Your files

This computer is your library: the sounds you open, make, or copy off an instrument. Each one is a real file in a folder you can see.

drawbar is alpha. Keep your own backups of anything that matters. This version starts with an empty library and does not bring over what an earlier version kept.

Where your library lives

On the desktop, your library is a folder in drawbar’s own data:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/drawbar/library
• Linux: ~/.local/share/drawbar/library
• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\drawbar\library

File ▸ Show the library folder opens it. Finder, your backups and Nord Sample Editor see the same files and folders drawbar does. drawbar keeps tags and unsaved edits in a hidden folder beside them, so back up the whole library folder. That folder holds nothing about your other files, so it stays small however large the library is.

In the browser, your library is kept in the browser’s own storage for drawbar.app, where nothing else can see it. Clearing the site’s data deletes it, so export what you want to keep.

Opening another folder

File ▸ Open library folder… opens any folder as your library: a Sample Editor project, a sample pack, a folder on a shared drive. File ▸ Open recent library switches back. drawbar opens the last library again when it starts, and changes nothing in a folder until you change something there. Unsaved edits stay with their library and come back when you open it again.

This works on the desktop and in Chrome and Edge. Firefox and Safari cannot open a folder. Brave can once you turn on brave://flags/#file-system-access-api and relaunch it. In Brave, saving or renaming a large piano takes a little longer.

The first time you open a folder in the browser, drawbar reminds you not to open it in the desktop app at the same time.

In Chrome and Edge, the browser asks whether drawbar may change the folder. Unless you allow it on every visit, it forgets when you close drawbar.app. Choose File ▸ Reconnect and the folder’s name to get it back.

Chrome makes each file and folder drawbar writes there readable only by you, and on macOS marks it as downloaded, so in a shared folder other people lose access to what you save.

Adding and making sounds

Drop files on the window, or use File ▸ Open…. drawbar copies them into your library and leaves the originals where they were. A file drawbar cannot read still shows up, and the activity log says what went wrong.

New makes a fresh sound, note or folder. A fresh Stage program has every control at zero; it is not a factory sound.

Saving

Edits land at once, and the name shows a * until you save. Save (⌘S) writes the file, and queues it for sending if the sound came from a slot on the connected instrument. Revert goes back to the last save. It is the only undo. Unsaved edits are kept when you quit. drawbar also keeps them every few seconds, so after a crash you may lose the last few seconds. In the browser, closing the tab before drawbar has kept your latest edit makes the browser ask whether to leave. Stay a moment, and the edit is kept.

Export… saves a copy somewhere else. Rename with F2. If a name is taken, drawbar asks whether to Overwrite the file there or Keep both.

Bundles

A bundle (.ne5pbundle or .ne5tbundle) is the file Nord Sound Manager uses to carry programs, or a set list, together with the pianos and samples they play. Drop one on the window, or open it with File ▸ Open…, and drawbar unpacks it into a new folder named after the bundle. The bundle itself is not kept.

To make one, check the sounds to bundle and choose Export as bundle…. They can be on this computer, on the instrument, or both. drawbar adds what they need: the programs a set list plays, and the pianos and samples a program plays. Sounds on the instrument are copied to this computer first. In the browser the bundle arrives in your downloads.

A program’s file names its piano and sample by a number only the instrument can put a name to. A piano or sample already on this computer is added when the instrument has named it, which happens when drawbar copies the program from its slot. The activity log lists anything the bundle had to leave out.

Changes made outside drawbar

You can rename, move, edit and delete your files in Finder or any other app. drawbar notices when you come back to its window or tab, and a renamed sound keeps its tags. drawbar reads a tagged file once in the background; a rename before that shows as a new file.

drawbar never writes over a change made outside it without asking. If a file changed while you had unsaved edits to it, drawbar asks what to do:

• Keep mine keeps your edits. Your next save replaces the file.
• Take theirs drops your edits and uses the file as it is now.
• Keep both saves your edits as a new file beside it.

A sound that changed on disk is not sent to the instrument until you have looked at it.

Demo sounds

Start with a demo on the welcome sheet (Help ▸ Welcome) downloads a tine electric piano and a looped pad into a Demo sounds folder. Ask again to bring back any you deleted.

If something goes wrong

• Read-only. Another copy of drawbar has this library open, in another window or browser tab. Close it. Hover the library’s name for the reason. Changes you make in a read-only library are held in memory only, and the browser asks before you leave a tab that holds some. A browser tab cannot tell that the desktop app, or another browser, has a folder open, so open a folder in only one of them at a time. If both write to it anyway, the one that writes second turns read-only instead of undoing the other’s changes. drawbar also opens a library read-only when its hidden folder has lost the file that lists your unsaved edits, so they are not deleted. On the desktop, put that file back from a backup to get them back. Open without them deletes those edits and opens the library as usual.
• Damaged index. The file that keeps your tags, where each sound came from and which sounds have unsaved edits cannot be read, so the library opens read-only. Set it aside and open without it renames that file and opens the library without them. The renamed file and the unsaved edits stay in the hidden folder.
• Missing. The file was deleted outside drawbar, but it had tags or unsaved edits, or came from your keyboard. Save it to bring the file back, or delete it.
• A write to the instrument left a file. If drawbar stopped, or could not put the old sound back, while it replaced a sound on your keyboard, the sound that was there may now be only on this computer. drawbar offers it when the library opens: Keep in library adds it to your sounds so you can send it back, Show the file shows where it is, and Discard deletes it. A file that does not read is not a copy of the sound, and drawbar offers only to discard it.
• Differs only by case. Two names in one folder differ only in upper and lower case, such as Pad.ne5p and pad.ne5p. macOS and Windows hold only one of them, so rename one to keep the library whole on every computer.
• Not read or not all listed. drawbar could not read that file or folder.
• Failed verification. The sample or piano file is damaged. drawbar will not send it.
• No storage in the browser. Some private windows give drawbar none. drawbar says so, and what you make lasts only until the tab closes. drawbar also cannot keep a copy of a sound it would replace, so it sends only to empty slots.

How the library works underneath is in Library data model.