Dear @Elektron, please make keycap sets for your devices
I mean, I would buy some.
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If you email support they will sell you replacement keycaps.
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This is more of a TE kind of thing.
Nah, I mean actual keycap sets like in a unique color palette for example. Or a variant without the rubber coating - which would probably sell well as I hate the fact that all the keycaps will degrade over time…
This is a thing with actual keyboards, where you can replace all the switches for a new look every once in a while.
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I gave up after receiving two sets of tacky replacement caps for my Digitone.
They need to stop using that soft-touch coating and replace them with double-shot caps.
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100% agree, the coating will always degrade over time, how fast just depending on how much its used and the environment
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For some reason my fingers/nails are really hard on that rubberised coating and the buttons start to look raggy and nasty in no time. Elektron definitely need to produce a more durable option and I’m sure different colours would be a big seller. I can’t understand why Elektron or some other company isn’t doing this already, there is a big market for MPC pads. Come on Elektron, get your shit together.
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Maybe invest in a nice manicure
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Please do it Elektron.
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there must be a way to provide buttons in the same format but with better durability
it’s a shame that my MD and ARmk1 feel great to this day after over 10 years in use, but my ARmk2 i bought for live use turned sticky after less than 2 years :-/
(on a separate note, I’d also argue, having LEDs above the buttons is better from a functionality standpoint. there’s something to be said about having a finger cover something that actually provides you information …)
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It wouldn’t be TOO hard to custom make some with the right know how, there’s a whole micro industry of people that create, buy & sell custom resin casted buttons for GameCube & other video game controllers. Something I could look into if there’s enough demand.
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I think the reason why they don’t make them is purely supply and demand. Mechanical Keyboards are a niche, but a much more popular niche than electronic music devices. When someone produces custom keycaps, their potential market is basically everyone who owns a mechanical keyboard. A custom keycap set has over 100 individual custom moulded or at least printed parts. A custom keycap set for an Elektron device would also require all of that custom tooling, but it’s market would be so incredibly limited. Like the potential market for custom keycaps for a keyboard is everyone who has a mechanical keyboard. The potential market for custom keycaps for an elektron device is everyone who owns that single device. Those numbers are going to be orders of magnitude smaller. Like I would be astounded if they were even anywhere near selling a million digitakts. My guess would be that they have sold tens of thousands. Just a guess though.
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But the company who makes the knobs for Elektron devices could easily produce different coloured versions using the moulds they already have. I’m sure the demand is there, people love having the ability to customize their gear. Even if it was just the numbered keycaps I’m sure there is a viable marlet for that. The Chinese don’t have any difficulty knocking off other companies creations. I’m just surprised it hasn’t happened already.
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The molds are intellectual and physical property of the company that commissioned them ie Elektron, and as a company Elektron isn’t going to take a risk on niche accessories when they’re barely staying afloat as it is. Moreover, the molds are so precisely tooled that the mold will be to the depth of the keycaps without the rubberized coating and are probably therefore only tooled to the degree that with the coating in an additional mold, they look professional and nice. There would therefore need to be new molds which have more refined tooling and to the correct depth and shape.
Keycaps aren’t going to generate income sufficient to mitigate the cost of the task at hand. I’d rather have them put the man hours into firmware updates.
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It would still be a pretty small market though, and if they only produced one set of custom caps, everybody’s “custom” device would look the same. So they’d need lots of different colourways, and then the market for each one gets smaller. Would it be worth the cost of manufacturing each different set? Hard to know.
Edit: also, the factory that made the original caps (and has the existing tooling) might have a contract with Elektron that forbids them from doing this. If they got caught, it could be bad for business. They might lose a contract that’s worth a lot more to them than the profits from selling a few hundred “bootleg” caps on aliexpress
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I asked if I could buy a set of E25 caps for syntakt black, no dice.
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Chompi has custon keycaps and alternative colourways and that is definitely a niche product.
Obviously, Elektron should fix this known problem that has been occurring since the first DT released instead of creating new machines that keep using the same buttons that will inevitably have the same problem.
I think this is even dumber than the decision to omit PARAMETER SLIDES from new machine designs for the past 7 years.
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what’s the known problem with those keycaps? i’ve not owned any of the newer Elektron machines in the Digitakt format (or the Rytm/A4 new marks that seem to have the same keycaps)
The rubber coating begins deteriorating and becomes sticky. They either need to be replaced with the same type of buttons which will inevitably exhibit the same issue or you’ll need to remove the coating from all the buttons using rubbing alcohol.
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