You, Too Can Learn Renoise: Video Tutorial from Dac Makes you a Tracker
Seeing a tracker interface for the first time can be intimidating. But dive in a bit deeper, and you’ll discover what’s actually a very efficient interface for programming in musical sequences and working with samples. With just ten days left in the Renoise – Indamixx music production contest, there’s still time to get up and running using even the demo version of Renoise (into which you can import samples). And this could be a great excuse to learn a new tool.
Dac, who’s a big part of support and community for Renoise, has put together a nice tutorial showing off the workflow in the tool. It’s nothing all that unusual: bring in samples, assemble patterns, make music. Some of the voice over is hard to hear, but this is a good start. Now, I still like reading and writing better than video just in terms of how I learn, so I may try to work on a written version for the end of the week; feel free to shout encouragement.
For more Renoise inspiration, forum regular djnick sends along a PsyTrance video made in Renoise – so, yes, you can make PsyTrance with a tracker, too, if you like. He samples Peter Jennings talking about ecstasy. Yeah, whatever – as if you can make Peter Jennings any more trippy. Watching Jennings is the ultimate natural high.
And here’s the original jerk beat tutorial. (Hey, who are you calling a jerk beat? Sorry, that just can’t sound not strange when I hear that phrase…)
Enjoy. Got specific requests for how-to’s, other tips or tutorials you’ve found useful, or questions you’d like answered? Do let us know.
23 Comments
Leave a Commentcorticyte
“you can make PsyTrance with a tracker, too”
you can make any kind of music with a tracker (if you’re good enough)
October 5, 2009 @ 1:55 pm
Peter Kirn
@corticyte: Yes, indeed. Actually, you can make any kind of music even if you’re *not* good enough. ;)
October 5, 2009 @ 1:56 pm
cooptrol
I, like many, started doing music with trackers. First with Octamed, in an Commodore Amiga 500 computer, back in 95. Then I got a PC and started using Fasttracker II, used it for a cuple years, before I switched to Cakewalk. I still remember with love those times, editing samples in SoundForge, switching to DOS and arranging them in FTII…crafty!!!
October 5, 2009 @ 2:27 pm
pierlo
nice one, but it would be even nicer another tutorial on more obscure/advanced functionalities…
October 5, 2009 @ 3:26 pm
Koen
@cooptrol: ah FastTrackerII, that’s where I started (well, after having done basic and assembly language stuff with the SID registers on a Commodore 64 ;-) ) crafty was the word indeed :-) but very handy for drum tracking
October 5, 2009 @ 3:43 pm
Human Plague
@pierlo: A lot of users out there have made a lot of DIY tutorials. They are one keyword search away.
I’m particularly fond of SDEK Renoise Blog, for example.
@see: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=884D6E96933987B6
October 5, 2009 @ 3:53 pm
Peter Kirn
Yeah, I think Dac was actually trying to make one for complete beginners!
October 5, 2009 @ 3:59 pm
Danoise
I agree, this video is all about basic tracker workflow. I think it’s great how Dac mention that a track can contain any sample/instrument. Apart from the vertical layout, this is probably what differentiates a tracker like Renoise from traditional DAWs more than anything else.
October 5, 2009 @ 5:11 pm
george
i wish there was a tracker interface to all modern MIDI DAWs, you know. Logic has this crappy event list instead.. I know it’s a tough challenge, but I’m sure with some ingenuity it could be done… to this day there’s still something special about the tracker that sequencers can’t quite match. (disclaimer: obviously i’m an old ST3/IT2 junkie :)
October 5, 2009 @ 7:03 pm
dyscode
I am with George (and most others)
Started elektronik Music with a tracker.
I worked with about any Tracker in Existence in the old Amiga Days. Was a bit too young to do that with C64 too.
This obsession of “collecting Trackers” is still with me today, since the A500. For me it´s the same sacred think as Woodstock is for the 68 Hippies.
I also still have my Amiga :D
October 5, 2009 @ 7:13 pm
orubasarot
George, try reVisit for a tracker interface that works in a bunch of DAWs.
http://www.nashnet.co.uk/english/revisit/
October 5, 2009 @ 9:26 pm
Peter Kirn
reVisit’s cool, but Renoise now also supports ReWire *and* JACK on Linux. And generally, I think the point here is that trackers continue to evolve – they haven’t stood still while DAWs took over.
October 5, 2009 @ 9:45 pm
Darren Landrum
I’ve always liked the idea of using something like Renoise as a sort-of supercharged sampler for my stuff, but it seems to be built for something different than that. I also started out as a tracker, but unlike others, didn’t really stick with it. I understand the basic idea, though.
October 5, 2009 @ 9:59 pm
Jimmy Jams
Next question…what’s this about new Macbooks etc with “significant audio improvements”?
October 6, 2009 @ 2:31 am
rohka
I really still can’t understand why anyone would want to use something like a piano roll to make music. The tracker interface has always felt more intuitive to me. But, as always, to each his own.
October 6, 2009 @ 2:32 am
Bantai
@rohka Yes, that’s what I mean! Trackers used to be easy to learn and horizontal sequencers were much harder to dig through.
But now it’s like the world is upside-down. Trackers are said to have a steep learning curve, compared to for example Cubase. We’ll conveniently forget the “Fast Guide to Cubase SX” has 469 pages.
October 6, 2009 @ 2:51 am
shamburglar
I’ve been using Renoise for quite some time now… but I watched this video and it demystified one very important part of Renoise that I have been having trouble figuring out through the docs… The pattern arranger window… can’t believe its that easy to use. I’ve been working on one pattern at a time and have had very little idea how to select and work with different patterns, I’d been just changing the pattern number of the current one until I watched this. Now I see you can actually edit one pattern while another is playing, awesome! Thanks DAC.
Now if somebody could point us all in a direction that makes HEX easier to understand it would be appreciated. I keep a chart next to me at all times b/c I just can’t seem to wrap my brain around a non base 10 system. I always kind of wished Renoise would integrate a dumbed down number system that maybe has less resolution than HEX but is workable. This has been a problem for me back in the Fast Tracker 2 days, just had to fumble my way through it.
October 6, 2009 @ 8:46 am
beatniks3
shamburglar, check out this renoise beginners thread: http://www.renoise.com/board/index.php?showtopic=21940&hl= it talks about HEX including why its used.
October 6, 2009 @ 9:13 am
mallyone
Is it just me, or are the renoise web servers under a bit of strain? I’ve been checking back and first the blog went, now I can’t get to the main site. I want to have a flashback to my shitty appartment of yesteryear where I first came in contact with an 8-bit tracker.
:)
m1…
October 6, 2009 @ 9:15 am
shamburglar
@beatniks3, thank you… there are a couple posts there that represent all i need to know right now.
October 6, 2009 @ 11:57 am
Simon Lacelle
@Bantai I think the reason for that is that the now “mainstream” MIDI sequencers are quite visual while trackers are just a grid of numbers. This might work for some people, but many others, including me, are more at ease in a spatial environment. (I spent my entire childhood with Legos)
October 6, 2009 @ 8:17 pm
wi_ngo
I’ve never done the tracker thing, but have always been curious. This still seems a little confusing to me. I mean, I get the concept, but the workflow throws me off a little.
Probably because I’ve been doing the horizontal (or spacial, as Simon so eloquently put it) sequencing thing since the days of Opcode Vision… I guess I’m just set in my ways at this point.
October 6, 2009 @ 11:17 pm
Human Plague
Ears aren’t visual?
October 6, 2009 @ 11:39 pm
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