Bear with the ravings of a madman for a moment. I see people removing the keyboards from their synths all the time, and since the DN keys has multi outputs, and it’s gotten a bunch cheaper on the used market, why shouldn’t I buy one and hack it down so i can have the multi outs and pitch/mod wheels? It’s not like I can play the keys, anyway! Hell, I wonder what it’d take to just buy the multi out board that’s in the keys and hack it into my current DN. Has anyone opened up their keys?
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there might be something in here:
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Ah yes! I do recall that thread. Looks like no one ever took the plunge. Boo.
Not gonna lie — this has been my thought ever since it was announced. I’d love to set it up to be able to detach the keys for gigging.
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Search function doesn’t work on my phone, but not long ago someone was posting about building a overbridge audio interface/breakout box for the Digitone and Takt.
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overbridge 
IMO that misses huge points in owning one. First, you’d be hacking off the other controls in the keyboard section, and that could cause issues. Next is that you don’t need to be a key player to make heavy use of the keyboard. You want to put a chord on one step, hold step and play the chord on the keyboard. Even with the new chord entry ability on the DN (non keys) it’s WAY faster to use real keys to do it. Then you’re also missing those knobs on the key section (assuming cutting them has no side effects). There is the fact that you’ll lose resale value by DIYing a hack job even if you do amaxing work. There may be OS side effects.
Then there is someone working on an addon for the normal DN/DT that exposes individual outs among other things for a reasonable price. No need to hack anything.
Just some thoughts.
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This is the thread everybody keeps referring to:
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They should’ve pulled a Nintendo and made the keys part easily detachable. Digitone Switch!
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Most of my interest in the DNK was for the increased modulation overhead provided by the control inputs. 
Has anyone published a DTkeys teardown yet? Nowadays everything is on PCB and connected together, so good luck cutting that with a saw.
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I haven’t seen one. That upper area over the keyboard is VERY thin/narrow though, so I’m guessing they still connect that via ribbon. That would be a fairly awkward PCB shape. Not that I haven’t seen stranger, but IMO it would make sense to have that as a sub-board.
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Yeah, seeing a tear down would tell a lot.
Fairly common for manufacturers using an OEM keyboard, is for the keyboard to be a separate assembly/circuit board with a cable connector off of that. That would speak in favor of this sort of mod.
Otherwise good luck.
(I just yesterday for fun opened a controller of mine to see how hackable it would be.)
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Would be kinda rad looking, no keys but the pitch and mod wheels still intact.
Like the diagram at the start of the manual:
Would be a shame to lose those 8 bonus encoders, and 5 bonus buttons, though.
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Digitone in wide-Elektron format could include all of this plus extra encoders and buttons.
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MK2 confirmed
(preferably OT sized)
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CV outs would be great! This would be the ultimate modular controller. Needs an auxiliary CV out for each of the four channels though. That way one could send out modulation from say LFOs, or the like.
That’s nice, but it’s in the realm of a request to Elektron, rather than a cutdown — a cutdown being something that might be possible without them.
Not having access to code really closes down your options for mods.
At one point i’ve considered the potential to reverse engineer the communication interface between any of the Elektron front panel UI controller boards and the back end audio boards. That would be right on the edge of possible with the right equipment.
You could use that information to either;
a) Use their UI board to control your own backend.
-OR-
b) To create some new UI control (perhaps software only, with interface hw) to control their audio magic backend.
This all would take some real work, and likely that time could be better spent, starting from scratch.
yep, would still be nice though 
the picture @AdamJay posted just made me think of something that could have been added where the wheels are…but it would indeed be something more than just a cutdown
had a thought about that a while ago too but didn’t start anything for the reasons you mention.
there’s this project from @eranrund which looks interesting:
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