Recording / Editing Pattern Data In Renoise

Recording and editing are both done in the same mode and this may be a bit confusing at first, i shall start with the most obvious one which is just editing / manipulate data in the pattern editor…

Turn on edit mode:
Press the [Esc] key on your keyboard or click the record button in the player controls (highlighted icon in the circle)


A red border (emphasized) appears around the pattern editor indicating that any form of input will be registered / modified at the cursor position…

vvoois_renoise_record_mode_pattern_editor.png

You can now edit notes and values by hand or by keyboard.

Recording during song/pattern play: Press [Esc], then [Right Alt] for pattern record or [Right Ctrl] for song

You can now record notes (polyphonic/single notes) into the track your cursor is currently located in using the keyboard.

Note that pressing [Right Shift] will instantly start song record mode (edit mode and songplay will be triggered at once).

For more precise details read below and click any highlightable link for definition-details.

Though Renoise currently does not have a piano-roll, you can still record live notes in it. From Renoise 1.5 and higher, you can record note-delays, which gives you more space to have your keystrokes recorded more naturally than when you had to expand your tracks and set your song-speed very high. If this edit mode is set to on, keystrokes that fall out of the first strike of the line will be set to that line with the delay-factor it was recorded.

Still setting a higher speed can improve precision of recording, but is not that nessessary anymore it was with versions 1.281 and lower.


Polyphonic recording vs. Single note-sequence recording
Because when you enter notes polyphonically during edit mode, subtracks are automatically added;

With Renoise 1.281 and earlier, you had to turn on keyjazz to be able to record polyphonically.
In Renoise 1.5, this situation is was changed as keyjazz is always on.
Since Renoise 1.8, keyjazz returned in the form of a Chord-button ().


How to record Sequentially?

  • First turn on Edit Mode ().
  • Toggle the Chord-button to Off ().

When Renoise is in edit-mode and your pattern or sequence is being played, your keystrokes are recorded sequentially. If you press a full chord on your (MIDI)keyboard, all notes will be inserted in a sequential order, in this way you can quickly create an arpeggio with one stroke on your (MIDI)keyboard.


How to record polyphonically?

  • First turn on Edit Mode ().
  • Toggle the Chord-button to On ().
  • Be sure that Pattern Follow-Mode is being turned on as well ().
    Without Pattern Follow-Mode being turned on, polyphonic recording shall NOT work regardless of the Chord-Button’s current state.

When Renoise is in edit-mode and your pattern or sequence is being played, your polyphonic keystrokes are recorded automaticly.

If Renoise is currently not playing your pattern or song-sequences, the input mode will behave the same as if you would sequentially insert the notes (See How to record Sequentially above.)

Manual chord insertion
If you want to insert a chord into the pattern editor while edit-mode is on but your track is currently not in play-mode, keep the left shift-key pressed, then strike your chord at the line you want it to insert. Release the shift-key to make Renoise advance to the next edit-step position.