I just got a Pyramid and I find the display way too bright, even in a well-lit room. Granted, I must be extra sensitive to light as I haven’t found many complaints about this (although, there are some complaints). But I don’t think the display will be usable for me like this.
Is there a way to make the display less bright somehow? Could a firmware setting be added perhaps, like with the Night Mode for the pads? Or is something like dimming sheets (https://www.amazon.com/Dim-It-Light-Dimming-Sheets/dp/B006R0VWSG) the only way to go?
Uh-oh. I saw that, but thinking it’s thinko/typo/trick-question “because the Pyramid display doesn’t have a backlight” Had to go and physically check. Sure it does, but in my normally brightly lit studio it’s barely noticeable. Sorry!
If that’s too bright, ouch indeed. I do have symphaties for light sensitivity, I’ve had times when I needed to wear a cap to watch tv when dim roof lights were glaring. That’s always been due excessive eye strain, so might be something you want to check (yeah, rather non-technical advise )
Do ask Contact us | Squarp instruments about the backlight, they’re the only ones who know if anything can be done about it in software. Short of that, I suppose you could always put some dark translucent film/tape over the display.
As for persistence, Pyramid doesn’t save anything automatically, you need to always save settings separately after making changes.
Thank you so much! That’s so kind and helpful! I recognize the symptoms that you described, and I do believe it’s related to eye-strain for me as well.
I will contact Squarp (and update this thread when I know more).
And the Night Mode setting is persisted now, thanks!
Just FWIW, in my case the eye-strain has pretty much always originated from lack of light - for example long-distance driving with sunglasses or at night, with insufficient correction for myopia (what’s sufficient in daylight might not be that in the dark). This easily creates a vicious loop: light seems to hurt so you start wearing sunglasses / dimming the lights further, causing even more eye-strain instead of easing it.
Not saying that’s the case for you, there are no doubt any number of other ways to strain the eyes, just sharing my discoveries in case that might be helpful.
There might be someting wrong with your item. I am very senitive to light and this would certainly have bothered me, but my Pyramid MKII has a LCD brightness that is about the same as all my other devices: just enough, not too bright even for a dim room. If you have other device with a LCD screen that has “normal” (at least to yopur standards) brightness, you could perhaps post a single pic featuring both side by side
I included the second picture because it gives a sense of what the display feels like to me (even though I can of course read the text). The light from the display feels white, blueish and bright. Also, the screen seems like it has a very low refresh rate (it’s a bit uncomfortable to look at, and I can see some minor flickering in the phone camera app). I even find the light from the device a bit troublesome even now typing this post, looking at it from a distance of over 2 meters, in a well-lit room.
For what it’s worth, a friend of mine commented that the display was bright as well, without me having said anything about it. But my friend has some light sensitivity as well, coincidentally. It may very well just be us!
I took a couple of pics with my phone and they look pretty much equal to yours, maybe slightly less bright but not significantly so. It has never bothered me at all, I didn’t even notice. Phone pics are no great for high dynamic pics like these I must admit. here’s a pic of part of my studio where the Pyramid lives, in a dim lit room, it’s maybe a bit brighther then the other screens, but in real life difference is even less pronounced to my eyes. IMHO you shouldn’t focus too much on the “issue” … that’ll make things worse. Or see an eye doctor!
I mentioned that I would update the thread once I knew more.
I got this friendly reply from Squarp today:
The backlight setting is independent from the screen, and can’t really be dimmed by a software update. It has to do mostly with the resistors placed on the PCB. It is therefore difficult to bring a solution to this issue. I think the best/simplest option would be those dimming sheets you found.
I’m very sorry for the inconvenience, and very curious about the outcome of this solution, I really hope it will fix it for you!
I have ordered the dimming sheets. I will update the thread again once I know more.
Thanks for this thread. Interested to know the results with the sheets.
Perhaps if there is ever a Squarp 2, the resistor can be made variable, so we can have control over the screen brightness. These quality of life improvements mean a lot to me.
I use simple photo gels cut into little screen size rectangles for almost all of my gear. Get an assorted pack and choose one that cuts the brightness best. Dimming sheets are ok too, but sometimes dim too much. Color gels are great since you can layer them to dial in a good amount of brightness.
Weirdly, I don’t like bright lights shining in my face either and find myself always needing to temper the brightness of most things or tape over leds on power supplies and the like (why must they be so goddamned bright!?). At least the pyramid has dim mode and doesn’t have tons of godawful colors + vegas mode like so many mass produced things these days.
Yes! It’s a fantastic sampler, I’m very happy with it. The sound is very clear and dynamic, I bought it for 200€ with the USB card installed and an internal 128GB SCSI HDD which is more than enough: a great deal. I maxed out the RAM to 256MB so I can permanently load the fantastic multilayered Grand Piano and still have enough space left to load other sounds into the multis. 32midi channels, super responsive… professional build quality… weird that in 2020 we can’t seem to get this kind of quality engineering anymore. I just need to find the FX expansion board for it, but they aren’t cheap. But I have 8 separate outputs so I use external fx.
The dimming sheet is a clear improvement. The light level might be perfect, or it might be little too dimmed, I’m not sure yet.
Even with a better brightness, I find the screen a bit “irritating”, in particular compared to the OLED displays on my other gear. It feels to me like the Pyramid’s display is flickering just a little bit. I don’t know if replacing the resistors can decrease this flickering. (I don’t know if other people will be bothered by (or even notice) this.)
Do you think I could replace the display with an OLED one, if I could find and buy one? I suspect it’s a long shot, but I’m basically wondering if the Pyramid firmware is coupled to this particular non-OLED display, and if the power requirements between the displays would be different. I know very little about embedded hardware.
Regarding the Night mode: Is it correct that the Night mode should not affect the six buttons in the lower left corners? They seem to be unaffected by the Night mode setting, and are too bright for me as well.
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