Arturia SparkLE Walkthrough, Demo, Tutorial
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- This is the ultra-compact Arturia SparkLE hybrid drum machine. Skip to 2:12 for Hardware Overview / 14:22 for Demos
Buy SparkLE in the UK from these dealers: sourcedistribut...
More info: www.arturia.com...
Video produced with a pre-production SparkLE unit and Beta software.
Filmed on a Canon 550d with a RODE VideoMic Pro.
11 years later😅 wishing for arturia to make spark the most desired drum synth, but nope, yet i love it, great samples
One thing you forgot to mention about this little gem, is the ability to drag and drop each individual pad from each individual pattern straight to your DAW as .wav or .aiff...I know thats more part of the software rather than the hardware but it is an important function to consider IMO.
Is it me, or is this exactly what I’ve been looking for? It looks better than everything else. It’s an instrument. I feel like plugins and hardware forget this. I can’t wait to get mine.
Did you get one? Is it good?
@@UnlessRoundIsFunny its good
This was an awesome and insanely helpful video. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 to this guy for reading the manual so I didn't have to--even though I had to rewind 5 or 10 times to catch what the fast moving fingers were doing--LOL!! Just purchased a used Spark LE and now it's looking like an even more valuable versatile purchase than I even thought, after watching this video. Thanks!
What kind of midi are you using please?
This is the best demo tutorial I have seen. And what a supercool machine. I am in the process of reverting to the old school music production methods I loved 30 years ago. No more @#$ing mice and dropdown menus ! Woot ! Now I just need a sheet of sacred foolscap, LOL. The old school variety, please. Liquid Sound Design. Lovely Sonic Discorporation. Vive la revolution ! Thank you Arturia. This plus my Minilab is awesome potential I can afford.
I have one, and it is the best purchase I have ever made. You can load your own drum/bass sounds into this thing and it has endless presets/banks, and you can sequence a whole song. Works magically with presonus studio one.
The Tempest friend, not only is it completely compatible with your computer but it is analog and does not need the computer but still retains much of the abilities of a DAW. Because of its digital brain and analog circuits it is the best of both worlds.
This is sick, for the price its even better.
so crisp, clear and precise. Thank you.
Ty Bond Thanks!! :)
Physical modeling is an included synthesis type which is great for this, plus you can load samples into it too!
NI gave me two Maschine units over the last couple of years and I sold them both. I want to use simple instruments, like a piano or a drum pad. Spark is more in line with that. It is easy to use and you know what you will get out of it.
I like the ol drum machine sounds and this is the Machine do that
Yes, you can record live automation - hit record, tweak, and the tweaks will be saved.
this workflow is amazing! I loved the larger Spark and I'm definitely picking up the little Sparkle for on the road creating!
Ditto. Hoping to have a SparkLE next week. Looking forward to getting my hands on and and it should be a nice companion to the Akai MPK Mini.
Yes there are acoustic kits included with SparkLE - though I did a more techno-esque demo for the vid, you can totally do this, and there's quite a lot of traditional patterns included. To be honest it's easy to make patterns on Spark so you'll find you naturally end up making/customising what you want to hear without too much learning, it's dead simple.
ive owned the Spark LE for 2 days and it is A BLAST. i highly recommend it. the MASCHINE is obviously MUCH more powerful but the Spark Le is So immediate and FUN. for the price you cant go wrong
You can’t get the same kick drum out of machine or MPC like you can with Spark, that’s why I’ll never stop using it.
What is the price of the machine?
basically, you want to go ahead and start experimenting with it. drum machines are intuitive, but to get it with your rock sounds you will want to first set your tempo. Then, choose samples or a built-in kit on the drum machine that you like the sound of, and start sequencing it to that tempo, in the pattern that you like. Then start doing your guitar thing over that.
Great demo! Thanks for making and sharing!
hmmmmm
I'm loving that sound at 11:39
Check out the ? mark in the upper left hand corner on the software.
A nice hidden little gem.
It can be in the background, that works fine. Fine with a USB hub too - that's what we use. Probably a good idea to get a powered USB hub though!
THIS. THIS! THIS!!!!! is the video that got me to buy it
Brilliant demo. Many thanks!
source of endless creative fun! love mine!
William Sauer Is it heavy on CPU? Kits sound very nice.
@Yunil Hung It's done in the setup menu at the top of the software.
You can't sample directly into it but yes, you can drag samples recorded in other programs into it! So it's synthesis and sampling. Maximum envelope time is 16 seconds I believe so you should be OK to have 16 second samples!
16 seconds is more than enough time.
This seems MUCH more intuitive than Maschine. I have been planning to sell my Maschine anyway, this may have to replace it. Thanks for a fantastic demo!
Did you ever purchase a Spark LE?
You should upload that kit that you are using in the last few minutes some cool samples on there id love to play about with!
