renoise 2.6 with lua scripting

[MichaelBenjamin]

just stumbled over this update.
http://www.renoise.com/about/what-s-new-2-6/
i bought renoise some time ago at 1.8 and mainly used it to render midi lines with its awesomly tight timing (regarding timing energy xt is worst, renoise is best of all hosts ive demoed or used so far)
since some people here suggested lua for something (green system?)- renoise now got lua sript support, that render to extension "tools" files which can be loaded into the host.
here are the already available scripts:
http://tools.renoise.com/browse

heres the scripting dev pack:
https://code.google.com/p/xrnx/
i wonder if its worth to dive in a bit, since the posted examples look promising.

[MichaelBenjamin]

heres more information about it from the script readme:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- What can be 'scripted', what can't? What is all this scripting about?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Right now (in this Renoise release), you can make use of scripts in the
following places:

- Run scripts and commands via a terminal in realtime using the
"Scripting Console & Editor". This is what enabling "--scripting-dev" will
do and how you will start getting into all this.

- Create tools: Add new and custom functionality to Renoise. Tools are small
file bundles with one or more Lua scripts and a description file
(manifest.xml) that make use of the Renoise API; described below.
Such tools can be distributed and installed via drag and drop (by bundling
them and hiding the code). This way not only developers can use them, but
also those who don't want to mess around with the technical details. We'll
describe those bundles later on in detail.

Some examples of what you can do with Renoise tools:

+ New context menu entries and keyboard shortcuts (think "My Improved Pattern
Jump", "My Bypass all DSP Devices in Track", "My Generate Chip Sound
Sample" commands and so on). A similar concept to the extensions in
Mozilla's Firefox.

+ Custom graphical user interface elements with the look and feel of Renoise
itself. Perfectly integrate your tools with Renoise and make them easy to
use for others too.

+ Manipulate the Renoise main window or the song (patterns, tracks,
instruments, anything that makes up a song). Generate, filter, or process
song data in any way you can think of, e.g. for algorithmic composition,
instrument creation, automation etc. The sky is the limit.

+ Nibbles


- MIDI controller scripting: create bidirectional MIDI or OSC implementations
for any controller hardware:

Make your Launchpad behave and do exactly what you want it to do, and share
your settings with others. Such tools can be a simple auto mapping of your
MIDI controller, like support for Mackie Control, Behringer MIDI Mixers and
so on without having to "map" anything manually in Renoise -> plug and play.
Create MIDI mappings or an OSC implementation the way you need it for live
sessions or other needs.

To make this easier, Renoise offers you a tool called "Duplex", which
already has support for the Launchpad and some other MIDI controllers.
Duplex is a very flexible, object-oriented approach to handling MIDI
controllers in Renoise, and also offers virtual UIs for the MIDI controllers
that are supported by Duplex. This way you can virtually test and use such
controllers in Renoise without owning the real ones.

You don't have to use Duplex to write MIDI controller scripts in Renoise,
but it already offers a lot of tools that will make this easier.


- Create, configure, or override Renoise's default MIDI, OSC bindings:
Renoise has a default set of MIDI mappings that can be assigned manually by
the user. This set can be extended and tweaked to fit your needs, then via
the MIDI Mapping Dialog in Renoise used and mapped as usual.
Renoise also has a default OSC implementation which you can tweak and override
to do "your stuff."


What you can *NOT* do with Renoise tools:

+ Change Renoise's existing behavior. Like, you can not make all C-4s in the
pattern editor yellow instead of white. You can write your own pattern
editor, but not change the existing one.

+ Realtime access. Except the OSC and MIDI IO stuff, you can not write
scripts that run in the audio player. So you can not script your own new
realtime DSP - yet. But you can, for example, write a tool that creates
samples or manipulates existing samples. This limitation might change in
the future. For now you can make a VST or AudioUnit or LADSPA/DSSI plugin.