Maschine Vapor Gray - How to see the label buttons better?

Options
2»

Comments

  • psyron
    psyron Member Posts: 5 Member
    edited March 2023
    Options
    IMG_0494.jpg

    Same here - i have the Maschine+ Vapor gray, love it, but the lights of the buttons when disabled are not visible at all in dark light, so i can't read the labels.

    (in the picture above it's easier to read the labels than in real life)

    Would be such an easy fix if there would be a separate brightness adjustment possibility for disabled buttons (or a button combination to temporarlly light up all buttons). Really no other people asking for this? Can be done right? Maybe in the next update? I would be willing to code it myself (as a programmer) but i don't think they will give me access to their code 😅

    Oups, just tried my other glasses for close up reading ... Well now i can read the labels a bit better. But still: Would be great to have a brightness adjustment of disabled buttons separately. Would make life for people with bad eyes so much easier 🙂

  • psyron
    psyron Member Posts: 5 Member
    edited March 2023
    Options
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/891/maschine-vapor-gray-how-to-see-the-label-buttons-better

    Did you find a good solution for your problem? I have the same problem.

    (See my post above)

  • Peter Harris
    Peter Harris Member Posts: 470 Pro
    edited March 2023
    Options

    Unfortunately not. And I think the chance of a fix from NI is virtually zero considering they are having a hard enough time with even minor improvements that affect all users, much less ones that only affect a small subset of them. They just don't release the colorway again.

    Practically speaking the only things I've tried that have "helped"...

    1) a little plug-in USB gooseneck lamp that shines on the buttons when unreadable in a particular light condition

    2) learning the unit enough that I know the buttons better by memory

    3) printing out little transparent laser-printed stickers with opaque black writing to put on the 16 pad buttons and trimming them down to be the least obtrusive size possible (never ended up trying it but I think it would probably work)

    4) a little printed cheat sheet I can keep nearby

    5) considering reselling the unit (they seem to be valuable and in demand because they're pretty rare) and getting one with standard coloring

    6) just learning to live with it.

    All less than ideal, I know. ☹️

    By the way, I've found the white powder-coat to be not very durable, especially on the corners and edges that are likely to get dinged in normal use. So if yours is still mint, I would recommend little strips of masking tape as bumpers (ugly) or getting a Decksaver protective lucite cover.

    Ahh, live and learn I guess. I still love the look even with those minor issues so I guess that's something.

    And If I'm being honest I might still buy the matching vapor grey S49 if I could find it!

  • psyron
    psyron Member Posts: 5 Member
    edited April 2023
    Options
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/59598#Comment_59598

    Thanks for the reply!

    Yes, i have been thinking of all your above options too. Really hope they will add a brightness adjustment option for the light of disabled buttons!

    And yes i reallly love the vapor grey color and was happy to also find a S49 (in Germany) - was the last one they had in store!

    And yes i also bought some Decksaver to protect them, mainly from dust:

    IMG_0714.jpg
    IMG_0715.jpg
    IMG_0711.jpg
    IMG_0713.jpg

    I should ask them if i could work as a programmer in part time for them - i would add that feature into the code! 😅

  • D-One
    D-One Moderator Posts: 2,884 mod
    edited April 2023
    Options

    @psyron said:

    I should ask them if i could work as a programmer in part time for them - i would add that feature into the code! 😅

    Haha, that would be great, and surprisingly easy, you could probably do it in less than 5 minutes.

    Screenshot 2023-04-03 at 20.06.22.png
    Screenshot 2023-04-03 at 20.06.29.png


    I messed around a bit with the controller code and found that it's possible to mod it, was considering adding it to NIPatcher, but would only work in controller mode of course, since we have no access to the M+ internal files :( So, not much point...

    The dimmed version in the video is my M+ at max brightness in the settings, when it's fully blasting light it's a modded version:

    https://imgur.com/a/mT8hMHv

    It's also possible to change the colors, altho they mostly only use white the less are RGB, maybe color would help a lot in the contrast issue with your vapor version.

  • Peter Harris
    Peter Harris Member Posts: 470 Pro
    Options

    Awesome!

    Just curious though: do we really know for certain that there are no ini/config type files on the M+ in standalone that are modifiable?

    Or maybe with a tool like Resource Editor in Windows, something that's accessible when attached in controller mode or USB mass storage mode?

  • D-One
    D-One Moderator Posts: 2,884 mod
    edited April 2023
    Options

    Just curious though: do we really know for certain that there are no ini/config type files on the M+ in standalone that are modifiable?

    I do. There is none, I would have found it day 1.

    M+ is just like the computer version, the 'app' is stored in one place the internal eMMC and the content is in another place: your SD card... They would never put the application itself on the SD card when they ship it with a super low-end slow 4$ SD card.

    Or maybe with a tool like Resource Editor in Windows, something that's accessible when attached in controller mode or USB mass storage mode?

    Storage mode just mounts your SD, there's nothing to open Resource Editor with, if Linux is like MacOS then you wouldn't even need a Resource Editor. It would take someone knowledgeable about embedded stuff to find a way to access the internal drive... People have done it for the MPC btw so it's possible if someone bothers to try...

  • Peter Harris
    Peter Harris Member Posts: 470 Pro
    edited April 2023
    Options

    I figured you'd already thoroughly investigated it but I was just grasping at straws. 😉

    With that Vapor Gray colorway, a big part of the problem has been that the pad colorations are different from the other models, using knockout style transparent text on translucent buttons. And the legibility of the labels varies dramatically depending on the ambient light conditions in the room. And as a result, increasing the brightness behind the pads in some of those conditions would actually make it even worse because the contrast would become lower. ☹️ But you're right that the color could make a difference so maybe it would help.

    Early on I asked and I whether I could just get a replacement set of pads/buttons from the standard color scheme but I was told no.

  • nateschmold
    nateschmold Member Posts: 5 Member
    Options

    I know this is a year old but just checking in to add that yea, this is a prob for me too. having a light on it really sucks as it messes with my camera contrast when live streaming but i also dont want to have the lights up full blast (mood killer) just so i can see the pads 😃 Im also in the 'just gotta memorize them' headspace now lol.

  • nateschmold
    nateschmold Member Posts: 5 Member
    Options

    Ironically i also found the "non-pad" buttons actually EASIER to read if i turn the LED all the way down as when the LED lights are anywhere above half, the "White light" actually blends in almost perfectly with the grey of the button so you cant even read it at all haha. turning it off actually gives some contrast to make the button actually more legible in certain light haha

Back To Top

Categories