MOD Device (Dwarf/Duo/Duo X) owners' club - Tips, Ideas & Patches

[Woodinblack]

I think that is the thing, I can get a good distortion or drive, certainly close enough for gigging, once you are at a gig it's hard to tell even if the distortion is on let alone the type. I assume it can't emulate something like an octave which I have been unsuccessful in finding a decent one of, or a synth pedal. I think if I was a guitarist it might be more interesting.

I have got rid of all other pedals at the moment although probably will get something to do a decent  pedal that doesn't take room

[MrDinsdale]

6 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

I think that is the thing, I can get a good distortion or drive, certainly close enough for gigging, once you are at a gig it's hard to tell even if the distortion is on let alone the type. I assume it can't emulate something like an octave which I have been unsuccessful in finding a decent one of, or a synth pedal. I think if I was a guitarist it might be more interesting.

I have got rid of all other pedals at the moment although probably will get something to do a decent  pedal that doesn't take room

It’s only really amp/preamps I think, it can emulate gain and EQ shaping, I think it even manages to replicate some of the “squish” but can’t do time based emulation. 
 

With an octave it would need to be able to track etc. I’ve found the GxOC-2 on the Dwarf a little bit underwhelming tbf. Such a shame that the input latency is so bad on the Dwarf as it’s not really capable of running stuff in an fx loop. Tempted to grab an OC-5 for my board. 

[MrDinsdale]

The new Rude drive is excellent on bass. It’s one of the first digital distortions I’ve tried that sounded great out of the box, almost captures the sound of my favourite EAE Longsword pedal. 

[MrDinsdale]

It’s a paid add on though. 

[tauzero]

Bug fix release is out.

[SamIAm]

Bit of a bargain to be had!

 

[Woodinblack]

This doesn't seem promising - is this a fail or a setting does anyone know? I mean I know it is a fail, but I  read somewhere that the outputs are balanced, so maybe there is an option to set it to not balanced that I haven't found?

 

I didn't realise i posted 2 videos, but now added a youtube format video as well!

 

 

[rwillett]

I can’t see any video? Just me or everyone?

[MrDinsdale]

The second video played for me but not the first.

 

It showed no audio coming out of the device until the output jack was pulled out about a cm.

 

I've never had that issue, is it a mono jack?

[MrDinsdale]

According to the spec on the sales page:

 

Dual 6.35mm TRS independent audio outputs, with gain configurable from 0dB to -127dB, balanced or unbalanced

[Woodinblack]

Indeed - normally I would just assume it is screwed (and it probably is), but wondered after reading it was a trs, if there was some option. I am guessing  not, so I am assuming I will have to see how bassdirects famed customer support is

 

[Woodinblack]

20 minutes ago, MrDinsdale said:

Dual 6.35mm TRS independent audio outputs, with gain configurable from 0dB to -127dB, balanced or unbalanced

 

Balanced or unbalanced configurable? hmm.. I will have to see if I can find an option..

[tauzero]

It's an odd one, as if the jack socket tip wasn't making contact but when you pull it partly out the ring (balanced -) makes contact so you get the signal. Knackered jack socket, failed solder joint? And have you tried with a different lead (not that I think that should make any difference, but worth a check).

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, tauzero said:

It's an odd one, as if the jack socket tip wasn't making contact but when you pull it partly out the ring (balanced -) makes contact so you get the signal. Knackered jack socket, failed solder joint? And have you tried with a different lead (not that I think that should make any difference, but worth a check).

 

Indeed - several different leads, definitely the socket. I will try it with a stereo lead this week and see what comes out of what. I assume it is a knackered socket, and if it was less than a year old I would just open it and fix it but it is still under warantee so don't want to open it.

[MrDinsdale]

On 09/12/2023 at 17:21, Woodinblack said:

 

Indeed - several different leads, definitely the socket. I will try it with a stereo lead this week and see what comes out of what. I assume it is a knackered socket, and if it was less than a year old I would just open it and fix it but it is still under warantee so don't want to open it.

Ahhh yeah always go with warranty, probably a bad joint or something.

[MrDinsdale]

Well I’ve had my Dwarf up for sale for a while now since getting the GT1000core.

 

Had another play on it earlier just to try a few things, it sounds incredible. Think I might just hang onto it and keep it plugged in on my desk permanently.

 

The AIDA-X showcase is excellent, I plugged my guitar in and it instantly sounded better than my GT1000 guitar patch. Looking forward to see what they do with a dedicated Bass preamp plugin, I know it’s in the works but curious if they’ll go the tried and tested SVT route or perhaps something more modern. 
 

That being said there’s something great about being able to stitch the different preamps and tube emulations together to create something more personalised. I managed to get really close to the sound from the Capo.

 

Previously I’d have said drives were a weak point for me on the Dwarf but the new Rude drive is incredible.

 

So yeah still weighing it up but essentially the GT1000 stays because I can hook it into my existing bass pedalboard and add effects where I want between and around my dedicated pedals. The Dwarf definitely sounds better and is way more flexible, it’s just not really suitable for a place on my board due to connectivity. I think just for the reverbs and delays though it’s worth keeping, you can do some pretty amazing stuff which I thought I could emulate on the Core but no bueno.

