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Nord Stage 3 Program File Decoder

Posted: 27 Jan 2021, 18:45
by Hobster
Hi all,

As mentioned in @florence’s NS3 and NS3 program viewer post, I’ve finally finished my Nord Stage 3 Program File Decoder program so here it is.

It’s designed to compliment his Viewer and, indeed, I’ve made use of all the hard work that he and others have put into deciphering how Nord store the Stage 3 parameters in their .ns3f program files and how all the Piano and Sample names and info are also stored. So huge thanks to @florence et al.

Where my program (it’s actually a Perl script) may be of use is for those of you that wish to:
• decode, in one go, many .ns3f files; i.e. my script can be used as a batch convertion tool
• easily compare two or more files to visually see what subtle differences there are between them
• be able to customise the look and detail of the output

The script creates HTML files with all the info in and there are quite a few user customisable elements including:
• altering the display colours and the display font
• altering which parameters are greyed out (as in panels, groups or values that aren’t ‘on’)
• setting up exactly where each parameter is displayed
• altering the parameter labels (you could use your own native language)
• and more…

Along with a link to the project ZIP file, I’ve attached two JPG files that show the default output (Test.jpg) and also a simple example of what customisation can acheive (TestDark.jpg).
This test file only has Panel A enabled. Obviously both panels will be displayed if they are both enabled and you can configure things so that both are always displayed whether they are enabled or not.

Please read the README FIRST PDF in the Docs folder and if you want to do any of the above customisations, details can be found in, not surprisingly, the Customisations PDF.

EDIT: New version 1.2 (see later post for details)

Cheers, Hob

Re: Nord Stage 3 Program File Decoder

Posted: 27 Jan 2021, 20:37
by Schorsch
Awesome, thanks a lot!

Re: Nord Stage 3 Program File Decoder

Posted: 27 Jan 2021, 22:48
by ericL
Very impressive! Thank you!

Re: Nord Stage 3 Program File Decoder

Posted: 27 Jan 2021, 23:46
by florence
great job Hobster, Stage file have now no secret :)

Re: Nord Stage 3 Program File Decoder

Posted: 29 Jan 2021, 19:06
by Hobster
New: Version 1.1
Feature added: preset and template folder names can now include the full path as well as just the folder name.

This works both when using User.dat and also when using the command line in Terminal (Mac) or cmd (PC).
This is very useful if you have, as I do, loads of .ns3f files in quite a few different folders.
You can now (best done using the command line) very quickly and easily convert the contents of any folder containing .ns3f files without having to move or copy anything.
How to do this is fully explained in the updated Customisations.pdf Command Line section.
The only other updated file is the Perl script itself, ns3pfd.pl.

Edit: Version 1.2
Bugfix: Now displays correct clock divider values for Delay Tempo when Delay Master Clock is On and multiple files are decoded in one go (script used to display ms and bpm).

Because the forum won't allow Perl .pl files to be uploaded, I've attached the complete ZIP file as before but with the updated Perl script file (v1.2) within.