To the top are dedicated volume and tempo knobs, and below these is an XY touchpad. Over to the right of the unit are three assignable instrument parameter editing pots, then to the left is a large knob for choosing Project, Kit, and Instrument presets. This doesn’t restrict the unit to 16 steps per bar, as pattern length can be extended to 64 steps when required. Sweet! Up from here are the typical 16-step buttons for step programming drum patterns, just as you’d find on any old-school rhythm machine. They do the trick, and light up blue when you hit them. Very tidy.Īcross the lower section of the SparkLE top panel are eight velocity sensitive pads accessing two banks of sounds. It even comes with a neoprene, flock-lined, carry bag for on-road protection. It’s a nice size to have alongside your laptop or computer keyboard, and quite suitable for taking with you in a backpack. It sits flat on your desktop or lap and measures a mere 28 by 17cm, and sits a meagre 17mm high (plus knob height). While the SparkLE controller may indeed be a sawn-off version of the first Spark controller, I don’t believe it’s missing anything a percussion controller surface requires.Īs mentioned, the SparkLE controller is petite in comparison to the Spark controller. ‘Light Edition’ is the typical expansion of the acronym.
#ARTURIA SPARK LE REVIEW SOFTWARE#
Traditionally, the ‘LE’ suffix usually implies a sawn-off version of software or computer-related hardware. And in a world where bedroom producers are squeezing themselves into ever smaller creative caves, I’d imagine many asked for a compact version of the Spark control surface - enter the endearingly monikered, SparkLE. At 36 by 27cm, it took up a huge chunk of desktop studio space. However, the original Spark controller was quite a large beast. The best of both worlds in many ways: the breadth of software synthesis and recall combined with a drum machine-style controller. Spark is a hybrid design consisting of a tactile control surface tethered to computer-based sound generation and programming software. Arturia is one manufacturer that’s acutely aware of this avenue of beat production, and served the electronica community handsomely with the Spark ‘beat production centre’ in 2011. In some ways this was a shame, as hands-on rhythm programming can be an incredibly immediate tool in its own right.
Yet come the 21st century, the drum machine faded into obscurity as computer-based DAWs and plug-ins took over. During the 1980s and ’90s, these devices were a mainstay of all electronic musicians’ equipment lists. The format has fallen in and out of mainstream favour over the last couple of decades. I know alot of people are sleeping on this right now, but I think this product is a no brainer for a many.Arturia trims the excess off Spark to let the good stuff shine through in SparkLE. I primarily work on hip hop, house, and dance, which the kits have all the offerings you could hope for in this area. The spark is pretty ugly (Sorry Arturia) functional yes, but def losses style points in my book.īuttons - I feel they cheaped out on them a little, overall build quality is good, but they should have finished the job by improving these.įeatures - I want to be able to do more in spark itself, and that's not a strike against them, I just like it so much I want to complete more just using it - This is on the horizon however, the forums are buzzing about vst support, piano roll, etc, etc. Well that's hard to say, I did a ton of research before I bought it and demoed the software, so I pretty much got exactly what I thought I would be getting, for the most part. Mixer / Fx - The on board fx are great and are all that I need for my drums. Tweaking - If you want to have in depth control over your sound w/o hassle, don't think you can do better than this.Ĭhaining / song mode - laying down your drums with transitional parts and getting the song structure together. Speed of use - it's just to easy to get around fast on this thing - very well laid out. I almost bought it just because arturia put it out Starving student wrote:what do you think sparks forte is and btw what style of music are you making with it, finally I know you mentioned updates but what is it that you don't like about it?
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