Couple Q's for the xiosynth owners...

[cartesia]

I'm wanting to build a 'backpack' studio, so that I can travel around and put together some music from all sorts of places.

Now, I've decided for the base I'm going to use an SP-404. . . the MPC500 would have been nice, but unfortunately it is made WAY too cheaply (owned one for a week, sold it with no regrets... the MPC500 makes the 404 seem like pro equipment!).

Anyhow the only other thing I need is a (versatile!) synth, that runs off batteries and is small.

You're all shouting microkorg right now, but the small keys dont interface with my fat fingers... it might end up being the only option though!

Anyhow I'm rambling. . my question of the xiosynth is this:

Those knobs look awefully tall and thin!

1) How sturdy are they?

2) Could it be that they are just tall caps and I could pull the caps off and replace them with shorter knobs?

Thanks all 8)