I made something.
This thing is a hardwired desktop remote control unit made to interface with the Sound Skulptor MC624 stereo monitor controller. The remote sends control commands via a serial interface to the MC624 (which performs all of the actual audio handling) and indicates the selected input, output, volume level, and other monitoring functions.
Designing and building this device was a quite complex and challenging process for me, with a number of peculiar problems to solve and new skills to learn. The project developed sporadically over the course of seven months, from sketchy concept in February 2017 to finished piece in September. Reflecting on this process I have decided to document it here. My hope is that I have included enough detail to be useful to those who might be interested in building a similar device, but not to overwhelm those who are simply interested in the story.
This remote is not available as a product for sale, but all the technical details of my design, including the panel designs, part sources, wiring diagrams and open-source code, are shared freely on Github.