Instrument files & templates

An instrument can be saved on the SD card as a single, reusable file with the .navp extension (Nanopolis Antigone Voice Preset). Once saved, the same instrument can be loaded into any other project — handy when you want to share patches, build a personal library, or carry a sound from a sketch project to a finished one.

This page covers what's inside a .navp, where instrument files live on the card, and how to use templates as starting points when adding a fresh instrument.

What's inside a .navp

An instrument file holds everything that defines the instrument's sound, but not the parts of the instrument that are tied to the project (voice allocation, CV/Gate routing).

In the file	Not in the file
The active MACHINE and every machine parameter (synth model, wavetable file reference, sample reference, etc.).	CONTROL slot configuration (CV/Gate or MIDI source, MIDI channel, V/Oct routing, Gate routing). Stays at the project level — see Voice control.
The active NOTE FX and all its parameters.	The instrument's voice count in the layout. Voice count belongs to the project's voice layout.
The 6 MODULATORS (type and parameters of each).	Mixer state (volume, pan, spread, FX send, output) — that's the project's mixing decision.
Every modulation declared inside the instrument: source × destination × attenuverter, plus per-parameter Smooth, Stepped and MIDI CC.	Cross-instrument modulation routes — references to other instruments' modulators are dropped on load.
References to external assets used by the machine (wavetable folder, sample file paths). Loading the .navp reloads the same assets if they exist on the destination card.

The split is intentional: a .navp describes a sound, while CONTROL / voice layout / mixer describe how the sound integrates with the rest of the module's setup. You can drop the same .navp into a 1-voice mono CV/Gate slot or a 4-voice MIDI slot and it will play; only its plumbing changes.

Where instruments live on the SD card

/Instruments/
    Bass – analog.navp
    Pad – glassy.navp
    Lead – PWM.navp
    …

Sub-folders are allowed (e.g. /Instruments/Bass/, /Instruments/Drums/). The browser opens at /Instruments/ by default.

Instrument templates

A template is a regular .navp placed under /System/Template/Instrument/. Antigone scans the folder at boot and exposes its contents in the New instrument sub-menu of the INSTRUMENT burger.

/System/Template/Instrument/
    Empty.navp
    Init synth.navp
    Init sample.navp
    Init resonator.navp
    …

When you pick a template from New instrument:

1. The current instrument's content is replaced by the template's content (machine, Note FX, modulators, modulations).
2. The default name is New inst.navp (unsaved). The first Save instrument as… writes a new .navp under /Instruments/.

To create your own template, build the instrument you like and save it to /System/Template/Instrument/. It will appear in New instrument on the next boot.

Tip: templates make it cheap to bootstrap a fresh sound from a known starting point — a clean FM patch, a percussive sample slot, a default resonator with all 19 models pre-tuned. Build one, drop it in /System/Template/Instrument/, and you'll never start from a blank page again.

Saving and loading from the burger menu

From the INSTRUMENT screen, scroll the encoder fully to the left and press it to open the burger menu. The relevant entries are:

• instrument browser — opens the file browser at /Instruments/ to load any .navp into the current instrument slot.
• Save instrument — overwrites the currently open .navp of this instrument in place.
• Save instrument as… — saves the instrument under a new name.
• New instrument — opens the templates submenu to start from a template.

The current instrument's filename is shown in the header of the INSTRUMENT screen.

Loading a .navp replaces the current instrument's content. The instrument's voice count and CONTROL slot configuration (at the project level) are preserved, but the machine, Note FX, modulators and modulations are all overwritten by the file.

For the project-level file format (which carries the whole project state), see Files & templates.