Track Mute LED colors

Elektron Gear Digitone/Digitone Keys
#1

Is anyone else here constantly frustrated by the LED colors when trying to mute tracks? I find the LED color assignments almost infuriating.

By default the track key LEDs are white. Press + hold function and they turn red, but flash white when a trig plays. Press the track key to mute the track and now the LED is off but dim red when a note plays. The result is that when holding function, the track button LEDs can be in anyone of FOUR states, which makes checking status at a glance all but impossible. Is it just me or is that confusing UI?

15 Likes
#2

I guess I’m alone! Or maybe the title isn’t clickbait-y enough.

2 Likes
#3

Yeah I find it a little confusing… but I feel like I’ll get used to it eventually.

1 Like
#4

yes, exactly this !
one of the reasons i might give my DN back.
Not only the colours, also the manual in this regard ( and others) is just a piece of crap honestly.

2 Likes
#6

your gonna give up the digitone cuz of the confusing manual and the track mute lights ? lol ok…

10 Likes
#7

lol, a typical replie for this place here.
its a pile of reaons, as allways, can you imagine ?
money is too short as for most people here to just get anything i´m interested in.
Time and nerves also. you might be in a better position in this regard.
i have on the other side some nice gear allready and turn off of boxes which have some “to me” annoying factors built in, and spend my time better with boxes that were built with more love to detail.
At the end of the day is it also becoming a thing of principle in the meantime for me.
if they screw it, don´t feed them. so simple

1 Like
#8

more power to you

3 Likes
#9

So what would be a good alternative?

I think not inverting the colors is a start. I think a muted track should be dim red and flash bright red to show a trig, and an unmuted track should be dim white and flash bright white to show a trig, and it shouldn’t change in different modes - consistency is really helpful in a UI. Are there other situations to consider? It would be interesting to hear other opinions before I put in a feature request (actually, I really feel like this is more of a bugfix than a feature request)

6 Likes
#10

My quick suggestion, could use some work, especially if colourblindness usability is an issue:

Currently selected track - white, pulsing with track colour at each trig (which also means that if it’s being trigged by another track, it could pulse with the colour of the track that is trigging it)
Unmuted track - dim white, same as above but dim version
Global-muted track - LED off
Pattern-muted track - blue

I don’t think there’s any real need for muted tracks to pulse with each trig, but that’s just my preference.

Also, the way the pattern page LEDs dim at each beat is a bit misleading. I think they should be brighter at each beat, because my brain can’t make the connection of a dim “pulse” being the start of a beat.

4 Likes
#11

Are you sure about that? Mine are normally dim but pulse bright on the downbeats/quarter notes/whatever you like to call them

The colorblind issue is a good thought, but I think they’d have to do a complete rethink of their entire current line because the dominant indicator colors are red & green!

And yeah, I forgot that there’s needs to be indication of the currently selected track… it is tricky to manage all the states, I’ll grant them that.

#12

Hmm, I’ll have to check again, but I do remember being confused by one of the states in terms of when it flashed on beat.

edit: actually I think it may be the octatrack that does this

#13

Agree find the leds confusing its better on the digitakt imo

#14

First day with digitone. I keep thinking it is broken because the mute settings are WTF very strange.

6 Likes
#15

Obviously you haven’t hit global or pattern mute yet. There’s a whole bunch more colour settings for you yet! Purple for Pattern mutes, red for Global, and Blue for Global and Pattern at the same time.

Actually, maybe those modes will help - try them. Function + Bank , or Function double tap Bank to get to Pattern mutes.

I find it pretty simple

Green for active track
White for trigs (helpful to see what track is doing what)
Red for muted

I think by holding function it is saying - you are going to mute this track (showing them red)

And by flashing red means, track is muted, but u can see it has trigs on it

I’m fine with the implementation

I actually find the flashing tempo button more annoying, don’t get the point of it, the Page button already does that… and even when the sequencer is stopped it’s blinking away

8 Likes
#16

Odd that they felt compelled to use a completely different LED colour scheme to the DT. Makes more sense to have continuity.

3 Likes
#17

Use Mute Mode and it’s perfectly workable.

#18

Ha - coming from the DT, I was having moments where I thought I was losing my mind last night. I was working on some new sounds, hit record, placed trigs – nothing! Finally, I thought to check the mutes, hit Function and thought “Red means active, right?” The scheme is different, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it once I log more hours on the Digitone.

#19

yeah i find them confusing too , would be great to have an option to have a setting ON / OFF and none of this in between business.

#20

Yeah this sucks. But I have to get used to it somehow someday :smile:

#21

It’s the manuals that really bother me; the manufacturers never seem to explain things well enough (go into enough detail). I get more from watching YouTube videos and forums than I do from instrument manuals.

1 Like