Kinotone Sparks // A Stereo Modulating Analog Harmonic Processor

[@chrislink73]

This one gets my vote for best pedal of the year. I got mine about a month ago and am still learning it...crazy they made this pedal analog and with this much functionality (it even has a synth inside it!?) Just from an engineering perspective, this is truly impressive.

[@markfish8403]

I second that vote! Synth folks have different needs when it comes to pedals and this jewel delivers!, even if it didn’t have an onboard synth, it leaves very little to be desired. That being said, I expected the Sid synth to be a bit fluffy and I am stoked to be totally wrong about that. This takes the place of several pedals so we can save hundreds of duckets. They would be wise to have Jorb as their paid and devoted pedal-pimp! I wonder what they will deliver next after the first two banger pedals? 🤔

[@M_orcan]

It's honestly astounding that such a small company made something simultaneously this powerful and this well realised

[@JorbLovesGear]

@@M_orcan 100%

[@TayTayMakesBeats]

From what I understand Mutable Instruments (one of the most important companies that was core to making eurorack the creative playground it is from the amazing platform it already was) was all programmed and designed by one person. People have been repackaging and iterating on her designs for years. Many of her open source oscillator designs from the Braids module made their way onto the Arturia Microfreak and Dirtywave M8, which was also made by one dude, is open source and constantly evolving. Don Buchla, and Bob Moog were visionaries who changed music forever, Serge Tcherepnin made west coast modular synthesis almost accessible with his open source designs and made some iconic, unique and innovative additions to the formula that are simply genius. Now we have more tools than ever to create our own instrument, effect, module, whatever! There are communities collaborating and helping each other create their own innovative hardware, software and so on just for the love of the craft.

[@leave-trace]

Instantly 1 of my favorite pedals. It sounds awesome with anything running through it. The built in SID synth is dope as hell too!

[@CreeewDeeeTaaay]

I got in on the pre buy and I’m pleased as punch with mine. Mostly using it as a Swiss Army knife on fretless bass 🤤🤤🤤 Highly recommend it for your sound source of choice!

[@johnpaulpatton9786]

The only thing that I can think of that comes close to this is the Analog Heat. Pretty cool

[@RJ_Eckie]

This has so many things I regularly miss in synths/fx that I don’t know where to start. The leds showing the modulated parameter value, having an envelope follower, modulating modulators. And it seems to be implemented with great thought and precision. Also: I’m the person who would end up buying this because the internal synth would make it worth its price in a compact setup and I love stereo modulated sounds. (With a midi controller mapped to all layered functions making it usable live.)

[@RolandFrasierEPIC]

I ordered 2 Ribbons when the first batch was released. I would have definitely ordered 2 of these as well if I had received any notice about it. Love the video Jorb and went to buy one, only to find they are sold out (saw your comment about timing and I get it) but then checked my emails and no notice at all. I did now sign up for the forum but my goodness couldn’t you give prior customers a little love and send us an email announcing new products so we can support you and also not miss out on something cool like this. :)

[@sstrudeau]

Sounds so good on the Rhodes.

[@Rollur1234]

Cool performance with tempo and lfo sync on the Oberheim DMX :)

[@haha_ham_]

it’s like a sherman filterbank or a schippmann ebbe und flut in a tiny box!

[@JorbLovesGear]

@@haha_ham_ YES

[@curtisaloia]

Oh no, this looks good

[@JorbLovesGear]

@@curtisaloia SPOILER It is

[@lgrcallum]

Loved this. Sounded really versatile. The ring mod section on the SH101 really reminded me of Black Corporation’s Racheal/the CS-80’s ring mod, the way you had it set to react to dynamics with the envelope but because it’s at the end of the chain/not in the synth it wasn’t re-triggering the envelope until you took your finger off everything just like how the Racheal/CS-80 doesn’t re-trigger the envelope on each new note.

[@tracyharms3548]

I often play mix-and-match to make a system for the road. E.g. for Knobcon I brought only one 48 hp case. Kinotone Sparks is the sort of thing that could conveniently boost many small setups or even fly solo. Worth considering!

[@g3cd]

Oh, OK, that gate got me. Usually, no matter what super-expensive Germanium stuff you use, an Overdrive always causes noise (unless you keep it at boring levels). Cool little thing.

[@carlosloor88]

Beautiful demo man!!!! I wish there was a demo like this for bass guitar!!

[@pooshNchums]

NGL I was about to tune out and then I saw and heard that Rhodes and was hooked. Oh and the opening distortion was killer.

[@Lo-fi_Hi-brow]

Pretty amazing pedal!

[@loweroctaves]

Great Vid def gonna pick this up. Nice bandpass voiceover in there too lol.

[@Ruokone]

Time for my jorb fix once again!

[@smartbart015]

Great pedal. Would love a bigger one with a one-knob-per-function layout

[@JorbLovesGear]

Absolutely same

[@rulindachatt]

Sad that they are currently sold out. This video had me ready and willing to impulse buy.

[@YT_Woodish]

Massive hands!!!

[@sarge21rvb]

Woah 4:3! brb gonna watch this on a crt.

[@JorbLovesGear]

@@sarge21rvb Zach Schneider's original vision

[@leftovernoise]

Jorbtastic

[@JorbLovesGear]

That was my favorite part, when he said that

[@lofi_wzrd]

It's jorbin' time

[@JorbLovesGear]

@@lofi_wzrd that was my 2nd favorite part

[@mauchkimberly]

"...in my living room; don't be weird about it." Now, why'd you have to go and say that? I never had any intention; and now I'm distracted by your statement. Anyway...Sparks is cool, but not sure if it's right for my very short list. But I like it.

