Recording

Recording audio

1. Create an audio track (Track › New Tracks…, Ctrl+Alt+N, type Audio), or use the Record Audio template.
2. Choose the input in the channel strip’s Input slot: the mono/stereo button and the input pop-up (“Input 1”, “Input 1–2”…).
3. Record-enable the track with R in its header (or Ctrl+R, Control+R on macOS, for the selected track).
4. Press R (or Shift+R, or the Record button). Press R again, or Space, to stop.

• Recording while playing punches in on the fly.
• Recordings are WAV files in the project’s Audio Files/ folder, named after the track and take number (“Vocals#03.wav”; see Settings › Recording › Take Names). The format is 32-bit float by default, or 24-bit (Settings › Recording, or per project in Project Settings).
• Regions draw live while you record.
• A record-enabled audio track is silent while recording (you hear its input only if it is monitored), so you don’t hear the old take over the new one.
• A frozen track can’t be record-enabled.

Overlapping recordings (Settings › Recording): a new take over existing regions is put on top (the older audio stays underneath and is hidden where the new one plays), on a new track below with the same settings, or replaces what’s underneath (the older regions are trimmed; their files are kept). MIDI has its own setting (see Recording MIDI).

The Replace button in the control bar (beside Autopunch) works like Logic’s: while it is on, every recording replaces what it overlaps, audio and MIDI alike, whatever the two Overlapping Recordings settings say. Turn it off and they apply again.

A newer region always hides the older audio it overlaps during playback, as in Logic. The older regions are not deleted; move or trim the newer one to hear them again. Regions that crossfade are the exception: both play across the crossfade.

Count-in and pre-roll

• Count-in (the “1234” button or Shift+K) plays the click for 1 to 4 bars before recording (Settings › Recording › Count-in). The count-in always clicks, even with the metronome off.
• With Count-in off, Pre-roll (Settings › Recording, in seconds, 0 by default) starts playback that far before the playhead so you hear a lead-in; recording still starts at the playhead.

Cycle recording

With Cycle on, recording starts at the left locator (or carries on if you are already playing inside the cycle) and loops. When you stop, the passes become takes in a take folder (“Take 1”, “Take 2”…). A last pass stopped part-way is kept if it got at least a beat in. Recording the same cycle range again adds its passes to the same folder. A single pass becomes a normal region. See Take folders and comping.

MIDI recorded in cycle mode goes into one region over the passes, unless Settings › Recording › Overlapping Recordings › MIDI is set to Create take folders (see Recording MIDI).

Autopunch

Autopunch records only between the punch-in and punch-out points, so you can start playback early and replace just a phrase.

• Turn it on with the Autopunch button next to Cycle (Ctrl+P on Linux and Windows, Control+⌘P on macOS). With no range yet, it takes the cycle range, or the two bars from the playhead.
• The range is the red strip in the ruler: drag in the strip to set it, drag it or its edges to move or resize it, click it to turn Autopunch off and on.
• While recording, armed tracks keep playing their regions before and after the range, and input is captured only inside it. The take is trimmed exactly to the range, after latency compensation. MIDI notes that start outside the range are dropped, and none lasts past the punch-out.
• With Cycle on as well, every pass is punched and the takes go into a take folder over the punch range.
• Recording refuses to start when the playhead is past the punch-out, or when the punch range is outside the cycle.

Recording MIDI

Arm an instrument track and record as for audio. MIDI goes to the selected instrument track (or, if the selected track isn’t one, the first armed instrument track). Notes, controllers, pitch bend and aftertouch are recorded into a region that spans whole bars. Notes still held when you stop end at the stop position. Settings › Recording › Overlapping Recordings › MIDI says what happens over an existing MIDI region:

• Create a new region (the default): the recording is a region of its own, on top.
• Merge into the existing region: the notes and controllers go into the region they overlap, which grows to hold them.
• Replace in the recorded range: from where recording started (or the punch-in) to where it stopped, the notes and controller events of the regions underneath are removed and the recording is merged in their place. A note that started earlier is shortened to end where recording started, and a controller that changed inside the range gets its old value back after it, so what follows plays as before. A region left empty inside the range is removed. In cycle mode the whole cycle (narrowed by Autopunch) is replaced. A recording in which nothing was played changes nothing. The Replace button in the control bar does the same.
• Create take folders: each pass of a cycle recording becomes a take, and a recording over MIDI regions packs them into a take folder with the new take (see MIDI take folders).

Latency compensation

Marbble measures the input and output latency of the devices while running and moves every recording earlier by the round trip, so it lines up with what you heard:

• audio is moved by input latency + output latency + the audio waiting in Marbble’s input buffer + the manual Recording Delay (Settings › Audio, -500 to 500 ms, positive moves recordings earlier) + the plug-in delay compensation total;
• MIDI is moved by the output latency plus the plug-in delay compensation total.

Settings › Audio shows the measured values and the total shift. If recordings still land early or late (some drivers misreport latency), record a click or a clap through a cable and adjust Recording Delay.