When labeling the scribble stripes, I always miss special symbols (arrows) that show the direction.
For the clarity of the labeling with only 6 characters available, a few symbols would be much more important than any abbreviations with letters.
For example, it would be much more intuitive to be able to use the “arrows” < and > instead of the letters L and R for left and right.
(All the more important because L and R have opposite meanings in different countries:
In Germany, for example, from the audience’s perspective and in (all?) English-speaking countries from the perspective of the stage.)
The 2 “arrows” ^ and v for top and bottom would also be much clearer than any abbreviations.
Maybe there are even more such simple symbols.
In my case, I could do without many other special characters instead, such as @ _ , ?.
(The pic shows the current selection of special characters.)
And another small inconsistency:
If I want to center something in the stripes, I basically have to write 1 or 2 spaces in front of it so that it looks neater.
Since the MixPad app, unlike the Console, automatically centers the entries, the content now shifts to the right due to the additional spaces.
It would actually be better if MixPad didn’t center the names either, then both displays would be identical.
Let’s face it, the scribble strips on SQ really are rubbish. Better than no scribble strips, as on QU, but really not great: 6 character limit, barely legible, and limited character/colour choice.
While I enjoy most aspects of using SQ, the scribble strips are inexcusably poor.
Compare them with the “ancient” and “rubbish” X32, that costs half the price, and you’ll find legible LCDs with a 12 character limit, and the ability to display other info. No contest!
I think a very simple but effective change would be adding the ability to “reverse” the color in the strip, the way one can on those “other mixers of a similar price point”.
For instance, I will make my Drum inputs Red, with dark characters (default) but I will make Drum Groups and Drum DCAs reversed: dark with red characters, the same for Keys, Guitars, Vox, BGV, etc. I’ll also do this with effects SENDS vs. RETURNS. This is especially helpful for custom layers where you may have some inputs and groups/ busses/ DCAs on the same layer.
It seems a fairly small(?) bit of code to essentially double the color palette, which would really help since the current scribble strips have a more limited character-count and no icons.
In my opinion, something like that is unfortunately not possible because the hardware used is a classic black on “white” LCD display.
The color of the text will therefore always be black.
The (only?) advantage: It is perfectly readable even in extreme sunlight.
I would still like to emphasize my suggestion for the use of the 4 direction signs < ^ > v.
