Use for live sound?
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Anybody use the Spark for going into a board with something other than using a mic? USB port or headphone out?
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@fpstraccia The USB port is for sending audio data to be interpreted by a computer. It won't work with a mixing board. you will need to use either microphones or a patch cord from the headphone out to the board. Of course if you use the headphone output you won't hear anything from the Spark Amp.
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Thank you for the prompt response. I will try using the headphone out; the Spark is smaller than my pedal board and the sound processing from the Spark makes me want to sell my pedals.
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@dhbailey said in Use for live sound?:
@fpstraccia The USB port is for sending audio data to be interpreted by a computer. It won't work with a mixing board. you will need to use either microphones or a patch cord from the headphone out to the board. Of course if you use the headphone output you won't hear anything from the Spark Amp.
Live, like a bar gig or bigger with drums, bass, another guitar and of course the proverbial harp player who plays TOO LOUD it would be hard to hear the Spark anyway. Running out the headphones and then a good mix into your monitor or if your board has an aux out you could send a separate mix out to a dedicated powered monitor or cab.
Now a solo or duet acoustic gig.........I've been playing my Taylor through it using the PG acoustic amps and I'd use it live in a heartbeat. Even a larger gig just mic or direct it into the mains.
I'd never use it that way but would be interesting if anyone has tried it,
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@stinger0625 in the Spark Amp Owners Club on Facebook, someone just reported using it at a rehearsal recently, running from headphone out into a very powerful board and he felt that the Spark sounds would need some tweaking to work well in that situation. He said that tones which sounded great in his living room didn't sound as great in the rehearsal situation running into that board. I wonder whether using a mic instead of the headphone out might be a better solution for live playing -- at the very least it would allow us to hear the actual output from the Spark while we're playing.
As with any piece of equipment, it should be checked out in a given situation and tweaked for best sounds before trying to play in front of an audience.
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@dhbailey Sorta my experience with modeling in a live situation in the past. I call it the "hi-fi" effect in that you dial in this tone that sounds great, just like the record or whatever, in your home or studio but take that out into a live situation and you get buried in the mix. Usually because the mids have been so scooped and the highs are being lost to the cymbals and keys and horns and the bottom end to the bass and the guitar gets lost.
The old story about Joe Walsh in the studio and dialing in his tone and someone their told him that it sounded HORRIBLE and said wait until they played and with the full band it sounded just right sitting in the mix.
I'd probably mic it in a live situation but again not something I'd probably ever do with an electric.
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I'd mic it. The headphones out will have a little gain to it that can throw off the mix.
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@valascia I certainly get good enough tone out of mine to mic it. I'd still adjust some presets special for it because of the room you'll be playing especially push some mids through. Curious as to how the field would be effected mic'ing in stereo, could you get a pretty good separation up front. Got to admit they can sound lush in my living room and wide spread but again that could get you lost in a live mix.
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Hi there. What's a patch cord? You mentioned it as a way of connecting the headphone socket to a mixer
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@steve-wright The term "patch cord" is another name for a cable, plain and simple. You would need a cable that has a male 1/8" stereo plug on one end to go into the headphone jack on the Spark, and then either have a summing mono 1/4" plug on the other end (for proper load-level) or two mono 1/4" plugs (one for left and one for right) to go into a mixing board. If you try that, make sure to keep the levels low on the output of the Spark and the input on the mixing board and slowly raise them both to the proper level for good tone.
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I use a cable to go out from headphone and on the other end it is 2 rca plugs (made by Hosa). I then plug that in to a channel on a Behringer Europort 500watt PA. works pretty nice.