Idea; ReTracker! Or maybe TrackRe?

[chimp_spanner]

Very interesting ideas - ultimately I think casual users would be a bit miffed at having to re-assign keys for every new instance but I guess as things stand it's the best solution.

I think Keyboard Control settings are stored with the song, so you could include starter song files with the RE.

I mean, that’s awesome. And I didn’t know that. Game on then right?

[Libraquaricorn]

Aaaah, trackers... My first "DAW" was Fasttracker II. Great fun. I sort of used it as a wavetable synth, setting the loop-points of the samples so close it created single cycle waveshapes that was delightfully out of tune. Microtuning I guess they call it today. I mostly did live jams straight to cassette and eventually minidisc, playing one of the samples with a row of letters on the computer keyboard over the beats of the tracker patterns. Very lofi but great fun. Here's an example from this past glorious setup:

[OverneathTheSkyBridg]

Trackers have been a popular talking point lately, as Polyend is going to soon be releasing their hardware tracker. I'm hoping Renoise can get VST3 ready so that I can run the the Rack and program music the way I used to! If anyone wants to run tracker software in Reason then the Renoise team's Redux VST is exactly what you're looking for.

[RealReasonHead]

I feel dumb but what are trackers?

[artotaku]

I feel dumb but what are trackers?

Trackers were the "DAWs" in the 80ies on home computers like Atari ST, Amiga and even C64 (?) where you could sequence a song with samples or sound chip.
I assume the name came from 3, 4 or more tracks aligned vertically. Each track is kind of a voice. On each track you could enter notes that triggered samples. When a song was played it scrolled vertically unlike the sequencers in DAWs we have today. A song was typcically called module (they also had the file extension *.mod).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_tracker

[RealReasonHead]

Trackers were the "DAWs" in the 80ies on home computers like Atari ST, Amiga and even C64 (?) where you could sequence a song with samples or sound chip.
I assume the name came from 3, 4 or more tracks aligned vertically. Each track is kind of a voice. On each track you could enter notes that triggered samples. When a song was played it scrolled vertically unlike the sequencers in DAWs we have today. A song was typcically called module (they also had the file extension *.mod).

So it's basically multiple sequencers in one device with a lot of steps? And maybe a sampler/synthesizer built in so you wouldn't have to connect the sequencing to external samplers / synths?

[artotaku]

I feel dumb but what are trackers?

Trackers were the "DAWs" in the 80ies on home computers like Atari ST, Amiga and even C64 (?) where you could sequence a song with samples or sound chip. While there was also classical sequencer software on Atari ST similar to Cubase the focus of trackers was not to sequence external MIDI equipment but to trigger samples inside the computer.

I assume the name came from 3, 4 or more tracks aligned vertically. Each track is kind of a voice. On each track you could enter notes that triggered samples. When a song was played it scrolled vertically unlike the sequencers in DAWs we have today. A song was typically called module (they also had the file extension *.mod).
Modules were very famous between computer music enthusiasts, hacker and cracker scene.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_tracker

[chimp_spanner]

Trackers have been a popular talking point lately, as Polyend is going to soon be releasing their hardware tracker. I'm hoping Renoise can get VST3 ready so that I can run the the Rack and program music the way I used to! If anyone wants to run tracker software in Reason then the Renoise team's Redux VST is exactly what you're looking for.

I'm using RRP in ReNoise over here already but it's as AU. One of the benefits of switching to the dark side I guess! It's a lot of fun though

[chimp_spanner]

Trackers were the "DAWs" in the 80ies on home computers like Atari ST, Amiga and even C64 (?) where you could sequence a song with samples or sound chip.
I assume the name came from 3, 4 or more tracks aligned vertically. Each track is kind of a voice. On each track you could enter notes that triggered samples. When a song was played it scrolled vertically unlike the sequencers in DAWs we have today. A song was typcically called module (they also had the file extension *.mod).

So it's basically multiple sequencers in one device with a lot of steps? And maybe a sampler/synthesizer built in so you wouldn't have to connect the sequencing to external samplers / synths?

I did think of it maybe having sample loading and/or synthesis but I don't know how doable that is! IMO it would work best as a Player device, as then it could make use of Pattern tracks. But then I guess by virtue of being a multi-part sequencer, it'd be kind of redundant to just connect it to *one* device by MIDI. So maybe being a CV only device would open up the possibility of some basic sample loading. Is there a limit to how many samples can be loaded by an RE? And would it be feasible/realistic to have some basic voice editing in such a device?

