Rendering by Instrument

Started by Rxn, January 14, 2010, 21:17:49

Previous topic - Next topic

Rxn

Is there a handy way to render mods by instruments, i.e. a single
instrument in a single wav file rather than a separate track in a separate
wav file?

I know XMPlay can do this, is there any other convenient ways,
preferably using ModPlug playback engine?

Saga Musix

at the moment it's only possible to mute instruments one by one (from the treeview) and then render the track manually each time.
» No support, bug reports, feature requests via private messages - they will not be answered. Use the forums and the issue tracker so that everyone can benefit from your post.

Rxn

No good, the reason why I am asking, is because I tried that.

Very tedious and easy to make a mistake.

I saw there was a tool designed especially for such task, I think it was
even based around ModPlug, did not need it then and too bad cannot
remember what it was now.

Saga Musix

well, this has been requested before, so it is possible that it will appear in one of the next releases. possibly maybe.
» No support, bug reports, feature requests via private messages - they will not be answered. Use the forums and the issue tracker so that everyone can benefit from your post.

Rxn

Cool, absence of selective rendering was quite a turn-off for some time now
considering that Modplug is probably the most feature rich tracker ever.

psishock

I'm as calm as a synth without a player.  (Sam_Zen)

Rxn

Buzz and Psycle are not trackers really.

psishock

Possibly didn't heard from Renoise then. =)
I'm as calm as a synth without a player.  (Sam_Zen)

Rxn

I don't find an attempt to make a number of years old interface look
fashionable (or usable for that matter) successful unless you grew up on it.

Granted, it has decent multi I/O ASIO support but other than that I don't know.

psishock

well, were to start...

Gui "skinning" is one of the totally less important stuff, you can even ignore it.
- It has a multicore support, i needed it to have multiple processing power that modplug hasn't gave me.
- It has an automatic VSTi instrument bypassing engine, so if the instrument is not played, it will "unload" and will not eat up processing power, modplug don't have this and it's very important if you use lotsa instruments.
- Renoise separates VST instruments and VST effects. (it handles VST instruments as modplug handles samples and normal instruments, they are totally separated from the "plugins" area)
- You can utilize a separate VST effect chain for every single channel. Modplug only have one general VST chain, and even the VST instruments are mixed between them, and it can be very messy to work with and not least not efficient.
- Can open separate "effect" channels in patterns that will allow you to do crazy routing and additional space for playing with effects.
- Automation is ridiculously easy to setup, just click on the wanted knob/slider/anything on your VST(i), and the draw the automation line, or automation points. Also you can automate almost everything, means any stuff that you can mess with manually, you can surely automate it.
- Has many integrated and great VST effects (chorus, flanger, phaser, compressor, distortion, resonant filter, delay, reverb, eq, gainer....)
- LFO (integrated vst) tool, one of the coolest features, it will allow you to do repetitive automation even more easier, it has the basic shapes like square, saw, sine, but you can use use noise for random variations, or your custom shapes. You can bmp sync it of course with the tracker. You can use this tool for almost everything, to control volume levels, control your VSTi, give your sound a vibration.... you name it.
- VELOCITY (integrated vst) tool is great if you want to have some effect to start when it detects a note hit on the pattern. Example you can setup delay, vibration, reverb or similar stuff, and it will only trigger/reset when it detects a new note. Its not the best example, but you can surely get creative whit this tool.
- the GUI (graphical user interface) is modular, so you can turn on and off parts of it, that you need, or not. The good thing is that while you work you don't need to switch between tabs, everything is on 1 screen, it's very fast and comfortable.
- The pattern order list is easy to work with, you can select multiple patterns, drag and drop them anywhere, name them, duplicate them, ect.
- You can expand a channel to have more note columns in it, it's totally neat if you are planning to make chords, you don't need to end up using 6-7 channel for your stuff, but only one.
- When you copy and paste your data, even if your new pattern is accidentally shorter than the original (example your copied data from a 128 row long pattern to 64), your data won't be cut to half, it will stay on the "memory" of the pattern, so if you expand it later to 128, you will have everything there.
- The copy/paste can be filtered, means that you can mark one (or many) channel(s) and select the stuff that you want to copy/paste. Example you can chose to only copy the notes and the effects, and leave the instruments, volume or any other input alone.
- You can duplicate channels (with pattern data and effects), instruments (hurray, easy duplicate instruments!), automation or almost anything.
- You can easily drag and drop instruments, VST effects from a place to another.
- Of course, you can setup shortcut keys for every favorite, often used action.
- Automatic PDC (Plugin Delay Compensation) precise timing correction engine in short.
- Every note column (can) have a separate volume, panning, note delay and 4 additional universal-effect subcolumn. Modplug have one universal effect subcolumn and one small (for volume, panning, ect) mixed column.
- Cross track routing the meta vst effect information between channels, so inside Sidechaining, or other reaction/intensity based stuff are possible.
- ReWire-ing support with other software, so its easy to work with other people in the field, or studios.

