Octatrack MK2 problems (particularly the screen)

[korhanerel]

My Octatrack MK2 has just arrived. Happily I plugged it in, turned it on, and realized a few problems:

The screen horizontal lines vary in brightness and this changes when a pop up window opens. See photo

Some button text is partially illuminated by the backlight in the button. See photo

Some knobs have some small resistance that I can feel on my fingers. Another friend (who owns an Analog Heat) also felt it and said her Analog Heat does not have this on the knobs

Edit: these seem to be “imperfections” and not malfunctions as one person in the Elektron team said did sound ok to me at first, as I was really hoping that the OT MK2 was alright, but after spending the day outside and finally reading other opinions, I am not satisfied with this explanation. A screen that does not work properly and shows inconsistent behaviour from user to user is not “normal”, especially on a unit that’s sole marketing point is new, better hardware.

[papernoise]

Except for the screen none of the problems you pointed out really seem like an actual problem to me.
Also keep in mind that the Analogue Heat might have different encoders, and hence the feeling might be different. A bit of resistance is usually both a good sign and a useful thing.
Also what was the intention behind posting this? I mean, you already made up your mind anyway.

[J0n35y]

I doubt a new unit will fix the varying screen brightness - looks like that’s an o/s thing to me but might be wrong.

The partially illuminate buttons probably isn’t enough to bother me but it should be uniform IMO.

How are the trigs? I was pretty disappointed with the problems I had with my DT trigs. Keen to hear if that’s been straightened out for production of the OT Mk2

Edit - when I had a DT it was similar like @re_i says below.

[re_i]

When I owned the Digitakt, I also noticed that some of the backlights that illuminate the buttons weren’t even, I think this is a common production quality control issue.

[korhanerel]

I did watch reviews and no one had mentioned this screen issue. The button lights are not a huge problem for me either, but I wanted to post this on the forum to see if these are common issues or specific to my unit.

The knobs are not evenly resistant. Actually they are not resistant at all. Some of them feel like they are slightly scraping against something.

[korhanerel]

What problems did you have with the trips? I have not played Octatrack at all. I will pack it and send it back, so I did not want to use it.

[J0n35y]

Yeah that’s common with encoders in general I find. They usually loosen off but my Push 2 still has at least one encoder that “scrapes” (best way of putting it really!). It might be worth twiddling the encoders like crazy for a while then making a call. Hopefully they loosen off.

[J0n35y]

On the DT I had 3 trigs that got stuck. Its a recurring problem a few of us had. You would press down and it would take a second or two to reset it’s self. Seemed as though it wasn’t properly seated. We’re only talking millimetres but boy was it enough to piss me right off! Meant you could rapidly trigger a sample physically.

[korhanerel]

The trig buttons seemed without problems but I haven’t really used the unit, so my experience is limited to pressing all the buttons a few times.

[t]

Aren’t the buttons regular “clicky” computer keyboard buttons with custom caps? Could it be that the caps for those “sticky” keys just need to be pressed down properly?

[korhanerel]

Could we please discuss the issues I mentioned in my initial post? my issues are uneven button illumination, varying brightness of screen lines and pop up windows creating unevenness, and some encoders feeling different than others. For a unit whose main strength is better hardware, these see like important issues to me.

[t]

What more do you want to discuss? Just send it back if you’re not happy with it!

[nktrnl]

Display issues : Lines of pixels not as bright as the rest?

Anyone else have lines of pixels on the screen that are not as bright yellow as the rest of the pixels? I have a few lines like that. The brightness of the lines vary a bit depending on which menu I'm in, but they seem to always be a bit dimmer.

In this thread @Ess says that ghosting is normal with the new oled screen on the digitakt. Maybe it’s the same on the octatrack mk2

[tsutek]

I think you should contact elektron about this and see what they have to say about it? This is not an official support forum after all…

I can inspect my unit later this evening to see if I have similar issues but do not recall anything terribly out of the ordinary on a casual first use yesterday…

[Ess]

The screen is normal; it exhibits this kind of ghosting with large areas of lit pixels.
The button cap laser engraving looks normal as well, and encoder feel can vary before they are broken in a bit, but should operate as expected. This does not look like a defective unit.

[korhanerel]

Hey this was not a criticism. Sorry if it sounded like that. I just want to focus on these issues I have at the moment. I am a bit nervous/disappointed after waiting for so long. I am now discussing this with Elektron and will report back.

[t]

I’d make some music on it in the meantime.

[korhanerel]

Thank you Simon. I was talking to Cenk in the meanwhile. He has also said the same things. Perhaps you should issue a statement about these imperfections to avoid future customer satisfaction issues.

I will not return the unit.

[mess5]

I for one am happy to be informed about possible hardware quality. My analog four MK1 feels like hi q machine, MK2 should feel even better according to what we hear from Elektron.

If i decide to go for A4 MK2, i would like that to be a fact.

[Fabitwo]

+1