Sampler Waveform

From Renoise User Manual
Revision as of 18:58, 11 April 2011 by imported>Achenar
Jump to: navigation, search

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 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 draw 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.
  3. The lower section featuring the buttons and options used to edit or modify the sample.


Snapping, Zooming, Drawing and Sample Properties

  • File:Vvoois renoise se draw.png - When enabled, you can freely draw on the sample waveform with the mouse. Simply hold down the mouse button and drag to draw. When disabled, the mouse is used to select and scroll the waveform.
  • File:2.7 sample editor snapping modes.png - Snapping applies to the waveform when: selecting with the mouse, using keyboard shortcuts to navigate around in the sample, 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. Snapping to beats is useful when cutting out beats from loops, in combination with the "Copy to new Instrument" context menu/keyboard shortcut.


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:

File:Vvoois renoise sample editor ruler options.png

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.
    • 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: Zoom in/out at the cursor position.
  • 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.


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

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

Amplitude & Offset

Fading

Reverse & Swap

Process Track FX

  • File:Vvoois renoise se trackfx.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:Vvoois renoise se 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:Vvoois renoise se 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:Vvoois renoise se loop end.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.
  • - Toggles whether a sample will finish its current loop upon a Note-Off.

Play/Stop and Record

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.


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 if you want to slice up a loop and create a drum-kit from the selections, or when copying parts of a large sample for further playback and editing.


Copying/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".


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


Slicing Samples

The slicing controls are located at the top right of the Sample Editor. Activating the Slice button File:2.7 sample editor slice button.png will change the mouse pointer to the Slice Marker Tool. With this you can slice the waveform into different sections with a simple left click. 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 the right of the Slice tool is the Auto Slice button File:2.7 sample editor auto slice button.png, which will automatically insert markers into the waveform at points where it detects beats/transients. The sensitivity of this detection can be adjusted using the value box to the right. Higher values will insert more markers. File:2.7 sample editor auto slice peak detection ratio.png

To select the waveform area of only a specific slice, hold "Left-Ctrl/Cmnd" and double click the desired region.

The sliced sections can be played and recorded using their assigned keys, as shown in the Sample Keyzones tab. Each slice is automatically given a number according to the order that they appear in time. This number can be used to trigger a particular slice using the 09xx Pattern Effect Command.

The final option, to the right of Auto Slice File:2.7 sample editor slice termination mode.png, changes whether a slice will continue playing the rest of the waveform once it has reached the end of its own section.

Note that a newly created slice will inherit the initial sample's Instrument Settings values.