Cutting down a DN keys?

Yeah i’ve been reading eranrund’s thread too, PofM just posted the link, and it was probably the origin for slicetwo to launch this thoughtful thread. What I’m talking about is completely different, more related to slicetwo’s idea.
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Of course if you have enough people working coordinatedly on the same problem makes it all more practical.

oh, yes…sorry for double posting

Man… I really hope nobody cuts a $1000 digitone keys in half… That would be heartbreaking… People are starving and it is such a wonderful expensive instrument to just butcher… What a waste that would be… For some of us $1000 is a ton of money and somebody could really love to have it… That’s just sad to think about.

More Heartbreakers


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this one looks nice…well actually, all of them look nice :smiley_cat:

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At least those are all pretty cheap synths mostly made from plastic… Not in the same categories as a digitone keys…

The only one that breaks my heart is the Microfreak. The keyboard is PART of the sound design. All of the other ones look much more preferable to me than the ones with keys.

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Agreed. And yet, in a twist of irony, it is the one that is the easiest mod to do.

No cutting involved. Very much part of the sound design, but not very much connected physically; just a ribbon cable and a couple screws iirc.

Still I think OT and “Nanobod” modded MicroFreak module is a very groovy combo, especially since Arturia keeps updating it.

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A very human process, we evolved to adapt things for our use. We have for hundreds of thousands of years. It’s never ending. You take something that exists, or something someone else did, and you adapt it to fit your vision.

If you creatively express yourself in music, it’s only a small step to creatively express yourself in the tools of music.

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Indeed. I have a hard time restraining myself from modifying every piece of gear that comes through my doors. From acoustic guitars to digital synths. It just seems natural to tweak things until they’re as close to what you want as they can be. These days I try to live with things the way they are for a while before getting elbow deep in their guts though in case I decide not to keep it.
Ever since getting the hydra I’ve been considering converting a few of my older poly keyboards into rack modules.

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To be fair, despite my recommendations against such stuff, I’ve done it in the past. :smiley:

My old SID Station Rack.

SIDGuts

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Now that is truly heartbreaking !!! Nice work J3RK.

I’m convinced that if someone was to follow the idea that slicetwo had originally for cutting down the Digitone Keys, and buttoned it up really nicely, that they could sell it on Reverb or someplace, for at least what it cost to do. It wouldn’t pay for your time, and you certainly couldn’t make a business of it, but at least you wouldn’t be out any cash.

But we still don’t have any pictures from a tear down, to see if this is even possible.

Now if you could buy DNKs with broken keyboards, then you might be cash positive.

ADDED: Here’s a sold listing on Reverb for a SkiniBrute.

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Great to know that!!! i have the same hyper customizing everything fever and now im more than happy with the nature of things! or machines? :alien:

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Digitone Strip.

I would have been more inclined to buy every single one of these had they been on the market. Especially the Freak.

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How about the Digitone Engine (like the Nord G2 Engine)? :smiley: Just a little blank metal box that connects to the PC via Overbridge. No physical controls.

So basically, it’s a soft-synth in an expensive box with no hardware benefits. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Stop it! I’m at work.

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I want the DN on my damn iPad!

Looks super rad. Here’s with extra knobs and buttons.

Titelloses 21_20210309140859

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This mod might be possible even if the section of circuit board with the extra knobs and buttons is an isthmus off the rest of the front panel control board. An added complication would be if the circuit board is a multilayer board — getting access to the traces on the inner layers is more challenging, you often can’t just scrap away to just get to those traces. (I’d really expect it to be a multilayer board.)

Given that the dimensions for the extra knobs and buttons strip are very different you probably would scavenge the encoders and buttons, and figure out how you wanted to do the electrical connections, make your own pcb with the right dimension, or just run jumper wires to the connectors on the encoders and buttons ?

You still will need to get access to the signal traces from the main board. On the cut i would try to cut as far out on the isthmus that i could to try to give a little extra area to get at any of the buried traces. I might even experiment on another junk multilayer board to improve the “surgery.”

Do people have a preferred method for cutting a circuit board ? I’ve always used a Dremel rotary saw disc, but perhaps there is something better. I’d probably put two connectors for ribbon cable connectors across the breach. Ribbon cables are pretty easy to make.

Now of course the extra knobs and buttons may already be on a separate circuit board, with the ribbon cable connector right there to use. Then you just will need to make a new smaller board for the buttons and encoders, with a ribbon connector and a longer ribbon cable. Cake !

This also assumes the keyboard sits on its own circuit board, as was discussed in another post up thread.

Now by adding the extra knobs and buttons this will change the size of the box, so you’ll need a way to get a (metal?) box the right size. But you probably need a new box, anyway. You will also need to move the connectors on the back out. This is getting complicated. I would probably use the main face plate and make a secondary plate for the extra knobs and buttons. But laser cutting, and the growth of companies that can do this sort of work inexpensively, makes remaking a whole new front panel an attractive option.

If we just had some tear-down pictures we could plan this out.

I am sure i’ve missed a lot and screwed up the rest, with this cursory examination. Comments please.

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