Preferences

Preferences

The preferences panel (or configurations) in Renoise lets you set up various general options for the program, like your sound card settings, which MIDI devices are used for Renoise, how files are loaded/saved and much more. Such settings have to be set up once only, and will then be applied to all songs and sounds you create in Renoise. So they do affect the general behavior of the program.

To open the preferences, click on Edit then Preferences... on top of the Renoise interface (Windows + Linux). On the Mac, click on the main Renoise menu, then choose Preferences....

When setting up Renoise for the first time, you should only need to tweak the Audio and MIDI pages. The rest of the default options should work just fine for you, until you got familiar with Renoise in general. Setting Up Audio Hardware and Setting Up MIDI Devices will help you with the initial setup.

Audio

Device Settings (Windows)

• Device Type Determines the sound-driver architecture that Renoise should use. On windows you will have the choice between DirectSound and ASIO. ASIO is highly recommended, when available, because it results into better timing with MIDI instruments and lower latencies in general. DirectSound should only be used as fallback.
• In Device (DirectSound only) In case you've got multiple sound cards installed, you will be able to select the one you want to use with Renoise here. Choose "Primary Device" to use the systems default.
• Out Device Just like the In Device: In case you've got multiple sound cards installed, you will be able to select the one you want to use here. Again choose "Primary Device" to use the systems default.
• Sample Rate Select the sample rate for playback. All internal audio processing in Renoise will be done at this rate. So the higher the Sample Rate is, the more 'detailed' the results will be, but also the more CPU will be used.
• Latency (DirectSound only) Setup the buffer size, overall latency. Higher numbers will reduce the possibility of crackles on high CPU usage, but also cause more latency (the time it takes till the sound from Renoise reaches the real audio output of your audio device).
• Use hardware buffers (DirectSound only) This option may speed up playback processing a bit, but only some soundcards this may also up the recording. Experiment with using the sample recorder with this option first. If you experience strange results, then try to disable this function.
• Dither Apply Dithering to the audio stream, when the soundcard uses a bit depth of 8 or 16 bit. 24 and 32bit is never dithered.
• Limit to stereo in/out (ASIO only) When you have a multi IO soundcard, you can this way disable all input and outputs except the main ones. This may lead to better performance when you don't need the other channels.
• Control panel (ASIO only) Opens the ASIO drivers control panel, where you can configure your soundcard in detail.
• Reinitialize Shut down and reopen all connections to the soundcard/driver. Might be useful for troubleshooting.

Device Settings (OSX)

• In Device In case you've got multiple sound cards installed, you will be able to select the one you want to use here.
• Out Device Just like the In Device: In case you've got multiple sound cards installed, you will be able to select the one you want to use here.
• Sample Rate Select the sample rate for playback. All internal audio processing in Renoise will be done at this rate. So the higher the Sample Rate is, the more 'detailed' the results will be, but also the more CPU will be used.
• Latency (DirectSound only) Setup the buffer size, overall latency. Higher numbers will reduce the possibility of crackles on high CPU usage but also cause more latency (the time it takes till the sound from Renoise reaches the real audio output of your audio device).
• Dither Apply Dithering to the audio stream, when the soundcard uses a bit depth of 8 or 16 bit. 24 and 32bit is never dithered.
• Reinitialize Shut down and reopen all connections to the soundcard/driver. Might be useful for troubleshooting.

Device Settings (Linux)

Setting up Linux for fast and reliable audio usage can unfortunately be quite complex, depending on the distribution you are using. For general questions and FAQs regarding sound output on Linux, have a look at the Linux FAQ as a starting point please.

