MOTU's Digital Performer 4 and the NM

[mosc]

This is from the NM Mailing list. I'm putting it here because this is a more persistent place to post this kind of information...

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Rick Jansen zei op 27/1/05 11:29:


>> Does anyone have a .midnam file (for MOTU's DP4), containing the
>> "standard" Clavia patches for the NM?


Well, apparently not, couldn't find any pointer, so I must be the only
person using DP with a NM...

Just in case: here is a web-based utility to generate a .midnam file for
your own set of patches:

http://dropmix.xs4all.nl/rick/Emusic/Nord/midnam/

You can upload your bank files, and a "Nord Modular.midnam" file will be
generated for you, as a proper XML file.

A "Nord Modular.midnam" file is used by MOTU Digital Performer to choose
patches in a track, by name. On Mac OS X you can find .midnam files in
the directory "systemdisk/Library/Audio/Midi devices/MOTU/Clavia/".
There are files there for Nord, Nord Lead,2,3, but not yet for the
modular. Well, now you can help yourself, even if you have extensively
added or changed patches in the various banks.

Just in case you have never uploaded patches from your Modular to your
computer: look in the editor's "Synth" menu, where you'll find a command
"Bank Upload". That command will fetch all patches from your Nord
Modular and store them on your computer's hard disk. Each patch will be
stored in a separate .pch file, and a list of the patches from the bank
is stored in the accompanying "bank file". To generate a .midnam file
we're only interested in the "bank file" for each bank, not in the .pch
files. The "bank file" contains a list of patch names. Usually the bank
files are named "Bank1", "Bank2", etc. (Mind to save your patches in a
different directory for each bank, else you'll end up with patches from
different banks in one directory.) The bank files are usually small,
it's just a list of a 100 patch names or so.

The Nord Modular has 9 banks, the standard factory patches are in banks
1-5. So, save the patches from the banks you'd like to access from your
sequencer, pick the bank files, upload them to the form in:

http://dropmix.xs4all.nl/rick/Emusic/Nord/midnam/

and click the "Submit" button.

Result is a page containing the midnam file in XML. You need to "save
as..." that page from your browser, and store it in the directory
"systemdisk/Library/Audio/Midi devices/MOTU/Clavia/Nord Modular.midnam".

This utility is brand new, use at your own risk, and let me know if it's
useful, contains errors, or if you have suggestions?

rick jansen
-- rick.jansen@xs4all.nl