • Misc
    • Autoplay song after loading - Play songs when loaded into Renoise.
    • Stop playing notes on pattern sequence navigation - Kill output when changing song position in sequence editor (noteoffs are send to all playing instruments).
    • Update automation on row position changes - Perform (interpolated) automation values while editing.
    • Space rec/stop mode
      • Renoise - Play song / stop song from start of pattern / song position (whether record mode on or off).
      • FT2 - Toggle record mode (same as using escape-key).
    • Default Trackmute mode
      • Mute - Track is played, but will not be heard.
      • Off - Track will not be played.

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