I think given there are so many devices that already do synthesis and sampling better than a device like this would do, maybe it'd be better to just keep the focus squarely on its sequencer capabilities. I dunno. What do you all think?

[chimp_spanner]

Trackers have been a popular talking point lately, as Polyend is going to soon be releasing their hardware tracker. I'm hoping Renoise can get VST3 ready so that I can run the the Rack and program music the way I used to! If anyone wants to run tracker software in Reason then the Renoise team's Redux VST is exactly what you're looking for.

Redux is cool from what I've tried! But the only (major) limitation that I can see is that multiple samples are kept on different keys, as opposed to being able to play each sample in the full key range on a per 'sound-slot' basis, like in the full ReNoise. Unless I've missed something!

[buddard]

I did think of it maybe having sample loading and/or synthesis but I don't know how doable that is! IMO it would work best as a Player device, as then it could make use of Pattern tracks.

Actually, any device can use the pattern track, not just Players!
Pattern track support was included in the same SDK update (3.0) as the player support, but they are separate properties in the SDK.

But regarding pattern support, you should be aware that it doesn't play very well with Remote or Keyboard control, since you basically have to have separate properties for each pattern. So you would have to remap every controller when you switch patterns...
But maybe there's a workaround for that that I haven't thought of yet.

[artotaku]

Trackers were the "DAWs" in the 80ies on home computers like Atari ST, Amiga and even C64 (?) where you could sequence a song with samples or sound chip.
I assume the name came from 3, 4 or more tracks aligned vertically. Each track is kind of a voice. On each track you could enter notes that triggered samples. When a song was played it scrolled vertically unlike the sequencers in DAWs we have today. A song was typcically called module (they also had the file extension *.mod).

So it's basically multiple sequencers in one device with a lot of steps? And maybe a sampler/synthesizer built in so you wouldn't have to connect the sequencing to external samplers / synths?

Yes, and it also had multiple patterns which you could freely order and organize to a song structure. With some trackers you could trigger the sound chip built into the computer so it was no soft synth but triggering the built in hardware . The cool thing about trackers was their brevity to enter notes by just hacking in numbers in just one line including volume and modulation parameters. No drawing just hacking ASCII. To fake number of voices you could address different samples in one track, e. g. offbeat bass sample between 4 on the floor kick sample.

[chimp_spanner]

I did think of it maybe having sample loading and/or synthesis but I don't know how doable that is! IMO it would work best as a Player device, as then it could make use of Pattern tracks.

Actually, any device can use the pattern track, not just Players!
Pattern track support was included in the same SDK update (3.0) as the player support, but they are separate properties in the SDK.

But regarding pattern support, you should be aware that it doesn't play very well with Remote or Keyboard control, since you basically have to have separate properties for each pattern. So you would have to remap every controller when you switch patterns...
But maybe there's a workaround for that that I haven't thought of yet.

Whaaaaat. Blowing my mind here with the knowledge man haha. I wonder why more non-Player devices haven't embraced this, and if they did, would it mean that *any* third party device could have pattern-to-track functionality? Not just the stock/RS ones? I always thought that was some 'special' thing that only official racks could do with the sequencer.

But I hear you on the downsides to patterns too. Mostly I just sequence so the remote aspect of it isn't a huge deal for me. But I understand that it is for others!

[buddard]

I wonder why more non-Player devices haven't embraced this, and if they did, would it mean that *any* third party device could have pattern-to-track functionality? Not just the stock/RS ones? I always thought that was some 'special' thing that only official racks could do with the sequencer.

No, the pattern lane doesn't include pattern to track functionality. It's basically just a fancy automation lane for the built-in "Pattern Select" property, that contains pattern clips instead of regular automation. Using that, Reason tells the RE which pattern is active, and how much it should be offset relative the song pointer.

It doesn't deal with actual pattern data in any way, that's completely up to the RE developer to handle.
So the RE receives a Pattern Select update, and the RE usually responds to that by starting to read pattern data from another set of properties in the RE.

But I hear you on the downsides to patterns too. Mostly I just sequence so the remote aspect of it isn't a huge deal for me. But I understand that it is for others!

Yes, and especially in the context of this thread where some were talking about the possibility of using Keyboard Control.