So my first Positive Grid product was a Spark Live, outside of some old iPad apps like Jam Up Pro and Bias Amp. I have some hot takes on the company for some reasons you mentioned and some you didn't touch on. First off, is the Live a very usable product? Yes. Even with some things that annoy me about their ecosystem, it is versatile and loud enough to be useful. The best parts of it to me are the vocal, bass, and acoustic tones you can get. I love how easy it is to play songs from my phone to jam to, and for purely practicing, the electric tones are usable and can be fuller in the room than a Katana 50 I previously had. The amount of low end is nice, and cool that it has a global 3 band EQ on the back so you can dial that back if needed, or to tweak for BT music. It makes a killer poolside BT speaker. It's also perfect for busking as well. I laugh watching this now, because they've since released the Edge and Spark 2. A slightly annoying thing is that both of those got a looper that the Live didn't. That's an odd way to slight people that just bought one of your newest amps. I don't care too much, as I got the U-looper or could use my iPad and Loopy Pro, but it's a weird business decision. My overall problem with Positive Grid and their approach is that they are like the opposite of Line 6 in a very bad way. I'm a little biased because I got a Helix LT after the Live (which actually sounds decent into the Live as an FRFR), but I see how much better their strategy is. With Line 6, they build DSP future-proof devices that were solid as a rock, sold a bagillion of them, and then constantly flooded the users with free software enhancements. New amps, pedals, cabs, improved DSP efficiency, you name it. They eventually came out with more hardware like the Stomp, Stomp XL, Pod Go, and HX One, but all were smartly based on similar software with enough DSP per device and spaced out enough to make market sense. When I first used the app with the electric on the Live, I was shocked actually. While the app was easy enough to navigate (compared to Boss software for Katanas, which were a pain), and I was promised thousands of tones (that there's no easy way to organize), there were major problems. The biggest was the crazy limitations in number of effects and the insane fact that you can't re-order the effects chain, change speakers/cabs or IRs, or even have both an EQ pedal and modulation pedal at the same time. Are you kidding me? This is 2024. If I want a phaser into the front of my amp, and an EQ after the amp to give me more than the 3 EQ knobs volume and gain you give me on every amp, that's beyond the laws of physics in the Spark amp. And where are all the dirt pedals? There are more mediocre fuzz pedals than different flavors of overdrive and distortion pedals. While some of the amps sound okay, when I compare to the sound of other things into the amp as an FRFR, such as the Helix LT or even my Nux Mighty Plug Pro headphone amp, those others sound like 3D sound compared to the 2D sound of the Spark electric tones. It's supposed to be stereo if I lay it landscape, and yet I can't find a single stereo delay or reverb. Again, for just practice, you can get by with that, but I don't understand it when I previously owned a Nux MG-30 for $300 that had better effects and signal routing options. I might get it for the smaller amps like the Mini, but if you are trying to bill the Live as something to play out where people expect quality sound, why have it be mediocre? They shouldn't have skimped on DSP. Furthermore, even if there are DSP limitations, the fact that they sold the Hendrix pack with new amps and pedals shows they theoretically could put more effort into releasing software enhancements. Even if they sold us packs of new pedals and amps, or cabs/IRs, that would be better than them virtually never adding anything, as though they were complete. That is very against the original Bias FX type of model they have in the software world. It's like they broke part of the company into the Spark development group, and it had like 25 hardware developers and 2 software developers, and those software guys spend all their time either writing software for new hardware or fixing bugs, so there's nothing left for new software enhancements. It's a shame because it could just be a better product with half a care by the company. But they'd rather sell new hardware every 3 months than actually support their loyal customers. It doesn't make any sense, and it's like the opposite of Line 6. I'm just glad I have practical uses for the Spark Live, so I get my money's worth and don't really need great gig ready tones from the electric guitar portion. Rant over....
