I realize this is pretty much a dead forum in addition to being an old topic, but I figured I'd chime in as this is still a current product.
The blinking octave lights are a terrible design decision. Lights blinking/pulsing based on tempo, LFO speed, etc. are a logical design decision, as they tell you something meaningful. A button blinking constantly to indicate a static state is a pretty basic UI design failure. They could have indicated octave in many ways, such as LED brightness, color (I have a Korg MIDI controller from
2005 that does this), or even a momentary blink – or no indication at all, given that playing a note will tell you what octave you're in. I'm simply baffled that their solution was an always-blinking LED button telling me "Yep, I'm still in this octave! I just wanted to get your attention to let you know nothing has changed!"
It's a shame, as it's a nice little controller, and quite compact. I had planned to return it, but unfortunately I haven't seen another controller as small as the MiniLab with the overall build quality/aesthetics this has. I did find a solution to the problem, however (not sure if this link will work):
http://www.pixelfuse.com/stuff/minilab_fix.jpegI can't imagine anyone from Arturia reads this forum, but seriously guys, fix this.