Many features of Renoise & Redux are only made possible by taking advantage of the fact that you’re using a computer to create music. However, just like the oldest tracker programs, Renoise & Redux still use the traditional 12-note western scale used for acoustic instruments. As you’d expect though, there are options to control how this works.

If you’ve worked with audio then you probably know about compressing the volume of waveforms. However, the results of compression are not as musically obvious as other effects like reverb or distortion, so unless you know what’s actually happening to the sound it can be a little confusing and lead to some incorrect assumptions about the use and misuse of compressors. So let’s take a look at how this works in Renoise and Redux.

I was commissioned to create an introduction video for Fileside, a modern multi-pane file management app for Mac and Windows that gives you complete layout control. Fileside shows the file system in its entirety, addressing the constant need to open multiple windows, navigate to the locations you need in each one, then painstakingly resize and arrange them side-by-side to start moving files around.

There are lots of ways of introducing randomness across the various features of Renoise and Redux. But what if you generated changes at random initially and you like what you heard, so you want those changes to be the same each time the song is played?

As shown in the Beginner’s Tutorial, automating track effects is done with effect commands and graphical automation. You can also use those methods to automate effects contained within an instrument by ‘Using Macros’. Obviously that requires you to manually create those automations across the entire song. However, there is a different technique where everything works automatically.

As their names suggest, the Key and Velocity Trackers accept as inputs: key (or ‘note’) values, and velocity (or ‘volume’) values. The devices then process this input through various options to create an output, which is used to control a Destination parameter.

There’s some interesting stuff going on in the instruments of my Mutant Breaks 13 song, so I made the first unscripted video since the SDEK stuff back in 2009. I’ll be doing more of this kind of thing soon. The song file is available for download.

While the delay column can be used to manually create swinging rhythms for individual notes, there are two other automatic methods available in the form of Global Groove and Phrase Shuffle.

The Gainer & Stereo Expander effects make the Panning, Volume and Width parameters from the Pre-Mixer available within these devices, with a few useful expansions. This means that these fundamental aspects of an audio signal can be controlled from anywhere within an effect chain.

Hardware trackpads and joysticks allow the user to perform simple movements and more complex gestures to create musical changes. The XY Pad device provides the same ability within Renoise and Redux, where using its pad changes the X and Y output values simultaneously. This allows two effect parameters to be controlled in a free-form manner and, as usual, automations can be recorded by using the right mouse button.