Sampler Waveform

Sample Editor

Renoise has a strong focus on samples as instruments, featuring many pattern effects to modify their playback, and to aid with this there is a built-in Sample Editor. New samples (mostly for short looping wavetable) can also be created here with the simple drawing function.

Any changes made within the Sample Editor are exclusive to the samples of that particular Renoise song. The source samples are never modified unless you explicitly save and overwrite the file by saving it in the Disk Browser. Besides being non-destructive to the sample files, the Sample Editor also supports full and endless undo/redo-ing. This can create an unwanted overhead when used with very large samples, so this feature can be disabled. See below for more information.

Overview

The editor is divided into three parts:

1. The upper bar with the sample selection options, sample name, rate and bit-depth on the left. The draw, slice and snapping controls on the right.
2. The central area displaying the waveform with two horizontal rulers along the top and bottom. Here you view the sample that is currently selected and choose what you want to edit. Loop points and slice markers are also displayed here.
3. The lower section featuring the buttons and options used to edit or modify the sample.

Wave View

Upper and Lower Rulers

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

Lower Zoom Bar

As an alternative to using the mouse or keyboard shortcuts to navigate around in the waveform, you can use the zoom-bar beneath the Lower Ruler to scroll or zoom. Drag the bar in the middle to scroll and drag the handles to extend/shrink the waveform view. Clicking on a free space next to the bar will jump a page in that direction.

Navigate Using the Mouse

• Left Mouse Button:
  • Single-click sets an offset/cursor position.
  • Click and drag spans an area in the editor. In a stereo sample, moving the mouse pointer above/below the top/bottom 0dB line will allow you to select the left or right channel only.
  • Click and drag with "Left Shift" extends/shrinks either side of the selection area.
  • Double-click selects the entire visible area of the waveform.
  • Click, drag and move the cursor outside the wave editor to the left or right to zoom out. Holding down "Left Control" while doing so will speed up the zooming. Holding down "Left Shift" while doing so will scroll instead of zoom.

• Right Mouse Button:
  • Single-click opens a context menu.
  • Click and drag extends/shrinks either side of the selection area (same as left-click and drag with "Left Shift").
  • Click, drag and move the cursor outside the wave editor to the left or right to zoom out. Holding down "Left Control" while doing so will speed up the zooming. Holding down "Left Shift" while doing so will scroll instead of zoom.

• Middle Mouse Button:
  • Single-click a point in the sample: Plays the sample from the clicked position to the end of the visible waveform.
  • Click and drag plays the selected area of waveform.

• Scroll Wheel:
  • Zoom in/out of the waveform view.
  • Hold "Left Alt" while scrolling to scroll horizontally instead of zooming.

Note that the waveform view will zoom from the position of the mouse pointer. So, to get a closer look of a specific area, hold the mouse pointer over that area and start scrolling with the mouse wheel.

Navigate Using Keyboard Shortcuts

• Arrow Left/Right: Move cursor to the left/right. In combination with "Left Shift", a selection is created.
• Arrow Down/Up: Move cursor up/down (in a stereo sample).
• Control/Command + Arrow Down/Up: Zoom in/out at the cursor position.
• PageDown/PageUp: Zoom in/out vertically.
• Home/End Key: Move cursor to the start/end of the waveform. In combination with "Left Shift", a selection is created.
• Enter: Play/restart the sample from cursor position.

Default operations such as Copy/Paste ("Left Control/Command + C", "Left Control/Command + V") etc. are available as well.

Drawing

With Draw Mode File:Vvoois renoise se draw.png enabled you can freely draw on the central sample waveform area with the mouse. Simply hold down the left mouse button and drag to draw. This can be incredibly useful for making adjustments to existing sounds, such as removing clicks.

To draw a brand new sample, enable draw mode, select an empty instrument slot and then draw in the waveform area. You will then be prompted to create a new sample, whose parameters you can adjust via the dialog box.

Slice Markers

With Renoise's slice markers you can non-destructively split a sample in slices, which can correspond to individual drum hits, notes, vocal phrases etc. You are then able to trigger them from the keyboard or via the 0Sxx Pattern Effect Command, where the xx value corresponds to a particular slice.

The slicing controls are located at the top right of the Sample Editor interface. As you add slices to the sample, the Keyzones editor will automatically lay these out across the keyboard according to its current Drum Kit settings, allowing you to trigger each slice from a different key on the keyboard.

The individual sample slots in a sliced sample cannot be directly edited. However, all sample options like looping, volume, pan etc. are editable per slice. A newly created slice will inherit the master sample's Instrument Settings values.

Left-click dragging on the slice tabs at the top of the waveform will allow you to move the markers around. Right-clicking on a slice tab will bring up a menu with the option to select all markers, delete the current marker or delete all markers.

To destructively render an instrument's slices into individual samples, right-click on the waveform and select "Slices > Destructively Render Slices" from the menu.

