"Send midi from sequencer"

[zion00]

Hey guys!

I want to trigger my Vermona DRM analog hardware with Spark.
I seen every video possible, set the IAC video and so on. Set both the parameters "Send midi from pads /from Sequencer" ON.

In stand alone is working. I can even communicate the standalone with Ableton 9 in this way:

I receive Midi signals from Arturia Spark 2 standalone into a midi channel "All ins" and i route to the Midi out Channel 10  of the port i choose.

Now i want to do this inside Ableton, with Spark as VST OR AU.
Forget the VST because is not working very well.

1
I load Spark into a Live Midi channel, i set the pads with the right midi numbers.

2
Into another empty Midi channel i set midi from "IAC Driver (Spark1 Midi OUT)" and midi to "Profire 610 - channel 10". You can set midi from "All ins" is working the same.

This let me receive from the Spark Plugin the midi signal and route it where i want.
So if i press a pad, this pad generate a Midi signal of the number i choose and send it to the midi channel/port i set.

This option in the Preference Panel of Spark is called "Send midi from Pads" and is working correctly. So i can trigger my vermona (or Novation Drumstatio or Jomox Airbase99) pressing the pads of the controller (or the software) inside Live 9.

THe problem is, if i press Play in the sequencer, the sequencer generate no midi signal, and i cannot trigger my hardware.

So the Preference Panel "Send midi from Sequencer" is not working.
In vst mode both are not working. In AU only the first one, and not the second one, Midi from Sequencer.

Is there anything i can do?
Is this a known bug?

Is there a workaround?

Thanks for all!

[Terrym]

Hi sparkle is working fine in ableton please download the manual and see page 99 .its best to use the vst than the au as you don't need to use the iac .
you have to set up a midi track as well as an spark track and record the sequencer on the midi track.
and problems get back to me.

regards

terrym

[horstpetersen]

I tried to do the same. My aim was to use to the Spark controller as a frontend for my Novation Drumstation.
Unfortunately I didn't get to work it as AU/VST either :-( only via IAC and standalone which is very unconvient. This is really annoying because that would be a real killer feature. This would make it as close to a 808/909 as possible.

I got on Arturia's nerves with this as well and didn't receive a proper answer yet. Did you start a request to Arturia directly? Maybe there's a solution and only the hardcore Spark guys at Arturia know it?

[raztua]

hi,

I know that i have never been able to send midi from the spark software.
I have a Windows 7 computer (32 bits).

I asked arturia about this problem a year ago, and they told me that it was a known bug.
I have not installed latest spark 2 version but i know it didn't work a few month ago.

The only solution i found was to create my own script for ableton: you can find an old version here

http://forum.arturia.com/index.php?topic=14584.0

and i will make it again from scratch to improve its capability soon

feel free to try it and give me feedbacks, ideas.

[Beetlebum]

This is not working for me either.

I have the Preferences Switch "Send Midi from sequencer = Yes'.

Hosting with Plogue Bidule, when I monitor the midi output of SparkLE vst plugin, all I see is some midi sysex, probably Active Sensing.

The midi output from the vst software pads works fine.

Could Arturia please comment ?

[HerrFrey]

Please, it is absolutely necessary, that Spark 2 (as VSTi) can send MIDI to other virtual or hardware instruments. For example when I build patterns with a bass sound and melodic baselines from the spark library, but for the finaI mix I want to replace this "placeholder" with a sound from my Microbrute. I know it is possible to drag and drop an instrument as midi in my DAW, but this is useless, when you jam with inside of Spark 2 VST, do pattern changes on the fly to record this session. So please Arturia, fix this in a Spark Update. PLEASE!

At the moment it is only possible to route the instrument to a seperate mixer channel in my DAW (FL Studio) and put an "Audio to Midi" plugin in this channel. This is a workaround, but it is not really satisfying. Especially when you know, that with other drumsynths (hardware or virtual) it is possible to send Midi-Notes out to trigger other stuff.

[horstpetersen]

I second that... 
such a beautiful controller but no midi out is really annoying.

