read all about it discover all the news

The latest in our series of In:Depth interviewees should need no introduction. Since debuting on Dave Clarke's label with some crunchy, abstract techno offerings in the early 90s, Cristian Vogel's been continously keeping busy exploring everything from sound design to live improvisation to contemporary dance productions to good old wonky techno bangers.

And now he's making a Renoise album. It's called The Inertials and is a collection of "shiny new techno/electro with many layers of rhythm programming, sound design and microdetails to surprise, freak-out and delight" according to Cristian himself. Another unique aspect of this album is that it's fan-funded via PledgeMusic. Of special interest to the Renoise crowd should be that by taking part in this funding process, you can get your hands on actual Renoise XRNS files of Cristian's latest tracks among other things.

We are proud to present a new Renoise Release. Beta versions of our latest release are now available to all registered users at the Renoise Backstage. Everyone is invited to join our forums to welcome, discuss, tweak and help bug-fixing the new release.

Renoise 2.8 Features

Full 64-bit Support

Ever since our Linux users got a 64-bit version with Renoise 2.5, we've had a lot of requests for 64-bit support on all three platforms, and now it's ready. Running the 64-bit version, the memory-hungry among you can now take full advantage of the available resources in your machine, allowing you to break the 4 GB barrier.

Renoise 2.8 also comes complete with a native plug-in bridge, allowing seamless usage of 32-bit instrument and effect plug-ins inside the 64-bit Renoise process, and vice versa.

• 64-bit versions for all platforms: Windows, OSX and Linux
• Plug-in bridge allows 32-bit plug-ins to be used within 64-bit Renoise
• Full Rewire 64-bit support

Reworked Pattern Matrix with Slot Aliases

Workflow has been the keyword for most of the 2.8 development cycle. Thanks to the revamped Pattern Matrix and sequencer, it's now easier than ever to arrange your songs. By aliasing individual pattern slots, you can lay out complete tracks in no time. The new sections feature allows you to add structure and overview, while the streamlined sequencer helps to keep your project nice and tidy.

• Alias individual pattern slots in the matrix, i.e. treat them like clips
• Edit one slot and have changes propagate to all other aliases
• Quickly clone or alias slots by dragging their edges
• Use section headers to group parts of the song together

Track Groups & Collapsing

Another big workflow improvement is track grouping, which allows you to group related tracks together, and have each group share common effect chains. It's now also possible to collapse tracks and groups, which can do wonders for the overview of large projects.

• Group tracks into logical units, collapse them for better overview
• Flexible routing of group tracks
• Collapsed tracks use minimal space, while still providing a quick overview
• Pattern effects in groups will affect all member tracks simultaneously
• Automatically collapse all tracks except the one you are focussing on
• Color code tracks with adjustable background colors

DSP Effects and Meta Devices

And what would a new Renoise release be without a few new DSP effects?

• New DSP Multitap delay for spaced out filtered echo madness

• New DSP Repeater for st-st-st-stuttery goodness

• New DSP Exciter to make your mixes sparkle

• New Meta Mixer allowing blending of modulation signals into one output

• Improved EQs with bigger graphs and all values can be automated
• Improved Send devices, which can now be individually panned
• New and improved crossover filters for the Multi Send device

Sample Editor

The Sample Editor has also got its fair share of workflow improvements.

• Left & right channels can be edited separately
• Zoom level & current selection are remembered per sample
• Significantly faster sample loading
• Destructively render slices to individual samples
• Improved keyboard and mouse selection handling
• Improved marker and waveform display visibility
• New and improved processing tools (mute selection, insert silence, invert phase, swap stereo channels and cross-fading loop creator)

Improved Spectrum View

• New Phase Correlation Meter in Phase Scope
• Side-by-side comparison of two tracks in the spectrum view
• New drawing modes: Filled Curve, Bar and Spectrogram
• Configurable frequency scaling, precision, peak fall rate, and slope

Pattern Effects

• Pattern effects in the master or group tracks will affect all member tracks
• Up to 34 DSP devices can be addressed via pattern commands 1xyy-Yxyy
• New pattern effects: Tremolo, Auto Pan, Set Envelope Position
• Logical mnemonics for pattern effects from A to Z instead of cryptic numbers

Performance Improvements

• Hyper-threading support for new Intel i5 and i7 CPUs and others
• Various audio engine speed optimizations for all platforms

Other Workflow Improvements

• New Favorites system for plug-ins and native DSP devices
• Expandable and detachable Envelope Editor
• Memorize last used bank/preset paths per plug-in
• Automatically name rendered songs/patterns
• Right-side modifier keys are no longer hard-coded
• Finer control over note distribution when dragging samples into keyzones
• Improved color picker with saveable swatches
• Context menus overhauled and made more consistent

Under the Hood

• Quicktime is no longer needed to import MP3 files on Windows
• Plug-ins are woken up from auto-suspend when clicking on their windows
• Support for mono capture devices on OSX
• New Jack implementation on Linux
• Trimmed overall memory footprint

We've got a winner! And as promised here's the video of my daughter picking the winning piece of paper from a hat.

