Song editing has been generally enhanced, in terms of UI and capabilities. This seems worthy of another story on its own.Ĭonstruct songs. “Oh, wait, I’m suddenly interested in this drum machine.” Yes, you can now patch together your own drum sounds with modules for envelopes, LFOs, mixers, effects (ring modulator, frequency shifter, spring mass), and the like. Now, the UI is tabbed, there’s better editing of patterns, and a new mixer, among other improvements. In its first outing, Spark lacked some UI organization, particularly for mixing.

Spark 2 is now available, with a stellar US$129 deal for May and June (or even better, $199 with the hardware), and a raft of new tutorial videos to check out (plus the intro video below). By tuning the way it handles loops and patterns, and unleashing a whole modular environment beneath, Arturia is building a case to set Spark apart from other players. Native Instruments won over users by demonstrating the hybrid hardware/software workflow in Maschine, and various software instruments ( FXpansion, anyone?) have put pressure on hardware with the sheer range of what they can do.īut somewhere in the shadow of Maschine and Akai’s MPC Renaissance, Arturia’s Spark has been a little-known, compact, inexpensive challenger.Īnd that’s why Spark 2 is interesting. More than mere groove-makers, beneath the conventional and familiar drum machine paradigm lies some real potential for sample manipulation and sound design. Images courtesy Arturia.įor all the wonders of the hardware drum machine, there’s nothing quite like the flexibility of the software drum machine. Hey, there’s a modular inside my drum machine.

Arturia spark le software