Preferences

Preferences

The Renoise Preferences panel lets you set various general options for the program, such as soundcard settings, MIDI device settings, how files are loaded/saved etc. These settings need to be set only once and will be applied to all songs and sounds you create with Renoise.

To open the Preferences panel, choose "Edit -> Preferences..." from the main menu (Windows + Linux). On the Mac, choose "Renoise -> 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 be sufficient until you are more familiar with Renoise. The Setting Up Audio Devices and Setting Up MIDI Devices sections of the manual can help you with the initial setup.

Audio

Device Settings (Windows)

• Device Type: Determines the sound driver that Renoise will use. On Windows you will have the choice between DirectSound and ASIO. If available, ASIO is highly recommended as it provides better timing with MIDI instruments and lower latencies in general.
• In Device: (DirectSound only) If you have multiple soundcards installed, you will be able to select the one you want to use with Renoise here. Choose "Primary Device" to use the system's default.
• Out Device: (DirectSound only) If you have multiple soundcards installed, you will be able to select the one you want to use with Renoise here. Choose "Primary Device" to use the system's default.
• Sample Rate: Select the Sample Rate for playback. All internal audio processing in Renoise will be done at this rate. The higher the Sample Rate, the more detailed the results will be, but also the more CPU power will be used.
• Latency: (DirectSound only) Set the buffer size affecting overall latency. Higher numbers will reduce the possibility of crackling sound at high CPU usage, but will also cause more latency (the time it takes for the sound from Renoise to reach an output and be heard).
• Use hardware buffers: (DirectSound only) This option may speed up playback processing a bit, but only some soundcards support this. If you enable this option, then experiment with recording in the Sample Editor before deciding to use it permanently, as it may cause issues. If you experience strange results then disable this function.
• Dither: Apply dithering to the audio stream when the soundcard uses a bit depth of 8 or 16 bit. 24 and 32 bit audio is never dithered.
• Limit to stereo in/out: (ASIO only) If you have a multi-IO soundcard, you can disable all input and outputs except for the main stereo ones. This may lead to better performance when you don't need the other channels.
• Control Panel: (ASIO only) Opens the ASIO driver's control panel where you can configure your soundcard in more detail.
• Reinitialize: Shut down and then reopen all connections to the soundcard/driver. May be useful for troubleshooting.

Device Settings (OSX)

• In Device: If you have multiple soundcards installed, you will be able to select the one you want to use with Renoise here.
• Out Device: If you have multiple soundcards installed, you will be able to select the one you want to use with Renoise here.
• Sample Rate: Select the Sample Rate for playback. All internal audio processing in Renoise will be done at this rate. The higher the Sample Rate, the more detailed the results will be, but also the more CPU power will be used.
• Latency: Set the buffer size affecting overall latency. Higher numbers will reduce the possibility of crackling sound at high CPU usage, but will also cause more latency (the time it takes for the sound from Renoise to reach an output and be heard).
• Dither: Apply dithering to the audio stream when the soundcard uses a bit depth of 8 or 16 bit. 24 and 32 bit audio is never dithered.
• Reinitialize: Shut down and then reopen all connections to the soundcard/driver. May be useful for troubleshooting.

Device Settings (Linux)

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

• Device Type: Determines the sound driver that Renoise will use. On Linux you have the choice between ALSA and Jack. ALSA will be available on all setups. Jack is more advanced, but also harder to set up and may have to be installed manually. Jack is highly recommended though, because it allows you to use several Jack based audio applications at once with the ability to route audio between them.
• In Device:
  • ALSA: If you have multiple soundcards installed, you will be able to select the one you want to use with Renoise here.
  • Jack: Select the number of input pairs you would like to pass over to Jack.
• Out Device:
  • ALSA: If you have multiple soundcards installed, you will be able to select the one you want to use with Renoise here.
  • Jack: Select the number of output pairs you would like to pass over to Jack.
• Sample Rate: (ALSA only) Select the Sample Rate for playback. All internal audio processing in Renoise will be done at this rate. The higher the Sample Rate, the more detailed the results will be, but also the more CPU power will be used.
• Buffer Size: (ALSA only) The base buffer size that should be used for audio processing in Renoise. Higher numbers will reduce the possibility of crackling sound at high CPU usage, but will also cause more latency (the time it takes for the sound from Renoise to reach an output and be heard).
• Periods/Buffer: (ALSA only) How many "Buffer Sizes" should be used. The final latency for ALSA playback is: "Periods/Buffer" * "Buffer Size". Some drivers need three buffers to work reliably, while others need only two. If you hear crackling output from Renoise, try changing this value or the setting for "In Device".
• Use realtime priority: (ALSA only) On most 'out of the box' Linux systems, applications are not allowed to execute realtime performance critical tasks. They are needed for realtime audio processing though, so they should be enabled when possible. Please see the Linux FAQ for more info about this topic. If you cannot configure your system to allow realtime tasks, then you can disable Renoise from trying with this option.
• Enable Transport Support: (Jack only) Send and receive time and transport information to/from other applications that are running with Jack. This is only useful to sync multiple running audio applications in one big session. If you are only running 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 32 bit audio is never dithered.
• Reinitialize: Shut down and then reopen all connections to the soundcard/driver. May 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 how Renoise make use of them for realtime audio processing. By default, all cores are used, which is highly recommended.