All songs in a 202 MB pack: MBC #4 Final Votepack

Good times!

Here is the vote pack: MBC4.zip [194 MB]

There are 23 songs in this pack. Participants must pick and post their top 3 in the Mutant Breaks Competition #4 thread or they are disqualified. The top 10 go into a hat. My ~18 month old daughter picks a winner. I will make a YouTube video of this.

If you were not a participant you can still post, but your vote will be ignored. If some weird thing happens, like a bunch of tied tracks make it so that more than 10 are in the top, I will exercise veto power and truncate however I feel like it.

All songs in this archive are copyright, or not, their respective authors. Don't pull a Timbaland. Contact the authors before assuming anything. Sample at your own risk.

Some songs are OGG files. It's 2011, you should be able to playback Ogg Vorbis by now?! If not try:

• http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
• http://www.xiph.org/quicktime/

Good times.

Once a year this shit is mandatory! Submit your song by Sunday, November 6th, 2011 and maybe you'll win $100 Canadian dollars.

Details after the jump.

For the next installment in the Renoise artist interview series, we managed to persuade highly productive Renaissance man Datassette to take some time out from his busy schedule to talk about the good old days, creative mod naming, business funk, psy trance, tinned tomatoes, wretched filth and everything in-between. And Renoise self-evidently. Plus some pretty unexpected influences...

Eight weeks of community driven testing finish today. We are proud to announce that Renoise 2.7 is stable and ready for production! Thanks once again to our users, the best in the world.

New Features in Renoise 2.7

• Sample Keyzone Editor
• Sample Slicing
• Improved Automation
• Redesigned Instruments
• MIDI Input Routing
• Real-time Line-In Rendering
• Multiband Send Device

Free 500 MB PureMagnetik XRNI Pack with your Renoise purchase

To commemorate this achievement we've teamed up with Puremagnetik.com to bring you "Puremagnetik XRNI Essentials Volume 1" - a hand-picked selection from their catalog of professionally multi-sampled instruments.

The sample pack includes such instruments as:

• Analog Synth Basses
• Circuit Bent Drum Kits
• Buchla Drum Kits
• Mellotron Strings and Flutes
• Glitch, Toy & Lo-Fi Sounds
• Fender Rhodes Mark II
• Model-C Clavinet
• Electric Guitar
• Upright Bass
• Classic Analog Synths
• Grand Piano

and more!

BeatSlaughter XRNI SoundPack (300 MB) free for registered users

Additionally, Berlin based artist and longtime user Beatslaughter has blessed us with a touch of evil in his sample pack "Beatslaughter SoundPack Volume 1".

Those two sample packs total over 800 MB and let producers jump into all the latest sampling features of Renoise 2.7. The packs are free for all registered users new and old, and are waiting in the Backstage.

Tool Update Downloader

But that's not all! Act now and we'll throw in a Tool Update Downloader which automatically updates installed XRNX Tools. It's so easy even your grandmother could do it. In fact, she's learning Lua and scripting a new controller template for Duplex as you read this...

Always remember... keep it vertical!

We're proud to announce the first Renoise 2.7 Release Candidate. Almost there! Registered users can download their copies from the Backstage. And for the first time in the 2.7 release cycle, unregistered users can check out the Renoise 2.7 Demo.

With the end of beta testing also comes the end of the 30% discount. But, because we're nice, we're offering a grace period. Anyone who wants to take advantage of the special price has until the 10th of May to do it. Get in there!

More goodies in the upcoming days. Watch this space for details.

After the hack-and-dev onslaught from the previous release, beats are back in business with "probably the most complete music tool available on Linux, and even on Mac and Windows": the Renoise 2.7 Beta! Read on to see how you can join the party at a quite favorable entry fee. But let's have a look at the new features first.

New Features

• Sample Keyzone Editor
• Sample Slicing
• Improved Automation
• Redesigned Instruments
• MIDI Input Routing
• Real-time Line-In Rendering
• Multiband Send Device

More details? See What's New in Renoise 2.7.

Renoise 2.7 Beta Celebration Sale - 30% Off

To celebrate the Renoise 2.7 Beta, for a limited time new accounts can be purchased with a 30% discount, lowering the entry barrier to Renoise's Beta phase. Existing customers can take advantage of the -20% reduced pricing on upgrades.