Arturia Forums
DRUMS => Spark => Spark Users Community => Topic started by: dancetech on May 10, 2013, 10:41:21 pm
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hiya,
thanks to arturia - who loaned us a unit to review - we did these videos. hope they are useful.
First 3 chapters are review.
From chapter 4 (hardware controller tutorial) onwards each one is a tutorial showing how Spark works, inc' noob tips and tutorials along the way for stuff like doing parallel compression in the mixer, record-erase with the controller, sample layering & old-skool fitting loops to a song, choke-groups explanation & tips, using solo & mute as group masters, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLr9cxz51sxbwjVy_cUswCrgGL9Uz6YHbB
still a few more to do to finish the set.
great product btw guys!
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sounds awesome! going to watch these...i think i know spark pretty well, but you never know when you might pick up a few tricks. thanks!
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tutorials are always welcome... thanks
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Nice one
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thanks guys, more videos to come as i said.
been experimenting with it yesterday and i can use Spark to trigger and program beats/patterns on an external drum module 100%! and you can have external sounds and internal sounds in the same patterns playing together.
So i can program beats all day on Spark using my old Novation Drumstation or whatever; very happy about that.
Using Spark to play/program beats on a plugin drum s/w such as in logic has a bug though.
It plays any plugin drum instrument in logic fine & can record beats/notes into the logic drumtrack no problems using it like a master keyboard. That works 100%
it can also record patterns internally while playing logic's drums fine allowing you to build patterns in Spark without having to record in Logic, but then comes the problem when you want to export those patterns out of Spark.
If you then EXPORT the pattern from Spark (which is playing the drums 100% in logic) as a midifile, & open it on a logic track, the notes are all on the wrong note-numbers!!
I dont see why this happens, it is wierd. they have to fix that!
another thing is that if Spark is plugged in via USB & switched on, but Spark s/w is NOT running (so the hardware is sitting in standby mode) then it functions as a trad' MIDI in & out for your sequencer. Handy bonus.
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Great review!
I found a load of great tidbits I had missed (or were undocumented) despite using the SparkCDM regularly for a good 6 months.
Thanks DanceTech!
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thank you a lot! this is very-very useful!! more please!! :)
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thank you a lot! this is very-very useful!! more please!! :)
yeah there is more coming. i'll post it here when added.
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Really incredible in-depth tutorials! Thank you @dancetech.
Any chance you will create one for setting up Spark with Logic Pro 9?
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Thank you so much for these.
Just watched them all, back-to-back, and have learnt so much. :D
Despite this being based on the Spark, it's very relevant to us SparkLE users.
Thanks again!
moley
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Despite this being based on the Spark, it's very relevant to us SparkLE users.
Given that the software is similar, and that the SparkLE hardware can do *almost* everything that the big one can, a big majority of the information should be relevant for both Spark and SparkLE users, indeed.
I haven't had a chance to watch these tutorials yet, hopefully this weekend!
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Really incredible in-depth tutorials! Thank you @dancetech.
Any chance you will create one for setting up Spark with Logic Pro 9?
yeah that's coming.
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Amazing, thank you dancetech. I've watched through half of the tutorials you posted—thank you so much for taking the time to create and share these. I've definitely learned a lot. Looking forward to the Logic tutorial!
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These tutorials are fantastic. Very in depth. I've about 3/4 of them and they cover almost everything. I had some constructive critique, but I have probably forgotten it because most of the videos are well thought out and there isn't hardly anything to critique as basically everything is covered.
If I could only find a video of setting up other software drum maschines/softsynths to be controlled by SparkLE. :P That's one thing I'm having trouble with.
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Apart from the fact you totally panned it ;)
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Apart from the fact you totally panned it ;)
no i didnt? i haven't done the summing up video yet have i? no
so this what i think:
if they fix the bugs and sort out some issues (note-number export wrong, no song position pointers, note-numbers not saved with projects etc AND if they added song midifile export), then spark would be one of the greatest electronic music products of the last 15 years. After they get that stuff fixed they can just go on to add improvements and make it even better.
that's my opinion. I mean c'mon! for just over 200 quid you get a great 'drum & sounds' machine, chock full; of sounds contemprary and classic, which'll work as a multi-out plugin, but which can also function as basically a 'TR-707' style sequencer which will ALSO trigger and write patterns for any of your hardware or 3rd party s/w? (and it can functions as a controller unit too)
no brainer!
i think you are too used to lousy SoS & Music Radar 'reviews' which are safe as houses and dumbed down.
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Was somewhat pulling your leg, :) I liked your non biased view of it. (As I sit here listening to your Spark run through) Although i've used Spark for a few years now there's things i've learnt about it in the last day.
I agree with a lot of what you dislike about it, there are certain things that are just so great, then other things let it down. Which based on the great things about it don't make sense. I'm finding it a bit buggy with Pro Tools yet I've learnt to workaround stuff that I find annoying.
But also I'm not getting the midi delays you get, nor do I get the odd midi bugs with pads staying on etc. But this is all how one chooses to set up midi, the minute you start running midi gear 'thru' other boxes you get all kinds of crazy midi crap you don't need.
I don't read gear reviews as a rule and I would rather try a piece of gear out before I buy it as I'm sure most people would, even with it's obvious foibles, i'm glad I bought it. Yes it crashed my Mac on a more than frequent basis, it occasionally looses automation but i'd still use it everyday. It only really crashes when you have people standing behind you in my experience :)
Stuart
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Anyway, a Karma point flying your way. Nice in depth videos.
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But also for certain things. To say it just doesn't work is a little unfair. Plug ins are going to behave widely different between formats.
Spark seems to be more consistant when using VST, unfortunately for me I'm using RTAS. AU works different altogether.
Maybe a standard 'wrapper' plug in that can incorporate all functions needs to ne implemented with Spark
After some teething problems, I've found it works best in Ableton. All parameters seem to do what they were designed to do, some things are still reliant on using the GUI to write data, but in most of these cases other rotary knobs can be assigned to fulfil that function.
It's not ideal in any case, I now have to rewire Ableton to Pro Tools with Spark on a Midi track in Ableton. Crazy huh!? But it gets round some of my issues so hey ho
Best, Stuart