[pslh]

I thought it was about time I posted here to say that I bought a Dwarf a few months ago, have used it on three jazz gigs and numerous practice sessions: generally speaking I am very happy with it.

 

I am using the Dwarf for multiple bass effects but have not used any amp/cab simulations, or AIDA/NAM as yet.  I am happy with my amp and cab (Euphonic Audio iAmp micro 550 and Barefaced gen 3 Super Midget) and given that the Dwarf has so many plugins and parameters to play with, I have found it more productive to limit scope to effects for now.

 

I uploaded the latest iteration of my Dwarf gig pedalboard earlier on today: https://pedalboards.moddevices.com/pedalboards/658c71761c4c6382b758d8db in case anyone is interested.  I had problems getting the autowah/q-tron plugins working the way I wanted so I experimented with some CV modules driving a normal wah pedal, I dare say there are other ways of approaching this problem, but this seems to work quite well for me.

 

On 10/12/2023 at 21:27, MrDinsdale said:

Previously I’d have said drives were a weak point for me on the Dwarf but the new Rude drive is incredible.

 

I tried the Rude and quite like it but right now I am using the Giutarix Tim Ray which I find works well for me in both low-gain settings and full-on fuzz silliness.

 

On 16/09/2023 at 11:24, MrDinsdale said:

I’ve found the GxOC-2 on the Dwarf a little bit underwhelming tbf.

 

The MDA SubSynth with type==Invert works well for me as an octave-synth style pedal.  I normally use a crossover configured so that only frequencies above 200Hz are sent to the SubSynth while the lower frequencies are mixed back in afterwards; this way I still get the "weight" of the octaver even on low notes with a six-string but without things getting muddy or having to worry about potentially damaging equipment when playing at volume.

 

On 10/12/2023 at 21:27, MrDinsdale said:

I think just for the reverbs and delays though it’s worth keeping

 

I agree with this; I have sort of played with reverbs and delays before, but I have never had so many great-sounding options so readily available to me before.

 

I also want to mention the MOD forum https://forum.mod.audio/ and the community there.  I posted there asking how to switch between different signal paths, in particular to be able to switch between No Reverb/Normal Reverb/Shimmer Reverb by repeatedly pressing a MIDI foot-switch.  A few days later, one of the community members, Zwabo, built a plugin (Ztoggle4) that does exactly what I needed and shared it with everyone; I think this is a fantastic example of how having an open platform and an active community can really make a difference.

 

So, I am a very happy customer, I have only used a small fraction of the capabilities of the Dwarf so far, but already I think it is fantastic value for money and I am glad I did not opt for one of the more "conventional" products. 

[MrDinsdale]

That’s super handy @pslh!

 

I really liked the Tim Ray, it works great with the OCD copy and the Boobtube plugin (despite the cringy name). In fact the OCD (OJD?) was one of my faves apart from its high CPU usage, I suspect it’s a poorly optimised port. 
 

Super impressed with the Dwarf. I think one of the biggest issues is the ecosystem, effects are really missing ratings and categorisation so it’s so hard to find what you want. Theres a lot of time investment in trial and error before you can really get anywhere. I was trying to find a RAT style drive and ended up having to audition 20 drives to find something close.

 

Also a simplified board that could be edited on-device would help too!

[rwillett]

52 minutes ago, MrDinsdale said:

That’s super handy @pslh!

 

I really liked the Tim Ray, it works great with the OCD copy and the Boobtube plugin (despite the cringy name). In fact the OCD (OJD?) was one of my faves apart from its high CPU usage, I suspect it’s a poorly optimised port. 
 

Super impressed with the Dwarf. I think one of the biggest issues is the ecosystem, effects are really missing ratings and categorisation so it’s so hard to find what you want. Theres a lot of time investment in trial and error before you can really get anywhere. I was trying to find a RAT style drive and ended up having to audition 20 drives to find something close.

 

Also a simplified board that could be edited on-device would help too!

 

Completely agree, I work in IT and should not find the Mod Dwarf intimidating but I do. It's hard work to get into it and make it sing. I suppose I could compare Amplitube and Bias FX 2 to a Windows computer as it's easy to get going and Mod Dwarf to a Unix box, difficult to get into and to make things happen easily but once you do understand it, incredibly powerful. As someone who has made a good career out of Unix, I am mortified I can't make the Mod Dwarf do what I want with zero issues 😩

 

New year and all that, so I'll have another go. 

 

Rob

[SamIAm]

2 hours ago, MrDinsdale said:

That’s super handy @pslh!

 

I really liked the Tim Ray, it works great with the OCD copy and the Boobtube plugin (despite the cringy name). In fact the OCD (OJD?) was one of my faves apart from its high CPU usage, I suspect it’s a poorly optimised port. 
 