Slice Controls

• File:2.7 sample editor slice button.png - Activating the Slice button will change the mouse pointer to the Slice Marker Tool. With this you can left-click on the waveform to slice it into different sections.
• File:2.7 sample editor auto slice button.png - Automatically insert markers into the waveform at points where beats/transients are detected.
• File:2.7 sample editor auto slice peak detection ratio.png - The sensitivity of the auto-slicing beat detection can be adjusted using this value box. Higher values will lead to more markers being inserted.
• File:2.7 sample editor slice termination mode.png - Toggles whether a slice will continue playing the rest of the waveform once it has reached the end or not.

Snapping

The Snapping controls are located at the top right of the Sample Editor interface.

Snapping applies to the waveform when selecting with the mouse, using keyboard shortcuts to navigate, and when applying and dragging loop points. It can be useful to have "0 Crossing" enabled, as this will ensure that cutting and pasting parts of a sample do not produce clicks in the audio, because the start and end points will always match up at 0.

Selecting "0S Effect" will snap to the 0S markers typically shown along the bottom of the waveform, while selecting "Markers" will cause the selection to "stick" to sample slice markers as the mouse pointer approaches them.

Snapping to beats (the length of time for a single beat) is useful when cutting out beats from loops, in combination with the "Copy Into New Instrument" context menu/keyboard shortcut.

Zooming

The Zooming controls are located at the bottom right of the Sample Editor interface.

• File:2.8 sampleeditor-zoomout.png - View full sample (zoom out to show the whole sample, horizontally and vertically).
• File:2.8 sampleeditor-zoominv.png - Zoom in one step vertically.
• File:2.8 sampleeditor-zoomoutv.png - Zoom out one step vertically.

Processing Buttons and Options

Most processing options below which change the sample (Cut/Copy/Paste or Fading) will apply to the whole sample unless a specific area has been selected.

Undo/Redo Support

• File:Vvoois renoise se trigger undo.png - Enable/disable undo in the Sample Editor. When working with very large samples, temporarily disabling undo may be useful to save time. Renoise saves all undo/redo processing on disk, so running out of memory should not be a problem.

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 change basic sample properties here:

File:Vvoois renoise se sample properties.png

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

File:Vvoois renoise se sample create.png

Cut/Copy/Paste

• File:2.8 sampleeditor-cut.png - Cuts the selection or the whole sample if nothing is selected.
• File:2.8 sampleeditor-crop.png - Crop to selection (delete everything outside of the selection).
• File:2.8 sampleeditor-mixpaste.png - Mix-Paste the clipboard content with the selection.

Amplitude

• File:2.8 sampleeditor-volume.png - Change the volume of the sample or selection (will open up a dialog to specify the exact amount).
• File:2.8 sampleeditor-maximize.png - Raises the volume of the sample or selection to the maximum possible value without clipping.
• File:2.8 sampleeditor-silence.png - Inserts silence into the selected range, or silences the whole sample if no range is selected.

Fading

• File:2.8 sampleeditor-fadein.png - Fade the sample in linearly (you can also fade in logarithmically via the context menu or shortcuts).
• File:2.8 sampleeditor-fadeout.png - Fade the sample out linearly (you can also fade out logarithmically via the context menu or shortcuts).

Reverse & Swap

• File:2.8 sampleeditor-reverse.png - Reverses the sample or selection.
• File:2.8 sampleeditor-dcoffset.png - Centre the sample or selection to the DC-line. Fixes vertical DC offsets.
• File:2.8 sampleeditor-invertphase.png - Inverts the phase of the sample or selection.
• File:2.8 sampleeditor-swapchannels.png - Swaps the left and right channels of the sample or selection. Only possible for stereo samples.

Process Track FX

• File:2.8 sampleeditor-fx.png - Apply the current track's DSP effect chain to the sample. This way you can apply native or plugin effects directly to the sample's waveform. Note that this will not extend the length of the sample (in the case of reverbs, delays etc. where the effect lasts longer than the original sample length).
• File:2.8 sampleeditor-smooth.png - Smooths the sample. A simple interpolation which removes hiss and sharp edges from the waveform. Useful to smooth out hand-drawn samples.

Loop Controls

• File:2.8 sampleeditor-loopstart.png - Set loop start point from the current cursor position. When a selection is present, the loop start and end points will be set to the selection area.
• File:2.8 sampleeditor-loopend.png - Set loop end point from the current cursor position. When a selection is present, the loop start and end points will be set to the selection area.
• File:2.8 sampleeditor-loopcontinue.png - Toggles whether a sample will finish its current loop upon a Note OFF.

• File:Vvoois renoise se looptype.png - Set the loop type or turn it off.

• File:2.8 sampleeditor-loopfineeditor.png - Enable/disable the Loop Fine Editor.

Play/Stop and Record

• File:2.8 sampleeditor-crossfadeloop.png - Automatically creates a smooth cross-faded loop for you.
• File:Vvoois renoise se play stop.png - Start/Stop playing sample from the cursor position to the end of the visible waveform, or Start/Stop playing the selection if one is present.
• File:Vvoois renoise se note.png - Set the note that will be played when pressing the Play button or pressing "Enter".
• File:2.8 sampleeditor-prehear.png - Select where the sample will be played back: On the Master Track to bypass the current track's effects, or on the selected track to hear the sample with the currently active effects.
• File:2.8 sampleeditor-record.png - Open up the record dialog box, to record new samples from various sources (e.g. microphone, line-in etc.).

