When can I turn off the light of Kontroll S88 Mk2 ?

For a half of year I'm trying to decide between Kontrol s88 Mk2 and Arturia 88 MK2.
And now it's the time to decide finally.
The only problem about Kontrol s88 is that I can't turn off the light guide.
Only if NI gives a patch to turn it off, I will surely buy Kontrol. But if not, I have no choice but to pick Arturia.

I know several users have claimed about this since about 2 years ago. And it is technically not that hard one.
So I want to ask to the NI. When will you give the patch to turn the light guide off?
Isn't there any plan yet?

 

Do you mean turn off all the lights but still have the keys activated? could you clarify?

 

Yes that's what I ment. Just turn off the lights and use it.

 

Buy different keyboard if you don't want the light guide.

 

It just goes to show that you can't please everybody. I suppose it makes sense to be able to turn it off if you want to, but on the other hand, I bought this keyboard for the light guide features. Given that I spend the majority of my time midi writing with orchestral instruments, the light guide is indispensable to me because the virtual keyboard built into Kontakt is microscopic. Granted that it could be off for piano, but that is just splitting hairs and i doubt i would bother. At any rate, there are script hacks floating around out there that turn off the lights but keep functionality, but you can't do it in the KK software. And considering how long users have been asking for this feature, it seems like NI has zero interest in doing it although they aren't known for listening to their user base in any case. Hope that helps.

 

Thing is tho, the original MK1 keyboards do have the option in software to turn it off. There are many cases where users want it switched off especially when such a small number of instruments make use of it, you do kind of get bored with the blue LED display that can never be changed ever!!!!!!

I still use an MK1 so it is a non issue for me but I really cannot understand why things like this were omitted as options and seemingly the care factor from NI is close to zero, it's more about pushing out new content and new hardware and not updating and improving what they have. I guess once you have suckers (I mean customers) money there is no incentive to further improve things when it costs money to improve things but you make money by selling more expansions and hardware and you can certainly see where the eggs are placed.

 

I hear ya! But at least you can change the color for a change of pace. lol.

 

Only when in MIDI mode which I am almost never in.

For some unknown reason, it is not even an option for users to set even a default colour for the LEDs when using a instruments that do not contain lightguide data within the VST which is about 98% of them out there so 98% of the time the leds do nothing but burn in that blue colour. The LEDs are so underused they were one of the main features omitted from the latest 2 models of keyboards (M/A series) prob for cost but also because they are so underutilised it just doesn't make sense to even have them switched on half the time.

 

Yes, it is a good idea which needed refining over the years since it was made and still does. Come on N.I.! Add some options to the key page in the midi editor for light guide control, for Pete's sake. For all our sake!
1. Light up a button/pad above the LCD screens to turn light guide on/off. I swear some of them do nothing. In the very least, so we can do it in the midi editor. Is that too much to ask?
2. Use a different color when midi is in playback mode on the keyboard. You can hardly see it. Let us choose?
3. Add better options for midi mode as well so we can better utilize our keyboard with non-NKS plugins.

Just to name a few which have no doubt been asked for endlessly already. You guys at N.I. need to take a lesson from Presonus when it come to listening and implementing user feedback. I mean seriously, almost every other post I read is someone bitching about your customer service. Don't you guys ever talk about that in your development team meetings?

 

I'd also like to turn off the key bed lights while in production mode. For now I'll just trim up a strip of cloth and tape it down.

 

Which doesn't make much sense, as it was an option in the MK1. This just shows the inconsistency with NI, and something that was a feature in mk1, shouldn't be erased in the second iteration.. For example.. Battery 3 has some major features,that even illMind made clear to NI dev's and management, that are missing in Battery 4. Yet it falls on deaf ears, and nothing ever gets updated. I don't quite understand this new NI at all..