First things first:
I am elated at how the The Laboratory 61 integrated seamlessly into my iMac and V series synth system. It is truly "plug and play," and I found no misleading hype in Arturia's advertising of this controller kybd.
Nonetheless,
IN MY OPINION, there is a HUGE flaw in the placement of the Category/Parameter and Preset/Value buttons. Here's why:
When I reach for either of these buttons, I cannot see what I am potentially selecting or changing since MY HAND IS NOW OBSTRUCTING MY VIEW OF THE LCD SCREEN! i.e., I cannot see the screen because my hand is in the way.
Now, since most people are right handed, they would most likely be piddling around with their right hand on the keyboard, while trying to explore presets, and grabbing these two knobs with their left hand (as I was), and thus can no longer see the LCD screen, and cannot accomplish this task, therein, disallowing the throwing away of the mouse, and a crippling blow to live selection of presets.
Now, you're probably thinking (as I did, and as Arturia seems to suggest) one could program other knobs for this task and use these knobs for another task, but here's the monkey wrench in the gears-- these two knobs are "push to activate" unlike any other knobs on the unit.
The only fix I can think of is a physical relocation of these two knobs to the position of the LEVEL knob, thus keeping your left hand from blocking the LCD screen view. Put the Level knob elsewhere (anywhere-- who cares?- maybe in the place of one of these Category or Preset knobs).
Could I possibly relocate these knobs w/some de-soldering and re-soldering into a different position, or are the underlying monolithic circuits unavailable for modification?
