Hi, love Sparks but one thing I don’t understand from the manual is how to access the Mixing and Input / Output Levels menus. It says to hold PRESET or BYPASS while ‘applying power’. What does that mean exactly? Forgive my ignorance but does it just mean whilst the pedal is powered on or whilst a signal is being sent through it? When I hold either button down it doesn’t seem to access these parameters as the LAYER button doesnt toggle between the relevant options. Any help appreciated thanks.
Hey! Sorry if you found that phrasing confusing - I can try to make it clearer in the online manual.
So you would unplug power from your pedal first. Then to access the Mixing options for example -
Hold down the Preset footswitch, and keep the footswitch physically pressed down while you plug in your power supply.
Same goes for the Input / Output options but with the Bypass footswitch instead.
If you do it correctly, you’ll see the LED feedback described next and can toggle using the Layer button. Tap Preset to save a new setting, or Bypass to exit.
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Ahh that makes perfect sense, thank you! Maybe it’s just my own ignorance of guitar pedal terminology or something. Appreciate the fast reply.
That all being said, having a switch to toggle on/off would be great since “while applying power” is pretty critical to a lot of configuration options. But then again, maybe it’s just a button that says “configure” that does the same thing without requiring a power cycle.
The way it works now might not win “user friendly design choice of the year” but it’s straightforward enough - these are set and forget settings that you configure occasionally and then they’re saved into memory and persistent between power cycles.
Adding an extra button might seem like a simple request but it results in increased cost per unit + time and cost to redesign and retool a crowded PCB and enclosure. A lot of work just to add a button that changes 4 settings (MIDI channel, mixing setting, bypass setting, cv mapping).
I get it… maybe a consideration for future designs. And think of all of the potential other uses for the button 
What about a desktop editor via sysex like the Blokas Midihub?
Very old school, non interactive approach, but definitely a very useful addition! 
We might already be working on something like this
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I made myself a DC power cable with an inline switch (not for the Sparks - I don’t have Sparks, but for another pedal that, just like Sparks, requires you to power-cycle it to access some system settings).
I can’t tell you how much easier it is, especially in a complete and wired up pedalboard environmnet, to power-cycle via an inline switch vs trying to unplug and plug back the DC connectior.
One thing to note here: you need to make sure you cut the (+) line, not the (-), or Ground line, which in a typical DC cable is not the central pin, but rather the outer sleeve.
Being a true “electrical coward” as I am, I made the switch that actualluy cuts both wires ))) That way I can fully emulate the physical removal of the DC barrel from the DC socket of the pedal.
Maybe you guys could add an ekstra midi control message for that
Also make a midi control to save preset perhaps