And the list could go on, these are the features that i have in mind right now, but you could surely get the main picture with this.

What Modplug have is compatibility. It can import/export to almost any tracker format. With Renoise you can import many tracker formats, but it can only save in Renoise (.xrns) format, since it's too advanced to be compatible with other formats (you can however export .midi data, so you can share at least the patterns with non Renoise users). This can be an issue if you plan to publish/share your work with people, but as for me, i'm sticking with the WAV/mp3 format, so it's ok. However, Modplug is heading to this way too. Its unavoidable. If you add new "technical" feature to the song format, it will break compatibility with old systems that are based to regular old school system. Modplug will (is) have the MPTP format for this purpose, but it will follow the same route like the XRNS example, with every extra technical feature.

hope that it helped. ^_^
I'm as calm as a synth without a player.  (Sam_Zen)

Sam_Zen

As long as you have each instrument in a separate channel, then you have the option to export each channel as a single wav.
0.618033988

uncloned

I also requested the export by instrument.

What Sam says is good if you are using lots of channels. I normally try to reduce the number as much as possible - and also all of my older modules are in the 4-channel style - even when it 18 channels.

I just work like that.

Obviously is a nice but not necessary thing because one could do it manually.

Saga Musix

Quote from: "psishock"Gui "skinning" is one of the totally less important stuff, you can even ignore it.
Not really. I actually hate skinned and that's one of the reasons why I love MPT or Miranda. About the other-points, yeah that's some nice DAW blah blah, but they are not really valid if you want to compare Renoise to trackers since most of them are not DAWs.
» No support, bug reports, feature requests via private messages - they will not be answered. Use the forums and the issue tracker so that everyone can benefit from your post.

psishock

Yep, that's what i love about Miranda and MPT too, and their light weightness. But a modular, graphical gui is something that you cant really archive effectively with default win gui engine, and therefore i love that functionality on Renoise too.

Quote from: "Jojo"About the other-points, yeah that's some nice DAW blah blah, but they are not really valid if you want to compare Renoise to trackers since most of them are not DAWs.
Aren't we having a little conservative view over the term trackers? :D
We could just stop the time with Impulse Tracker, since it has all the features, that any tracker should offer to a person. Even it dont have that flashy new windows gui like OMPT.

You are denying yourself with that statement, because you too are adding (slowly) new functions that will make OMPT better and more feature rich. Which is a great thing of course, makes everybody more happier with every update. Have faith on "trackers" (i have surely), they should not be left on the past, and be called some legacy music making softwares from the amiga and early pc era. They have their place right here and in the future, in front of present and new musicians also, were are sequencers dominating at the moment. A tracker isnt anything less from them, its just a different approach to composing, so they should definitely have every demanded new features (just like sequencers are adding new stuffs all the time up), that will allow to please the composer and make his life more easier, comfortable and faster.
My points are valid Jojo, look how many musicians are working example with Renoise every day, they love the way it constantly develops to something more greater, and the fact that developers are adding up frequently required features, really much pleases them. The same phenomena can be observed with OMPT too. But very old trackers are left in the dust, slowly totally forgotten, and especially new musicians wont even look to them.  
I can understand that you may not want to compare OMPT to DAWs, 'cause it's suffering from some lack of modern features (so call it "handicapped" at the moment), but i can assure you that trackers have their right place, in front of any modern musicians. I wont accept their role to be reduce simply to "legacy" softwares, with the old school systems like c64, DOS stuff, and the rest.
I'm as calm as a synth without a player.  (Sam_Zen)

Rxn

Quote from: "Sam_Zen"As long as you have each instrument in a separate channel, then you have the option to export each channel as a single wav.

That is true, but you don't necessarily have to export your own modules.
In my spare time I entertain myself every now and again taking some
oldie or someone else's track that I like and try to do some mastering on
it to sharpen my skills.

Very few writers work in "one istrument -- one channel" mode.