when it rains it poors hey. I just kicked off one of my encoders - I tripped and it was Sons head or the OT. I wont tell you how long it took to make the right decision - it all happened so quick. Jokes - but the encoder shaft and the encoder snapped off - the push button still works so its just the physical shaft. So it looks like its pretty easy to change yeah? Ive got some pots here from my Anushri… Anyway I thought I was screwed but theyre just soldered on - so its a pretty easy change?
Anyone?
I am not sure if the encoders Elektron uses are of the “optical type”, but if they are optical encoders, such as what I have on my Waldorf Q Keyboard and Spectralis, DeOxit can actually make things much much worse. You could end-up with encoders that randomly zip parameters on their own or lack any controllable precision, et al. I have a lot of hardware keyboard synths and many have encoders and am yet to have any of mine fail. I also place stretchy black keyboard dust covers on all my synths, even ones out of rotation, which people should be doing to preserve your investment.
I certainly would not think Elektron would use “cheap/poor encoders” on an instrument that relies so heavily on them unless a person sticks to stock sounds and stock patterns, never doing any real sound design.
Other than dirt and dust, one of the other major detriments to encoders is the way you grab and twist them–meaning, turning them while using even ever slight sideways or slightly aggressive grabbing and with the A4 encoders being really kind of too close together even for my smaller fingers/hand—always am accidentally hitting the encoder(s) next to the encoder I am actually only wanting to adjust, screwing things up in the sound.
I would certainly inquire with support before using DeOxit because it’s NOT the panacea of a solution as people often post about and quite often is very temporary or outright just makes things worse. Then there’s the warranty issue and whether the use of DeOxit could void that.
a few fun facts… they are not optical encoders (a high end product) they will be temporarily fixed wiyh deoxit but they will fail there after… its a last resort solution. you can not just fit any push encoder the main spec is the shaft length/type, increment number and base height they need to physically match, its best to get it from elektron to be sure but some alps and panasonic ones are ok. i have fitted alps one to the MD jog wheel which is not a 'push" funcion encoder. if you were to fit another brand you need to do research first. in my experience the encoders on elektron machines are unrelioable so i call them poor quality… they are an unbranded oem encoder may not be cheap but they sure act like it 