Soft feel coating on plastic

Elektron Gear
#1
Soft feel (TPE) coating on gear
  • I donā€™t like it
  • I like it
  • Not sure

0 voters

The soft feel coating used on a variety of plastic products AKA TPE coating, which can sometimes break down into a sticky gunk, which attracts detritus and is unpleasant to use, and difficult to rectify.

Many people have reported problems with it here on the forum, whilst others have not had issues.

Some examples of products which have this coating:

Elektron MK2 and Digi products on the buttons.
Ableton Push on the body.
Akai MPC Live on the body
AIAIAI TM1 headphones on the ear cups and band.
Moog Little Phatty Stage on wheels and sides.

There are other methods of plastic finish which do not go sticky such as mechanical abrasion which can give a matte finish, this is not to be confused with TPE coating which has a rubber like texture.

8 Likes
Sticky buttons; like the actual texture is sticky
#2

Sticky ā€˜ew whats this gunk?ā€™ feel more like.

#3

What is this TPE coating. Any example of synth?

#4

Push 2 for example

Liked it until it turned to gunk. Took about five years. Avoiding in the future for sure

#5

I love it when new.

:confused:

3 Likes
#6

The disadvantages outweigh the positives, and just like glossy black plastic it should be relegated to the tacky obsolete materials pile of history.

6 Likes
#7

I updated the first post with a bit more info, feel free to vote and add your experience with this kind of coating.

1 Like
#8

I hate the coating on my MPC Live. Dust magnet thet makes it look cheap.

#9

Arturiaā€™s Beatstep pro encoders as well as the whole side cheeks and knobs of the Minibrute work perfectly as fly catchers after some years degrading to rubber sticky glue by unwanted synthesis. Managed to rub the grease off with covid alcohol hand cleanser.
Mutable instruments eurorack modules have rubber feel knobs too but they donā€™t seem to dissolve in post-it feel.

3 Likes
#10

Yeah, I cleaned the normal beatstep, the knobs feel much better without the coating although the encoders are fairly useless anyway due to their scaling.

Also had to do a KM Qunexus, which looks terrible now & a Corsair M65 Pro which feels better without. I also had a Push mk1 for a bit & got rid of it when the coating was just starting to come off.

This coating should be outlawed! :policewoman:

1 Like
#11

I feel like the question was loaded from the start. Anyway, I think Maschine pads are superb and they seem to stand the test of time well.

#12

I used to like it until I dug out my Push 2 that had been sitting in a travel bag for a while and it was gunky as hell. At first I thought I must have spilled something on it so made the mistake of wiping. And wiping. And wiping. And wiā€¦. You get the picture. Still a mess.

If a Push 3 appears then I hope they ditch this plastic shite.

1 Like
#13

After a while it gets disgusting. The manufacturers should know better.

2 Likes
#14

Call me cynical but Iā€™d bet the manufacturers do know better

2 Likes
#15

My MPC live is unsellable, not that I want to sell. But gross to use. Especially being a neat freak, there is no cleaning it. Trying to clean it actually makes it worse. If I ever wanted to upgrade to a newer MPC, should there be oneā€¦I could never sell this sticky mess to anyone. And I shame to just throw away.

Itā€™s really awful

The ā€œsoft feelā€ feels toxic to me

Bring back matte plastic

#16

Do we really need another one of these threads lol

What is the purpose

1 Like
#17

The aim is to get companies to rethink their product politics, cancel planned obsolescence, stop electronic waste and make the world a better place. :upside_down_face: :seedling:

7 Likes
#18

I know if that was my aim Iā€™d start a poll on Elektronauts.

#19

Somehow we need to startā€¦

1 Like
#20

You DO know some manufactures, reps, producers, actually check some forums. :thinking:

Good, cheap, low effort, market research.
low effort being key for some

1 Like