Your files

This computer is drawbar’s own list: what you open, what you make, and what you copy off an instrument.

Opening and making

Drop files on the window, or use File ▸ Open…. Every file is decoded and immediately re-encoded to check that its bytes come back identical, and the activity log tells you if one does not. A file drawbar cannot read still gets a row, so you can see what went wrong.

New makes a fresh program, live slot, set list, settings file or preset for each supported instrument, a sample instrument or Sample Editor project from WAVs, a piano library from WAVs, or a folder. A fresh Stage file has every control at zero. It is not a factory program.

Views

Opening a slot on the instrument shows a view: the instrument’s own copy, in place. It is not on this computer until you click Keep on this computer. If you edit a view, it is kept when its tab closes, so the edits are not lost.

Saving and reverting

Every edit lands at once, and the name turns italic with a * until you save or revert. Save (⌘S) marks the current state as saved. If the sound belongs to a slot on the connected instrument, Save also queues it for sending. Revert goes back to the last save, and is the only undo.

What is kept

The list, with its folders, tags, edits and layout, is stored in the browser, or beside the desktop app, and comes back next time. Two limits apply, and the log says when they bite: a single sound over about a megabyte is not kept, and the whole list is capped at about 3 MB. Samples and piano libraries are usually larger, so export them.

Long-term storage is not guaranteed while drawbar is in alpha. Keep your own copies.

Exporting and names

Export… writes a copy of the file: a download in the browser, a save dialog on the desktop.

A sound’s name comes from the slot it was read from, the filename, or the New menu, and drawbar shows it without the extension. Rename with F2 or the name box in the document header. Where the file stores a name of its own, as samples and pianos do, that box edits the stored name.