Arturia SparkLE Hybrid Drum Machine

This is my first Arturia product. Software synths has been something I have always kept away from being that I grew up using hardware machines. However I caved in with the SparkLE as it ticked almost all boxes for me in terms of what I wanted as part of my home studio. The SparkLE is a hybrid and with that you get twice the satisfaction of not only tweaking and tapping out all your favourites drums but also samples. What I was looking for was classic drum machines of the 1970's and 1980's. When you minimal funds and space for such machines then the SparkLE from Arturia is the nest best thing, and I am pleasantly surprised at just how good and versatile the machine and software is. The Spark 2 software gives you plenty of drums, beats, classic machines, samples and much more. My main concern was that the SparkLE is not a stand alone machine, it is nothing more than a controller. But you get plenty to control and have plenty to use for control. It fits perfectly into my home studio set-up and I can access the hundreds of samples in seconds and be kicking out beats in seconds. The SparkLE is also very robust, light, small enough while being just the right workable size. It doesn't look or feel cheaply made. After some basic online reviews from other customers I decided NOT to take the Arturia approach on loading the software as too many users have had issues. I for one can confirm that since buying the SparkLE and loading the software without the assistance of Arturia I have had no issues as-of-yet. So what do you get in terms of sounds? Well, in brief, a huge array are at your finger tips. For the classic collectors, like myself, you have examples of the fabled Lynne Drum's, Emu Drumulator, Minipops, Micropops, Roland's classic TR606, 707, 808 and 909 and a good amount of many more classic drum machines of those two decades. Then you have the sound packages consisting of R&B, Hip Hop, Dance, Trance, Electro, Funk, Disco, Latin, Berlin School, Club Classics, Deep House, Industrial, Jazz, Progressive, mixture of 90's and 2000's, Urban and even studio and acoustic... and I am barley scratching the surface with that short list. I must point out that although there is a huge amount you get straight from the box, Arturia do also offer a couple of additional sound sets at extra cost which cover Hip Hop, Rap and Beats. But that is entirely down to the customer if they want to expand their sample library. The SparkLE also lets you create your own samples and drop them in and with the machines TR style sequencer is expandable at your request. I am happy I took that step and picked one up as it will play a major part in my home studio - The ONLY downside to the purchase came from Amazon. I was very uneasy to how I received the product. It came in its factory box, brand new, everything there, but it could have been very easily a different story thanks to Amazon. I was given the box by the delivery driver (sent via PRIME) and the factory box was not wrapped, in any Amazon box or packaging. More concerning was that the Arturia SparkLE box was NOT sealed so the box could easily be opened by anyone, including the delivery company. As I received it BEFORE lifting the box lid is how you see it in the photos I posted with this review. Arturia should have sealed the box, maybe even dry-vac bagged it. But the main fault lays with Amazon. Something to take into consideration if you are thinking of buying.

Prospective purchasers should know that ARTURIA will give totally confusing instructions for software that are NOT inter-compatible and will cause HUGE problems if they are used together. So SPARK LE software will destabilise SPARK 2 indeed obliterate it and vice-versa. Take note of that. Also, the LE software independently installed will not work in total. Sequences will crash and programmes will not load. I spent hours emailing ATRTURIA, obviously my time is worth nothing to them. Finally between ARTURIA and the retail source (not Amazon), an answer was provided. DO NOT LOAD SPARK LE software, ONLY USE SPARK 2. And low and behold, it all works fine.Once this had been resolved, the LE hardware controller works well, and is a great asset, albeit that the screen shot is of the SPARK 2 pad controller!!! The sounds that are output via the software are precise and reasonably good quality.The best for me was the simple way a WAV file sample (of your own choosing and design) can just be dragged and dropped on a virtual pad, and you have a potential 16 pad bespoke sound sampler. Magically it plays well.The inbuilt mixer with signal processing of a sound output (compression, echo, etc. is also very useful)I only paid 129 UK pounds (now worth a few shekles and a half bag of potatoes after Brexit) for the total deal, there cannot be anything that currently gets close to the fun you can have with such little cost (well perhaps)..ARTURIA have done very well with this chap, providing you don't pay a blind bit of notice to how they say the system should be set up!

If you want to use this as a standalone instrument, then you should hopefully be fine. However, recording the pads into a sequencer is problematic. The first 8 pads are fine for MIDI playback, but although using the shift key to change the pads to 9 to 16 plays the right sounds from the pads live, it records the same MIDI note numbers as for pads 1 to 8 (you'd have to manually transpose the notes after recording). The midi support center software doesn't allow editing of pads 9 to 16, so my understanding from Arturia support is that it can't be done - they've passed the information about the problem to their development team - please be aware though that this product has been on the market for a few years now, and nothing has changed yet. Also if I used more than one track with Spark 2, only sounds 9 to 16 played for both pad banks 1 to 8 and 9 to 16. It's a real mess and I'm stunned the product has gone to market like this. The one star is because the unit itself is well constructed and the playing pads are lovely to play - very touch sensitive and great for dynamics and accenting.

