Keyboard Shortcuts

Renoise features an enormous amount of keyboard shortcuts, but in the previous topics we often only noted a few of the important ones. Besides those, there are many other shortcuts available and even unassigned shortcuts, which you can customise yourself if they fit well into your work-flow.

Keyboard Focus Concept

Renoise utilises a shortcut Focus system for the keyboard, which means that most keyboard shortcuts only apply to a specific region in the interface. We will refer to those as local. Other shortcuts apply to all regions and we will refer to them as global.

The currently focused area is indicated by small corners that are coloured yellow by default:

To change the Focus area, you can either:

Click anywhere in Renoise with the middle mouse button.
Left-click anywhere in Renoise while holding down the "Left Alt" key.
Right-click anywhere in Renoise and choose "(Set Keyboard Focus Here)" from the context menu.
Use the shortcuts "Left Control/Command + TAB" or "Left Control/Command + Left Shift + TAB".

Here is a small example on how to use the Focus:

When you start up Renoise, the Pattern Editor is focused by default. If you use the arrow keys then the Pattern Editor's cursor will start moving around. Now left-click somewhere in the Disk Browser while holding down the "Left Alt" key, which will set the Focus to the Disk Browser. Notice that the orange corners now surround the Disk Browser and the arrow keys move around to select files and folders.

The idea behind this is that the main components of Renoise (such as the Pattern Editor) should always be ready for editing. The keyboard Focus should not move loosely around, unless you want it to. If you want it to, you can change it via the "View->Lock Keyboard Focus" option in the Upper Status Bar.

Customising and Printing Shortcuts

Using the menu panel "Edit->Preferences->Keys", you can customise any keyboard shortcut and also print out a list of the currently set shortcuts. To print the shortcuts, simply click the button in this dialog:

List of Important Shortcuts

Below is a list of the most commonly used keyboard shortcuts (Mac users: Replace "Control" with "Command" and "Alt" with "Option" below):

Renoise also supports most of the common shortcuts that apply to any application: "Left Ctrl + X" (Cut), "Left Ctrl + C" (Copy), "Left Ctrl + V" (Paste), "Left Ctrl + Z" (Undo), "Left Ctrl + Y" (Redo).

Global

Panel Switching

F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8: Activate Window Layout Presets

Tip: You can save and customise the layouts by right-clicking on the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 buttons at the top right of the Renoise interface. The current keyboard Focus is also saved with the preset.

Play and Record

Space: Start/Stop playing.
Enter: Only play the line directly under the cursor (play step by step).
Right Alt: Start playing and looping the current pattern.
Right Ctrl: Start playing the song.
Right Shift: Start playing the song with Edit Mode enabled.
Escape: Toggle Edit Mode.
Numpad Enter: Activate Block Loop and start playing.

Instruments

Numpad / *: Decrease/increase keyboard octave.
Numpad - +: Decrease/increase instrument slot selection.
Numpad 1-9: Select instrument from instruments visible in the Instrument Selector.
Left Alt + Left/Right Arrow Keys: Jump up/down a page in the Instrument Selector.
Left Alt + Up/Down Arrow Keys: Select previous/next instrument.

Pattern Editor

Edit Step & Navigation

Left Ctrl & - +: Decrease/increase the Edit Step value.
Left Ctrl & 1-0: Set the Edit Step number.
Left Ctrl & Shift & 1-0: Set note quantize amount.
Arrow Keys: Navigate through the Pattern Editor.
PageUp/PageDown: Move up/down in pattern.
Home/End: Go to start/end line of pattern.
F9: Move cursor to line 0.
F10: Move cursor 25% of the way down the pattern.
F11: Move cursor to the centre of the pattern.
F12: Move cursor 75% of the way down the pattern.

Note-Off

Caps-Lock: Insert a Note-Off when Edit Mode is enabled.

Cut/Copy/Paste

Left Ctrl + X: Cut selection to clipboard.
Left Ctrl + C: Copy selection to clipboard.
Left Ctrl + V: Paste contents from clipboard to target.
Backspace: Delete all notes and effect commands at the current line in the track and scroll everything beneath the current line up.
Insert: Insert clean row into track and push all notes and effects in current track down.
Left Ctrl + Left Shift + Delete: Delete note under cursor and scroll column beneath current note up.
Left Ctrl + Left Shift + Insert: Insert clean row into column and push all data in current column down.
Left Ctrl + Left Shift + Left/Right arrow: Remove/add note or effect column.

Left Shift + F3: Cut current track.
Left Shift + F4: Copy current track.
Left Shift + F5: Paste current track.
Left Ctrl + F3: Cut current pattern.
Left Ctrl + F4: Copy current pattern.
Left Ctrl + F5: Paste current pattern.
Left Alt + F3: Cut current selection in pattern.
Left Alt + F4: Copy current selection in pattern.
Left Alt + F5: Paste current selection in pattern.

Pattern Sequencer

Left Ctrl + Left/Right Arrow Keys: Change number of current pattern.
Left Ctrl + Up/Down Arrow Keys: Move to prev/next pattern in sequence.
Left Ctrl + Home: Go to first pattern in sequence.
Left Ctrl + End: Go to last pattern in sequence.
Left Ctrl + Insert: Insert new pattern into sequence.
Left Ctrl + Delete: Delete current pattern in sequence.