Samples

drawbar edits sample instruments (.nsmp) and Nord Sample Editor projects (.nsmpproj) in the same editor. An instrument carries its audio. A project points at WAV files.

The key map

The key map stays at the top. Each zone is a band over the keys it answers, and keys nothing answers are hatched. Drag a band’s edge to move it. The older v2 layout stores only each zone’s top note, so dragging one moves its neighbor too. The v3 and v4 layouts let you pull zones apart and leave keys silent.

Click a key to hear it, or play the keys on a MIDI controller. The line under the keyboard says which zone answered the last key and by how much it was shifted, or why the key is silent. A played key sounds at the velocity you played it, which is the velocity a zone’s window is tested against.

Zones

One row per zone: the keys it answers, its length and channels, and its size. Open a row for its waveform, to edit its root and top note, to play it, or to Save WAV…. Velocity windows are shown but cannot be edited in an instrument.

A v2 instrument also has a gain and a detune for every key. Per key draws them as two lanes you paint across, or as a table for one key at a time.

Projects

A project opens in the same editor with everything editable: both ends of each zone, velocity windows, trims, loops, crossfades, source files and the sound parameters. It is saved back as the text file the Sample Editor reads. drawbar cannot build a project into an instrument yet.

From WAVs

Drop a WAV on the window and its document can Encode it into a one-zone instrument. New ▸ Sample instrument… takes several WAVs, one zone each, with a root key for each. New ▸ Sample Editor project… makes a project from them instead, and the Sample Editor expects the WAVs to stay beside it.

The WAVs must be 16-bit PCM at 44.1 kHz, mono or stereo, in the plain or the extensible WAV format. Convert anything else, such as a 24-bit or 48 kHz file, first.

drawbar can encode v2, v3 and v4 instruments. What is supported says which have been played on an instrument.

Sending

Queue an instrument from its header like anything else.