Flashing lights different frequencies annoying
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I can't believe no one is bringing this up, and I hope I'm not alone in this complaint.
It is incredibly annoying that the tap tempo and preset lights are ALWAYS ON AND ALMOST ALWAYS FLASHING.
As I understand it, whenever you venture beyond one of the 4 presets, the preset light starts flashing and cannot be turned off. It is okay-ish that the tap tempo light is always tapping, but the fact that the preset light's flash is independent of the tap tempo and yet constantly working right next to it makes that entire area a frustrating eyesore. Any suggestions?
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You are absolutely right!
But just see it as a kind of height control.
As long as you can see the annoying lights flashing, the amp is placed too low and thus supposedly sounds very bass-heavy. -
or just use duct tape to cover them.
There's no way PG is going to redesign the whole amp to change those lights. -
@iarejohnsmith The tap tempo light changes frequency depending on how fast or slow you tap it because it's indicating the speed that certain effects will be responding to your playing. If it didn't flash people would be complaining that they couldn't see how fast/slow the effects would be responding. With it flashing people are complaining that it's visible. Can't please everybody. But for those who don't want to see the flashing, just use duct tape to fasten a dark piece of cloth to act as a flap to cover either or both of the flashing lights when you don't care what they're doing.
The tap/tempo light acts as the "extremely flat" indicator when you're in Tuner mode. The flashing light on 1, 2, 3, or 4 simply reminds the user that the preset stored in that slot has been altered (you've moved one of the knobs) but hasn't been saved yet. It will get back to solid once you press and hold that button to store your changes or tap it once quickly and it will get back to the settings already stored there.
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@iarejohnsmith no, I get it 100%. It's noticeable on most videos I've watched. Compared to a Yamaha THR10 that also has tap tempo, that unit doesn't need it flashing all the time. I think that a firmware update could absolutely change the behaviour of that LED. But that said, I've not even got my spark yet, so can't give an exactly informed opinion!
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Yes, I find this really annoying as well. I can’t think of any reason why the presets have to flash when you leave them.
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@valascia Not being on the development team at PG (I don't work for them at all!) I can only guess at the reason for the presets to flash once something has been changed. But the logic I can see is that, for example, say someone loads a tonecloud submission into preset 1. As they are using the amp they decided they want more reverb, so they adjust that. Then they decide they want a bit less modulation so they adjust that. Finally they're happy with the way the amp sounds, and they start playing and after a half-hour happy with that sound, they tap the button to switch to preset 2 for a contrasting tone. Then they decide they want to get back to that wonderful tone they had on Preset 1 so they tap that button. But now all they've got is that original tone they downloaded -- gone are the wonderful adjustments they made a few minutes ago because they forgot to press and hold the preset 1 button to store their changes. With the preset 1 light flashing as soon as they've changed something about the tone the Spark is doing all it can to avoid angry tech support messages complaining about why that wonderful perfect tone is gone. The flashing is just to remind us that we need to act if we want to keep that tone we've adjusted. I can't think of a better way to remind the user who may well be caught up in the act of creation or in the ecstasy of playing along with their favorite song that they may want to do something to preserve that tone.
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if a few flashing lights really irritate you, look at what you're playing on your guitar instead, or look out the window...
Or maybe you're one of those phantom in the dark jammers, then wear sunnies..
Is this really something that needs fixing?
there's more important stuff to sort out.... -
@crystalpit With the amp beside or behind us the flashing lights won't be an issue. But I see in pictures that many people are placing their Spark on their desk, right beside recording interfaces and monitor speakers and computers, so I can understand the complaints about the flashing lights. For people in situations like that, using tape to create a hinge to hold an opaque piece of cardboard that can be placed over the flashing lights might be a good soluion to avoid getting the sticky crap from tape onto the buttons themselves. And when desired, that piece of cardboard could simply be folded back to hang down behind the amp.
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@dhbailey Bro calm down. You know what works just as well as going from solid light to flashing light to indicate moving away from preset? Going from solid light to NO LIGHT. It would be a simple firmware update that objectively improves things.
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@crystalpit Thing is, I want to use the tap tempo! But if I so much as turn one of my tone knobs, then I have the preset light flashing at a different frequency from the tap tempo.
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@iarejohnsmith I'm calm. I was just trying to explain the logic behind the flashing lights. Your solution is just as good as the flashing lights -- you should submit a support ticket asking for that.
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@dhbailey Reading it back, the "calm down" was a bit confrontational haha. Meant it as a joke since you were languishing about PG's dilemma and all that, just to be clear!
I didn't realize we could file suggestions and stuff through support. I'll take a look and try to take advantage of how this thing has firmware updates.