Sampler Waveform

Sample Editor

Renoise has a strong focus on samples as instruments. A lot of pattern FX allow you to mangle and modify sample playback on the fly, thus there is also a built in sample editor present to modify, edit and create samples on the fly without having to leave Renoise. New small samples (mostly for short looping wavetable) can also be created, via a simple "draw" functionality.

Please note: Whatever you do with the sample editor in Renoise, the source samples on disk are never modified unless you explicitly save and overwrite the file by saving it in the disk browser. This means all sample editor actions are non destructive to the original sample files. Renoise songs are self contained, just like Renoise instrument files are, so they always contain a copy of the sample. The sample you are editing in the sample, is the one that Renoise has in its memory, not the one on disk and not the one in the song or instrument you've loaded.

Beside of being non destructive to the sample files, Renoises sample editor also supports full and endless undo/redoing. So any changes can be undone. Because undo/redo on very large samples can sometimes create an unwanted overhead, undo redo can also be disabled, just for samples. See below for more info.

Overview

File:Vvoois renoise sample editor.png

The editor is divided into three parts:

1. The upper bar with the samples name and a few properties like sample rate, bit depth on the left. Snapping, zoom and draw controls on the right.
2. The wave view with two rulers is the center of the editor. Here you do select what you want to edit, view the sample that is currently loaded.
3. The lower part of the editor, with lots of buttons to do something with the sample or parts/selection. We'll describe the available processing functions in detail later on.

Snapping, Zooming, Drawing and Sample Properties

• File:Vvoois renoise se draw.png - When enabled, you can freely draw within the sample wave with the mouse. Simply hold down the mouse button and drag it to draw. When disabled, the mouse is used to select and scroll in the wave view.

• File:Vvoois renoise se snap20.png - Snapping applies in the wave view when either using the mouse to select or click, or when using keyboard shortcuts to navigate around in the sample. It also applies when dragging loop points. Its always a good idea to have snapping to 0 enabled. This will ensure that cut and pasting parts of a sample does not result into clicks (because start and end points always start/end up in 0). Snapping to beats is useful when slicing out beats from loops (also in combination with the "Copy to new Instrument" context menu / keyboard shortcuts).

• File:Vvoois renoise se zoom selection.png - Zoom to the currently selected area
• File:Vvoois renoise se zoom in.png - Zoom one step in
• File:Vvoois renoise se zoom out.png - Zoom one step out
• File:Vvoois renoise se view full.png - View full sample (zoom out to show the whole sample, horizontally and vertically)
• File:Vvoois renoise se zoom in vert.png - Zoom in one step vertically
• File:Vvoois renoise se zoom out vert.png - Zoom out one step vertically

Wave View

Upper and Lower Rulers

You can set the upper and lower rulers display measure individually from each other by right-clicking them and selecting an option in the context menu:

Lower Zoom Bar

Alternatively to using the mouse or shortcuts to navigate around in the sample, you can directly use the zoom bar to scroll or zoom. Drag the bar in the middle to scroll. Drag the handles to zoom/extend and shrink the sample view. Clicking on a free space next to the bar will jump page wise in the display.

Navigate Using the Mouse

• Left Mouse Button
  • Single-click sets an offset/cursor position
  • Click and drag spans an area in the editor
  • Click and drag with SHIFT: Extends either the left or right side of the selection area
  • Double-click selects everything in the display
  • Moving the cursor outside the wave editor, zooms up to give more room in the display. Holding down CONTROL will avoid zooming and scroll instead.

• Right Mouse Button
  • Single-click opens a context menu
  • Click and drag extends either the left or right side of the selection area (same as holding down SHIFT and dragging with the left mouse button)
  • Moving the cursor outside the wave editor, zooms up to give more room in the display. Holding down CONTROL will avoid zooming and scroll instead.

• Middle Mouse Button
  • Single-click a point in the sample - Play the sample from the clicked position to the end of the display
  • Click and drag plays the sample in the selection

• Scroll Wheel
  • Zoom the sample view with the mouse wheel.
  • Hold ALT while scrolling to scroll horizontally instead of zooming

Note that the wave view zooms at the point where the mouse cursor points to: So, to get a closer look-up of a region hold the cursor above that area, then start scrolling with the mouse whee to zoom.

Navigate Using Keyboard Shortcuts

• Arrow Left / Arrow Right: Move cursor to the left / right. With SHIFT a selection is created.
• Arrow Down / Arrow Up: Zoom In/Out at the cursor position
• Home Key / End Key: Move cursor to the display start or end. With SHIFT a selection is created.
• Enter: Play or stop playing the sample from cursor position

Default operations like Copy/Paste (CONTROL/COMMAND + C, CONTROL/COMMAND + V) and so on are available as well. Hover the mouse over the processing button or open the context menu for more keyboard shortcut tips.

Processing Buttons and Options

Please Note: Most processing options below that change the sample (like Cut/Copy/Paste or Fading) will either apply on the whole sample, when no selection is set, or will apply on the selection, when a selection is present.

