Many newbie questions

Hi,

I came across the Mod Duo. I was looking for something that is very generic, has quality sound and is programmable to some extend. I would like to understand a couple of things about it.

  1. I am used to using presets. For example switching from a chorus/delay sound, to something entirely different like a distorted sound with octaver should be possible by pressing a foot switch. Is this possible? Can I browse through presets using the foot switches? Or would I need an external foot switch (is that possible)?

  2. Do I understand correctly that one plugs in this device directly between an instrument (guitar) and a power amp section? There is no need for a pre-amp (because of all the simulators)?

  3. Can I use it in combination with my two favorite, analogue pre-amps? I guess I would need something like a MIDI controlled A/B switch for amp switching, and a MIDI controlled relay switch for channel switching. Or a loop station all together. Can I program such devices in a preset?

  4. Would it be possible to start and stop a audio sample using the Mod Duo, ideally having that sound send to output2, while having the guitar sound being send to output2 ? Or even better, having that sample sound being send to the headphone output, so I can mis-use that as a separated, extra stereo output?

Cheers,
Kjeld

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No need for an external foot switch, this can be done using just the 2 switched on the mod. The MOD however is different from typical multi-FX units because it is more of a virtual pedalboard than a virtual rack if that makes sense. You could easily build a pedalboard that produces a wide variety of sounds and save many presets with all sorts of varying tones. You can also configure the switches to switch between whole different pedalboards. Pedalboards can be downloaded and shared from https://pedalboards.moddevices.com/ and you can browse them right now to see (and hear samples of) what others have done. Most I have seen only have a couple different tones, usually switched by an A/B pedal the exception I can think of are the complex boards @solobasssteve sets up.

Not that you can’t do complex boards easily, but you have to know what you want and I think most guitarists needs within a single song are much simpler. Between songs you can switch pedalboards and get the two or three different tones you need for that one.

It can work either way. There are some pre-amp sims, but many users here are using a full amp head because the real thing is better than the sims on the mod. For me personally, I don’t have an amp, so I use the amp and cab sims and they’re good enough, but I don’t gig on guitar.

yes, using plugins such as the infamous Mindi you can send midi messages when switching presets or pedalboards to configure outboard gear.

Short answer: no, not at this time.
Long answer: if you write an lv2 plugin to do it and load your samples over ssh, its possible. Or you could even contribute to the MOD software (since its open source). I understand not many people have skills to do this, but because mod is open source anyone who wants it bad enough can add it. I believe its on the roadmap to be added, but the timeline isn’t clear.

I hope you do get a Duo, they’re amazing little devices!
Best of luck with the decision! Ask for further clarification if any of that doesn’t make sense.

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@jk_sigtermans

One of the great parts about the Duo is the community it comes with, as exemplified by the contributions of @ssj71 and numerous others.

One other note is that headphones receive the master Out, there’s no way to separately route to them like for click tracks for example.

Regarding the ability to play audio files - that’s also something I hope for. My best guess is that that kind of functionality is a ways down the roadmap as they’ll need to define and implement a storage API / protocol. What ssj71 proposes is that someone could write a plugin that would be able to read files from your computer for playback. Another approach could be a tool that allows users to ‘roll their own’ plugin that would embed audio files into the plugin available as presets or options. Other less-than-ideal options could include sending MIDI out to something external which would play audio into one of the Duo inputs.

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@unbracketed @ssj71 Thank you both for responding quickly and in detail.

Actually I am both a guitar player and Java programmer, so maybe in the near future I could help write such a plugin. I’d like to first take a look at the general API documentation, if possible.

The approach I am thinking of, is a simple sampler (SiSa? SimSam? ) that takes input from the input connectors. It could record a sample from one or both inputs (mono/stereo) and then keep that sample, or multiple samples, in memory for at least the lifecycle of the pedalboard. Obviously one could then play back the sample on either one or both outputs.
This would classify the pedal in the tape recorder or delay family… I guess (thinking of looping, a popular way of making music these days).

About the Duo: I just would like to make clear I want to be able to easily switch between multiple totally different presets while playing live on stage.
Let’s say I want to play Purple Rain by Prince. First I need to switch to a clean chorus sound, but then I quickly need to switch to a fully distorted lead sound. And back. Then a little crunch. Et cetera.
A little more complexity added: I would like to achieve this with my two analogue pre-amps; a clean pre-amp and a high gain pre-amp. I guess having each one connected to either input of the Duo and by using that Mindi plugin to be able to toggle an external A/B switch that switches the guitar sound to either one.
Even more complex: I would like to also be able to control another external MIDI relay switch, so I can switch channels on the clean pre-amp (clean/crunch).

