Polyend Buddy (Early Access) - Renoise tool for import + export of PTI (Drum Slice, Melodic Slice, Regular Samples), Drumkit generator

[esaruoho]

Polyend Buddy - Your one-stop tool for Renoise ↔ Polyend Tracker/Tracker+/Mini Sample Management

How it started:
.PTI Export
.PTI Import

How it’s going:

So, it was suggested to me to have a look at being able to Import .PTI (Polyend Tracker Instruments) into Renoise. I managed to find the jaap3 reverse-engineering PTI file format GitHub and ran with it. Quickly got Drum Slice and regular instrument import going.

Then when I go out and post about it, get told “naw, gief PTI Export” - so after about a month, I started looking into it, and got that, too, working.

I started making little experiments with the PTI Export, which resulted in the 48 sample drumkit generator.

This means, you take a max of 48 samples, - load them into Renoise, and Polyend Buddy will convert them to a single chain of samples, one after another, with the Slice data applied directly into the Sample, and then export it as a .PTI.

Then I went scouting for ideas on Reddit, Polyend Backstage, and the Facebook groups for Polyend Tracker - and uhh, didn’t really get much of anything.

So I implemented Firmware downloading + copying to the device, ReCycle (.RX2) to .PTI conversion, Normalize Slices (each Slice will be at full blast), and a few other things such as being able to back up your SD-card..

I also eventually added Melodic Slice export + import, meaning, you’re able to load a maximum of 48 samples and then export them as a melodic chain, with one of the samples as a Selected Slice.

Also added REX + RX2 import and export to PTI, meaning your Propellerheads ReCycle v1.0 + v2.0 loops can be exported to PTI (with 48 slices being the maximum, of course). Also added .ITI (Impulse Tracker Instrument) export to PTI.

Consider this post yet another “how are things going, any thoughts on what I could do next” (that aren’t “rewrite the Polyend Firmware from scratch” level difficulty)

If you run into any issues, or questions, please let me know via email, this forum, screenshots, etc. If you have any ideas, let me know, too.

Polyend Buddy is a part of Paketti - which is patreonware/donationware ( http://patreon.com/esaruoho / https://lackluster.gumroad.com/l/paketti / http://ko-fi.com/esaruoho / http://paypal.me/esaruoho / https://github.com/sponsors/esaruoho/ ) - I also have a Paketti Discord where I take feature requests, bugreports and suggestions. ( https://discord.gg/Qex7k5j4wG )

(Note: You can also hit the GitHub URL to just download it and take it for a spin).

[neilbaldwin]

This is very, very cool. I don’t use Renoise but (it seems so far) that I’m able to load your tools in the demo version (of Renoise) and still export .pti files with the Pti Buddy. Amazing work! The whole Paketti suite is an astonishing project. Makes me wish I was a Renoise user

[esaruoho]

hi @neilbaldwin , thanks for weighing in!

p.s. there’s also a little Paketti take on the “Fill” feature:

it was cool to hear that it also works on the Renoise demo - since that’s also an easy way to start processing and preparing PTIs with Polyend Buddy

[neilbaldwin]

Oh that’s interesting! Does that write to the Pattern on the Tracker?

[esaruoho]

it writes to the pattern in the Renoise song

[neilbaldwin]

Oh, yes, of course

[esaruoho]

oh and in case it helps visualize how the paketti fill works:

[esaruoho]

wanted to also say that a few other extra details in Polyend Buddy within Paketti are these two CCizer features:

one Renoise Instr Midi Control Device for “Polyend Synth Mode”

and one Renoise Instr Midi Control Device setting for “Polyend Performance Mode”

if anyone needs some further tweaks for these, please let me know

[neilbaldwin]

imagine if PT had Lua scripting!

[wiggin2250]

Tried it on the renoise demo, and sadly, for me, when I try to open the polyend buddy gadget it just hangs. I’ve tried changing the order I put the tracker+ into storage mode, but it doesn’t work.

[esaruoho]

hmm @wiggin2250 – are you on macOS, Windows, Linux - which version of OS? Renoise 3.5 or an older demo? On first start of Polyend Buddy - it doesn’t know where to access the Tracker+ from - and it should open up pretty snappily. When you say hangs, does Renoise tell you “Script became unresponsive”, or did you get an error?

Would love to find out what’s going on, so i can fix this - any further details would be much appreciated

[wiggin2250]

Hi Esaruoho,

thanks for getting back to me. The problem was me. When I set the Polyend device root. I thought it meant the root drive/folder of the tracker itself, rather than the instrument folder. It has stopped hanging now, im pleased to say. I’ll have a mess with it for a bit and see how well it gels with the tracker workflow wise. And if all goes well, i’ll buy renoise and join your Patreon. I appreciate all your work. Thanks.

[esaruoho]

Hi @wiggin2250 - thanks for the info! Ok, Polyend Buddy shouldn’t choke up if there are large amounts of files on the SD card, so I’ll have a look at pointing the Root folder to a place with 36717 items (36gb or so). that should tease out the issue. (If you could confirm, how many files do you have on your SD Card, that also would help). I already had this issue previously, on the Local Computer Folder - which I fixed, so if this is the same one for Polyend Root, it’ll be an easy fix. I’ll give it a shot!

ok, this is a great lead. I’m getting this. I’ll have a look at what to do to protect against it, since I’ve already solved it for Local Computer Path

there, fixed it. new build at Releases · esaruoho/paketti · GitHub

thanks for sending me this detail!

