Connecting Sparks to Polyend Play

Loving the Sparks, amazing flexibility. I’m just trying to synch the lfo to midi clock but probably missing something obvious. I have tried with Polyend play as the clock source with transport out on and also direct from an old Akai XR 10. Both of these work with the din to trs adaptor I use with a Raster 2 but not getting any response from the Sparks. Any thought welcome, cheers

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Hey there,

I’m not sure if the adapter you’re using for the Raster 2 will work with Sparks.

The Polyend Play uses standard TRS MIDI though and can be plugged directly into Sparks using an 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch adapter! You’ll just need to remove the back cover from Sparks and move the two internal jumpers into the “Type B” position.

You may need a tweezers to do so. Be careful of ESD. :slightly_smiling_face:

To use the Akai XR 10 with Sparks you’ll need a different DIN MIDI to TRS adapter. I recommend a TRS Type B MIDI adapter so that you can use it interchangeably with the Polyend Play and the Akai XR10. If you let me know where you’re located in the world I can recommend a source/supplier.

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Since we haven’t quite released our MIDI / Synth tutorial video I thought I’d offer a couple other pieces of advice related to MIDI clock syncing the LFO.

  • When MIDI clock is applied, the LFO RATE knob performs stepped multiplications of the LFO clock (1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x)
  • The RANGE button offers some additional control over the clock. You can toggle between three rate options: /2, 1x, and 3x.
  • So combining the two, you can get /2 by setting the LFO RATE knob to zero and setting the range to the lowest position.

If you want to change the LFO division on-the-fly, it’s important to note that changes to the rate are not applied until the next downbeat (that way everything sounds nice and in sync), so you will have to adjust the setting slightly before the downbeat if you want to hear the division change.

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Many thanks, works a treat with Polyend Play and Zoia midi outs. The step changes with Rate knob and Range are amazing particularly triplets with x3! A great piece of work and going straight into my mbira livestreams at the weekend :slight_smile: I’m in the UK so a din to trs recommendation would be useful.

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I think Thomann ships to the UK. Here is one option (but it’s a 3 pack).

Maybe Rubadub? I have just recently heard of this place.

Both will need one of these headphone adapters:

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