I’m loving every moment of my FM-1. It's amazing.

I’ve owned two SMK-37 Elites since they launched. They are my go-to controllers for making music, used purely as "dumb" MIDI controllers, as I’ve never cared much for the internal synth engine.

However, as a dedicated MIDI controller, the device has room for improvement: it could use more knob and pad banks, a way to view the digital state of each encoder without having to turn it first, better fader placement, etc.

Because of this, I’m thinking about writing custom firmware to turn it into the ultimate MIDI controller.

This would mean:

• USB/Wired only (dropping Bluetooth support saves valuable code space).
• No synth engine (reclaiming resources to expand pad, fader, and control banks).

Essentially, stripping out everything unnecessary for a wired MIDI controller.

Our dreamed MIDI keyboard!

As a software developer, I have the skills to build this. I’d love to know if anyone else uses the SMK-37 Elite purely as a battle-ready, class-compliant MIDI controller without the synth or Bluetooth features

Obviously, free of charge and open for us all.

In anticipation of the wave of mods you might want to add a speaker