Renoise License

Well, after lots of evaluation I have bought a license for Renoise.

The more I use it, the more I like it, and it definately helps you lay down ideas very quickly. There are lots of features I haven't even explored yet, so I'm confident that I will find even more useful stuff in there. It is great that they have a native Linux version, and it is very stable.

I have also been playing around a lot with QTractor, an open source DAW/Sequencer. While it has a lot of features that I like, it is not yet ready for everyday intensive use - this is no surprise as it is still described as being Alpha software. Even though I have bought Renoise, I will still use Qtractor here and there - when I find bugs or missing features I will be sure to report them in the interest of product improvement.

But for now, Renoise is King - I have been using it to put together my entry for the Depeche Mode remix contest. Stay tuned for more news on that.

Renoise

I've been spending quite a lot of time lately checking out the Linux version of Renoise. I must admit I was a bit bemused at first, as I had never used a tracker type sequencer before, but the guys at Renoise have a lot of useful documentation to get you quickly up and running.

Since I've been playing with it for a few days now I can say that I really like it. It is quick to lay down tracks, and editing is quick and painless (I do more MIDI sequencing than audio tracks). I like the fact that it has it's own built in sampler (which is very flexible), and it happily co-exists with LADSPA so you have a bunch of effects at your disposal from the off. It also integrates well with JACK.

There are a couple of limitations - it doesn't host DSSI plugins, so you have to use them as external MIDI devices and there are no dedicated audio tracks.

I'm not quite done with my evaluation yet, I haven't tried recording any audio yet, but I'm pleased with it so far. It has proved to be very stable. Other options I'll be checking out are QTractor & EnergyXT (I've all but ruled out Rosegarden - I've tried it before and didn't like the plugin setup workflow amongst other things).

As I've said before, I don't mind paying for a decent bit of software if I have to, what is more important to me is that I have something reliable and flexible to work with.