Current Selection Range Indicator

• File:Vvoois renoise se offset.png - Next to the record button, the current cursor position or selection range positions are shown in the format of the Lower Ruler. To change the format, right-click on the Lower Ruler and choose from the list.

Loop Fine Editor

The Loop Fine Editor shows you a sample-precise overview of the loop start and end points, which is extremely useful for creating smooth loops. In most cases, loops should start and end at the same amplitude value to avoid clicks.

File:2.7 sample editor loop fine editor.png

Mix-Paste and other Copy/Paste Operations

Mix-Paste

Renoise offers a simple Mix-Paste functionality. To use it, simply copy a sample or a selection of a sample into the clipboard, then click on Mix-Paste. A dialog will appear that offers options on how to mix the clipboard content with the existing content:

File:Vvoois renoise se mix paste dialog.png

Copy Into New Sample/Instrument

You can automatically copy regions of a sample into either a new sample in the current instrument or a new instrument. This is done via the right-click context menu or keyboard shortcuts. This can be very useful when copying parts of a large sample for further playback and editing.

Copy/Paste With External Sample Editors (Windows only)

Renoise shares its clipboard content with the system on Windows, meaning you can quickly swap around sample data to and from Renoise when using an external sample editor that supports this feature. In many external editors you have to select/activate this feature first. To find out how to do this, please look at the external editor's manual and search for the keywords: "System Clipboard", "Copy".

Recording New Samples

Renoise allows you to create new samples by recording them from various sources, including a line-in jack or microphone. To do so, press the small File:Vvoois renoise se record button.png record button. Alternatively, you can open the record dialog by choosing, "File->Record New Sample..." from the main menu.

Bringing up the record dialog and controlling the main record options can be mapped to a MIDI Controller with the MIDI Mapping options. This way you can quickly make new recordings using just your MIDI controller or master keyboard. To map the opening and closing of the record panel, switch over to the Sample Editor before opening the MIDI Mappings.

To record new samples in Renoise, you first have to configure the device you want to use for recording, which is done via the "Edit->Preferences->Audio" panel. This is only necessary when using DirectSound (Windows), Core Audio (OSX) or ALSA (Linux). ASIO is pre-configured to be used as a recording and playback source. When your soundcard has more than one input channel, you will be able to set this as the input device in the Audio Preferences, or you can select this in the recording dialog.

Recording Controls

• File:Vvoois renoise se recorder vu meter.png

This VU meter displays incoming audio activity, allowing you to monitor the signal and make adjustments if necessary. The speaker button enables you to listen to the input through Renoise while recording.

• File:Vvoois renoise se recorder channel.png

Select which channel you would like to record: left, right or both (stereo).

• File:Vvoois renoise se recorder device.png

Select the audio device that will be the source for the recording.

• File:Vvoois renoise se recorder fx routing.png

Select the track DSP effect chain (the list displays all tracks in the song) that will be applied to the recording, or just to the the preview of the recording.

• Sync start & stop:
  • None - No quantization is applied. Hitting start or stop will start/stop recording immediately.
  • Pattern - Applies quantization from the start to the end of the current pattern. When the song or pattern plays, recording will be started or stopped only at pattern boundaries or block loops. This is useful to record "live" e.g. playing a guitar riff along to your Renoise song. The resulting samples can then be placed into the patterns and will always match your song.
• Record Dry (monitor FX): When enabled, the input signals are recorded without the Track FX applied, but will be previewed with them. This way you can hear and record exactly what will be played later when adding the recorded sample to the selected track.
• Create a new instrument: When enabled, each recording is placed into an new instrument slot in the Instrument Selector, so you can simply hit start/stop again and again to create multiple takes without overwriting anything.
• Compensate input and output latencies: When enabled, the latency of your soundcard will automatically be compensated when creating synced recordings.
• Extra Latency (ms): Soundcards or other devices can introduce latencies that Renoise may not be aware of. When your recordings are slightly out of sync on playback, you can manually compensate the latency offset of future recordings here.

• File:Vvoois renoise se recorder start.png Start or stop the recording (changes into "Stop" when recording has started).

• File:Vvoois renoise se recorder done.png Closes the recorder window when no recording is taking place. While recording, this will "Cancel" the current recording.

Recording Without Quantization

Once everything is set up, hit "Start" to begin recording. A red border will appear around the dialog box to indicate that recording is active. To stop recording and load the sample into the instrument slot, simply hit the "Stop" button. Currently active recordings can be thrown away by pressing "Cancel".

Recording With Quantization

When using the quantization (sync start/stop) option, Renoise will make sure that recordings are started or stopped at pattern boundaries only. To use the sync you have to start playing the song first. A green bar will then show the current playback progress.