It all started with the Dark Energy synthesizer and the Dark Time sequencer, and recently they changed the case-colors of their USB/MIDI interfaces MSY2, MCV4 and Dark Link.
The first (and probably only) A-100-related new black thing is Doepfer's Ribbon Controller ( The R2M control box and the manual, not the A-198 module itself )
As of June 2011 the cases of this Ribbon Controller will be black with white printing instead of the old silver-grey look.
I like this move towards black from Doepfer because it does make these instruments and boxes look slick(er).
It is probably cheaper too for them to produce, but i'm not sure of that ( and doesn't really matter to me).
But what will be next..? Will they also change the A-100's front-plates?
I guess (and hope) not... that will seriously mess up the overall view in my opinion, although i do like the black and white look from the vintage Moog and Roland modulars.
Fact is that those modules are far better readable due to the high contrast, but i don't think they should apply this to the older A-100 modules. ( but íf Doepfer ever comes up with a range of specific drum-modules i wouldn't mind them being black and white because this can be seen as a separate (sub-) system... )
It would be nice if they produced good quality colour overlays for their existing stuff so you could colour-code specific sections. I think if you used some coloured transparent material (like the gels they have for lights) with holes cut for the controls then you could create something nice quite easily. It'd have to be legible though, so custom ones from Doepfer pre-drilled for all the controls and printed with the necessary info would be better.
ReplyDeleteMarc JX8P