Bubba MachineBubba Machine 3.0: interface design
Status: implemented in 0.3.0. The manual explains how to play it. This document keeps the reasoning behind each decision. On-screen names stay in Spanish, with their meaning in parentheses.
The idea
Four gestures per button, meaning the same on every button. HOME everywhere.
The big knobs take you places, the small ones adjust, and the keys play and control. It brings back the best of 0.2 (three kinds of press, live layers, the 2 s ring) and adds the new: knobs that navigate, HOME as a controller, tabs, and fixed and free tracks.
| Gesture | When | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Tap | under 300 ms | Opens its page on the track you are on. Again: the same button's next page |
| Hold | 300 ms or more | Its live layer: while you hold it, the keys do that job over what is playing. The screen draws the keyboard with what each key does. Let go and you are back |
| Hold 2 s | 2 s without touching anything else | Its setup or its dangerous action. A ring fills at the top; touching anything else cancels it. Only on HOME, SEQ, EDIT, SAVE and REC |
| HOME + button | with HOME held | The button's global version: for the whole project, not just the track |
The knobs
| Knob | What it does |
|---|---|
| ALGORITHM | The track. On HOME, turning it shows a box with the target track and you enter it after 400 ms (configurable: 0, 250, 400, 800 ms or OFF). Inside a track it switches right away and keeps the page. In a list, it changes the marked value. With HOME held, it picks a track from any screen and you enter it when you release HOME |
| SELECT | The page or the row. With a step held, its accent |
| PRESETS | The track's sound. On HOME, the pattern bank |
| K1-K4 | Whatever the bottom legend says, always in the same color. With HOME held: BPM, swing, master length and drive |
ALGORITHM priority: held step > list > track > HOME. The footer says what it does at each moment.
The 14 buttons
| Button | Tap | Again | Hold (layer) | 2 s | HOME + |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOME | HOME: the 6 tracks | MIXER › SCENES › SONG | Controller: white keys = pattern, black keys = mute, K1-K4 = tempo and globals | SYSTEM | (it is the modifier) |
| SEQ | Track steps | Synth: LOOP · sampler: RETRIG | Length and speed: white key = length, black keys = speed | TIME for the 6 tracks | SONG |
| EDIT | SOUND | Drums: INSTR | ERASE: erases as it passes; black keys copy, paste, clear (sampler: 4 = capture) | Sampler: slots · others: initial sound | Copy the track to another |
| ENV | ENV (notes) · INSTR (drums) | ENV page 2 | ACCENT: paint accents | — | — |
| LFO | Track LFO (future) | — | REPEAT (drums, sampler) · TIE (notes) | — | — |
| FX | Track MIXER | — | PUNCH-IN: 16 effects; black keys 1-6 still mute | — | Global delay and sidechain |
| SCL | Track SCALE | CHORDS | Live chords | — | Scale for the whole project |
| ARP | Track ARP | — | Live arpeggio · drums: ROLL | — | — |
| SAVE | Save menu | Run it | COPY PATTERN: white key = paste there | Quick save | Save as |
| GLO | Global list | Close | TONE: the keyboard transposes everything; PLAY = TAP | — | — |
| REC | Record | Looper: overdub › play | Record only while held | Clear the track (asks first) | SONG REC |
| PLAY | Play / stop | — | — | — | Back to step 1 without stopping |
| OCT − / + | Octave · page · in questions OCT+ = yes | — | — | — | Undo / redo |
An empty cell is on purpose: that gesture does nothing on that button, so it never fires by accident.
HOME everywhere
The FM-1 has no SHIFT, so HOME does three jobs:
- Home screen: the 6 tracks with their sequence, and the pattern bank.
- A controller that follows you: holding HOME brings the controller to any screen. You are editing the bass and, without leaving, you mute or queue the next pattern.
- Modifier: HOME + button = its global version.
If HOME was used as a modifier, releasing it does not take you to the home screen: HOME only navigates on a clean tap.
Keys on HOME: black keys 1-6 mute T1-T6 (hold = solo), 7-10 launch scenes A-D and 11 is FILL. White keys queue a pattern from the bank; two white keys chain from the first to the second.
Tracks: 3 fixed and 3 free
| Track | Type | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| T1 DRUMS | Fixed | TR grid with 16 instruments |
| T2 SAMPLER | Fixed | A loop in 8 slices that a generator rearranges |
| T3 BASS | Fixed | Monophonic wavetable with glide |
| T4-T6 | Free | SYNTH, MONO, KIT or MIDI, chosen in the MAS (more) tab |
Each track shows its tabs at the top: SELECT steps through them and the buttons jump straight to them. The last one, MAS (more), is the list with everything about the track.
Black keys follow one grammar: 1-8 are the track's elements, 9 and 10 modify it, and 11 breaks the pattern (FILL on drums, STUTTER on the sampler).
Sampler 3.0
The idea comes from X0X's BREAK (a loop in slices that a generator reorders) with an interface that lets you see what is happening:
- Two step rows: TU (yours: what you programmed; hollow = the generator picks, filled = fixed slice) and SUENA (plays: the slice the generator picked in this bar).
- Clearly named knobs: VARIAR (vary), ANCLAR (anchor), REPETIR (repeat) and ROMPER (break).
- CAPTURE: hold EDIT + black key 4 to fix the variation that is playing.
- Pin slices by playing: with REC, black keys 1-8 are written as fixed steps.
- Pitch in plain sight: the loop's original BPM and how many semitones it moved.
- Drawing by frequency: lows, mids and highs in separate lanes (already working in 0.2).
Recorder
Recording, saving and slicing are three screens, one job each:
- RECORD: a big number with the seconds left, which is the smaller of the recording RAM (3 s) and the free take memory. Marks show how many bars fit.
- TAKES: a library of recordings with their BPM and bars. Factory loops do not use memory.
- SLICE: later, calmly. White keys place cuts on eighth notes, black key 9 places them on the hits and black key 10 spreads them evenly.
A take stays unsaved until you stop the transport, because writing the flash pauses the audio.
Decisions
- Entry box timing: 400 ms by default; changed in GLO or SISTEMA (0, 250, 400, 800 ms or OFF). Resolved in 0.3.0.
- Take library: the 128 KiB of samples became a free-length take library (format 3). Resolved in 0.3.0.
- Pattern banks: the flash stores 16 patterns; more banks need a bigger flash map or smaller patterns. Open: in 0.3, PRESETS on HOME walks the 16.
- Ghost notes on drums: each step's byte is full; it needs a level P-Lock or a bigger format. Open: notes already have three levels.
This page is generated from docs/en/DESIGN_3.0.md. Spotted a mistake? Edit the file and send a pull request.