Can't wait to play with this at NAMM tomorrow :-)
Nice travel version of the spark
Yep - they've massively improved the browser in 1.7, which was just released. Check it out!
All the sounds used here are part of the Spark library, just pick one up! :)
One other thing I forgot to mention, Make a video with the Spark software and different controller. I would love to see how compatible the software is to,say, an MPD26. Because the software is sold separately as well for fairly cheap.
Nice job! A shame this doesn't have a two-line display. Could have easily fit. Would be handy as a parameter readout. Then, in performance, one could change settings without looking at the laptop at all. Remove it from the table!
I use my Spark a lot more than my Maschine for that very reason. Out of the box, I found it much easier to get going with the Spark. But, I do like having all 16 pads on the Maschine rather than having to shift between pads 1-8 and 9-16 on the Spark.
is there any way that you could trigger this device to start and stop via a foot switch? really liking the functionality of this piece of kit and would definitely go and buy it if so
Yes
Bag to carry to your mates for a jam. But you can only use on others PC's (4) after you have gone through the install and approval activation. So carry your pc too lol
Personally the Spark has always interested me more than both Maschine and now the Akai competitors. Just seems more direct, fun and intuitive. Haven't had the money lying around so far, so this smaller cheaper version certainly has my attention. It also seems more focused and to the point with a little fat trimmed. I am however thinking there should atleast be a shortcut to the swing that have its own knob on the bigger unit - always liked the sound/feel of the Spark swing.
wow that is a beautiful machine
Hello. First off, thank you for this very informative and very helpful video. Er... just wanted to know about some of the kits and sounds: Do they have good banks for mallet, steel drum, xylophone or organ type hits - I guess something similar to "tropical" type sounds.
Thank you very very much!
Yeah I wish it was standalone, its look reminds me a lot of the first gen Electribes.
this is pretty cool, not sure to get this of the tempest any opinions?
Do the software and hardware support odd time signatures (e.g. 5/8, 7/8, etc..). How about switching between time signatures between sections of a song or even within a loop (say, 3/4 for 1 bar, followed by 7/8 for the 2nd), for instance? How would they be represented on the controller? Great overview of the device, btw, really helpful! :)
Yes it does, I hope you have found it out by now.
If you’re If a logic user it’s way simpler.
Can this run standalone using a line out or does it always need to be connected to a computer? I like the form as it would look great sitting next to my OP-1. The form makes it perfectly portable, but I would love it if it was truly stand alone.
iv got one, i just thought it would be cool to have those sounds together in a kit as i see there are user created kits up for download on the Arturia site. I can look through all the sounds to find those in the vid and put a kit together but as you know there are a hell of a lot of them in there. Cool video though, explains a lot on how to use it, great bit of kit :-)
Does it have anything equivalent to motion control? Like if you want to just have some white noise and just tweak a really short release time for your high hat instead of having one open and one closed sample but you only want to have to record it once. Or record pitch changes so you can loop your pitch changes then quantize it to step pattern and have it be like a melodic loop or some filter step modding?? I use the electribe for that quite a bit
They'll both work together you know - Spark can run inside Maschine! Seen people do that.
Excuse me, could I use SparkLE with other VST3?
I'm having some troubles with MIDI mapping.
Thanks in advance.
M.
Great review! Thanks
I have the original Spark it is 2 big and bulky.. never use it just use the VST inside the DAW.. BTW it is a amazing sound drum machine..maybe this smaller version will be used more..
Bulky as a whale.
hi there just want to confirm its midi clock can be synced to traktor.
Is it better than Arturia Spark?
Great review, just wondering if Arturia is coming out with a new hardware version ?
great in depth review
Excellent review so much squeezed in , a little to fast though for my slow brain ha ha
Can this be used in conjunction with the mini lab? Basically the mini lab has its own 5000 presets and the spark le it's own. Is it possible for the spark le to control the functions of the mini lab as far as slice, filtering etc like you did in the video? Do I need a separate daw for creating the beats or is it a daw program itself. I use a motif xs8 for sequencing but it is behind in modern tech.
Yes it does need to be connected to a computer to work, hence the price! :)
If I understand this correctly can I use the SparkLE as a controller for the drum software I downloaded off Arturia website? I tried using the pads on my keylab but only the 1st bottom 4 pads work only.
can you attach a midi drum pad to arturia sparkle and use it live for hybrid drumming?
Yes you can, all day long.
I am seriously looking for a super compact MIDI controller for my beat Buddy which will have the capability to change rhythms (jazz to rick to funk to Latin beats to soft ballads) via a control knob or assignable buttons, and adjust the tempo and volume levels. I sent for a 'beatstep' from Arturia and no one seems to be able to help me integrate it. I am a pianist and have worked for many years with drum machines starting from Roland's first programmable drummers and the huge Hammond organ slabs. Please help.
