Beatstep or old Spark LE?

[RickyReject]

Hello,

I understand Spark LE is a few years old already, but I still like the interface and the fact that it seems to come with Spark 2 VST.

I love Arturias products, but the information is not always clear...What's the main differences between Beatstep Pro and Spark LE? I take it Beatstep Pro is a fully fledged sequencer that can control either software or hardware and that Spark LE is "just" a midi control surface.

Have I understood that correctly?

[machinesworking]

Hello,

I understand Spark LE is a few years old already, but I still like the interface and the fact that it seems to come with Spark 2 VST.

I love Arturias products, but the information is not always clear...What's the main differences between Beatstep Pro and Spark LE? I take it Beatstep Pro is a fully fledged sequencer that can control either software or hardware and that Spark LE is "just" a midi control surface.

Have I understood that correctly?

I have both, SparkLE is a control surface specifically for Spark, it's difficult to use it for any other plug in. BeatStep Pro is a full fledged sequencer with three parts, drum, and two mono step sequencers. It also does Mackie control and acts as a general MIDI CC controller.

 Definitely get Beatstep Pro. Spark is going to die on modern OS's sometime, it will never go Apple Silicon for instance, and BeatStep Pro is future proof, can control any plug in or hardware.

I tend to use it to record MIDI patterns I make on it into a DAW for further sequencing, but no doubt you could write a whole song in it's sequencer.

[RickyReject]

Cheers for the reply. It came a wee bit late though as I already got the SparkLE. I kinda like it and hopefully I can keep it alive for a while longer. Didnt realize it was quite this old...

With that said, I'm still running an M-Audio Projectmix I/O as control surface. And that's like...atleast 15 years old now