Spark is great for practicing in a pinch. I bought a Mini for my son to learn to play on and one for myself. Once I got into Fractal products the Spark lost its usefulness to me. Fractal modeling is better and I can plug it into the USB on my computer and use it as an audio interface. Put a pair of headphones on and jam out at any time without disturbing anyone in the house. Then take it with me to play live and plug it into the PA system. Could easily add a mixer and couple cheap speakers to play small venues that don’t have their own PA system.
I haven’t tried Fractal yet, but I did just pick up the Tonex One pedal. All I can say is 🤯. The features for the price are crazy. No interface built in, but the sounds and size!
@@DarkRoastRecording I have a ToneX Pedal. It is great. Just have to hunt down some good captures in the absence of having the Amps and space to capture my own. A lot of the built-in models a really good. Some good captures from the community but a lot of stinkers as well.
Had a Spark mini for a while now. Bought the Spark Cab a few weeks back. Its to be a little louder but really a little more full sound but also its the bridge to move away from Spark as its a FRFR powered cab. Im 6 months away from feeling I have advanced enough to start moving off the Spark platform and will likely move to IK Tonex / Amplitude ecosystem which will work great with the powered Spark Cab. So the Cab works well for me now with the Spark eco system and will work for me once I migrate off the Spark ecosystem.
Already have a lot of amps so any other products are not needed. Regardless I bought the Live and to fund it I sold some gear. That’s just the way it is for guitar players..
I was a Bias FX user. Then paid again for Bias FX 2. Then the Spark. Then the Spark control. But I could never quite get the use out of any of it I wanted to. The I decided to get a Line 6 Helix LT instead and haven't looked back. Sold my spark.
Very in trouble between this, yamaha thr or boss katana ( little speaker of the head version), combo is too much for my bedroom. My neightbours are all old and retired, I need to play very quietly 😂
yeah yeah.. gear, music, whatever.. WE NEED TO SEE THE DOG!!! btw, thanks for the audio interface remarks, I was actually considering spark go to use as the interface. I haven't heard anything negative about it so far, now I know. Thank you 👍
Get it about PG taking the marketing line that of a tech company. However, for what you get, it's an incredible value. As far as the Go, goes, what it's really good for is running the system using headphones, all for the price of a regular bt speaker. The 40, simply too big to run off a battery, or it'd weight and cost double. The mini, perfect in-between. For me, it's a great way to try out different tones without having to buy 50 amps and pedals to figure out what I like. Because of the spark, I settled on getting into a 5F1 circuit and klon clone for my first full tube setup, and going from there, but still love the spark for trying new things. As far as "practice amps", 5 watts of tube is almost as cheap these days.
“ not mobile”, “ you have to plug it in” what ? Waaaaa. It’s mobile and do you not have outlets in your house ? The audience is not going to happy seeing you play thru a Spark ? WTH. Only 1 out of 200, is geeky enough to care. Ridiculous, not realistic at all.
I don’t understand why you need so many amps? You have the spark 40. If you want more umph, buy the cabinet. If you want to swap the 40 with the live, there’s this thing called second hand market, and guitar amps retain a great value and are easily sold. This was a 20 minute rant about literally nothing.
Oh boy…The point is that I DONT want more amps. I want one that I can use for everything including practicing, jamming, recording and performing live as a 2 piece and/or solo. I’m well aware of second hand market. The vid isn’t a rant, far from it. It provides a point of view and an alternative to boost sales, customer experience and overall satisfaction. Sorry you were having a bad day.
@@DarkRoastRecording I was having a great day, I had time and patience to watch a 20 minute video. I wasn’t even trying to be too snarky or sarcastic. You don’t have to be that rude about some criticism to your video. And again, I still don’t understand why the spark 40 for practice and the cabinet for live events aren’t a good option for your use case. If you feel like you have too much PG gear, just sell the things you don’t need and buy what you want (that’s a DIY trade in program for you). Have a great day
So my first Positive Grid product was a Spark Live, outside of some old iPad apps like Jam Up Pro and Bias Amp. I have some hot takes on the company for some reasons you mentioned and some you didn't touch on.
