Review: Arturia SparkLE

The drum machine. The format has fallen in and out of mainstream favour over the last couple of decades. During the 1980s and ’90s, these devices were a mainstay of all electronic musicians’ equipment lists. Yet come the 21st century, the drum machine faded into obscurity as computer-based DAWs and plug-ins took over. In some ways this was a shame, as hands-on rhythm programming can be an incredibly immediate tool in its own right. Arturia is one manufacturer that’s acutely aware of this avenue of beat production, and served the electronica community handsomely with the Spark ‘beat production centre’ in 2011. Spark is a hybrid design consisting of a tactile control surface tethered to computer-based sound generation and programming software. The best of both worlds in many ways: the breadth of software synthesis and recall combined with a drum machine-style controller. 

However, the original Spark controller was quite a large beast. At 36 by 27cm, it took up a huge chunk of desktop studio space. And in a world where bedroom producers are squeezing themselves into ever smaller creative caves, I’d imagine many asked for a compact version of the Spark control surface — enter the endearingly monikered, SparkLE.

THE NOT SO LIGHT

Traditionally, the ‘LE’ suffix usually implies a sawn-off version of software or computer-related hardware. ‘Light Edition’ is the typical expansion of the acronym. While the SparkLE controller may indeed be a sawn-off version of the first Spark controller, I don’t believe it’s missing anything a percussion controller surface requires.

As mentioned, the SparkLE controller is petite in comparison to the Spark controller. It sits flat on your desktop or lap and measures a mere 28 by 17cm, and sits a meagre 17mm high (plus knob height). It’s a nice size to have alongside your laptop or computer keyboard, and quite suitable for taking with you in a backpack. It even comes with a neoprene, flock-lined, carry bag for on-road protection. Very tidy.

Across the lower section of the SparkLE top panel are eight velocity sensitive pads accessing two banks of sounds. They do the trick, and light up blue when you hit them. Sweet! Up from here are the typical 16-step buttons for step programming drum patterns, just as you’d find on any old-school rhythm machine. This doesn’t restrict the unit to 16 steps per bar, as pattern length can be extended to 64 steps when required. 

Over to the right of the unit are three assignable instrument parameter editing pots, then to the left is a large knob for choosing Project, Kit, and Instrument presets. To the top are dedicated volume and tempo knobs, and below these is an XY touchpad. This controller device is gold, and with it you can affect filters over either individual instruments or an entire kit. It can also be used to trigger a ‘Roller’ effect whereby the pressed instrument pad can be forced to repeat at particular bar divisions, and a ‘Slicer’ function slices a pattern and forces the pattern to repeat from 1/64th through to ¼ sections of a pattern — kinda neat for live performance or those with an Attention Deficit Disorder. Again in the performance department are pad, mute and solo buttons and record, stop, and play/pause buttons. The controller can also be bumped into MIDI mode where each button and knob can be reassigned MIDI output duties so you may control other MIDI devices or software. All this functionality (and more) is embodied in a controller that feels as though it will take a right thrashing for years to come.