Automatic PDC

• Automatic PDC: Automatically compensate all delays that some Renoise internal effects and VST/AU plugins introduce. Used to ensure all tracks and instruments are played back in sync. If you are troubleshooting, you may want to temporarily disable this option.

CPU Load and Threshold

• When the CPU is above, For at least: - When the conditions are fulfilled, Renoise executes Panic (instantly stops all playback). This option prevents very high CPU loads from freezing your computer.

Metronome

• Beats Per Bar: Set how many beat clicks (see Lines Per Beat below) should be treated as a bar.
• Lines Per Beat: Set 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 and Editing Notes) and for MIDI remote control (MIDI Mapping).
• Record and Play (various): Toggle 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: Set a MIDI device that Renoise will send MIDI Clock data to.
• Offset: Manually shift all messages sent out to the devices by the given amount. This can be useful to manually compensate additional 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): In addition to the MIDI clock, also send MMC sysex messages to sync external devices to Renoise.

MIDI Clock Slave

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

Files

Note: All import options mentioned 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 loop points: Do not import loop settings that are saved along with WAV, FLAC and AIF files.
• Autoset 'Sync' Settings: When loading samples, Renoise automatically estimates a good beat-sync value in the Instrument Settings, overwriting previous values. If you don't want this to happen, disable it here.

Raw Audio Import Options

Applies to any non-audio files that are forced to be loaded as audio. See Importing Raw Audio for more details.

• Bits: Bit-rate that should be applied to the imported raw sample.
• Sample Rate: Sample rate of raw samples.
• Skip header bytes: Will skip the specified number of bytes and 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 of 16 or more.

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 to 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 *MIDI-Control Devices: Create MIDI Control devices to import and send MIDI control change messages (e.g. modulation wheel).
• Lines per Beat Set the Lines Per Beat resolution that should be used for the new song. The higher the value, the more precisely MIDI events can be plotted into the new song.
• Lines per pattern: Divide the imported MIDI song into patterns of the given length.
• MIDI device: Choose the MIDI device for selecting the 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: Select how samples are stored in Renoise song or instrument files. XRNI and XRNS files are regular zip files with a custom extension, so it is possible open them with any tool which can use zip files (e.g. WinRar/WinZip on Windows, Stuff-it on OSX) and extract all of the samples manually. "Flac" will result in smaller files and should be used by default. "Wav" files might be useful if you later want to extract the files and use them in other programs.

Keys

Keyboard Mapping List

All of the keyboard shortcuts in Renoise can be re-configured. Above the list you can choose the Focus of the mappings, which changes the part of the interface that the shortcuts apply to. Selecting "All" will give an overview of all existing keyboard shortcuts in Renoise, making it easier to search for a specific setting.

There are many mappings which are not assigned by default, so if you need to create one that does not exist yet, take a look at the available mappings in the relevant section. To change or create a keyboard mapping, select the mapping in the list and click on the "New Assignment" box. Press the key combination you would like to use and then hit the 'Assign' button. If the given combination is already used somewhere else you will be warned of this. The new configuration will be saved automatically.

Importing/Exporting Keyboard Mappings

• 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 the default key-bindings.
• File:Vvoois renoise preferences keys print.png - Display the current key-binding layout in your default browser in a print-friendly format.

Keyboard Repeat Rate

Repeat Rate: Configure how fast Renoise repeats key presses.

Mouse Repeat Rate

Left-Click Repeat Rate: Set how fast changes to a value with a left-click should be repeated (e.g. increasing the BPM using the small arrows). Right-Click Repeat Rate: Same as above, but for right mouse button clicks.

GUI

The GUI options allow the customisation of the general display behaviour in Renoise.

