Settings reference

Open Settings with Marbble › Settings… (Ctrl+,), which opens on the Audio tab; Marbble › Appearance… and Marbble › Key Commands… (Alt+K) open those tabs. Most changes apply at once and are kept in settings.json (~/.config/marbble on Linux and macOS, %APPDATA%\marbble on Windows). The exception is the Audio devices (Apply Changes). The metronome is set per project, in Project Settings › Metronome. The window keeps one size whichever tab is showing: a long tab scrolls, and the footer stays at the bottom with a note on how that tab’s changes apply and Done on the right.

General

Setting	Choices	Default
At Launch	Show the Project Chooser; Open the most recent project; Start with an empty project	Project Chooser
Project Folder	Any folder (Choose…, Default)	~/Music/Marbble
Old Folder	Rename to Marbble (shown only while ~/Music/Fermata is there and ~/Music/Marbble isn’t)
Autosave	Off; every 1, 2, 5, 10 or 15 minutes	Every 2 minutes
After Recording	Autosave as soon as a recording, Bounce in Place, Freeze or import finishes	On
Backups	Versions of each project alternative that saves keep, 0 to 100 (0 keeps one, as project.json.bak)	10
Undo Steps	10 to 1000	100
Unsaved Changes	Ask before quitting or closing a project with unsaved changes	On
Open Effect Panels	Floating; Docked in the bottom section; Separate windows (VST3 editors always open in their own window)	Floating
Update Channel	Stable (final releases); Unstable (alphas, betas and release candidates too)	Follows the version you run: Unstable for a prerelease, Stable for a final release
Automatic Check	Check for updates at launch	On

Updates. With Check for updates at launch on, Marbble asks GitHub once at each launch for its list of releases (api.github.com/repos/JackMechem/marbble/releases). The request says nothing about your projects or settings; GitHub sees your IP address, as with any web page. When a newer version is out on your channel, a notice at the bottom right says so, for example “Marbble 0.1.0-alpha.9 is out”: View Release opens its release page in your browser, where you download it yourself, and Later hides the notice until the next launch. The notice never takes the keyboard and waits while you record. Marbble never downloads or installs anything itself. Offline, or when GitHub can’t be reached, the check gives up silently. Help › Check for Updates… checks whenever you like, whether or not the launch check is on, and says when you already have the newest version or why it couldn’t check. Stable is the final releases; Unstable adds the prereleases, so it is always at least as new as Stable. Until you choose a channel it follows the version you’re running, so a prerelease such as 0.1.0-alpha.7 is on Unstable. To stop Marbble contacting GitHub, turn Check for updates at launch off: it then asks only when you choose Check for Updates….

Audio

Setting	Choices	Default
Driver	PipeWire, PulseAudio, JACK, ALSA on Linux; the system driver elsewhere	The first available, in that order (JACK only with a running server)
Output Device	System Default or a device	System Default
Input Device	None (playback only), System Default or a device	System Default
Sample Rate	Rates both devices support (44.1 to 192 kHz)	48 kHz
I/O Buffer Size	32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048 samples	256
Processing Threads	Automatic, 1 up to the number of hardware threads (at most 16)	Automatic
Monitoring	Hear record-enabled tracks without pressing I	Off
Recording Delay	-500 to 500 ms, added to the measured latency	0
Plug-in Delay Compensation	All, Off (applies at once)	All
Low Latency Mode	On, with a limit of 0 to 100 ms (applies at once)	Off, 5 ms

Below them: the measured input and output latency and how far recordings are shifted, the input level check (Linux), and Reset Audio Engine. Everything except the two delay compensation rows needs Apply Changes, or Done, which applies them and closes the window.

Recording

Setting	Choices	Default
Bit Depth	24-bit integer, 32-bit float	32-bit float
Recording Folder	A folder (recordings go into a subfolder named after the project), or the project’s Audio Files	Project › Audio Files
Take Names	Vocals#03 (track and take number); Vocals (track name); Song - Vocals#03 (project, track and number)	Track and take number
Count-in	On (this project’s switch, the same as Shift+K) and 1 to 4 bars	Off, 1 bar
Pre-roll	0 to 30 seconds, used when Count-in is off	0
Overlapping Recordings › Audio	Put the new take on top; Create a new track; Replace what’s underneath	On top
Overlapping Recordings › MIDI	Create a new region; Merge into the existing region; Replace in the recorded range; Create take folders (see Recording MIDI)	New region

With a Recording Folder outside the project, Save As does not copy those recordings into the new project folder; the project refers to them where they are.

