Is it possible to set the button backlight to always on?

DJABE · 2025-06-02T15:32:46+00:00

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Does anyone know if it’s possible to set the backlights on the buttons to always on (or brighter)? I can’t find anything in the settings.

I have the Vapor Grey M+ which has white buttons and it’s really hard to see the text on them (also white) when not lit.
The text on the pads is also off white and pretty much illegible.

This is slowing down my work flow considerably as I don’t know what any of the buttons do. I’m considering writing on it with a sharpie

It looks nice but is a really bad design choice.

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D-One

This has come up in the past, read this:

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/891/maschine-vapor-gray-how-to-see-the-label-buttons-better/p1

Especifically:

The buttons are actually always backlit but dimmed, this can't be turned off but depending on lighting conditions if it's set to very low it's indistinguishable. Go to Prefs ➡ Hardware ➡ LEDS

I wonder who had the great idea that white button legends on a white background was a good idea… Anyway, it's possible to take more drastic measures, like editing some files and changing the color of the LEDS but that's a hacky approach that will not work on M+ standalone, only controller mode.

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D-One

This has come up in the past, read this:

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/891/maschine-vapor-gray-how-to-see-the-label-buttons-better/p1

Especifically:

The buttons are actually always backlit but dimmed, this can't be turned off but depending on lighting conditions if it's set to very low it's indistinguishable. Go to Prefs ➡ Hardware ➡ LEDS

PK The DJ

I watched a vapor grey M+ unboxing video on YT after reading your post DJABE, and the text on the (white) buttons is black. However, I can see that the text on the pads is a lot lighter, and depending on the angle, can be almost invisible.

I'm surprised there don't seem to be any replacement pads for sale anywhere. I guess you could get an old (non grey) unit and swap out the pads.

6xes

It looks nice but is a really bad design choice.

im bad for having a conspiratorial mind….

i do wonder if the design was fully understood by those who made that particular decision did so… but pulled the pin after realising the issue of the colour scheme, and the unintended affect it had on visuals…
….thus resulting in the pulling of the pin of selling them to the general market…
*put those flawed maschines away for a time… & not letting anything go to waste….

they sell it branded under the "Limited Edition Maschine +" LOL
haha

D-One

Pulling the pin? NI has had tons of low production runs / limited edition colors: orange, purple, dyno, vapor, etc… They all sell out eventually, including the ones without this contrast issue.

A ton of R&D goes into making the original, but I doubt the same applies to just limited edition recolors, which would explain this oversight.

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