Brought it to work with ispark on ipad. Works perfectly. Own a few Artiria products but this one feels solid built good nobs and sensitive pads. Its a breeze to use and comes with a carry case. Heck even the ignite software is fun. Great purchase

Was faulty

I love this.

great drum tool for sounds

Arturia Spark is a great product that work well until it don't. I have the SparkLe for a year now. Had a lot of fun with it. I must warn potential buyers however. It seem that Arturia have abandoned any support and update for this product. The software have major bugs and they are well known. I suggest that you go on Arturia forum and read the comments there. I'm a little sad because i liked the product, but now it's really unstable and unreliable. Some users do not encounter any problems but there is a lot of people including me that are stuck with a now unusable device and software.There is no update and fixes announced for this product, there is a radio silence from Arturia. So be aware of what you get into when you buy. It's a gamble.

Fantastic product. Works well with all my devices and DAW. Easy to program but also has lots of great presets

Ottimo strumento, non molto caro e decisamente funzionaleil venditore è stato rapido e professionale a differenza di altriConsigliato sia il venditore che l oggetto

The USB cable that came with the SparkLE was defective. I used a spare cable of my own and the unit worked fine.

Großartige Beatmaschine...mit Spark2 Software absolut stabil unter Cubase 9 64bit. Ich suchte schon seit längerem einen Klopfgeist der mich kreativ bei der Songgestaltung unzerstützen sollte.Gefunden habe ich dann SparkLe.Arturia hat hier wirklich ein kleines Schmuckstück entwickelt. Die Hardware fühlt sich sehr wertig an. Metallbodenplatte und Tasten mit gutem Druckpunkt - super Soundsets sowohl klassischer Beatboxen (tr808 909, Linndrum etc) als auch wirklich amtlicher Sounds für fast alle Bereiche von Dance, House bis Rock/Pop. Die synthetischen Sounds werden per virtuell analoger Synthese generiert und die Samples sind sehr hochwertig.Die Bedienung ist sehr intuitiv und wer schon einmal mit Pattern orientierten Drum maschines gearbeitet hat, findet sich sofort zuhause. Die Integration in bestehende Songprojekte findet ganz einfach per Drag and Drop aus dem VST Plug-in als Midi oder Wavefile statt oder halt über midiclock ganz wie ein alter Drumcomputer. Man kann auch mehrere Instanzen des Vst Plugs gleichzeitig nutzen - genial.Alles in allem für kleines Geld - super verarbeitete Hardware, amtlicher Sound und eine echte Bereicherung fürs Studio oder den DJ. Von mir 5 Sterne

Have been playing with this for a few months now, and very happy with it. Make sure you are aware of the working process with this unit. The SparkLE is a controller, and is meant to be used predominantly with the Spark 2 software (included). The SparkLE hardware does NOT store any sounds, you're using it either to work directly with the Spark 2.0 software (I use is as a VST in Ableton) or as a Midi controller.The build quality of the unit is excellent. The velocity pads are track well and have a solid feel to them. There are 8 pads, and a button switches them to control up to 16 instruments. I'm fine with that setup, as it keeps the unit pretty compact size. Knobs and buttons equally high quality. Small size, and comes with a neoprene carry case. It's easy to travel with; I do. It's a USB mini cable connector; just take care with that connection. The USB mini connector fits fine, just don't want to be stretching the cable against the connection point. That's the only connection to the unit, and it's powered by the USB connection. It's USB class compliant, so no need for any drivers. Truly plug and play for me on Win7/64 bit.Once you get your head wrapped around the workflow, it's pretty intuitive. Make sure to read the manual and check out the various YouTube tutorials out there. Lots of good SparkLE shortcuts that make using the Spark software even quicker. Mostly you'll be interfacing between SparkLE controller and computer keyboard when building up drum kits and/or tweaking sounds. Once you have your kits built, you can easily ignore the computer keyboard and control everything from the SparkLE.I like the Spark 2.0 software. The layout is great, IHMO. There are basically 5 main screens (all selectable from the SparkLE); main info, sequencer view, pattern/chaining view, instrument view, and kit view. You can use your own samples and build some pretty excellent kits. Decent effects processing built into the Spark software. The SparkLE controller combined with the Spark software is a great combination. I take my laptop and the controller with me when I travel and make for a great on the road music tool.Once you have your kits built, I believe this would be a great live setup. Certainly great for me in the studio and/or on the road.Make sure to spend some time reading the manual to get the most out of the software (RTFM...we never really get away from that!). Look at the Arturia site, and make sure to get their Midi control center (free download), it'll help you with the Midi plumbing into your setup.