nord-format

Read and write Nord keyboard files from Rust, byte for byte.

Programs, live slots, set lists, settings, sample instruments and piano libraries, from a library with no I/O of its own beyond Read, Seek and Write. It builds anywhere std does, including the browser.

What you read, you can write back unchanged. Anything the library does not yet decode is kept as raw bytes, so a file survives a round trip even where its meaning is not fully known, and every editable field is checked to move no other bit.

Usage

from_path and from_stream detect the format and return an Entity. Decoded fields read as struct fields:

use nord_format::{from_path, Entity, Program};
use nord_format::bank::Item; // for `.location()`
use nord_format::formats::ne5::OrganModel;

let entity = from_path("patch.ne5p")?;

if let Entity::Program(Program::Electro5(p)) = entity {
    // `p` is the CBIN header plus the decoded body, and derefs to the body.
    println!("location: {:?}", p.location());
    println!("gain: {:?}", p.center_panel.gain);

    let preset = p.organ_panel.preset(OrganModel::B3);
    println!("B3 drawbars: {:?}", p.organ_panel.drawbars(OrganModel::B3, preset));
}

Every layout also has a field registry, so any field can be set by its path:

use nord_format::{from_path, to_bytes};

let mut entity = from_path("patch.ne5p")?;
if let Some(registry) = entity.registry_mut() {
    registry.set_field("center_panel.gain", "96")?;
}
std::fs::write("out.ne5p", to_bytes(&entity)?)?;

Learn more

• The formats module on docs.rs lists every supported file and how far its support goes.
• File formats in the guide explains the support tiers and the registry.
• Testing explains what the fixture sweep and the private corpus prove.

Building

cargo test -p nord-format from crates/ in nix develop. The bundle feature adds ZIP backup bundles. The test-only corpus feature points the sweep at the private corpus.

Disclaimer

Not affiliated with, authorized, or endorsed by Clavia DMI AB. "Nord", "Clavia", and "Electro" are trademarks of Clavia DMI AB, used here only to identify the hardware these formats come from. All reverse engineering is of files produced by Nord hardware, for interoperability.