I’ve got Spark 2 software with a MIDI keyboard for input – how do I go about beat making?
-
Arturia Spark’s onboard engine sounds excellent and the extensive sound library has lots of sonic depth/punch and girth but also plenty of clarity too in the mids/top-end. The engine itself is very flexible offering samples, modelling and some tasty processing effects. So it’s a great alternative to an MPC Studio/Maschine, particularly if you buy the Spark hardware controller to use as your input device. If you don’t have the controller, use any MIDI pad controller/keyboard to input events into the sequencer. Here’s how to make a quick beat…
First off, load up an instance of Spark into an instrument slot in your DAW. Here we’re using Logic X. Within Spark, go to the disk icon with the +sign and click to load a fresh project. Go to the ‘studio’ tab and now we can start choosing sounds.
Now our drums are loaded, select the Spark instrument channel in Logic, switch on your MIDI controller and run your fingers up the keyboard/across your pads to find your drums. Flip to the ‘prefs page’ where you can switch quantise on/off depending on...
Click on the name bar in the first drum slot (top left) and choose a kick drum from the library. Once happy, move onto slot 2 and load a snare, move onto slot 3 and load in a clap, then load in closed and open hats into slots 4 and 5.
Set your loop cycle and bpm in Logic, hit record on Spark, press play on Logic and start recording. Finally, add shuffle for more swing (if needed), then flip to the Sequencer/ Studio page to tweak the note events, envelopes, effects, filter, velocity...