Hi all - first post
I demo'd Spark for a day then purchased the full package. I though all my concerns about the demo would be resolved with the knob rich controller however, to me the knobs seem way too underutilized..
My biggest frustration is I wanted a fully hands on drum synth but, you only get 3 knobs per drum whilst you have another 30 knobs doing nothing. So you have to resort to a mouse despite all the knob-age.. Desperately feels like there is room for improvement. For example:
Suggestion 1Have 2 modes of operation:
1)
Live mode: as it currently stands. Good for basic edits for live situations
2)
Studio mode: if you select, say, Bass Drum, all 24 (8 sets of 3) knobs become dedicated to the Bass Drum. Going Left to right, the knobs in row 1 now match the 6 knobs in the Bass Drum editor page (pitch, attack, decay etc). I don’t know enough about Spark yet to think of a good use of rows 2 and 3 in this mode; perhaps there is not a good use which brings me onto an alternative
Suggestion 2Rather than the above modes, using Select+a spare sequencer button shortcut, toggle the 6 central knobs between their current functions (Cutoff / Resonance / Aux 1/ etc) and, Drum Edit Mode where the 6 knobs control the 6 parameters of the selected drum (eg pitch / attack / etc). The LCD is easily big enough to display either the first 3 or last 3 abbreviated function names and their values:
Pth Atk Dcy or… FqSft Rat Rng
50 00 00 50 25 10
I also have Maschine and a Jomox 888 and so far I LOVE the sound of Spark but, the controller feels like it is only 50% utilized..
Any thoughts on the above?
PS: I think suggestion 2 would work best..
Ta,
Paul
London
www.punkdisco.co.uk