hi,does anyone know how to play the synth sounds that are in spark library,at different pitches? i.e use in cubase,record a midi sequence.
i know there is tune button on spark interface,but that just changes the pitch for one hit.
thanks

 

Hello @funkman!

In Cubase, the Pitch Section of the Sampler Track allows for detailed tuning and modulation of your audio samples.
This section is essential for shaping the tonal characteristics of your samples over time.

Pitch Section
https://archive.steinberg.help/cuba...pler_track/sampler_track_section_pitch_r.html

 

I've had SparkLE hardware for ages (anyway, used it until all the plastic became really disgustingly sticky which was a known isssue for it's user base) and still use the software. If you go into the "Studio" window you can change the pitch as well as other parameters.

 

you can use isopropyl alcohol to remove the sticky rubberized coating that they put on the Spark LE.
the higher the percentage of alcohol, the faster it can be removed with a paper towel,etc. but if go around 90% there is a chance you'll remove the markings,so take it slow until you see how it goes.

Spark has a lot of features that aren't apparent till you mess with it for a good bit. Shame Arturia never really offered a real tutorial on the thing.(and yes I've watched the official Arturia youtubes including the 5 parter)

Still enjoy fiddling with it..

I found this tutorial handy..

 

It didn't work for me and the knobs are still as sticky as a toddler's face doing it's best to deal with it's first chocolate bar.

 

That sucks. Yeah, it's weird, and it's sad it's deprecated software to my understanding.... but I really got along with Spark more than a lot of its competitors at the time (Maschine) etc... I don't know why Arturiajust dropped that line, as hell..it was pretty good.

 

Try a stronger per centage alcohol, 90 per cent will work quite well. I used it on mine and it cleaned it up. I've used it on a lot of the gear from the 2000's when the coating was quite popular.

You can also try coconut oil, which also works on stickers and other adhesive items. I find coconut oil works well on old headphone cables and power supply cables that get stiff or dried out over the years. The coconut oil also will help clean off any tobacco film which is a "feature" of much used gear I've acquired over the years..

Leave it on for about 5 minutes, then remove with a paper towel..

The Arturia controller is really well made, like a brick. I bought a broken one to try to repair years ago. I knew some techs in an electronic lab and they determined it was the arm cpu, we tried replacing it, but no joy, oh well I got a bunch of spare knobs out of it. Still have 2 working units. I wish they would have made it with 2 rows of pads like the software interface, but its still useable as it is..

 

The sound engine is fantastic to me. They dropped it like it was hot in like 2014 and brought out Drumbrute a few years later. I have a Drumbrute Impact that I bought used for under a hundred bucks but haven't used it in a long time.

I wanted to change out the knobs of the SparkLE but they would budge for me and I didn't force the issue.

 

Yeah, it was a really usable musical software/hw match for me absolutely. And I could work on it quickly and it had a better layout than competition imho.... I just don't get it. I'm not sure how it sucked for them (even if just in software form only) ...and why they dropped it when they had a good thing going... it's not like they aren't dragging around some other dead weight.....

If it's any consolation, my Maschine mk1's and mk2's I think are paper weights as well now for the most part...

 

if you have a tool for removing guitar knobs, that will work. or some tweezer and a fulcrum.
the pots are very strong and have metal washer keeping them in place if I recall correctly. so they can take plenty of pull force. I wouldn't hammer down on a pot ever though, (ask me how I know)

i have the tool at the bottom, that is shaped like two "v's".






https://www.amazon.com/Cheerock-Acoustic-Remover-Extractor-Compatible/dp/B0BJBVC5RW?th=1


6.50$ us at amazon.

 

Sparkle, he's like my little drummer buddy. I can just select a pattern and start playing guitar riffs and chord sequences and get ideas from it..

 

Completely agree, and it sucks as it's been years since I've used it since I didn't install it on my m chipped Mac etc... but that was a complete 'go to' to get things going absolutely... and worked really well.. oh well..

 

One nice feature about the SparkLE is the hardware will work with all the different software iterations that Arturia released and you can have all the R2R packs installed simultaneously and they don't shit on each other or anything. So that means you can run the older interface with the vertically scrolling screens, or the latest, also the soundpaks like the EDM pak etc, if you don't want to deal with diving through all the sample libraries on the latest version (or last version since its so old I have trouble calling it the "latest" version).

The software is stable and works well. I've never had it crash on me. I think there wasn't much more they could do with the software, except add more sound and pattern libraries, if you do(as in the video I linked above) the export midi patterns to your daw and then use the VST to match the pattern library you used to create the midi pattern, you can layer on lots of your daw fx's and manipulate things into anything your heart desires.

The libraries are diverse. If you mess with the patterns, sometimes 8th or 9th pattern will be totally different and its like you loaded a different library.

Many of the patterns have 2 pages of sequences, so a lot to walk through and explore..

 

this tutorial shows some note tuning using spark le around 10 minutes in. I think you should be able to do this using the sparkle vst plugin inside Cubase. Hope this helps...

 

thanks,yeah i knew about that feature,but i would like to play my own midi keyboard using one of the synth souns in spark,but am only able to play one pitch on my midi keyboard.

 

Ok, create a blank project in Spark and copy the synth sound to each of the 16 pads. Then pitch each one differently so you can use each newly pitched synth sound on different keys of your midi keyboard. It's just a single sample and SparkLE doesn't implicitly do what you wish to do. Perhaps someone could "pitch" in and suggest a sampler plugin that could resynthisize the one patch so you could play it up and down the keyboard.