Hi MMarks, great question. I do still like the amp, if I ever get brave enough to be a busker I think it would work well. 8 guitar tones covers by spectrum pretty well. In my latest video I describe my path towards playing with others and recording. I am now using Ableton Live to handle all the effects. So I am only using the Spark Live as a monitor in my home studio at this point. The Spark2 looks like a better fit for Busking due to its size. We are going to play outside as soon as the weather permits and see how well it fills the air with music, the bigger speakers and amp should be worth the extra Size and weight to carry! Look for a follow-up. Idea in about a month!!
@@MikeMesseswithMusic Thanks for getting back to me. I wasn't sure if the Live or Edge was a better choice, but I went with the Live because 2 speakers should come across better than one. However they are rated very close on dB. Just ordered a battery that went on sale so looks like I'm keeping it.
Nice unit, looks like it's not a ton bigger than the regular Spark 40 in terms of horizontal, and a bit taller....which is nice. I might dump my 40 and upgrade to this!
Hi alphasportstv, depending on if you need the battery ability and if stereo inputs/output is important you may want to consider the Spark 2 in comparison. I love this Amp and in my further videos in the series I show off more features and some drawbacks, so stay tuned! Mike
Great well done review Sadly I have a major beef with this amp I was so excited with everything I believed this amp was going to be as I was under the impression it could be used with running my other modeling stereo effects modeling devices in stereo into the channels 3&4 inputs but that's not the case at all as all of the inputs are summed to mono no matter how you run them The only thing the spark Live plays in stereo is Bluetooth music playback To me this is an unbelievable major goof Why would they make a stereo amp and then drop the ball this way Even the Spark 40s aux in supports stereo I am returning mine and warning everyone who expresses an interest in this amp as I work at the store i bought mine at
Hi Richard, sorry to hear about this shortcoming of the Live amp. I know it only produces stereo when it is in the horizontal mode, but had no idea it does not process the stereo input when splitting the stereo onto the channel 3 and 4! For my purposes I guess it is good enough. I hope you find what you are looking for. Cheers. Mike
Thank you for sharing! The only feature that made me consider this was I thought it would be a mini stereo PA. What is the point of the stereo inputs if it gets summed to mono? Amazing oversight!
You need to watch other videos this an incredible amp he just has his sound set up wrong causing it to sound overblown this amp is 150w it was not overblown it was his room mic
Thanks Basarat, what is odd is none of the other pedal setups cause feedback, just that one called Vocal LOFI, with no change in the angle of the microphone or speaker. I need to study it a bit more. Thanks for your assist. Mike
Mine arrived an hour ago, there's already a couple of things annoying me about it but overall it seems like a great little product. Chief amongst those annoyances is that it appears you absolutely do not have full control over the pedals, for some reason you're stuck with the number of pedals they allow you to have, so you cant add in more than the channel allows. I've come from a DAW background and I often stack double compressors and all that, but I can't here. I would also like to use VST3 plugins instead of theirs, I have the full Abbey Road plugin suite which I'd prefer to use but no such luck. Also the Android app for the device is awful, it's crashed out on my 4 times already in the last hour on a brand new Galaxy S24 Ultra and the device disconnects each time. The fact that there are EQ and volume dials within the plugins is confusing vs the hardware knobs, I have no idea what takes ownership of volume or EQ at the moment. But I'm only an hour in, I'm sure I'll get used to it and figure it out.
Hi Neil, thanks for the info on your experience. I only have IOS devices working with the Amp and so it is interesting to hear how Android works. You are way beyond me as far as advanced configurations. It would be great to hear if you find a way to make any of the mods you are trying. Good luck! - Mike
Thanks for taking the time to review, So Mike you're had the amp for a few months now, what to you view as the pros and cons.
Hi MMarks, great question. I do still like the amp, if I ever get brave enough to be a busker I think it would work well. 8 guitar tones covers by spectrum pretty well. In my latest video I describe my path towards playing with others and recording. I am now using Ableton Live to handle all the effects. So I am only using the Spark Live as a monitor in my home studio at this point. The Spark2 looks like a better fit for Busking due to its size. We are going to play outside as soon as the weather permits and see how well it fills the air with music, the bigger speakers and amp should be worth the extra
Size and weight to carry! Look for a follow-up. Idea in about a month!!
@@MikeMesseswithMusic Thanks for getting back to me. I wasn't sure if the Live or Edge was a better choice, but I went with the Live because 2 speakers should come across better than one. However they are rated very close on dB. Just ordered a battery that went on sale so looks like I'm keeping it.
Nice unit, looks like it's not a ton bigger than the regular Spark 40 in terms of horizontal, and a bit taller....which is nice. I might dump my 40 and upgrade to this!
Hi alphasportstv, depending on if you need the battery ability and if stereo inputs/output is important you may want to consider the Spark 2 in comparison. I love this Amp and in my further videos in the series I show off more features and some drawbacks, so stay tuned!
Mike
Great well done review
Sadly I have a major beef with this amp
I was so excited with everything I believed this amp was going to be as I was under the impression it could be used with running my other modeling stereo effects modeling devices in stereo into the channels 3&4 inputs but that's not the case at all
as all of the inputs are summed to mono no matter how you run them
The only thing the spark Live plays in stereo is Bluetooth music playback
To me this is an unbelievable major goof
Why would they make a stereo amp and then drop the ball this way
Even the Spark 40s aux in supports stereo
I am returning mine and warning everyone who expresses an interest in this amp as I work at the store i bought mine at
Hi Richard, sorry to hear about this shortcoming of the Live amp. I know it only produces stereo when it is in the horizontal mode, but had no idea it does not process the stereo input when splitting the stereo onto the channel 3 and 4! For my purposes I guess it is good enough. I hope you find what you are looking for. Cheers. Mike
Thank you for sharing! The only feature that made me consider this was I thought it would be a mini stereo PA. What is the point of the stereo inputs if it gets summed to mono? Amazing oversight!
You need to watch other videos this an incredible amp he just has his sound set up wrong causing it to sound overblown this amp is 150w it was not overblown it was his room mic
It’s causing feedback as the speaker is pointing at the mic.
Mic -> speaker -> mic -> speaker ==== feedback.
Thanks Basarat, what is odd is none of the other pedal setups cause feedback, just that one called Vocal LOFI, with no change in the angle of the microphone or speaker. I need to study it a bit more. Thanks for your assist.
Mike
It looks like you are using the acoustic setups for your electric?
Mine arrived an hour ago, there's already a couple of things annoying me about it but overall it seems like a great little product. Chief amongst those annoyances is that it appears you absolutely do not have full control over the pedals, for some reason you're stuck with the number of pedals they allow you to have, so you cant add in more than the channel allows. I've come from a DAW background and I often stack double compressors and all that, but I can't here. I would also like to use VST3 plugins instead of theirs, I have the full Abbey Road plugin suite which I'd prefer to use but no such luck. Also the Android app for the device is awful, it's crashed out on my 4 times already in the last hour on a brand new Galaxy S24 Ultra and the device disconnects each time. The fact that there are EQ and volume dials within the plugins is confusing vs the hardware knobs, I have no idea what takes ownership of volume or EQ at the moment. But I'm only an hour in, I'm sure I'll get used to it and figure it out.
Hi Neil, thanks for the info on your experience. I only have IOS devices working with the Amp and so it is interesting to hear how Android works. You are way beyond me as far as advanced configurations. It would be great to hear if you find a way to make any of the mods you are trying. Good luck! - Mike