Just a bit more:
i ordered from ebay a Spark hardware console
To start with, I know little about drum machines, My sole experience with them is a Yamaha RX-8 and that' just the basics. So the idea of using a hardware/software unit is challenging. Then I saw briefly that Spark is not just one drumbox but several. THAT sounded interesting. Now I am 70 years of age plus my eyesight is Tres Abominoable; to the point where I can no longer read the printed page. To get some knowledge of how this beast works I viewed and downloaded the videos here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmZ6GBRLEGk&list=RDqmZ6GBRLEGk#t=176 Now he cites a problem or two one being using song position markers (which, at this point means nothing to me)
My uses for Spark would be twofold VST and live play
The music I do best fall into two genres: 1 psychedelic and it's follow-on Progrock. hence my love affair with Collection 3 which I got at a good price and 2. oldies/"doowop". I had planned to kind of downplay drums to just the bare-bones basic then took a look at Spark and the YouTube material and I very much liked what I saw. Now as for the music I plan to use it for. Psychedelic and Progrock would use a bass in the rhythm section more than a synth (although having one is not bad) So If I had to choose between a bass and synth, I would prefer the bass. Oldies/doowop bass, because of the recording and playback hardware had bass that was little more than a pitched "bmp"; being played on a "doghouse" or trying to sound like it and the level of low-end fidelity for a teenager's record player, with it's 7.12 cm speaker playing a 39 cent record, the whole low-end fiedelity was next to nil. So, what I'd be needing would be drums from the 1950's to the 1970's and a few basses more than the synth. Also what would be interesting to use some time was those electronic "drums" from the Lowery and Hammond organ "rhythm sections" or the ones Maestro put together that pre-dated the Linn's, Drumulator and DrumTrax. Even the Korg 2500 was interesting since it let you merge patterns and thing
Also, what would be nice would be a "junior edition" of the Spark software in some kind of physical package that included software (drum kits and some patterns that you could create on the main computer and store, with some limited edit functionality from the control panel), and an audio output so that you could hook it up to the controller and use it as a live drum machine out on the road and not have to drag around a computer or laptop
In terms of VST I have Kreative Kristal and Presonus free studio, Reaper and Lunix Multimedia Systesm DAW's, which is where I would use Spark as a plugin, and since it has it's own mixer, I would use the output form that as it's own bus which would save all kinds of tracks on the DAW mixer, which, since it would be carrying both drums and bass, would be a huge savings on tracks