Super impressed with the Dwarf. I think one of the biggest issues is the ecosystem, effects are really missing ratings and categorisation so it’s so hard to find what you want. Theres a lot of time investment in trial and error before you can really get anywhere. I was trying to find a RAT style drive and ended up having to audition 20 drives to find something close.

 

Also a simplified board that could be edited on-device would help too!

Totally agree with this!

Dox on plugins could do with much improvement!  There seems to be a code stream that will allow drag and drop replacement of plugins which will ease picking from the potential candidates with reduced effort, fingers crossed it drops soon!

For me the biggest missings are

No support for any form of pedalboard editing on the device, as you say even a simplified capability would be a huge win.

WiFi hotspot support.

Audio interface support.

 

Despite all of this, I am getting great results from my Dwarf and am fiddling more with modelling as I recently acquired and amp with direct line in to the power amp section.

 

 

Sam x

 

[pslh]

6 hours ago, MrDinsdale said:

Also a simplified board that could be edited on-device would help too!

 

4 hours ago, SamIAm said:

For me the biggest missings are

No support for any form of pedalboard editing on the device, as you say even a simplified capability would be a huge win

 

My only experience with on-board editing is with the Zoom MS-60B which has a roughly similar number of physical rotary controls and buttons to the Dwarf but has a far, far simpler approach to "pedalboards" and "plugins", and in particular with a single, linear signal path.  I struggle to imagine how the small mono chrome screen and limited controls could allow a user to navigate the arbitrary signal path and enormous number of plugins and parameters.  I would see value in a simplified UI which works effectively via a Bluetooth connected smartphone, it is already possible to connect and edit this way, but only if you are patient/desperate.  An optimized UI for mobile phones connected via BT, without the very high-definition graphics might be a better solution for those situations where you don't have a PC but want to be able to edit a pedalboard.

 

4 hours ago, SamIAm said:

WiFi hotspot support

This would also be cool, and might be enough for some users to solve the moblie-UI issue. 

 

4 hours ago, SamIAm said:

Audio interface support

I have also been thinking about this, there are some pretty good audio interfaces out there for not a lot of money, I think I would probably buy a separate device and leave the Dwarf CPU cycles free for effects/sims. The posts/wiki page I saw describing the current experimental status suggests that the latency is pretty high compared to a budget USB audio interface.

 

4 hours ago, SamIAm said:

Dox on plugins could do with much improvement

This is an important one, some of the plugins are quite well documented, the Looperlative plugins for example; others have basically no documentation at all.  The Dwarf has quite a steep learning curve, in part due to its power and sophistication but at least in part due to poor or missing documentation.

 

7 hours ago, MrDinsdale said:

effects are really missing ratings and categorisation so it’s so hard to find what you want

 

I agree with this too, the existing single category (Reverb/Spatial/Distortion...) system is better than nothing but insufficient and user-supplied reviews/ratings could be quite useful.  Similarly for pedalboards, I found it quite interesting and instructive to see how other users have constructed their boards but it is not always easy to find relevant boards.  

 

 

 

[MrDinsdale]

The Boss GT1000core is a great example of being able to manage relatively complex signal chains. It’s a lot more linear than the MOD UI but still supports 3 parallel signal blocks/chains.

 

 

I think something similar could work well for MOD although I do think it’d need to be somewhat restricted to be more linear. The CV stuff would be tricky. 

[SamIAm]

I agree @MrDinsdale, even if the onboard display could not express the richness of a fully wired Web built pedalboard, it could at the very least support less complex networks, or even just being able to select a plugin and change it (There are i/o issues here that might mean some restriction/simplification like mono vs stereo).

The ability also to scroll all the plugins on a pedalboard and tweak any of its parameters (without having to in advance assign it to an onboard knob/switch) would be great ... and should be fairly straightforward to implement in a metadriven fashion using the LV2 config files.

 

Fundamental (I feel)  to any of this is the need for the current HMI logic to be exposed as a documented API to allow access to some of the current stuff as well as more basic graphics primitives, the capability of the actual onboard display is nicely illustrated in the new tuner code that Brummer implemented ... just need to expose that to code living outside the propriety MODos stuff.

 

Royal Mail promises to be delivering my Pi5 tomorrow, so I might even have another go at a Pi/HiFiberry system. The PiStomp has what it calles deep plugin editing and it is basically an add on to the MOD OSS stuff.

Sam x

[MrDinsdale]

@SamIAm that looks like a fun project!

 

Yeah even if you couldn’t add/remove on the device but you could traverse all the plugins in the chain sequentially like on the Boss to tweak it’d be a great improvement.

 

Perhaps if the new swap functionality is implemented you’d be able to switch compatible effects.

 

All feels like a really long way off achieving something as complex as that give how thinly stretched they are.

[SamIAm]

1 hour ago, MrDinsdale said:

All feels like a really long way off achieving something as complex as that give how thinly stretched they are.

Sadly that is my perception. A paradigm shift to leverage the OSS community could help resolve this… there seem a fair number of skilled and interested folks on the MOD forum … just need some QA oversight in place to make sure it doesn’t get messy!

Sam x