Undo/Redo Support

• File:Vvoois renoise se trigger undo.png - Enable / disable undo in the sample editor. When working with very large sample, temporarily disabling undo may be useful to save a bit of time. Renoise saves all undo/redo processing on disk, so running out of memory should not be a problem. By default it does not hurt to have undo enabled.

Create / Adjust Sample Properties

• File:Vvoois renoise se properties.png / File:Vvoois renoise se create.png- edit sample properties / create new sample.

When a sample is loaded, you can setup/change basic sample properties, like the amount of channels and sample rate here:

File:Vvoois renoise se sample properties.png

When no sample is loaded, you can create a new sample. This is especially useful to create small looped hand-drawn samples:

File:Vvoois renoise se sample create.png

Cut/Copy/Paste

• File:Vvoois renoise se cut.png - Cuts the selection or the whole sample if nothing is selected.

• File:Vvoois renoise se crop.png - Crop to selection (delete everything outside of the selection)

• File:Vvoois renoise se copy.png - Copy the selection / complete sample into the clipboard

• File:Vvoois renoise se paste.png - Paste the clipboard content into the selection or at the current cursor point.

• File:Vvoois renoise se mix paste.png - Mix Paste the clipboard content with the selection

Amplitude & Offset

• File:Vvoois renoise se adjust volume.png - Change the volume for the sample or selection (will open up a dialog to specify the exact amount)

• File:Vvoois renoise se maximize.png - Change the volume of the sample so that it uses the maximum possible volume without clipping.

• File:Vvoois renoise se dc offset.png - Center sample to the DC-line. Fix vertical "offsets" in the sample.

Fading

• File:Vvoois renoise se fade in.png - Fade the sample linearly in (via the context menu or shortcuts you can also fade in logarithmically)

• File:Vvoois renoise se fade out.png - Fade the sample linearly out (via the context menu or shortcuts you can also fade out logarithmically)

• File:Vvoois renoise se crossfade.png - Mix the left part of the selection with the right part of the selection by fading them together. This is useful to create smooth loops. Try cross fading the loop range only.

Reverse & Swap

• File:Vvoois renoise se reverse.png - Reverse sample, selection in the sample.
• File:Vvoois renoise se stereo reverse.png - Cross-reverse the sample of selection. Reverses each stereo channel oppositely.

Process Track FX

• File:Vvoois renoise se trackfx.png - Apply the current tracks DSP (as set up in the Track DSP tab) on the sample. This way you can apply any of Renoises built in effects or any plugin effects directly to the sample.

• File:Vvoois renoise se smooth.png - Smooth the sample. A simply interpolation which removes hiss and edges form the sample. Especially useful to smooth hand drawn samples a bit.

Loop Controls

• File:Vvoois renoise se loopstart.png - Set loop start from the current cursor. When a selection is present, the loop start and end will be set.
• File:Vvoois renoise se loop end.png - Set loop end from the current cursor. When a selection is present, the loop start and end will be set.

• File:Vvoois renoise se looptype.png - Setup or disable the sample loop (Forward, Reverse, and Ping-Pong).

• File:Vvoois renoise se toggle loopeditor.png - Enable/Disable the loop fine editor (see #Loop_Fine_Editor)

Play/Stop and Record

• File:Vvoois renoise se play stop.png - Start/Stop playing from the cursor position to the display end or play the selection
• File:Vvoois renoise se note.png - Setup the note that should be playd when hitting the play button or pressing ENTER
• File:Vvoois renoise se prehear.png - Setup where the sample should be played back: On the master track to bypass the current tracks FX. On the selected track, to hear the sample with the currently active FX

• File:Vvoois renoise se record.png - Open up the record dialog, to record new samples from the LineIn or Microphone

Current Selection Range Indicator

• File:Vvoois renoise se offset.png - Next to the record button, the currently set cursor position or selection start and end are shown in the lower rulers format. To change the format, right click on the lower ruler an choose a new format, like samples, minutes or 09 pattern command offsets.

Mix Paste and other Copy/Paste Operations

Mix Paste

Renoise offers a simple mix paste functionality. TO use it simply copy a part or whole sample into the clipboard first, then click on mix paste. A dialog will pops up that offers some options on how to mix the clipboard content with the exiting content:

File:Vvoois renoise se mix paste dialog.png

Copy Into New Sample/Instrument

Via the context menu or keyboard shortcuts you can also automatically copy regions of a sample into either a new sample in the current instrument or a new instrument. This can be very useful if you want to slice up a loop and create a drum kit out of it. Or when copying parts of a large sample for further playback or editng.

Copying/Paste With External Sample Editors (Windows only)

Renoise shares its clipboard content with the system on windows, which means you can quickly swap around sample data from and to Renoise when using an external sample editor which also supports this feature. In many external editors you do have to select/activate this feature some where first. Please have a look into your editors manual, by looking up the keywords: "System Clipboard", "Copy".

Loop Fine Editor

The loop fine editor shows you an exact sample precise overview of the loop start and end points. This is very useful to create smooth loop. Loops should in most cases start and end at the sample amplitude values in the sample to avoid clicks. The Loop fine editor give you an overview of exactly this.

File:Vvoois renoise se loopedit.png