ND3 Editor - A patch editor for Nord Drum 3P

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

Hello!

I’ve been mostly lurking here for a long time and it’s been a while since I posted anything useful… With the quarantine and all, last week I decided to make a Nord Drum 3P patch editor app using Max MSP. I really like the Nord Drum 3P, but find the user interface a bit slow with its one knob and the 2 digit segmented display per parameter make some things a bit cryptic, so the app helps with that.

It includes a simple step sequencer (with velocity per step) to test your patch, and a randomizer for the synthesis parameters.

The app is standalone (you don’t need Max to run it). The Mac version will work with Mac OS Sierra (and up). (Untested on older OS, so it might work still).

The Windows version has yet to be tested (but it should work).

I included an illustrated user manual with the app.

It’s free! You can get it here (download that ND3_Editor folder) :

MAC:

PC:

User manual:
ND3_Editor_Manual_EN.pdf (1.9 MB)

ND3_editor
ND3_editor3240×2462 554 KB

UPDATE 2020/04/06 : Corrected some UI bugs with the Tone Bend parameter and TBridge Tone Wave parameter.

UPDATE 2020/04/07 : Added a way to copy the parameters of one channel and paste it on another.

UPDATE 2020/04/08 : Added some options when copying.

UPDATE 2021/02/10 : Added the Windows version. Thanks @Ess !

29 Likes
#2

Nice!

Will it work with ND2?

#3

I can’t imagine it would as they have different parameters. But I would love this for the ND2.

1 Like
#4

I don’t think it would work well… some parameters might respond to the same CC and you probably would be able to trigger the voices, but as Birdzeye said, they have different parameters. I don’t have a ND2 to test on unfortunately.

1 Like
#5

Looks very good. sadly i sold my ND3 because of the absolute nonsense interface it comes with. (And the awful reverb) . But this looks promising :slight_smile:

1 Like
#6

UPDATE : I added a way to copy one channel’s settings and paste it on another channel. The manual was updated to reflect this.

1 Like
#7

Awesome, I’m really excited to try this out!
If you figure out a way to reinitialize kits so that they appear empty again (with the little dot), I’m all ears. Patch management is a bit of a pain on the ND3 without that

#8

I don’t think I can do that from sending MIDI data to the Nord Drum 3P, unfortunately. It seems as soon as you store a drum kit, (even if all the settings of every channels are default), the dot disappears…

#9

UPDATE : I added some options when copying a channel. You can now paste to every channel at once, and decide if you want to copy just the synthesis part (Noise, Click and Tone), just the Mixer part, or both. You can also copy the synthesis part with the exception of pitch and fine tune, which may come in handy if you are making a “tonal” kit where every pad has the same settings but different pitches. That way you can modify stuff on one channel and copy to all channels while keeping your different pitch per pad untouched.

1 Like
#10

Cool!
RE kit management, yeah that’s what I figured. Ah well.

#11

This looks great, awesome work. Praying someone makes one of these for the ND2 :pray:

#12

Works great, appreciated, many thanks!
One note, is there a way to resize the screen?
as it is doesn’t fit a 13inch laptop.

Thanks again, top work!

1 Like
#13

I’m pretty sure it would be quite easy to adapt for ND2, if I had a unit… Problem is that on the ND3 (and I’m pretty sure it’s the same on the ND2) there are many parameters that goes from 0 to 50 for example, but they are scaled from MIDI values (0 to 127) and they were sometimes a pain to adapt. I had to test and write down each value in some cases and make conversion tables so that the right value would show in the software. Also there were some differences between what’s in the manual and what’s on the machine…

3 Likes
#14

Oh yeah… I made it on an iMac 27”… Unfortunately, as far as I know Max doesn’t have a way to zoom in and out the interface. Is it like waaaaay too big? Can you scroll, or do you have to move the window around?

#15

It is big on a 13 screen, but it’s all good as it does scroll around. I was giving it a quick spin on the laptop. I will try on the desktop later that should work better with bigger screen. Cheers!

2 Likes
#16

My god sounds like a pain indeed

1 Like
#17

I love my Nord Drum 3P and this exactly what I have been waiting for, I know there have been editors around for ages but I don’t have Ableton or a tablet so I haven’t been able to use them.

However one major problem, I am on Sierra. What is the technical reason why will this only work with Catalina and up? Is there any way to make it work with older OS?

1 Like
#18

The app was made using Max/MSP on a Mac with Catalina. The app generated is therefore compatible with Catalina (and probably up). Did you try it on Sierra?

#19

I’m such an idiot, I should have just tried it first before posting really!

It works absolutely fine, thank you so much it’s fantastic.

1 Like
#20

Glad to hear it works on Sierra! The only other computer I have at home is an old Macbook with an older version of OS X, and it didn’t work on it.