I am new to this whole hybrid thing - just wondering if the software has to be "active window" or also in the backround? because I would like to work with other synths/software during live performance while tweaking the spark - does it work with an usb hub?
It does actually, yes, just like the bigger Spark - I kicked myself for not demoing that! Full RRP in the UK is £229.
Can you load large groups of samples and run quickly trough them for a live situation like in ableton? Thanks
Make it be able to sample live, make it standalone, make it battery-operated and SD card expandable..... Instant buy.
king shaman Then it would be an MPC :)
I wonder if they intentionally named it the SparkLE so that is spells Sparkle.
yeah - but it need at least ONE click to navigate in the FILE libary i think !?
maybe fixd in the next update i hope
Great but unfortunate that the digital display only exists on the software. Takes away from the standalone aspect greatly.
also even if it was just a piece of hardware that XY pad was exactly what i was hoping the touch pad on my ESX would be when i got it.. i thought it was going to be like a one dimensional kaoss pad and then this thing actually has turntable effects and stuff instead of just lame roll and pitch like on ESX even though that's an awesome machine too
hey gang. I am a rock guitar player, not into the groove thing, but I would like to use this to develop background drums for my guitar playing. Can anyone give me an idea where I might get a good tutorial on using these DM's for something as simple as that? I am guessing I would have a basic sequence of patterns that I would build into a song, with Traditional drum kit. What's the best way to get started along these lines?
Love the UI on this over a computer based one.
Can you record the live filtering that you're doing? Or is that all performance stuff unable to be recorded into software as a produced track?
is the pattern change/copy so easy as in the "BIG" Spark ? how does it works?
What is the difference between the sparkle and beat step? I'm trying to figure which would best suit me. (:
LizaLavolta
Liza...
The Spark LE is a dedicated controller specifically to control Arturia’s Spark software, meaning the hardware unit is not designed to work stand alone like the Drumbrute series. The Beatstep is a sequencer/ controller (no built in sounds) that can be used to control both hardware and software.
@@glennwilsonboerstlerii535 Ahhhhh Thank you. That is so helpful.
Could you use this to run the Spark EDM or Spark Dubstep software? I've noticed that the EDM and Dubstep standalones look like the original Spark hardware.
Yes, if you have the hardware you can use it to control EDM and Dubstep!
Does this machine compliment the arturia mini mk2 or is the midi good alone?
Can you load in your own samples? if not what is a good hardware to do this. Thank you.
+FLProducer You can load your own samples, yes. You can also design your own sounds with the updated software (included!)
SourceDistributionTV Thank you for the quick reply. I'll look into this further and hopefully buy it :D
so much like EMX/ESX by Korg, but that's quite old of a machine
what's so new with this?
does low motion affect the tempo of the daw and so other plugins?
the biggest problem with the SPARK Le - and I do like it a lot - is that it has no LCD screen on it.. you have to be looking at the computer screen for some important functions. Which in not that great when playing live... and the larger Spark is too bulky and awkward shaped to carry to gigs easily. I wish it was a tinny bit larger so it had a screen.. other than that... I like it a lot more than the Maschine Mikro.
yanni ehm Is it heavy on CPU?
nice video and explanation....
please don't use this overhead tilted camera angle, though, makes me feel ill
Does the SparkLE connect to Garageband on the iMac?
i cant get Cubase to recognize Spark or play it through cubase. is this possible? Im using Cubase AI 6. what program would I need to record the sounds into ? it says it works with a DAW but i cannot for the life of me figure out how to make the arturia sounds stream directly into cubase.. plz help
+wordlogicvee I'll bet you need to take a closer look at what MIDI channels Arturia SparkLE has reserved, for communication with a connected computer and DAW -- and make sure you have Cubase set up appropriately, in the preferences/setup menu, or whatever it's called.
Go to www.gearslutz.com forums to ask users there, what's up with the stubbornness with interoperability with Cubase...
can i make accents automation inside spark software for every sound scene????
can you use the sparkLE with other software other than the arturia one given?
Yes, the device can go into "MIDI mode" and be used as a pad controller and the three knobs can send data.
SourceDistributionTV Can I shift between modes while the software keeps playing loops? wondering if I could use it to sequence a minibute and/or ms-20 mini at the same time
Duane Allam I'm not sure that's possible as the MIDI mode is just to use it as a knob/pad controller rather than a sequencer as such - BeatStep is the product to pair it with in that case!
you can 'use while using traktor at the same time ????
Nice Demo... ;)
Does it hold many songs?
