Marbles learns a custom scale by sampling a played jam and counting how often each note occurs

To teach Marbles a scale: connect a keyboard/MIDI CV to the SPREAD input and its gate to the CLOCK input; hold the external-processing button for two seconds to enter scale-recording; play a jam in the target scale — fifty notes or more is recommended — then press the button to finish. The module measures each note’s frequency and stores it, which sets the order STEPS uses to carve the scale. Crucially, playing an expressive melody (not just an ascending scale) is what encodes relative note importance and enables the subset-carving behaviour; a plain ascending scale gives the module no frequency information, so STEPS then does nothing. Six memory slots are available, pre-programmed with scales rooted in C.

Examples

For a minor pentatonic feel, improvise freely in A minor pentatonic for 50+ notes; the most-hit notes survive longest as STEPS turns clockwise. Reset a slot to factory by re-entering recording mode and holding the button again.

Assessment

List the four steps to program a scale into Marbles, and explain why fifty notes of melody are recommended rather than five notes of an ascending scale.