Instruments

Instruments

An instrument in Renoise may contain one or any combination of samples, plugins and MIDI, and each type can be edited by selecting the appropriate tab from the top left of the Renoise interface. To edit an existing Renoise instrument or create a new one, select a slot from the list in the Instrument Selector panel. Instruments can also make use of the Phrase Editor to compose musical phrases and then activate them when specific notes are played.

An instrument in Redux is mostly identical to a sample-based instrument in Renoise, but with more emphasis on the use the use of phrases.

Instrument Properties

Renoise

An instrument's properties affects the audio produced by all three sources. You will find these options at the top right of the instrument editor.

• Volume: The instrument's volume.
• Pitch: The instrument's pitch, in semi-tonal increments.
• Scale: Playing and recording notes is restricted to a chosen scale by forcing notes that are not part of the scale (shown as red on the keyboard) to play as ones that are. When a scale is selected, an additional option for choosing the scale's key will appear at the left.
• Quantize: The time resolution of quantization. Choose from Line, Beat or Bar.
• Mono: When playing/recording notes, this restricts the instrument to using only a single note at once. Simultaneous notes in the Pattern Editor will still be played.
• Hold: When playing/recording notes, Note-Off (key release) messages are ignored and the instrument continues playing until the note is pressed a second time. Note-Offs in the Pattern Editor will behave as normal.

You can also access these options in the Instrument Properties section under the Instrument Selector.

Redux

An instrument's properties are global controls used to affect the sound and behaviour of the entire instrument. You will find these options at the top of the Redux interface.

• Scaling: When a scale is selected, this option chooses the scale's key.
• Scale: Playing and recording notes is restricted to a chosen scale by forcing notes that are not part of the scale (shown as red on the keyboard) to play as ones that are.
• Quantize: The time resolution of quantization. Choose from Line, Beat or Bar.
• Mono: When playing/recording notes, this restricts the instrument to using only a single note at once. Simultaneous notes in the Phrase Editor will still be played.
• Glide: Only applies when Mono is on. Any value other than 'Off' will glide the pitch between held notes without re-triggering the instrument's Modulation envelopes. The higher the value, the quicker the glide. GFF will be instantaneous.
• Volume: The instrument's volume.
• Pitch: The instrument's pitch, in semi-tonal increments.

Detaching The Editor (Renoise Only)

Just above the instrument properties and to the left of the Scopes options is the Detach button. It opens the instrument editor in a completely separate window, which can be moved around and resized. There are also additional buttons at the window's top right corner for minimizing, maximizing and closing. Clicking Attach will reattach the window to the main interface.

Scopes (Renoise Only)

The Scopes provide a visual representation of your song, allowing you to examine the frequency and amplitude of the final audio signal or see what's currently happening in each individual track. The icons for toggling the Scopes can be found near the top right of the interface:

• - Show the Track Scopes.
• - Show the Master Spectrum.
• - Open or close the Scopes/Spectrum panel. Note you can have them independently open or closed for the main interface and the Instrument Editor.
• - When the main interface's right panel containing the Disk Browser and Instrument Selector is closed, this icon will appear, allowing you to still view the Instrument Selector.

Keyboard

The keyboard will display any keys pressed on the computer keyboard or played by a MIDI device. You can also use the mouse to click on the keys to play them. If not all keys are visible, the arrow buttons at the left and right sides will move the keyboard an octave in that direction.

• Renoise only: You can open the Phrase Editor by pressing the button next to the keyboard.
• Redux only: If a key is 'greyed-out' then it will not produce a sound (the key has been restricted in Keyzones or Keymap).

Redux Full Editor Keyboard

In the full Editor, the keyboard changes to show the specific layout of the notes on the computer keyboard, but otherwise still functions exactly as it does in Compact mode. There are also two additional options at the left:

• Keyboard Octave: The current octave of both the computer keyboard and external MIDI keyboard. Moving this value up and down alters the octave of the notes played and hence their pitch. For more information, see the section on Playing Notes with the Computer Keyboard.
• Computer Keyboard Velocity: When enabled, the computer keyboard will play and record notes at the velocity set in the value box. When disabled, only notes will be inserted, leaving the existing velocity value untouched.

Track Selector (Renoise Only)

Unless the Instrument Editor has been detached, this option will be present at the bottom left of the interface and allows you to select a track to play sounds on without having to move back to the Pattern Editor.