Ceri JC,
Personaly I started with trackers back in -91 and have never realy felt comfortable with piano-roll sequencers.
Renoise is not freeware even though it's very affordable ($50) and it's isn't as likely to become "abandonware" as other trackers.
VC in Renoise would be 50% of the reason to get a TI for me.
In the Renoise forums it's actually one of the longest "bug"-reports