MIDI

Setting	Choices	Default
MIDI Inputs	A checkbox per input, with its connection status	All on
MIDI Thru	Play the selected instrument track live	On
Velocity	As played; Soft (light touch plays louder); Hard (needs a firmer touch); Fixed velocity (1 to 127)	As played (fixed: 100)
Chase	Notes; Controllers: when playback starts, jumps or cycles back inside a region, start the notes held there and send the controller values in effect	Both on
Monitor	The last incoming messages (C3 = middle C)

The velocity curve applies to MIDI inputs, not to Musical Typing.

Editing

Setting	Choices	Default
Snap	Smart (follows the zoom), Bar, Beat, Division (a quarter of a beat), Ticks, Off	Smart
Nudge Value	Bar, Beat, 1/8 note, 1/16 note, 1/32 note, 10 ms, 1 ms	1/16 note
Click Moves Playhead	Anywhere in the tracks; Empty space only; Never (a click without a drag moves the playhead there, snapped to the grid)	Empty space only (Anywhere before 0.1.0-alpha.7, which earlier settings keep)
Anti-click Fades	0 to 100 ms, for new recordings and imports	0
Move Automation with Regions	Never; Always; Ask (whether moving a region along its track takes its automation along)	Never
Crossfade Time	0 to 1000 ms: take folder comp boundaries, X-Fade crossfades between regions that touch, and the Crossfade menu’s first entry	20 ms
Crossfade Curve	-100 to 100, the shape of those crossfades (0 is a straight line, 50 a quarter sine)	50
Mouse Wheel Scrolls	Vertically (tracks); Horizontally (time), for a mouse with one wheel: the wheel scrolls through time in the Tracks area and Piano Roll, and Shift+wheel scrolls vertically	Vertically

Plug-ins

The Plug-in Manager: every scanned plug-in with its manufacturer, type and version; untick Use to hide one from the Library and slot menus (Use All / Use None act on the filtered list); VST3 Folders (the standard locations are always searched; Add Folder… adds more); Last Scan (bundles, plug-ins and failures, with the reason for each failure: crashed, timed out, no plug-ins); Rescan Plug-ins.

Key Commands

Every window shortcut, searchable by name or key, in the groups Transport, Navigation, View, Tracks, Editing, Windows, Control Surfaces and Step Input.

• Click + and press a key to add a shortcut; Esc cancels. × removes one.
• Taking a key from another command moves it (a message says so). Keys that belong to the menu bar can’t be used.
• Default restores a command’s own keys; Reset All restores everything.
• The menu bar’s shortcuts are listed at the end, read-only (“Menu Bar (fixed)”).
• Shortcuts work in the main window, not while typing in a text field or while a sheet is open (see The menu bar).

Appearance

Setting	Choices	Default
Interface Size	90%, 100%, 110%, 125%, 150%, 175%, 200% (also View › Larger / Smaller Interface, Ctrl+= / Ctrl+-, Ctrl+0 for actual size)	100%
Waveforms	Smooth (the true shape; individual cycles when zoomed in), Mirrored (loudness mirrored around the centre), Rectified (loudness rising from the bottom), Blocks (bar per bucket)	Smooth
Theme	Studio, Flat, Midnight, Light, High Contrast (also View › Theme)	Studio

The whole window scales, and the canvas views render at the matching resolution so they stay sharp. The window’s own theme follows the one you choose: with Light, Marbble asks the system for the light look of the menu bar and title bar (GTK’s light variant on Linux), and with the others for the dark one. On Linux the menu bar takes the theme’s background colour too. In every theme the secondary text (captions, section labels, empty-slot marks) has a contrast of at least 4.5:1 against what it sits on.

Long folder paths (the Project Chooser’s Location, Settings › General › Project Folder) are shortened from the start at a folder boundary, as in …/Music/Marbble; hover for the whole path. Pop-up menus in Settings and the dialogs look like the ones in the toolbars.