pynbs

A simple python library to read and write .nbs files from Open Note Block Studio.

pynbs makes it possible to easily iterate over Note Block Studio songs.

import pynbs

for tick, chord in pynbs.read('demo_song.nbs'):
    print(tick, [note.key for note in chord])

You can also use pynbs to generate new songs programmatically.

import pynbs

new_file = pynbs.new_file(song_name='Hello world')
new_file.notes.extend([
    pynbs.Note(tick=i, layer=0, instrument=0, key=i + 35) for i in range(10)
])

new_file.save('new_file.nbs')

Installation

The package can be installed with pip.

$ pip install pynbs

The latest release follows the latest version of the NBS file format specification (version 5). However, it also allows you to load and save files in any of the older versions.

Basic usage

Reading files

You can use the read() function to read and parse a specific NBS file.

demo_song = pynbs.read('demo_song.nbs')

The read() function returns a pynbs file object. These objects have several attributes that mirror the binary structure of NBS files.

Header

The first attribute is header, the file header. It contains information about the file.

header = demo_song.header

For more information about all these fields, check out the official specification.

Notes

The notes attribute holds a list of all the notes of the song in order.

first_note = demo_song.notes[0]

Layers

The layers attribute holds a list of all the layers of the song in order.

first_layer = demo_song.layers[0]

Instruments

The instruments attribute holds a list of all the custom instruments of the song in order.

first_custom_instrument = demo_song.instruments[0]

Iterating over songs

Iterating over a pynbs file object yields consecutively all the chords of the song with the associated tick.

for tick, chord in demo_song:
    ...

chord is a list of all the notes that play during the tick tick.

Creating new files

You can create new files using the new_file() function. The function lets you specify header attributes with keyword arguments.

new_file = pynbs.new_file(song_name='Hello world')

The function returns a new pynbs file object that you can now edit programmatically.

Saving files

You can use the save() method to encode and write the file to a specified location.

new_file.save('new_file.nbs')

By default, the file will be saved in the latest NBS version available. To save the file in an older version, you can use the version parameter:

# This will save the song in the classic format.
new_file.save('new_file.nbs', version=0)

(Keep in mind some of the song properties may be lost when saving in older versions.)

Upgrading old files

While pynbs is up-to-date with the latest version of the Open Note Block Studio specification, all previous versions — including the original file format — are still supported by the read() function, making it possible to bulk upgrade songs to the most recent version:

import glob
import pynbs

for old_file in glob.glob('*.nbs'):
    pynbs.read(old_file).save(old_file)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Make sure to first open an issue discussing the problem or the new feature before creating a pull request. The project uses poetry.

$ poetry install

You can run the tests with poetry run pytest.

$ poetry run pytest

The code follows the black code style. Import statements are sorted with isort.

$ poetry run isort pynbs tests
$ poetry run black pynbs tests
$ poetry run black --check pynbs tests

License - MIT