You might be able to try a matte clear polyurethane based spray in thin coats. I think that even a carefully applied varnish will probably crack after not too long.
I think either way it might not be much improved in feel, and if applied too thick might rub on the edges.
Depends if the varnish reacts with the soft coating… in which case, it will get worse.
Basically they should just stop using this shit.
Dead horse I know. My last resort is going to be using 1000 grit sandpaper. And being rid of it for good.
I’ve had good luck protecting high traffic surfaces with turtle wax ceramic spray- MPC pads, touchscreens, bathroom sink, etc.
I ended up buying a new set from Elektron for my Rytm, but this issue could come up again in the future. I’m looking for a button set without the rubber coating mentioned in this thread, they are quite expensive and not perfect:
And yes, Elektron, please stop using this material in your products.
I also encountered this problem with the buttons of my Digitakt. They were so sticky that I couldn’t stand it. I started to wipe them with wet wipes for a long time, but there was no effect. I just realized that I have the same problem with my Arturia Minibrute & Beatstep Pro… I had to wipe them with a soft cloth dipped in 99% alcohol. It took me half an hour to finally wipe off the damn sticky stuff like glue. Unfortunately, the yellow color of my FUNC button fell off, and the SCALE button became a pure white button. What’s worse is that I found that the buttons of my A4 MKII also showed signs of stickiness.
The person who invented this material is really an idiot. I think many manufacturers use this material to get a better feel with a certain friction, but they don’t consider the aging speed of this material. This is the problem of modern people. They think that technology can solve all problems, so there will be stupid things like cars catching fire after crush but unable to open the car doors.
By the way, someone on the Arturia forum tried to expose the sticky knobs to the sun for a few days, and then the sticky stuff can be easily wiped off. I haven’t tried it so I don’t know how it works. !!! Remember, just expose the knobs, don’t expose the device to the sun, it may make the screen of the device scrapped !!!
i have some aiaiai headphones that i never touch cause they are so sticky
i also had to take the qunexus apart, cause it was a hot mess
i really hope my elektron devices will be fine for some more time. i try to not put them into direct sunlight
Did anyone try bicarbonate of soda?
My first thought would be Sodium Percarbonate, it’s safe but generally attacks sticky or organic materials without destroying anything.
I just wish Elektron started making non-coated versions. I’d happily buy replacement sets for all my devices if they offered them for sale.
Yeah. It’s nonsensical that they’re continuing to use this material. Hopefully they’ll come to their senses soon…
do you really think there was a petroleum engineering decision made at a corporate level to use a material formula they somehow didn’t know would break down? like international texture co in Shanghai gave it to an intern to come up with a new soft touch rubber compound. or more than likely the factory just got to choose what to use that meets the criteria for “specific texture” and within budget. (product owner didn’t specify 'definitely don’t use aerobic adhesive whoops) 
I’ve fallen victim to the same problem on my digitakt and my digitone is going the same way.
I’ve successfully used hot water washing up liquid / dish soap and then scrubbing with a microfibre cloth takes the coating off but leaves the colour on the button.
For the buttons that were not yet horribly degraded I found soaking them in the detergent and then carefully scraping the coating off with the blunt side of a flathead screwdriver has worked well.
Example pic:
I also have a few no-name headphones and mouse that I kept in boxes for years without using. When I took them out again, I found that the wires were melted together.
I don’t know the specifics of these things, but I attribute it to the arrogance of modern people. People believe that technology can solve everything, so they cancel the manual cranks on car windows, use PWM circuits to control the brightness of mobile phone screens instead of analog circuits, etc. Some are due to economic interests, and some are arrogance. There is a book that describes these things happening around us. That is book titled Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences describes these things happening around us. written by Edward Turner.
Who knows. What I do know is companies using this material know what happens to it, and still use it anyway. Grrrrrrrr.
I have a number of boxes all with the same issue. Degrading and disgusting buttons. I reached out to Elektron for some replacements.€88 for two sets. One for Digi v1 and Octatrack v2. Does this smack of corporate greed. Any other company worth their salt would issue replacements to everyone.the love is gone
Coming in hot.
Same with Skoda. My car is dirty af and they refuse to reimburse me for the cost of a car wash, greedy b#stards.
I just spent a couple of hours over the weekend getting rid of gunk from my analog four mkii piano keys. I used electronics cleaner (2-propylen) and cotton pads, it was messy but got them down to the plastic without ruining the paint.
Annoying that they keep using these coated buttons.
I sure ruined my paint!
I removed them with a guitar pick, put them in a bowl and soaked them in kitchen cleaning alcohol for 10 or 20 minutes, then rubbed them with a scrubby sponge.
If you also decide to do this, please make sure you wear gloves. My hands were pretty desiccated after all the work!
Half of my track buttons were getting pretty gross to touch, but now they feel so much better!
It took me about a day to get used to the new look.
I don’t mind doing it to the track buttons. Just glad I can almost count to 16.
Talk about a bad faith analogy…