Global

• Show tooltips: Toggles the displaying of tooltips when the mouse pointer hovers over a significant part of the interface for a second.
• Enable GUI effects: When enabled, Renoise will use animations in some parts of the interface, e.g. smooth scrolling, fading of menus, transparency etc. Disable this option if you dislike them or are using a very slow computer.
• Use more compatible GFX updates: (Windows only) Uses a possibly slower method of drawing the Renoise GUI with your graphics card. The option should be kept on unless it needs to be disabled to avoid problems with multi-monitor setups.
• Frame Rate: Set how fast the Renoise GUI will update itself. Lower values require less CPU power, while higher values result in a more responsive user interface. Disabling the frame rate will automatically set Renoise to use the maximum amount of CPU power necessary to update the GUI.

Pattern Editor

• Single mouse click navigation: Enabling this option allows a single left-click in a pattern to move the cursor to that exact position when Edit Mode is on, and move the cursor to that column without changing the pattern line when Edit Mode is off. A double-click will always move the cursor to that exact position regardless of whether this option is enabled or not.
• Instant Drag & Drop: When enabled, clicking upon a selected area in the Pattern Editor will instantly start to drag the selection. When off, you have to click and hold a bit to drag instead of starting a new selection.
• Position number format: Use either hexadecimal or decimal numbers for the Pattern Editor line numbers.

Pattern Sequencer

• Separate edit & play positions (with pattern follow): When enabled, the sequencer's playback position will be detached from the edit position with Pattern Follow disabled.
  • Pattern Follow mode On: Edit and play positions are linked, so the pattern currently playing is always the one that is edited.
  • Pattern Follow mode Off: Edit and play positions are separated, so you can edit a pattern that is not currently playing.

Theme

Configure Renoises Graphical User Interface colours.

Theme Files

Import/Export the current colour set to a file. Theme files can also be Imported/Exported in the Disk Browser.

Colour Settings

Change individual colour settings. Colours are organized into multiple Categories, like 'Main', 'Automation' and so on.

Global Colour Filters

Change all colour settings at once by applying Hue, Saturation or Value on them.

Graphic

Change the bevel amounts or texture set that should be used for the current colour theme.

Plugins/Misc

Audio Unit Plugins (OSX only)

• Enable the use of Audio Unit plugins in Renoise.

LADSPA Plugins (Linux only)

• Enable the use of LADSPA effects in Renoise.

VST Plugins (Windows, Mac & Linux)

• Select up to two folders, where Renoise should look for VST plugin files. Both folders can also be temporarily deactivated with the small check boxes.

Plugins General (Windows, Mac & Linux)

• Rescan previously failed plugs: When hitting the rescan button, let Renoise also again try to open plugins that failed to open in previous scans. Plugins which caused a crash when being scanned are never rescanned though, unless you delete the VST cache files in the Renoise preferences folder. When this option is disabled, hitting the Rescan button will only look for new plugins.
• Rescan: Rescan for new plugins, or try to rescan previously failed plugins (see above).
• Scan for new plugins on startup: Renoise by defaults always starts scanning for new plugins when starting up. Depending on how many plugins you have installed, disabling this option can vastly improve the time Renoise needs to start up. After having installed new plugins you have to rescan for the manually by clicking on the 'Rescan' button described above.

Backup

• Autosave backup: When enabled, Renoise will periodically save backups of your song. For existing songs, the backups are saved into a new folder, that is named like the song. For Untitled songs, the backups will be saved into Renoises preferences folder.
• Save while playing: When enabled, backups will also be saved while the song plays. Depending on how big the songs are, this can lead into a small idle time of Renoise. If you want to avoid this while composing, you can disable this option. Then songs are only saved when you've stopped the playback.
• Every x minutes: How often backups should be saved.
• Keep x backups: Specify how many revisions of the backups should be kept.
• Save at: Instead of saving the backups next to the original song files, use a specific folder to place all backups for all songs.

Misc

• Autoplay song after loading: With this option enabled, Renoise will automatically start playback as soon as you've loaded a song file.
• Stop playing notes on pattern sequence navigation: When navigating around in the pattern sequencer, Renoise will stop all playing notes, then skip over to the new pattern to continue playback to avoid "hanging" notes. You can disable this behaviour here.
• Update automation on song position changes: When navigating around in the song, Renoise will make sure that any Pattern or Envelope Automation is played back exactly as if you would play the song form the very beginning to the end. You can disable this behaviour here.
• 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).