[@MADSVPERVILLAIN]

1AM Jorb leshgoooo

[@JorbLovesGear]

Wherever you are, you should go to bed

[@CatFish107]

Hello from the other side of the Pacific!

[@RDHamel]

If only they were available in the uk.

[@PorchBass]

100% please kinotone! We need a UK distributor.

[@lgrcallum]

@@PorchBassis it maybe because of the same reason Chase Bliss are dealing with? RoHS?

[@jaakjensen]

@@lgrcallum Sparks is 100% RoHS compliant. Dealers take a 30% cut of each sale and mark up the cost above our own price. That is how they make money and recoup the fees they pay to import it and pass it along to you. We've explored a couple dealer relationships and their proposed pricing is about the same as ordering direct from us, even after customs etc.

[@lgrcallum]

@@jaakjensen respect the forward thinking of making it RoHS compliant. And very fair justification for everything else.

[@NTayls80]

Hey Jorb! We had an epic match of Deadlock earlier today. I realized I wasn't actually subscribed, so I thought I'd do that and just say hello once again. (not meaning to be weird 👀haha) But I thought I'd just say hello and subscribe. and maybe just say hello and subscribe. and say hello and maybe subscribe. and maybe say hello and subscribe. Haha, small world though right! All the best dude. I assume you're an 80s child like me with similar interests, so it made sense that it was you earlier, besides the fact that you said it was you, and rather convincingly. Until next time, take care! (Please make sure to gank Abrahms as much as possible. He needs a good ganking. ✌)

[@NTayls80]

PS. Sparks is fucking cool. Reaaaally impressive unit. I may need to add this to my list

[@JorbLovesGear]

HA that really made me laugh today ; of all the places to be recognized. Deadlock was a way to procrastinate finishing an edit for the video that goes live in like 6 hours. 😭 Also please judge me by my objective damage and not my k/d 😂

[@Dolle_Man]

To me it looks similair to what the Analog Heat can do right?

[@JorbLovesGear]

@@Dolle_Man solid comparison yeah. Analog heat+ fx is a little different

[@dejanskenderovic]

27.36 T2 theme start? :)

[@pablowentscobar]

Bro, 4:3, It's like I'm watching Saturday morning cartoons. Or Kung Fu Theater in the afternoon. You should try 8 FPS. Cool pedal though, really great idea and well thought out.

[@pascaljean2333]

apc40 mk2 had the best knobs with a light strip to show values. never to be seen again.

[@CollectionOfJunk]

In a lot of ways this is like an analog equivalent to the Source Audio Ultra Wave for folks that don't care for presets/midi and want accessible controls

[@chiefbucknell]

Source Audio Ultrawave - kind of reminds me of that pedal

[@DesertNinjaX]

$399.00

[@maikvanrossum]

If you’re lucky to live in the US, because EU will add shipment, tax and clearance fees. Not to mention extra shipping costs if it would need a repair within the 3 months of warranty. So yes, it sounds awesome, but hopefully (also) this innovative FX company will seek for a distribution partner in Europe, too.

[@lgrcallum]

I’d say the only comparable pedal is the Flower Pedals Sunflower Tremolo which is $349.00. It’s a lot more focused on the tremolo sounds than the Sparks is obviously, but it is the only MIDI/Preset capable harmonic modulation pedal with close to a similar level of controls/depth of control. However that pedal doesn’t have a literally synth in it (which I think rightfully bumps the price up), isn’t capable of the envelope stuff this pedal is and can’t reassign the LFOs to any parameters (though it can modulate the LFO with another LFO) so I feel like looking around at the market it’s pretty fair.

[@PorchBass]

​@@maikvanrossum100% it's too big an investment without

[@johanneschristopherstahle3395]

​@@lgrcallum The Source Audio C4 can do some of what the Spark can do. But it's digital and you have to program it with the software. Same applies to the Future Impact. C4's synth engine can only be triggered by audio input (MIDI over USB can be used to change presets, send CCs asf), Future Impact can be triggered by MIDI, but does only have mono processing.

[@loweroctaves]

Pretty frustrating you can’t buy this pedal. They won’t let anyone sell their pedals and on their website it says they plan to build some in fall which is vague and again frustrating cause why are you in business? I mean you would think if your selling a product that is in demand you would hire someone to help you make more? Bummer

[@JorbLovesGear]

@@loweroctaves it's just two people, and preorders really help manage demand. I get it though, part of the issue is the timing of my video, I could've waited and done it when they had stock

[@jaakjensen]

Thanks for the feedback! Kinotone is a small family business that my partner and I run out of our home. We had orders open for this product for 4 months and shipped a big batch of them this summer. This video just happened to arrive after that delivery date and we are working on shipping a different product at the moment. There is a lot of work that goes into making Sparks and large up front costs to make even a small batch. We've investigated hiring a CM but haven't been able to find a good fit, so we build all of our pedals in-house to keep quality solid and costs low. Dealers take a 30% cut so selling direct to people makes the most sense for us right now. We're trying our best to scale things - it just takes time.

[@loweroctaves]

Ohh gotcha didn’t know its only 2 people. Thats crazy for something this in demand.

[@loweroctaves]

Wow, that’s crazy. You guys are rivaling all the big kick ass pedal companies. I hope to cope one at some point. Ill keep lookin on your site for pre orders on sparks.