

Benn jordan renoise generator#
Tracker’s generously-sized screen makes navigating its unusual Pattern generator easy With its vertical layout and numerical programming, this could potentially look fairly daunting to those not familiar with tracker layouts, but in reality there’s little here that deviates from the logic of a common step sequencer.
Benn jordan renoise software#
The bulk of the creative work takes place within Tracker’s Pattern view, which is the element most reminiscent of software trackers of old. It’s also got an FM radio onboard.Įach sample can be adjusted via an edit and playback menu, with parameters specific to each instrument type, along with a selection of destructive effects that can be baked into the source sample itself, including bitcrushing, delay, compression and modulation effects (samples are edited after being loaded into Tracker’s memory, so the original files on the SD card are unaffected).Įach instrument also has its own multimode filter, plus a modulation matrix that allows either an ADSR envelope or LFO to be applied to each volume, pan, filter cutoff and wavetable or granular position independently. The OP-1 is a very different beast, but it puts an equally unique twist on hardware music making. Teenage Engineering OP-1 (opens in new tab).Tracker elements aside, Digitakt is probably the closest rival here, with its creative sample sequencing tools. In bringing the essence of Renoise to your DAW, Redux opens up a new world of audio software - its tracker workflow is something you'll either love or hate, though. The adjustable wavetable window setting means Tracker can load wavetables used for your favourite plugin too. The remaining two modes allow for basic sample-based synthesis, either via wavetable or granular processing of the source sample. The first is straightforward one-shot/looped sampling, joined by a sample slicing mode, whereby loops can be cut up either by automated transient detection and adjusted by hand. There are four ways that instruments can make use of these source samples.

Samples are either recorded or loaded to the instrument’s memory from an SD card slot, which are then used to create up to 48 ‘instruments’. So what actually is it? Retro influences aside, Tracker is essentially a multitrack hardware sampler. Was the world crying out for a hardware tracker? Probably not, to be honest, but Tracker makes a very convincing case for the concept nonetheless. On a workflow front, that includes the vertical sequencer and emphasis on pattern sequencing, but it’s also coupled with retro-influenced hardware that uses a pad-based ‘keyboard’ with a touch of the Commodore about it.
