Dwarf user since a month or so, just came here to say hi and thank MOD for creating this godsend. Already cleaned up my pedalboard space-wise (and got rid of my rack when playing live so less stuff to carry around).
Hi guys. Probably it’s time to say hello and write some bio about myself and why I like MOD.
I am a Russian DevOps / Linux systems engineer with at long lasting passion for making noises.
Not sure if I am a real musician - as soon as I do not have any education on that, and I had spread my efforts thin across too many instruments to achieve anything of value in anything particular. Started with bass, tried guitar, double bass, soprano-alt-bass recorders, xaphoon, clairnet, venova, hang drum, tank drum, korg wavedrum, kalimbas, even exotic stuff as shahi baaja, some other instruments. Made my own MIDI flute, MIDI controlled step motor synth, shovel electric slide guitar with homemade pickups, diy tap ladder, 3d printed flutes. At some point I’ve realized that it is clearly a GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) of some sort, and while attempts to bite every piece of gear and instrument I see are fun - it does not lead to anything that would be worth to write home about.
This autumn I’ve got instrument of my dreams - Chapman Stick, and decided to consolidate my efforts into it, as it is quite a universal instrument. That’s where MOD Duo X appeared in my life. I was fascinated by the idea much earlier, when the fist Mod Duo was on kickstart, but at that moment was not yet convinced.
First of all it is one of the few available FX processors capable of independent stereo, that makes it a perfect choice for Stick (that has independent pickup outputs for the bass and melody sides), at least for non-professional one as me it is more that I can ask.
MDX fits hard shell case of my Stick perfectly, like it is made for it I’ve taken a photo without MDX’s case itself to keep it recognizable, but with a case it fits just fine inside as well.
MDX guides my GAS towards safer direction, I can try every FX chain I want without investing into hoarding effects pedals and processors. Actually I cannot tell how great it is. I do not feel limited anymore, and stopped doing that crippled thinking that I need yet another device, there are no more excuses left - I have everything I need to make music, and if I do not - that’s not a gear problem, that’s a time to learn seriously.
Also, it is fun to see that MOD evolves, new plugins come, new features appear, it is like waiting for a Christmas present, always a novelty. (For comparison - good luck to have at least a bug fix for the known annoying issue from Roland for their devices)
My nerdy/geek needs are served well by MDX. Those who seen my wifi/bt troubleshooting threads and serial midi thread might have noticed that this was actual fun for me. I learned more about jack, kernel modules compilation, cross compilation, disassembling. There is even a source code to look into. MDX plays well with my DIY MIDI stuff (Guitar processor controlled by esp32 smartwatch for example) . I hope MDX will be flexible enough to replace my rc300 looper once I’ll be able to add some midi footswitches to it.
If I will get bored, CV universe is there as well, waiting for me, and I can try myself in programming LV2 modules some day. (Thinking about some one-man-band drum machine assist plugin, like digitech SDRUM).
Portability. Unfortunately, due to the awful recent well-known events I had to leave my homeland all of a sudden in a time window of 2 weeks, as my country tends to become a new North Korea and I have no desire to participate in that. (Sorry for mentioning politics here, but it is as it is). I had to leave all my 5 guitars and tons of gear behind in a haste, and I live in Tbilisi, Georgia currently. Everything musical that I could take with me - was a Stick, MDX, Korg nanokey keyboard, expression pedal and my diy midi flute. Due to this sudden nomadic life style, I cannot afford to own more than I can lift at once physically, and that’s a moment for MDX to shine again.
Hoping that was not a too big wall of text to read)
No worries, you have quite of a story to tell and it is super interesting to read. I think that the GAS thing is something that many of us can relate to and your experience to overcome it is quite insightful.
You mentioned here a few interesting things and I would personally be interested in watching and learning more. The DIY stuff or the MIDI-controlled step motor synth really caught my attention. You should share some videos with us…
…but I guess you had to leave it behind that is really shameful! Not going into politics either, but I personally believe that nowadays it’s even quite stupid to act like this and disrupt the lives of others and even our people…We live in an age of communication and where -for good and for bad -everything and everyone is at a distance of a click - like me and you talking from Berlin to Tiblisi right now. Napolean or Hitler’s times are long gone and regardless of how imperealist, egocentric or simply stupid we are, nowadays there’s no benefit to such actions, even if you want to dominate the world or just one little corner more (at least this is what I believe).
Anyway, please keep sharing your work with us. Just to help you a bit with your GAS thing…
please share some music/jam video with us of how you implement this I’m curious
My name is Michael and I live in Rome. Just trying a Duo X that I borrowed, but I might buy it if it all works well.
I’m mostly an ambient guitar player (check my nickname!) and was attracted to MOD after watching Chords of Orion’s videos. Hope I can recreate the atmospheric sounds from his videos and also loop on top of them.
Hey @mj_prod, thanks for that! MB Ninth Wave is totally my thing.
(For some reason I’m not allowed to include links)
Hi @Shavyn, grazie mille. I am actually from Michigan USA, raised in Argentina, but living in Italy since last year. My Italian still sucks big time… Non capisco!!!
Hello, my name is lambrosgg. I came here to ask a question about the Mod Dwarf I ordered and waiting to arrive soon. Please don’t torture me further by forcing me to make non-sense posts like this, that no one cares, just to be able to post my question. I don’t feel “included” or “part of a community” by doing this, I feel like an idiot.
What’s the purpose of having a support forum when you can’t post your question immediately?
Guess what, that’s when people create an account on any new forum: They have a question.
If the concern is bots, there should be a captcha at the sign up process.
I hope after “introducing myself” (for no reason) I will be able to ask my question about using your product.
I am very happy to welcome you here in the mod devices forum.
Sorry for the inconvenience, now I raised your trust level so that you can post your own topics.
Thanks for telling us something about you, we all are humans after all and getting to know something about fellow mod users is just natural.
Feel free to ask, but maybe someone has asked before…use the magnifying glass for searching.
Just another thing, there are no dumb questions, and we all are learning something every day.
Thanks for the fast reply and elevating my account. I didn’t really introduce myself, I posted a complain about having to do an introduction on a support forum. Part of the complain was that no one cares about my introduction and the fact that you “thanked me for telling you something about myself” proves my point: You didn’t read it yourself and NO ONE cares about myself on a support forum and that’s ok!.
Don’t try to make us feel included or part of a community by forcing us to do that introduction, or anything for that matter. Make me feel included by letting me post my question immediately: People make accounts on forums when they want to post a question and there should NOT be any requirements to be able to do it!
However, since this is your site and you make the rules, if you want to have requirements, they need to be stated somewhere obvious, so I know what I have to do in order to be able to post a question.
Don’t waste my time making me look around the site on what I have to do to be able to participate, don’t waste your time having to personally activate my account and type a reply, don’t waste other people’s time on the post I had to hijack because you basically forced me so.
I was SO excited when I saw this forum exists and scrolled through the so many interesting posts, it was one of the reasons I ordered a Mod Dwarf. You can imagine how I felt when I was unable to post even after I went through all the trouble of the “introduction” and talking to a literal bot with PMs…
Thanks again, I hope the forum becomes more welcoming for future new members.
Actually many of us read it and we all learnt a lot about you as a result. We learned that you don’t like how this forum is configured and in fact you were so irritated by its new user limits that you let yourself be entirely antisocial.
Personally, I like coming to this forum and reading people’s introductions. Maybe I’m weird.