• Device Type Determines the sound-driver architecture that Renoise should use. On Linux you will have the choice between ALSA and Jack. ALSA will be available on all setups. Jack is more advanced, but also a bit harder to set up, and may be installed manually. Jack is highly recommended though, because it allows you to use several Jack based audio applications at once, and also gives you the ability to route audio between programs.
• In Device ALSA: In case you've got multiple sound cards installed, you will be able to select the recording device you want to use for Renoise. JACK: Select the number of output pairs you would like to pass over to Jack.
• In Device Just like 'In Device' this selects a audio device or driver for ALSA, the number of stereo channels for Jacks, but for the sound output.
• Sample Rate (ALSA only) Select the sample rate for playback. All internal audio processing in Renoise will be done at this rate. So the higher the Sample Rate is, the more 'detailed' the results will be, but also the more CPU will be used.
• Buffer Size (ALSA only) The base buffer size that should be used for audio processing in Renoise. The higher the buffer size, the higher the latency will be. Higher latencies will reduce the possibility of crackles on high CPU usage, but also cause more latency (the time it takes till the sound from Renoise reaches the real audio output of your soundcard).
• Periods/Buffer (ALSA only) How many 'Buffer Sizes's should be used. The final latency for ALSA playback is 'Periods/Buffer' * 'Buffer Size'. Some drivers need 3 buffers to work reliably. Others only 2. In case you get crackling output in Renoise, try if changing this gives you better results. Also try if disabling the 'In Device' results into better audio performance.
• Use realtime priority (ALSA only) On most "out of the box" Linux systems, applications are not allowed to do realtime performance critical tasks. Those are needed for real time audio processing though, so they should be enabled when possible. Please see the Linux FAQ -> PAM for more info about this topic. If you can not configure your system to allow such real time tasks, then you can avoid that Renoise tries to do so with this option.
• Enable Transport Support (JACK only) Pass over time and transport information to other applications that are running with Jack and also react on transport and timing information from other applications. This is only useful to sync multiple running audio applications in one big session. If you only run Renoise, this option should be disabled.
• Dither Apply Dithering to the audio stream, when the soundcard uses a bit depth of 8 or 16 bit. 24 and 32bit is never dithered.
• Reinitialize Shut down and reopen all connections to the soundcard/driver. Might be useful for troubleshooting.

Multi CPU/Core support

• Multi CPU/Core support If you have a processor with multiple CPUs or cores, you can adjust here how many CPUs or cores should be used by Renoise for realtime Audio processing. By default all cores are used, which is also highly recommended.

Automatic PDC

• Automatic PDC Automatically compensate all delays that some Renoise internal effects and VST or Audio Unit plugins introduce, to get all tracks and instrument played back in sync. For troubleshooting, you may want to temporarily disable this option.

CPU Load and Threshold

This option avoids that a very high CPU load freezes your whole computer.

• When the CPU is above % value, For at least - msec value, then perform panic (instantly stop all playback).

Metronome

• Beats Per Bar Setup how many beat clicks (see Lines Per Beat) should be treated as a bar
• Lines Per Beat Setup how many lines in Renoise should make up a beat for the metronome.

MIDI

MIDI Master Keyboard / Mapping

• In-Device A/B Select up to two devices you would like to use for general MIDI input in Renoise Recording Notes into Patterns and for MIDI remote control MIDI Mapping
• Record and play XXX Enable or disable the input and recording of specific MIDI messages for Renoise. This only applies to recording into Patterns and realtime playback.
• Ignore specific controllers Explicitly prevent certain MIDI Control Change messages from being received and recorded. You can enter a list of CC numbers here, separated by commas.

MIDI Clock Master

• Out device Setup a MIDI device that you would like Renoise send MIDI Clock to.
• Offset Manually shift all messages send out to the devices by the given amount. This can be useful to manually compensate extra latencies that external devices introduce. Audio latency is always automatically compensated by Renoise.
• Send clock Include sending MIDI Clock pulse messages
• Send start/stop Include sending MIDI Clock start/stop messages
• Send song position pointers Include sending MIDI Clock song position messages
• Send MIDI Machine Control (MMC) Beside of MIDI clock, also send MMC sysex message to sync external devices to Renoise.