First off, is the Live a very usable product? Yes. Even with some things that annoy me about their ecosystem, it is versatile and loud enough to be useful. The best parts of it to me are the vocal, bass, and acoustic tones you can get. I love how easy it is to play songs from my phone to jam to, and for purely practicing, the electric tones are usable and can be fuller in the room than a Katana 50 I previously had. The amount of low end is nice, and cool that it has a global 3 band EQ on the back so you can dial that back if needed, or to tweak for BT music. It makes a killer poolside BT speaker. It's also perfect for busking as well.
I laugh watching this now, because they've since released the Edge and Spark 2. A slightly annoying thing is that both of those got a looper that the Live didn't. That's an odd way to slight people that just bought one of your newest amps. I don't care too much, as I got the U-looper or could use my iPad and Loopy Pro, but it's a weird business decision.
My overall problem with Positive Grid and their approach is that they are like the opposite of Line 6 in a very bad way. I'm a little biased because I got a Helix LT after the Live (which actually sounds decent into the Live as an FRFR), but I see how much better their strategy is. With Line 6, they build DSP future-proof devices that were solid as a rock, sold a bagillion of them, and then constantly flooded the users with free software enhancements. New amps, pedals, cabs, improved DSP efficiency, you name it. They eventually came out with more hardware like the Stomp, Stomp XL, Pod Go, and HX One, but all were smartly based on similar software with enough DSP per device and spaced out enough to make market sense.
When I first used the app with the electric on the Live, I was shocked actually. While the app was easy enough to navigate (compared to Boss software for Katanas, which were a pain), and I was promised thousands of tones (that there's no easy way to organize), there were major problems. The biggest was the crazy limitations in number of effects and the insane fact that you can't re-order the effects chain, change speakers/cabs or IRs, or even have both an EQ pedal and modulation pedal at the same time. Are you kidding me? This is 2024. If I want a phaser into the front of my amp, and an EQ after the amp to give me more than the 3 EQ knobs volume and gain you give me on every amp, that's beyond the laws of physics in the Spark amp. And where are all the dirt pedals? There are more mediocre fuzz pedals than different flavors of overdrive and distortion pedals. While some of the amps sound okay, when I compare to the sound of other things into the amp as an FRFR, such as the Helix LT or even my Nux Mighty Plug Pro headphone amp, those others sound like 3D sound compared to the 2D sound of the Spark electric tones. It's supposed to be stereo if I lay it landscape, and yet I can't find a single stereo delay or reverb. Again, for just practice, you can get by with that, but I don't understand it when I previously owned a Nux MG-30 for $300 that had better effects and signal routing options. I might get it for the smaller amps like the Mini, but if you are trying to bill the Live as something to play out where people expect quality sound, why have it be mediocre? They shouldn't have skimped on DSP.
Furthermore, even if there are DSP limitations, the fact that they sold the Hendrix pack with new amps and pedals shows they theoretically could put more effort into releasing software enhancements. Even if they sold us packs of new pedals and amps, or cabs/IRs, that would be better than them virtually never adding anything, as though they were complete. That is very against the original Bias FX type of model they have in the software world. It's like they broke part of the company into the Spark development group, and it had like 25 hardware developers and 2 software developers, and those software guys spend all their time either writing software for new hardware or fixing bugs, so there's nothing left for new software enhancements. It's a shame because it could just be a better product with half a care by the company. But they'd rather sell new hardware every 3 months than actually support their loyal customers. It doesn't make any sense, and it's like the opposite of Line 6.
I'm just glad I have practical uses for the Spark Live, so I get my money's worth and don't really need great gig ready tones from the electric guitar portion.
Rant over....
Spark is great for practicing in a pinch. I bought a Mini for my son to learn to play on and one for myself. Once I got into Fractal products the Spark lost its usefulness to me. Fractal modeling is better and I can plug it into the USB on my computer and use it as an audio interface. Put a pair of headphones on and jam out at any time without disturbing anyone in the house. Then take it with me to play live and plug it into the PA system. Could easily add a mixer and couple cheap speakers to play small venues that don’t have their own PA system.
I haven’t tried Fractal yet, but I did just pick up the Tonex One pedal. All I can say is 🤯.
