MOD DUO - Linux Open Source Expandable Guitar Pedal

Started by admin, August 10, 2015, 02:07:26 PM

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vtgearhead

Has Mod Duo gone belly-up already?  Their website at portalmod.com has been MIA for the past two days.  I can get to the Wiki, but that has no sales information (links to the aforementioned URL).


lumena

#28
I have thought about this...

is anybody else looking at Max7 coding for Gen objects?
I am just starting with Max but mostly have been looking at video things. Not lost in anyway in Ableton or midi etc.
There is a Max and MaxforLive  stuff out there so porting to the pedal may not be that hard. I think mostly conceptualizing what would be best to use it for is really the big part of something like this. Things like big reverb and delays are pretty covered with boxes like the H9 and Strymon, so it would be only for more specialized uses that it would become a viable solution. If you have ideas about this let me know.

I noticed in some of the comments on the Cycling74 site... cpu usage for things like reverb might not be ideal. This type of code is not as optimized as in boxes mentioned above...however some unique types of reverbs/feedback matrixes etc might be good candidates.
-- comments from Cycling74
@stew -- I loaded up the gen~ dattorro reverb example on the MOD Duo. I modified this example to be stereo and reached 80% CPU on the Duo with 4x Stereo Dattorro Reverbs in one instance. 

The equivalent patcher on a 2012 MBP sees me at 20% CPU usage in Max. Worth noting the Dattorro is really heavy on CPU and won't be as heavy as glitch, granular type effects on the DUO

@ARABRAB Looks like you missed a few details --- to clarify, that's FOUR custom stereo Dattorro Reverbs in one patch on the MOD Duo running at once (a pretty far fetched user case scenario for the sake of stretching the CPU).
This is the equivalent of 8x the version you can find in the gen~ examples folder inside Max. Personally I've run upwards of 7 separate gen~ patches, with a sequencer & signal generator all within the DUO and not seen more than 30%
Also the price of the MOD Duo is actually €549.00 for Max users ;)
--


It's worth thinking about how programming FX can be a useful part of your personal sound explorations/projects. I do know from personal experience that even adapting code can be quite time intensive.
As far as totally new directions for sound. I am not sure how much more can be done without going to samplers/synths and then it becomes what control sources are usefully extracted from the played notes... e.g. frequency based envelopes to extract control signals to drive midi.

Would love to hear more ideas about what could be interesting. Lots of these things are available to test in Ableton/MaxforLive so if someone was inclined in that direction I would be interested in helping in the explorations. Elantric if you start working on programming I would love to hear about what things are working for you.

L>

admin

#29
Quote from: lumena on August 09, 2017, 08:11:59 AM
I have thought about this...

is anybody else looking a Max coding for Gen objects?

L>

Quite possibly the Blokas Team PiSound RPI hat

https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=20409.0

QuoteWe have reached our third and the last Stretch Goal - how cool is that!
As promised, we will introduce an easy way for you to play around with LV2 plugins using Pisound board and our mobile app. Like with Pure Data patches we will be posting some open source LV2 plugins on PatchStorage.

There are less than 72 hours left until the end of our campaign
If you know someone who would be interested in getting Pisound for a lower price it's the best time to let them know.

Progress Updates
We have been really busy working on delivering the stretch goals and finally, we have some tangible progress updates!

Mobile App
Watch on YouTube
For the earliest prototype of the mobile app we focused on the main and most difficult part of the application which also makes up the bulk of the functionality - getting a list of available patches from a service running on Raspberry Pi, launching the patches and getting the output from Pure Data forwarded to the mobile screen. The next steps will involve polishing the user interface, porting the app to iOS and rigorous testing of the software, so it works in live and studio scenarios as reliably as possible.

Pisound & LV2 Plugins - MODEP
Watch on YouTube
Even though we have just reached the LV2 stretch goal, we have already prepared an exciting project for you to try out with Pisound - an LV2 plugins host by MOD Devices (https://moddevices.com/) ported for use with Pisound. We call it MODEP. There are already 144 LV2 plugins available to play around with, and we have customized The Button to enable switching straight to the desired pedalboard. See http://blokas.io/pisound/docs/MODEP/ for more information on the project.

Thanks again for your support and stay tuned for our future updates!
Any questions or feedback? Chat with us at http://community.blokas.io

Cheers, Blokas Team

lumena

I will give that a look.
I am not however going to start with Processing or PI. Solid environments but I don't know what I may want to do in the future and a solid platform is a well funded one.
The whole reinventing the wheel thing with each new environment is not for me, as an musician/artist I want to make finished sound/visual pieces.
My experience has been that Ableton and Max are a much more friendly environment and you get to music in a much quicker way.
Using maxforlive you can also end up with a modular setup were you can string various devices up without redoing old ideas just to get to the new one. Since Ableton has bought Cycling74 you can see the writing on the wall. The language to be using is what will be supported in the future, besides there is a great codebase already out there which only requires slight modifications to become portable to web,ipad etc. and there are even connections to AR/VR which may not be so meaningless in the near future.

If you are doing something in Processing I would love to hear it - I have seen some quite compelling things done with it.

vtgearhead

#31
Quote from: admsustainiac on August 09, 2017, 08:04:27 AM
URL works here
http://moddevices.com

https://shop.moddevices.com/products/mod-duo-non-eu-uk

Thanks!  That works.  Odd that neither the old Kickstarter page nor the Wiki have a link to the "moddevices.com" site.

Update: I sent Gianfranco a note and he's updated the link on the Wiki.  The Kickstarter page link should have redirected (but was not).  He's looking into it.