WOABEATS 🥴👍🤤🍆
Hi, I love this toy and I love the price, but I want something basic to plug in an amplifier and make some backtracking (I play guitar). I dont want to depend on any computer, do you recomend any particular device?? If I could make some backtracking very basic for popular songs like Toto Africa, or some Michael Jackson song, or lets say some Police song.. they are simple but I dont know. I was checking something very basic like zoom 223, but I am not sure. THere must be something authonomous more similar to this Arturia toy.
If I could plug my boss gt10 to a device like this one, and send all to my guitar amp, that would be greater still. I could make samples on the fly, using the device rythm and guitar chords..
There's the Synthstrom Deluge, but it sounds like overkill for your purpose.
Hi, I bought electribe 2, yesterday I was trying and playing some presets in keyboard mode and trigger mode. I still dont know how to use it properly, and most important, I dont know how to plug my gt10 out in all the mess, I dont know if I can plug it into the electribe, in theory there is an input small jack, but should I put the guitar there? I am going to research if it is possible to use the fx return of the amplifier as a secondary input, technically I am pluggin the electribe there..
if playing live with this - can you do it without a computer? how does it connect to other devices for timing
nyrbsamoht it’s not like he couldn’t have answered your question, he hasn’t got millions of subscribers.
I hate being ignored. Plus that is a great question. You would think that is the first thing they cover.
Computers drive me mad ...there’s always something that doesn’t work
Good news. I downloaded the manual and yes, time signature is programmable. However, at least one review mentions freezes when some sigs are selected. Here it is ...
www.residentadvisor.net/review-view.aspx?id=11443
can i browse my own samples loading by dragndrob into sparkle also by the wheel ???
I dont think "stand alone" is terminology this device could be used, it must be plugged into a computer for it to do anything.
He does mention it's a Hybrid drum machine in the description though
"Hybrid" is a very vague term though. I'm glad of Ron's comment because it saved me the bother of watching this thinking it was actually a drum machine when in fact it's just a controller for a drum machine VST.
jammin023 -qy 70 is what you want
@@jammin023 Exactly, going for an Alesis SR 16, a real drum machine and much cheaper !
What's the max resolution for the sequencer?
who says style of production influences what makes something musical or not?
Can you just play this thru a Moog Sub 37 or do you need a daw?
is buying one of there used pointless because you need the software?
+3pnk Nickerson It can still operate standalone but you'd want to ask them to transfer you the license if possible. Best to check with Arturia if that's OK to do!
what do u put in theholenext to the usb port on the arturia is that fora memory card
That is for a Kensington lock. It's not a port.
Can U Please explain how to connect properly in LogicPro X SparkLE? I got days and nights... no one from tech support, manual, or online explain how exactly I should set S.LE in LogicPro X . Whenever I do open the plug in it connects to SLE and a pop out window say ( To work in plug in mode disconnect midi on your DAW) I tried everything and nothing worked, asked and no reply about what do I have to disconnect in my DAW (midi)? Also pads from 9-16 trigger 2 at same time so overlaps sounds, it's ok with pad 1-8 ? what can I do about it? Thank You!!! Alexia.
Hello, did you find a way of solving your Logic X setup problem with the SparkLE? I'm having pretty much the same issues and support is a bit thin off the ground.
Nope, I wrote so many emails to Arturia tech-support, they kept writing me back with the same setup, mostly was for a set up in Abletone. I kinda wrapped my head around, unfortunately limitations occurred. I was able to set up in LogicX' Environment window in 2 ways, 1st one will record only the first 8 pads (1-8 ), the 9-16 pads trigger the timber (sound) of pad(s) 1-8, so you end up to hear 2 sounds: i.e. pad 9 claps (trigger pad 1 kick) and so on... The 2nd set up did play all the pad 1-16 with no overlapping, but unable to record in LogicX.
If you want I can forward the configuration via email and you can try yourself. The poor tech-support of Arturia is so frustrating. Despite the kind back and forth emails, Arturia tech-support could not figure out a setting in LogicX. I kinda give up...Back to MASCHINE sadly, cause I really dig this piece of gear. I will use it for my iPad app iSpark , and in LogicX will just record 8 timbers then bounce in place audio. A GREAT pity, considering all that tweaking that can be done from SparkLE hardware. Alexia.
inbox me your email, I will send you the scheme , it's quite long., it'll be better for you to have it in front of you. facebook.com/SUPADJALEXIA
nbox me your email, I will send you the scheme , it's quite long., it'll be better for you to have it in front of you. facebook.com/SUPADJALEXIA
Thanks, I just sent you a pm via the Facebook link/
100% agree! I would have bought the full spark hardware if they had it in store at guitar center.... :O\
One thing I most like about machine though is the fact that you can sample in the same bitrate as the famous sp1200 and the mpc60 so it is very easy to get that gritty bottom end those machines are famous for so I WANT BOTH AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!
It was on display at GC, ppl just like myself thought it was a funny looking machine, until Spark LE was released.
How much