Elektron's black boxes series looks cool but is not practical

MDM · 2014-06-22T11:47:29.000Z

i find the choice of making the Elektron boxes black, with red fonts, a big design mistake:
i think a lot of people use this in low light, eg DJ booths, or in the bedroom
if they were white boxes with dark fonts it would be much more readable in low light
even better would be: all fonts transparent and light from underneath like the macbook pro keyboard!
that would also make less contrast with the LCD display so an overall better experience

just wanted to point it out, i hope in the future maybe elektron consider the readability in low light

polyslax · 2014-06-22T12:10:24.000Z

time for some dick malibu:

http://www.dickmalibu.com

bluewolfse7en · 2014-06-22T12:16:42.000Z

Interesting point but in fairness all musical instruments taken to the stage are used in low light/blackout/glare/smoke filled scenarios & I can’t think of many that are white!
Most are black with white legends, (Nord the big & very common exception), I agree that red on black isn’t ideal.
However IMO by the time most artists are stage ready I doubt they’d need to read the lettering anyway. You don’t see guitarists fervently searching for the 7th fret, it’s instinctive.

Burn_Cycle · 2014-06-22T12:25:05.000Z

Been feeling this lately as well. It may be a good idea to make some labels for it. In thinking of doing some wih one of those embossers. I also like to differentiate betweeen the cv and fx track buttons more easily. if only with a little bump, like on computer keyboards (keys J and F). I bet this can be done with an embosser label.

The Electribes were designed like you describe with the light up buttons, which i think was a good move from Korg.

nirun · 2014-06-22T12:44:06.000Z

""bluewolfse7en"":

Interesting point but in fairness all musical instruments taken to the stage are used in low light/blackout/glare/smoke filled scenarios & I can’t think of many that are white!
Most are black with white legends, (Nord the big & very common exception), I agree that red on black isn’t ideal.
However IMO by the time most artists are stage ready I doubt they’d need to read the lettering anyway. You don’t see guitarists fervently searching for the 7th fret, it’s instinctive.

like bluewolf says, give it some time you’ll be flying without squinting at function labels in no time.

In a live situation, if you’re still stuck reading the text labels / squinting at the screen you outta practice a bit more i think

Ihatederekreed · 2014-06-22T13:03:54.000Z

""nirun"":

[quote=“bluewolfse7en”]Interesting point but in fairness all musical instruments taken to the stage are used in low light/blackout/glare/smoke filled scenarios & I can’t think of many that are white!
Most are black with white legends, (Nord the big & very common exception), I agree that red on black isn’t ideal.
However IMO by the time most artists are stage ready I doubt they’d need to read the lettering anyway. You don’t see guitarists fervently searching for the 7th fret, it’s instinctive.

like bluewolf says, give it some time you’ll be flying without squinting at function labels in no time.

In a live situation, if you’re still stuck reading the text labels / squinting at the screen you outta practice a bit more i think :)[/quote]
+1 each

MDM · 2014-06-22T17:42:37.000Z

""nirun"":

[quote=“bluewolfse7en”]Interesting point but in fairness all musical instruments taken to the stage are used in low light/blackout/glare/smoke filled scenarios & I can’t think of many that are white!
Most are black with white legends, (Nord the big & very common exception), I agree that red on black isn’t ideal.
However IMO by the time most artists are stage ready I doubt they’d need to read the lettering anyway. You don’t see guitarists fervently searching for the 7th fret, it’s instinctive.

like bluewolf says, give it some time you’ll be flying without squinting at function labels in no time.

In a live situation, if you’re still stuck reading the text labels / squinting at the screen you outta practice a bit more i think :)[/quote]
I really don’t agree: By the way, I also do have two Nords, and much other gear - the big difference is with this gear it’s very easy to navigate in low light because you have one function per button. Also regarding the Nord gear which is also very knobby: that has white fonts on red, which is easy to read in low light.

but Elektron gear is not like that, you have many button combinations and menus and that’s where it’d distracting me that the machine is not designed with low light in mind - I find it a design flaw, also after your comment, they easily could have made it white with black letters, but they just didn’t think of the importance.

cuckoomusic · 2014-06-22T18:29:55.000Z

I feel it too, master. @MDM

Though I must say for stage use I’m not a fan of white. I quite like the matte black. The red is a tad on the dark side to be easy to read, but the white on black is great. Stage lighting tend to be a lot of red too - red light on red colour doesn’t make the situation any better.
There are quite a few nice looking piano light bars that might be useful. Like this one. (holy crap, I didn’t see the price until now!!) Or at IKEA there’s this simple, yet flexible LED light called [url=“http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00169635/”]Jansjö that I’ve been using in different live situations.
However, as some suggest, with practice - comes mouscle memory. The ones that I’m having trouble reading are the buttons that I don’t use that often. Trig Mute, Accent, Note Slide, Parameter Slide. I still need to double check. They should coat all the labels with UV paint

Related to this is the opposite situation. On outdoor stages during daylight, it’s hard to see the state of the diodes and pads. Battling the gods of elements here, he he.

dickmalibu · 2014-06-22T18:51:37.000Z

""polyslax"":

time for some dick malibu:

http://www.dickmalibu.com

Thanks Polysix !
(much appreciated )

dickmalibu · 2014-06-22T18:52:42.000Z

""cuckoomusic"":

They should coat all the labels with UV paint

Wait for it …

void · 2014-06-22T20:17:10.000Z

humbug! who needs labels

warmtape · 2015-10-01T02:43:22.000Z

I imagine it does, but does anyone know for sure if replacing the faceplate voids the warranty?