Midi Clock Slave

• In-Device Selects the MIDI Device that Renoise should use to receive MIDI clock messages. When enabled, you can slave Renoise this way to a MIDI clock master (a device which sends MIDI clock). As soon as a MIDI clock device is set, you will see a new option in Renoises Transport Panel. This option must be enabled to finally activate sync from external devices and thus also can be used to enable or disable sync quickly without having to open the preferences all the time.
• Offset Manually shift incoming timing information by the given amount. This can be useful to manually compensate extra latencies that the sending MIDI clock devices introduce. Audio latency is always automatically compensated by Renoise.
• Smoothing MIDI messages often have only a very rough timing, thus the beat clock messages transferd from MIDI clock masters to Renoise, may result into a wonky playback. Depending on how precise the incoming MIDI clock stream is, you can use this option to setup how fast Renoise should react on changes from the MIDI clock master: The higher the smoothing value, the more stable the sync will be, but the slower will Renoise react on 'real' BPM changes from the master. Try playing around with the smoothing to find a good value for your setup and needs.

Files

Please note: all import options noted below, can also be quickly accessed in the Disk Browser by right clicking the file, then choosing "Load File with Options..."

Wave Import Options

Applies to WAV/FLAC/AIF/OGG and MP3 files

• Ignore loops Do not import loops settings that are saved along with the WAV/FLAC and AIF files.
• Autoset 'Sync' Settings When loading samples, Renoise automatically guesses a good beat sync value in the Instrument Properties, overwriting previous values. If you don't want this, you can disable this here.

Raw Audio Import Options

Applies to any files that are 'forced' to be loaded as audio files. See also Disk_Browser#Importing Raw Audio Files (any Files as Audio Samples)

• Bits Bit-rate that should be applied to the raw sample imported.
• Sample Rate Sample rate of raw samples.
• Skip header bytes Will skip the specified number of bytes, do not treat them as audio data
• Big Endian Select the byte order that should be used for the raw sample import. Only applies to bit depths >= 16

Device Chain Import Options

Applies to XRNT files

• Replace Existing Chain When enabled, loading a device chain will completely erase all existing devices first. When disabled, the imported chain is appended.

Midi Import Options

Applies MID or MIDI files

• Create instruments Create instruments based upon the instruments used in the MIDI file. When disabled only notes and CC events are imported and you have to set up instruments manually.
• Create MIDICC devices Create MIDI Control devices to also import & send MIDI control Change messages (like modulation wheel and other controller messages)
• Lines per Beat Setup the Lines Per Beat resolution that should be used for the new song. The higher the value, the more precise MIDI events can be plotted into the new song.
• Lines per pattern Divide the imported MIDI song in patterns at the given length
• Midi device Choose MIDI device to select MIDI instruments from (and send output to).

Song/Instrument Export Options

Applies to exported XRNI (Renoise Instrument files) and XRNS (Renoise Song Files)

• • Sample format Setup how samples are stored in Renoise song or instrument files. XRNI and XRNS files regular zip files with a custom extension. So you can open them with any tools which can open zip files (like WinRar/WinZip on Windows, Stuff-it on OSX) and extract all contained samples manually. FLACs will result into smaller files and should be used by default. WAV files might be useful if you want to extract the files manually later on, and use the sample files in other programs than Renoise.

Keys

• File:Vvoois renoise preferences keys load.png - Load a saved set of key-bindings.
• File:Vvoois renoise preferences keys save.png - Save a custom set of key-bindings.
• File:Vvoois renoise preferences keys reset.png - Reset to default key-bindings.
• File:Vvoois renoise preferences keys print.png - Display key-binding layout in default browser, with special print-layout (use print preview mode in browser).

To seek a specific function, click the searchbox on top of the binding-list and type your search-phrase.The droplist shows the shortcut key assignments for each region (Global shortcuts are currently shown).To assign a keyboard shortcut, click on the text-field, then press your keyboard shortcut.When done, click on Assign to submit the change.Your configuration will be saved automatically when Renoise is closed.

