Behind the Design of Our Overlays

Thoughtfully designed. Rigorously tested. Built to patch.

When someone sees one of our overlays for the first time, they often assume it’s just a fancy sticker. A piece of decorative vinyl with some labels on it.

But our overlays aren’t generic, mass-produced or designed as an afterthought.

They’re the result of long, painstaking research into materials, printing processes and production partners. We’ve spent months talking to print shops all over Europe, testing samples, rejecting batches and refining every aspect of the production process until the overlays met our standards. That includes contrast accuracy, text readability, surface durability and alignment tolerances.

And that’s just the printing and cutting.

Each overlay design represents hundreds of hours of work: choosing fonts that remain legible even when inverted; aligning labels with sockets and knobs to the tenth of a millimetre; deciding what information needs to be visible during patching and what can be left out to reduce clutter. For example, on our updated Behringer K-2 overlay, we moved patch labels to sit below the jacks instead of above – a small but important shift that makes it easier to read labels when cables are plugged in. We also removed redundant labels where they weren’t needed (like the ‘Ground’ labels for switch and gate jacks), and reduced the size of voltage range indicators so the main function of each jack stands out more clearly.

All these decisions are informed by real-world synth use. We patch these instruments ourselves. We know what it’s like to squint at a jack label in poor lighting or try to trace a cable across a crowded patchbay. We also know the joy of a setup that feels right the moment you start using it.

These overlays aren’t just decorative. They’re tools – practical upgrades that help you get the most out of your gear.

We know that some overlays out there include every alternate function, shift-label, or hidden feature – and that can certainly be helpful in some contexts. But that’s not our approach. We believe overlays should simplify the interface, not overwhelm it. So for every label, we ask: does this make the synth easier to use in real-time? Will it help during patching, not just during learning? If not, we leave it out. What’s left is an interface that feels focused, readable and purposeful – because sometimes, less really is more.