In the following series of short articles I will explore the interpolation feature in Renoise’s Advanced Edit panel. Interpolation, broadly speaking, amounts to the estimation of a series of values from a given set of known values. Common applications of interpolation in Renoise include the automation of volume and panning control. But interpolation may be used more creatively, to automate FX. The latter is one of the more interesting applications and I will look at that in more detail later in the series. First I will begin with a stock example: automating volume control.
Disclaimer: The videos for this series are, for the moment, pretty basic. If there is demand, I will revisit and improve but for now, it is what it is. Thanks to the authors of Camstudio, for the use of your software. It’s pretty basic, but it is also pretty good!
Example 1: Automating Volume Control
An example of volume control automation should illustrate interpolation quickly and easily. I use Renoise version 3.1.1 on Windows 10 Home but the examples should work on most versions of the software.
Fire up Renoise. Select the Advanced Edit panel. Deselect everything but the volume checkbox in the Content Mask pane; we are only concerned with volume for this example. Later we will re-enable them. Select a sample or instrument and assign to Track 1. Toggle Edit Mode (Shortcut Key: ESC). Edit line 00 in Track 1 to trigger the complete sample which should play for the duration of the pattern block: record C-400 in the note column. Edit the volume column at line 00 with value 00. This is the starting volume. Choose an end volume for the series of values, for example 80. Edit line 63 of the pattern block with the value 80. Then using the mouse or the appropriate keyboard shortcut, select the entire track or column from line 00 to line 63 of the pattern block. Right-click, choose Selection > Interpolate linear. Renoise will auto-populate the values in the range from 00 to 80. Now, when you play back the sample it will fade in from silence (00) to loud (80).
That’s it! Automating volume control with interpolation. In the next installment of this series, we will take a look at another set of examples to explore the use of interpolation for FX automation and how that might be used creatively.