The features for the price are crazy. No interface built in, but the sounds and size!
@@DarkRoastRecording I have a ToneX Pedal. It is great. Just have to hunt down some good captures in the absence of having the Amps and space to capture my own. A lot of the built-in models a really good. Some good captures from the community but a lot of stinkers as well.
The madness of out of control consumerism.
Had a Spark mini for a while now. Bought the Spark Cab a few weeks back. Its to be a little louder but really a little more full sound but also its the bridge to move away from Spark as its a FRFR powered cab. Im 6 months away from feeling I have advanced enough to start moving off the Spark platform and will likely move to IK Tonex / Amplitude ecosystem which will work great with the powered Spark Cab. So the Cab works well for me now with the Spark eco system and will work for me once I migrate off the Spark ecosystem.
Already have a lot of amps so any other products are not needed. Regardless I bought the Live and to fund it I sold some gear. That’s just the way it is for guitar players..
I was a Bias FX user. Then paid again for Bias FX 2. Then the Spark. Then the Spark control. But I could never quite get the use out of any of it I wanted to. The I decided to get a Line 6 Helix LT instead and haven't looked back. Sold my spark.
Very in trouble between this, yamaha thr or boss katana ( little speaker of the head version), combo is too much for my bedroom. My neightbours are all old and retired, I need to play very quietly 😂
yeah yeah.. gear, music, whatever.. WE NEED TO SEE THE DOG!!!
btw, thanks for the audio interface remarks, I was actually considering spark go to use as the interface. I haven't heard anything negative about it so far, now I know. Thank you 👍
Great products otherwise!
Our dog just likes to check up on what everyone is doing in house. lol.
Hate to break it to you but they are announcing the Spark2 next week
Get it about PG taking the marketing line that of a tech company. However, for what you get, it's an incredible value. As far as the Go, goes, what it's really good for is running the system using headphones, all for the price of a regular bt speaker. The 40, simply too big to run off a battery, or it'd weight and cost double. The mini, perfect in-between. For me, it's a great way to try out different tones without having to buy 50 amps and pedals to figure out what I like. Because of the spark, I settled on getting into a 5F1 circuit and klon clone for my first full tube setup, and going from there, but still love the spark for trying new things. As far as "practice amps", 5 watts of tube is almost as cheap these days.
I liked my Spark for the year that it worked and what they wanted to repair it was ludicrous so I walked away from it all together.
Don’t they have Craigslist in Canada?
I mean Apple gives you trade in but you can always get more selling your old Apple devices yourself.
This true 💯. And that may be the route I take for my Sparks. I’m keeping the mini though 😉
I just spent one hundred bucks on the phone company that doesn't give Vicks to breath better at night for it. Namastè.
WTF?
“ not mobile”, “ you have to plug it in” what ? Waaaaa. It’s mobile and do you not have outlets in your house ? The audience is not going to happy seeing you play thru a Spark ? WTH. Only 1 out of 200, is geeky enough to care. Ridiculous, not realistic at all.
I don’t understand why you need so many amps? You have the spark 40. If you want more umph, buy the cabinet. If you want to swap the 40 with the live, there’s this thing called second hand market, and guitar amps retain a great value and are easily sold. This was a 20 minute rant about literally nothing.
Oh boy…The point is that I DONT want more amps. I want one that I can use for everything including practicing, jamming, recording and performing live as a 2 piece and/or solo.
I’m well aware of second hand market. The vid isn’t a rant, far from it. It provides a point of view and an alternative to boost sales, customer experience and overall satisfaction.
Sorry you were having a bad day.
@@DarkRoastRecording I was having a great day, I had time and patience to watch a 20 minute video. I wasn’t even trying to be too snarky or sarcastic. You don’t have to be that rude about some criticism to your video.
And again, I still don’t understand why the spark 40 for practice and the cabinet for live events aren’t a good option for your use case. If you feel like you have too much PG gear, just sell the things you don’t need and buy what you want (that’s a DIY trade in program for you).
Have a great day