LED color seems "washed out"

Hey there,

Please excuse me if there are topics about this already but i was not able to find anything about that either in this Forum, in the manual or elsewhere.

I’ve just received my new Analog Four MKII black and i have it sitting next to the Rytm and the Octatrack and am kinda stumped - the whole color scheme of the LED’s seems completely off.

Where there are clearly red colors on the other machines (e.g. trigs in recording mode) the color on the A4 is more like Salmon. Crisp green colors appear “minty”.

Just by itself i could have probably shrugged it off but i have gone to great lengths to get the Dark Trinity in all its new black decor and now the A4 sticks out like a sore thumb…

Anyone else has experienced this? Is there an option in the menu i have not discovered or is this simply bad QC? Luckily i bought it off Thomann so i can ship it back but i was really excited to test it out in the coming weeks…

I’d appreciate your input, thanks in advance!

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You can test the UX elements in the test mode

Hold Fn when powering up

Select Test Mode

It will report no issues (if normal)

Then you can toggle elements on/off and check consistency of knobs etc - so in your case

try trigs 1 2 3 4 5 - when you find RGB you can compare them all and combinations thereof …

see if this looks more normal - I think this overrides any adjusted settings in the interface, so you should get full beans light output

It seems inconceivable that a whole batch of LEDs could have a similar issue - ask a third party if you can to assess whether they see a difference in expected levels

It should be like the RYTM MKii so perhaps do a side-by-side and let us know

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Thank you very much for your quick reply. I’ve gone into test mode:

When pressing the trig keys 3, 4 and 5 i get full maxed out brightness and exactly the colors i expect from the device. Every button worked (besides trig 1 and 2 gave the display full brightness and blackness respectively, which is by design i think - i have not found any good documentation on the test mode).

Just to make sure i placed the Rytm right next to it and the color in test mode are exactly the same. Once i leave test mode however i am back to dimmed colors.

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The LED colours on my Rytm mk2 are different to the Digitakt. The red leds are a deep orange/ salmon, the green play button is a minty green, trig mutes are like a pale sage green and the pads are a very pleasing middle green like the mutes on the DT. I don’t think this is an issue, it’s just the way it is. I remember reading somewhere other people saying the same thing about the salmony leds.

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I appreciate the input, i haven’t been able to find any threads online discussing this specific issue.

As i have been spending considerable amounts of money to get machines in the same style it is a rather big deal for me that they do not look alike.

It seems that my unit is able to produce the “right” colors in test mode. I will try to fix things by resetting etc., if anyone else got some input i would highly appreciate it!

I just tried test mode and the leds do light up the same way as the Digitakt. Maybe it’s a software issue and Elektron should look into it.

I bought a brand new ARMKII and it did the same thing; all of the LEDs were an anemic, washed-out color. Worked fine in test mode. I returned it. I had a thread here showing the difference between OT and AR. This was maybe 3 months ago?

EDIT: This thread.

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I appreciate the response, this is exactly the same as with my unit. (I only searched for the A4 and not any of the other devices - thank you for digging up the thread)

Did you get in touch with Elektron Support? I think i will do that first and see if there is an easy fix and if not will prolly have to send it back to Thomann for a replacement unit. Not very enviromental friendly of me, i know…

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Thank you for checking - i will probably open a ticket with support and post any updates in here!

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I did but I had returned it right away and they closed the ticket. It’s definitely it normal and to my eye, it looked very out of place. Certainly not something I would love with for having spent so much money.

Test mode proved there was no issues with the LEDs. It’s almost like they weren’t blending properly. Like, one of the LEDs was more intense than it needed to be during operation. Doubtful it was a hardware issue.

I just bought a new A4 mk2 a little over a month ago and have noticed the same issue - pale green and a mild red, salmon color. I actually had to send mine back for a quick repair that was covered under warranty since one trig remained illuminated at all times. I’d love to hear what you find out about this.

Sooo, support basically told me that the “washed out” colors are actually the color palette they are going for on the Analogs’ MKII and that my Rytm would be the faulty device. They further told me that i could send in my Rytm under warranty and they would “fix it” and give it the same color palette as my A4.

I have yet to hear back from them on further details or if they could change my A4 but i thought i’d share the news.