[wiggin2250]

Hi @esaruoho,
appreciate the reply, it seems to be fixed now, (I installed your latest fix. And its all good now. I Just joined your patreon btw really appreciate your work).

In case the information still has any use, my sd card size is 238GB, it has 148,000 files and 5,284 folders, (info from windows operating system). The information from Polyend Buddy states 2874 PTI files, and 130,182 WAV files.

Do you know if it is possible to add/render/bake in vst effects to a PTI and then export that back to the Polyend Tracker? I’m not asking for a tutorial, I just don’t know if it’s possible to do.

[esaruoho]

In case the information still has any use, my sd card size is 238GB, it has 148,000 files and 5,284 folders, (info from windows operating system). The information from Polyend Buddy states 2874 PTI files, and 130,182 WAV files.

Oh, absolutely - I’m glad the 35000+ file solution (i.e. it not hanging on large file counts) was enough to sort out the 148000+ filecount. And also am glad you told me about it - since it’s still pretty early days with Polyend Buddy being public, so it was crucial to find out about this glitch and fix it quickly, too. Thanks for joining the patreon, also, it is much appreciated!

Do you know if it is possible to add/render/bake in vst effects to a PTI and then export that back to the Polyend Tracker?

This is a great idea! So, I have been working on something akin to this, from the point of view of scripting audio processing (vst/native Renoise devices) to a wavefile. And there’s also a longer form project of making it possible to process a sample through a large vst chain of effects and thus baking the sample through those effects.

For a single shot sample, it should be no big deal to do PTI → VST chain → PTI directly, it would even work with melodic slices, I think, but what about Drum Slices? Could you maybe give an example of what kinda VST chains we’d be looking for? I could jump this up from being a note on a todo-list, to seeing if i can’t detect the silences of a vst chain and thus create slightly longer drumchains, with the effects.

I’ll have a think about this for sure, but if you have pointers or maybe even examples of a chain you’d like to process a PTI through (especially focusing on whether it’s “a one sample PTI”, a “melodic slice PTI” or a “drum slice PTI” - that’ll really help!

Thanks again for the ideas!

[neilbaldwin]

That is a brilliant idea! Would turn Renoise into a nice little sample-chain factory!

[esaruoho]

Yup! This is the kind of feedback/ideas i have been waiting to get

[neilbaldwin]

@esaruoho is there a quick way to reorder samples before exporting to a PTI? I’m using the Load 48 option to load a bunch of samples from a folder but I want to make them in a specific order before outputting the chain.

[esaruoho]

hi @neilbaldwin - i think there are a few methods for this.

the first and foremost would be to manually name the samples accordingly, such as 01_kick to 48_shuffle.wav - then if you load the folder up, they’ll be imported (and exported to PTI) in a specific order based on the filenames.

the other way would be to take this:

and sort it by dragging into something like this:

and then open up the Polyend Buddy and clicking on “PTI Drumkit Mono” / “PTI Drumkit Stereo” from the “Save from Renoise” → it’ll take the selected instrument with the sorted samples, mash them together into a drumchain and export PTI.

do let me know if these somehow answer your questions? (i would personally go with the 01-48 sorting of filenames just to make sure you can quickly export multiple kits by just loading one folder at a time.

but the dragging isn’t that tedious, either.

[wiggin2250]

Hi @esaruoho,
thanks for the reply, apologies for not getting back to you sooner, I really appreciate the chance to add feedback, and have some input.

I have just started learning Renoise, so there are likely very basic processes i’m not familiar with, (I still haven’t gelled with HEX). As far as i’ve worked out, there are track effects, and instrument (sampler) effects. And it would be the instrument effect chains that you would be working with?

Before I give you some examples. I’ve noticed that you can add a lot of instrument effects chains and route single slices to different chains that you have created. Which is insanely powerful!! And something I want to mess around with. Would separate slices routed to different effects chains be problematic and too complex for you to to deal with? (I have zero programming knowledge).

I’ll give some examples for possible effect chains (i’m no music pro either).

For a Drum slice PTI, EQ, Compression, saturation, distortion, filters. Like I said above, being able to route individual slices to different fx chains would really open up the ability to tailor the drums to your taste, like hardware drum machine individual outs.

I also like to use the drum slice PTI for sampling my own synths (or just loading other synth one shots) and using them rhythmically. So time based effects like reverb and delay could be used. (Like you said this could make the sample longer).

As far as melodic slices, it could be anything really. For example if I sampled some strings (from my own synth or a song), maybe add some reverb and filter and/or EQ to make it less prominent, and maybe some bitcrushing or chorus and flanger types of effect.

No offence to Polyend, (this applies to tons of hardware), but being to bake in VST effects into the PTI, convert and bring them over would cut out so much work, and give the Tracker sounds that it would struggle to make alone. I could see this becoming an essential part of my workflow. I think it really opens up the sound design possibilities of the tracker.

(Edit, apologies for the novel).