Kronos Hack- DI Out on rear panel

keyboardcook · Post by **keyboardcook** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 11:18 am

Thought I would share. Have been wanting to do this since day one, but had to wait till my warranty expired!!!

Used an EMO E525 for the transformers and parts.

More hacks on the way!!!

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 12:02 pm

Do you have some kind of ground lift or phantom power protection going on? Just wondering what the benefit is since the regular Kronos outputs are already balanced.

Scatter · Post by **Scatter** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 12:14 pm

I love seeing work like this, thanks for posting.

keyboardcook · Post by **keyboardcook** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 12:40 pm

SanderXpander wrote:Do you have some kind of ground lift or phantom power protection going on? Just wondering what the benefit is since the regular Kronos outputs are already balanced.

Ground lift switch underneath.

Phantom protection is there as normally is a passive DI box as the transformer secondary doesn't run the primary.

Benefits of DI boxes?

Balanced jacks are all well and good.
A) On a long run across a stage, you will need very long leads, or specialist female to male jacks. Either ways, leads specific to one task
B) XLR's are usually in abundance, not specialist. Daisy chain to required length.
C) DI boxes allow you to split the signal- one to desk, one to backline
D) Low impedance signals generate less magnetic field, so extremely low risk of hum over greater distances.
F) I now have less leads to carry/maintain.worry about.
E) Just in this case, I love having the solid connection at the back panel of the Kronos. On a busy stage, having someone stand or trip on your jacks can be damaging. At least with the bigger locking XLR, the risk to danage of the keyboard internals is nullified.

alanjpearson · Post by **alanjpearson** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 1:17 pm

Hmm

Just knocked a few £hundred off the resale value for me

I would see that as a bodge not an upgrade, sorry.
I'd rather have the outboard DI.

R
Alan

keyboardcook · Post by **keyboardcook** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 1:47 pm

That's one point of view.

Extensions on a house generally increase its value, and also its sale ability.

Guitarists constantly increase the value of their guitars by changing pick ups, machine heads etc for better quality.

Adding fold back to a Hammond M1 increases its value and sale ability.

Behringer FCB 1010 uNo, etc etc

There's a few others.

i guess I'm a bit peeved by your response TBH. If we took it that manufacturers always got it right, then we would cease to re-invent and question.

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 2:01 pm

keyboardcook wrote:That's one point of view.

Extensions on a house generally increase its value, and also its sale ability.

Guitarists constantly increase the value of their guitars by changing pick ups, machine heads etc for better quality.

Adding fold back to a Hammond M1 increases its value and sale ability.

Behringer FCB 1010 uNo, etc etc

There's a few others.

i guess I'm a bit peeved by your response TBH. If we took it that manufacturers always got it right, then we would cease to re-invent and question.

no opinion on your work

And I get the debate, but most analogies are flawed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_analogy

alanjpearson · Post by **alanjpearson** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 2:02 pm

keyboardcook wrote:That's one point of view.

Extensions on a house generally increase its value, and also its sale ability.

Guitarists constantly increase the value of their guitars by changing pick ups, machine heads etc for better quality.

Adding fold back to a Hammond M1 increases its value and sale ability.

Behringer FCB 1010 uNo, etc etc

There's a few others.

i guess I'm a bit peeved by your response TBH. If we took it that manufacturers always got it right, then we would cease to re-invent and question.

It's an opinion - nothing to be peeved at!

Just in my experience whenever I see a piece of gear/guitar/whatever that has been modified by a user I get concerned - that is shared by insurance companies with cars - and that is often with manufacturer approved upgrades.
I am a qualified electronics engineer and I would think twice about modding.

Personally I wouldn't do it but you do what you want, just you need to be aware of possible consequences.

keyboardcook · Post by **keyboardcook** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 2:09 pm

Never thought of it that way

In fact. I feel happier now that I might be sending come underwriter to the desk drawer for his Aspirin.

Down with the system.....er no. Sorry. Bit overboard.

Post by **Sharp** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 3:00 pm

An interesting choice of modification to go for. DI-Boxes are fairly way down on my list of needs, but if you use them a lot I can see the benefit of this.

For a while now I've been toying with the idea of modifying my VIRUS Ti2. I would like to cut a big rectangle in the main surface area and mount a Windows Tablet PC into it the slot with only the touch screen showing. Power and Midi made internally. This way my VIRUS would then run VST's, as well as it's own Editor from the Tablet's screen.

Very very tempted to do this.

Regards
Sharp.

QuiRobinez · Post by **QuiRobinez** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 3:09 pm

Sharp wrote: For a while now I've been toying with the idea of modifying my VIRUS Ti2. I would like to cut a big rectangle in the main surface area and mount a Windows Tablet PC into it the slot with only the touch screen showing. Power and Midi made internally. This way my VIRUS would then run VST's, as well as it's own Editor from the Tablet's screen.

that sounds really great!

but is a windows tablet pc nowadays fast enough to run vst's like for instance omnisphere or NI Massive?

keyboardcook · Post by **keyboardcook** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 3:47 pm

I'ver done this sort of mod in the past, building x86 architecture into boards and fitting touchscreens to them- about 12 years ago. Hmmm. Think someone copied my idea??

Anyway, from experience the one thing I would say is keep in mind upgrade ability. As machines get faster etc etc.

What about looking at a nano PC inside the unit and a touchscreen on top. No big hole to cut that way, just a small hole for screen interface. It would ultimately give you more power, and would also give you the option of building in your audio card.

I'm sure if you dug deep enough into the access you could find 2 amps of a 12v signal to run it all!!

keyboardcook · Post by **keyboardcook** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 3:53 pm

An interesting choice of modification to go for. DI-Boxes are fairly way down on my list of needs, but if you use them a lot I can see the benefit of this.

Was sucking my will to live!!

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 4:17 pm

keyboardcook wrote:
What about looking at a nano PC inside the unit and a touchscreen on top. No big hole to cut that way, just a small hole for screen interface. It would ultimately give you more power, and would also give you the option of building in your audio card.

I'm sure if you dug deep enough into the access you could find 2 amps of a 12v signal to run it all!!

similar DIY hacks have been discussed here in the past 4 yrs.
google the forum for any result

Post by **Sharp** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 4:17 pm

QuiRobinez wrote: that sounds really great!

but is a windows tablet pc nowadays fast enough to run vst's like for instance omnisphere or NI Massive?

I'm not sure, those two are known to be pretty heavy on CPU usage. With general run of the mill VST's I've no problems running a few of them at the same time on my i5 core tablet. The new Surface Pro 3 is available as with 8GB of RAM and an i7 processor, so that's probably a super fast tablet. Too darn sexy to mount inside the VIRUS though.

I've also been looking at putting an Intel NUC inside with a touch screen mounted like the OASYS display. There's quite a lot of space inside the VIRUS to go nuts.

Regards
Sharp.