Elantric

Review

http://cyfrowogitarowo.pl/archiwa/3023
MOD Duo: a completely unusual multi on Linux
The duo made by the Berlin company Mod Devices is a floor effect in which you can close even the most twisted virtual pedalboards. In addition to the amplifiers and effects that every guitarist knows, you'll find in it, for example, such trivia as polyphonic synthesizers or MIDI sequencers. And if you do not have an effect, you can program it yourself - of course if you can.



If someone remembers a device such as Muse Research Receptor or SM Pro V-Machine, it is on the right track to answer what MOD Duo is. This seemingly minimalist multi-effect is an independent, hardware environment for running audio plug-ins. Unlike the Recorder or V-Machine, Duo is not based on VST plugins, but LV2 plugins working in a Linux environment.

You can also run plugins written in Max / MSP or Pure Data. If the choice of this operating system seems strange to you, take into account that different Linkuks variants have long been successful in audio equipment (for example, the Yamaha Motif synthesizer works on it). In addition, the openness of the whole environment means that there are a lot of paid and free plug-ins available on the market, which in addition can still be created by yourself.

Work on Mod began 10 years ago, when the CEO of Gianfranco Ceccolini decided to create a multi-effect for himself, which will finally meet his needs. This action led to financing the Kickstarter project in 2014 and later its further development. As a result, I received an effect for testing, which is already a mature product and although free from childhood diseases is still developed and easily available on-line.

Construction and interfaces
The multi-effect, or rather the host for any kind of audio plug-ins, is reminiscent of the M5. The solid aluminum casing on both sides hides two independent signal paths, which if you like can become, on one or both sides, a stereo pair. This means that we can connect to the Duo, for example, a guitar and a microphone, fasten it to the amplifier with the use of 4 cables or use it as a stereo effect connected to the miscellaneous. Small diodes located on the upper panel above each of the sockets serve as a control indicator.



The back of the housing seems rather modest ... but the devil is in the details. Large USB is used to connect to a computer, small is a USB MIDI host and we can connect to it, e.g. a keyboard or insert a receiver from Fishman Triple Play, or wireless guitar-MIDI converter. The Ethernet connector can be used to connect a dedicated foot controller. The set of interfaces is complemented by MIDI 5 DIN input and output and headphone output (left side of the housing).

Navigation and possibilities
The top of the device is the space control and management center. On the upper panel you will find two foot switches (true bypass done on relays), which can be freely programmed and switch using them, for example between virtual pedals and activate / deactivate effects. In turn, two encoder knobs (with a push-push switch) are used to navigate the parameters of individual plug-ins and access to menus, pedalboards. We can assign to them even a few selected parameters at a time and have direct access to them.

The whole is complemented by two monochromatic screens. They are large and clear, but the sum is not much on them. Or differently: we see the necessary minimum, which is the most important thing. The whole situation changes diametrically when we enter the "inside" Duo from the level of the web browser! Anyway, look at it.







In the effects library, you have over 200 free and paid plug-ins that can be expanded with more items. This collection makes an impression, and pudding your own floor boils down to dragging and dropping effects, and then combining them in any way. If you like pasta or modular synthesizers, then you can motivate and tangle. It is simple and intuitive.



Possibilities and sound
I will return to the hardware layer for a moment. The Linux heart is supported by a very good audio track based on the Cirrus Logica system. This part should be a plus. The issue of delays introduced by the entire system is slightly less rosy. MOD Devices itself states that the latency is 8 ms. It does not bother me, but with effects such as pitch shifter or reverb-based reverbs, this value will be worse and for some ears it may be a problem.



As for the quality of the effects, it is good. I think that everyone would find something pleasing to the ear, especially in the arsenal of spatial effects. All filters and cubes that enter the synthesizer territory are very interesting. However, I already had a problem with the amplifiers. Such GX Alembic (simulation of the Alembic F-2B preamp) with the pulse-based GX Cabinet package played really good for me. But in this aspect it is different here. Maybe it's my ear, or maybe the expectation that the multi costing 674 euros should be played more like top Helix or Ax processors. And I would like to add that I am more concerned with the direct impression of the game than with the sound after recording.

Fortunately, MOD Duo is not just amplifiers. With the whole arsenal of effects that this toddler has on board can create a lot of sounds in combination with a classic amplifier, vocals or keys ( here review ).
https://pedalboards.moddevices.com/plugins?random=b7cb447a5ca44761b3fc292154601204

I think that the more someone searches for their sound, the more they like unusual "sounds", the more this cube is for him.

It seems to me that Duo can also be a real treat for synthesizers. Built-in MIDI tools, generators, converters, filters, Clock generator, sequencers, harmoniser, etc. are just waiting to be combined. Anyway, look at the base of shared pedals yourself .
https://pedalboards.moddevices.com/

The library is so well structured that you can not only see, read but also listen to it as something plays.



For example, I really liked that I could connect Fishman TriplePlay to Duo as a "keyboard" of MIDI and a guitar. I did not need anything else, because inside I had a whole collection of MDA sound modules (DX10, JX10, ePiano, etc.) and other MIDI instruments. MOD Duo inspires, encourages you to search, but you have to remember that two footswirches and two knobs to control it is definitely not enough. Without some MIDI floor, you will not get around ...
And one more thing: MOD Devices has already announced MOD Duo X - a processor with 10 encoders, support for CV signal and four function keys. The price remains virtually unchanged, but the direction is clearly visible. Depriving the device of footswitches and outputting so many controllers to the front panel evidently makes it a device that will land next to synthesizers, lanchpads, etc.

And finally, see how it looks like creating your own digital effect in Max / MSP.



Dimensions: 180x160x74,7 mm
Weight: 1,2 kg
Price: 674 EUR
Info, video: MOD Devices
https://www.moddevices.com/