GUI

The Gui options supply you with several options to customize Renoise’s display behavior and global representation settings. Most are self-explanatory, some will have some additional information.

• Global
  • Enable Gui effects Triggers various GUI transitions.
  • Use more compatible GFX updates Specific trigger to supply a workaround for VST plugins that seem to update their GUI differently.
  • Frame Rate Set the frame-update rate of the GUI. A lower number means the GUI will update in a choppier fashion, but this may free up more resources for audio processing.
• Pattern editor
  • Single mouseclick navigation Wherever you click in the pattern editor, the key-cursor will follow when single-clicking that position. Usually you have to double-click to move the key-cursor to that position.
  • Delayed drag’n’drop If checked: When left-clicking upon a selected area, a small delay of a few msecs will pass before you can drag and drop the selected area.
  • Position number format Select hexadecimal number format or decimal number format.

• Pattern Sequencer
  • Separate edit & play positions (with pattern follow) Detach the current play position in the sequence from the current pattern that you are editing. Toggle “Pattern follow mode”:
    • Pattern Follow mode on → Edit and play position are linked, so if you scroll in the patternsequencer, the pattern underneath the play position will always be played, this means if you are playing pattern 04 and you select pattern 05 in the sequencer, pattern 05 will be instantly played.
    • Pattern follow mode off → Edit and play position are separated which means that you can scroll the playposition in the sequencer, the current pattern in the pattern editor will not be played, the sequencer will follow the order of the sequence it is currently playing.

Theme

File:Vvoois renoise preferences theme.png*

Configuring the Renoise skin to your likings.

Plugins/Misc

• VST Plugins
  • You can select two separate VST plugin folders to scan. You activate them by enabling the checkbox.
  • Browse Select folder where VST (instrument) plugins are.
  • Rescan Rescan for new plugins (if you added any during Renoise run-time).
  • Rescan previously failed plugs If for some reason a plugin you installed failed during its scan (and the reasons were recoverable) you can check this box so that Renoise will also rescan plugins that failed the initializing procedure.
  • Scan for new plugins on startup Renoise by default always starts scanning for new plugins when loading. However not everybody is adding new plugins on a daily basis or some prefer to do this just manually at their own chosen moment. If you disable the checkbox, Renoise starts without the scanning process. Depending on the speed of your harddrive, skipping this process can speed up loading of Renoise.

• Backup
  • Autosave backup Toggle autosave mode for backups.Your songs are saved in the Renoise preferences folder when you have not given your song a filename (you did not initially saved the song yourself). Once you have saved the song under your own custom filename, the backups are saved along with them in a subfolder of your song’s parent folder unless you state otherwise in the “Save at” option.
  • Save while playing Save while song plays.Note When saving while playing, VSTI playback is deactivated during save which is nessesary as there are known VSTI plugins that crash Renoise during saving.
  • Every x minutes Autosave every x minutes. if save while playing is off it will save at the interval when the song is manually stopped by the user so if you save each minute and the song plays at save time, it skips saving and saves at the second minute if the song is stopped at that moment. Renoise does not autostop the song for saving. (in discussion:Renoise does not save during Record mode.)
  • Keep x backups Keep x separate copies of the backup.
  • Save at Save the backups to a custom place (by default it saves it next to the song in its own subfolder carrying the filename of the song and a suffix extender).

• Misc
  • Autoplay song after loading Play songs when loaded into Renoise.
  • Stop playing notes on pattern sequence navigation Kill output when changing song position in sequence editor (noteoffs are send to all playing instruments).
  • Update automation on row position changes Perform (interpolated) automation values while editing.
  • Space rec/stop mode
    • Renoise use the space key to start/stop playing.
    • FT2 use the space key to stop the song and or to toggle the record mode.
  • Default Trackmute mode
    • Off Notes and other events will not be triggered, the sounds of the tracks is still running (Soft Mute).
    • Mute The track is completely played back, but its sound will be muted (Mixer Mute).