I gotan open support ticket at Arturia about this concern btw.
I received a message asking me to be patient because a level 2 technician needs to take care of it.
I'll let you guys know as soon as I get an answer.

[HerrFrey]

@horstpetersen: That's true. But as good and useful it is, the Spark LE is just a Midi-Controller to controll the Spark 2 Software. The software has to send Midi-Out Signals, so hopefully this bug can be fixed soon. The lack of midi-communication with other instruments in a setup is really a disapointing downer, especially because I do really love Spark 2 for its great vivid and anlalogue sound.

[dave4761]

To all:


I am a neophyte with Spark 2 and Spark LE, however, I have been able to accomplish this on my Win 7 64 bit system running both Sonar Platinum and Studio One Professional using Battery 4. The following are the easiest and most consistent steps that work for me and I hope this can help others.

1. Load both the Spark 2  and other drum software vsts. in my case, this is Battery 4. I will try it as well with AD2.
2. On Spark 2 make sure that under your preferences, you have checked both send midi from sequencer and send midi from pads so that they both say yes. You should see a checkmark in the box and then the word Yes next to it.
3. Open a new project in Spark 2 so that it is empty.
4. Change the midi imput of your drum software to Spark.
5. Arrange your drums to your liking. In Battery 4 I arrange the drum samples that I want into the row C3 which is already mapped to midi notes C3 through C4 so that it automatically matches with the spark le controller and I don't have to do the messy pad changes. If you want more samples than these 12 you can place them into the corresponding cells which are already mapped for C4 , C#4, D4 and D#4 to make full use of the two banks of midi pads on the spark LE, whichever is easiest for you and that makes it easy to keep straight in your head.
6. Now if you want to trigger the pads and hear the sounds on your drum software make sure that the focus of your DAW is on your drum software in my case,Battery 4.
7. If you want to use the sequencer of spark 2 with your drum software then do not use the stop, play and record buttons on spark 2 , you will hear nothing. You must then use the transport buttons on your DAW. You can then use the pads as well to record into your DAW. or export midi files from the patterns you have made from the spark 2  sequencer directly into your DAW directly into the track for you other drum software.

I have not yet fully explored all the connections, possibilities, and limitations yet, but it is a starting point. I hope this works for some of you. It is possible that other DAWs or Macs may not work well with this and having no experience with them I'm afraid I will be of little help in troubleshooting. Good Luck.

Dave

[dave4761]

All:

I have successfully done this using the method I just described Spark and Spark LE using Addictive Drums. Here I have to set up a map in AD2 to match the midi notes of Spark LE pads with the sounds from AD2. It takes just a few minutes and works great.

Dave

[Beetlebum]

As a followup to my previous post:

I was finally able to get the sequencer to output the midi note data.

To get midi note output from the Sparkle VST sequencer, the sequencer must be synced to the host sync, and receive a 'start/play' command.

Otherwise all the sequencer puts out is active sensing. I'm not sure if this is a bug or not.

[dfennessey]

I have good news for anyone still interested in solving this problem. The external midi pad triggers and sequencer play function work just fine with a VST plugin drum program. I have it working with Addictive Drums 2 and Superior Drummer 3. My goal was to rename the midi output codes on the SparkLE pads to match the standard library drum codes for AD2 and SD3...that way i could make my own drum patterns and use all the patterns in the AD2 / SD3 libraries and mix them. I was not that interested in the SparkLE sounds / libraries but they are a bonus and sound good...i am just not into RAP/Techno drum music. My DAW system is the Sonar Platinum October 2017 release....last one i believe. As mentioned previously, you have to enable both pad and sequencer send midi function "Yes" in the preferences menu. And you have to setup a separate track for the SparkLE program as usual with your drum VST with it's own track, triggered by the SparkLE midi pads. You can now record all your drum sequences, patterns, songs on your SparkLE and then perform midi export to your drum track by dragging it to your DAW drum track window. And that is it! Works perfectly and everything i always hoped i could get from the SparkLE....it only took me 6 months to figure all of this out with all the bad information out there to weed through....hope this helps for those of you who have suffered on this one too.