Digitone buttons and problem with light bleeding through the track and keyboard buttons

[PATA]

Hi, I have a question for anyone who owns a Digitone,

I recently purchased one and I am loving it so far… Very different to the other Elektron machines.

But I have noticed an anomaly with the buttons,

I own 4 Elektron machines but they all have solid black or grey buttons (expect the function buttons), I own Octatrack MK2, Analog Four MK2, Digitakt and Syntakt;

With these machines their button colour is mostly solid black and the light which shines through them from below only shines through the buttons text, label or function;
The light doesn’t shine through the actual button as a whole, only through the label…

But when I look at my Digitone in a dark studio, I notice that light bleeds through the actual solid colour of the button…

Here is an image of what I mean…

As you can see in the picture; My green track 3 button is completely solid but the red, yellow and purple track buttons aren’t solid and you can see the light emanating through the whole button… These buttons seem to not have the same layer of plastic covering them, which would allow the light to only shine through the label…

Also of the keyboard buttons only two of them are solid and the rest are also bleeding light through them…

It looks really distracting when using the machine;

I’m just wondering whether I got a bad unit or is this a normal occurrence specifically with the Digitone? Meaning if I get it replaced will I just continue to get units which have inconsistent button quality…? For example my Analog Four MK2 has grey keyboard buttons but the colour is completely solid and doesn’t shine through…

Also thinking if this is the case with all Digitones out of the factory whether I can order replacement buttons, for example, I’ve seen a lot of people replacing the coloured track buttons with ones from the Digitone Keys… Also would be keen to replace the grey keyboard buttons with black ones from the Digitone Keys as well… Anyone have any experiencing with this?

Thanks,

Tom

[Microtribe]

Totally normal.

If a door is shut at night, and the other side of that door, someone has the light on, then you’ll probably see a slice of light where ever theres a gap, like say the bottom of the door.

[PATA]

Hi, thanks for the reply, I really appriecate it, but I was referring to the actual buttons body. It is leaking the light through it… I didn’t mean the light from the gaps on the sides of the buttons,

The problem is that the actual buttons have different consistancys of plastic layering covering them which is resulting in seeing light coming through some of them…

If you look at the picture buttons 9, 13, 15 and track 3 buttons have solid consistancy you can’t see light bleed through them but if you look at buttons 10, 11, 12, 14 and 16 as well as track 2 and 4… Then you can see the light bleed is quite bad… Button 14 is the worse.

If you own a digitone if this something you have experienced? I’m just trying to see if this is normal for the Digitone or have I got buttons which are faulty… As the grey buttons on my Analog four mk2 dont bleed light at all…

Thanks,

[cooptrol]

Just order a new set of buttons from Elektron, I recommend replacing all colored and white buttons with black ones, much better looking.

[Microtribe]

I do own a digitone. To be honest I’ve never paid enough attention to the button caps to determine the same consistency of pigmented coating they have on them.

I think what you are seeing is just that, some buttons have a thinner coat of what ever it is they use to coat the transparent buttons with, hense the slight difference in opacity (or bleed if you want to call it that)

Grey is an in interesting colour that has excellent opacity properties, which is why primer paints are usually grey. It covers well. Anyway…

If you have an issue with the button caps, give Elektron support a shout, they will be happy to help.

I’m not sure I would say there’s a fault as such, the button and the cap are two seperate parts, and the LED is a seperate part again. All components appear to be working correctly right?

[PATA]

To Microtribe, yeah it’s just that as you have said, the grey ones should be brilliant at blocking out light but mine have a thinner coat of paint as you say… So they aren’t very good at blocking out light like some of the others…

The grey ones on my Analog four mk2 are perfect, no bleed what so ever, so I’m thinking it’s an issue to do with the plastic coating… Maybe Elektron are out-sourcing the buttons differently from before, maybe its cheaper for them to get buttons made somewhere else and as a result they have lost quality… (Supply issues causing alot of problems these days). As the digitone I bought has the new Elektron plug, new box and had a recent firmware out of box… So I’m guessing I have a brand new one with worse button caps…

Anyhow thanks for your advice mate

[PATA]

To cooptol,

Very nice, I love what you have done with your Digitone… I was thinking about doing this… Looks so much smarter… I have a thing about colors in my production workflow, I use particular colours for each instrument type so having the track buttons all be black makes so much more sense to me… Also replacing the keyboards ones fits the Digi design better…

I have a few questions for you if you dont mind, how did you manage to get these button replacements? And was it easy to replace the buttons? Did you have to open the unit up? Or can you just replace them by pulling the buttons off their enclosure and slotting in the new ones…

If this is the case, I would be worried about damaging the unit by accident,

Thanks,

[cooptrol]

You just have to open a support ticket at the Elektron website and ask them to create an order for you with what you need. Be sure to be clear about which buttons you need. They deliver fast. Also be sure to put you exact info on your user account, address, credit card, etc.

To replace them you just need to use 2 credit cards to pull them off from both sides, they’ll just pop off. Then just push the new button down and that’s it.

[PATA]

Okay, thanks for the info, is it expensive getting them replaced?

[cooptrol]

Nah it’s 1 or 2 dollars per button plus shipping.

[PATA]

Nice one… That’s not too expensive, thanks again for the info, got alot to think about now!

[comradecry]

how long ago did you get it? might make sense to contact store you got it from and exchange it, let them handle the rest.

because it also can be that LEDs have brightness variations, while buttons are fine. (hard to tell from pic)
warranty exists for these kinds of situations anyway.

[natehorn]

I’d personally ask Elektron for some better matched keys through a support ticket if it’s new. There will be some variance in the printing etc. but I agree that looks a bit off and could even be a bit confusing at times - QA should catch that IMO.

Couple of my white buttons have some minor inconsistency too but nothing that shows up like in your photo, it’s actually more obvious when they’re off (my 13 key has less transparency in the cutout parts).

@comradecry

because it also can be that LEDs have brightness variations,

Good point