So, can all this be done with… maybe two Mindi plugins (one for the AB and one for the relay)? For the preset switching I described, is it really not necessary to use an external footswitch (like the XF4)?

Example A/B switch: http://www.soundsculpture.com/abcadabra
Example Relay switch: http://www.soundsculpture.com/footsim

Actually I was thinking more a like @jk_sigtermans mentions, a simple sampler plugin. Once the plugin is there one could write a small app that does a scp for the selected file to the mod and writes a preset file that makes the plugin load the proper file. I used a preset per file method in a chiptune LV2 synth I wrote. I’m pretty confident it will work without too much pain, the downside being it wouldn’t feel very slick to sideload the files on, then probably reboot the duo so that the new preset shows in the plugin.

Awesome. There are no Java api’s for lv2 but if you are willing to learn some c/c++ it’ll be straightforward.
I recommend reading the official book about lv2 plugins: http://lv2plug.in/book/
and MOD’s wiki has a lot of good data, but right now its a bit scattered. https://wiki.moddevices.com/wiki/Main_Page
Definitely start with trying to make a desktop lv2 plugin before you get into cross compiling for the mod.

I can say with confidence yes thats 100% possible you just have to make the pedalboard that can do that. There is a CPU limitation to how many effects will work in a pedalboard (depends on which plugins you use), but thats pretty much the only limit.

if either of you (or anybody else) wants to make the simple sampler I could definitely give pointers as you’re working on it. Either way I’ll add that to my very long backlog of things to develop. :grimacing:

Cheers and best of luck!

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Thank you.

One more thing… when Googling Mod Duo is see a discount of US$100 everywhere, but not at the MODDevices shop. Eur 674,-- is not nothing. Is there a sale I should be aware of?

Cheers,
Kjeld

Hi @jk_sigtermans

Welcome to the world of MOD :slight_smile:

The discount you mention was probably the one we had at the end of last year, for the holidays. We don’t have any special offers going on at the moment.

Cheers!

Ok, bummer I missed out on that one.

Meanwhile, I am still not convinced the Mod Duo is the solution for me. For me it is really important to be able to change sounds easily and quickly.

I have found a manual (online wiki) but it does not literally describe how I would achieve my goal to be able to change from clean, to chorus, to chorus with delay, to crunch with no effects, to high gain with delay, using my own amp. It just basically says it is possble to assign the footswitches to activating pedals, OR switching pedalboards.

To be able to not having to carry around as much stuff anymore, I bought a BluGuitar AMP1, which has four built-in pre-amps, a send/return loop in which the Mod Duo would be connected, a power amp, and MIDI support for changing pre-amps, boost, etc.

So, do I understand correctly: for each preset one would create an entire virtual pedalboard. The Mod Duo would be configured in such a way, the two footswitches would change back/forth through the pedalboards.

So, I would have to create copies of the same pedalboard, but one with delay switched on, off, etc.

Also, the pedalboards would have a MIDI pedal (Mindi) which would send a MIDI CC to my AMP1, each time that pedalboard is activated?

@ssj71 I tried to discover this in your discription, the online manual, several YouTube videos, the library of pedalboards, but no luck. I really would need a more detailed description of how the Mod Duo is operated, especially in the context I need it.

Cheers,
Kjeld

Hello @jk_sigtermans

The MOD DUO allows you to have multiple pedalboards but the presets are created within each pedalboard. So you don´t need to create several copies of the same pedalbord to achieve your goal.

I´ve created one basic pedalboard that cover most of my needs just using different presets.
Take a look at these 2 examples:


Just like @rogeriocouto says, you can do it this way, but its not a great way to do it because pedalboards can take several seconds to load (it has to close all the current plugins and open the new ones). Pedalboard presets are saved settings of a pedal board so with 1 click all the knobs and switches on the current pedalboard move to the new positions. So instead of a new pedalboard with just the delay changed, you have a different preset, this time with the delay switched on, that will load immediately so you can do it between the pre-chorus and chorus, for example. Presets save the current state of a pedalboard. Like a guitar tech taking a picture of a physical pedalboard you set in rehearsal then running on stage turning all the knobs and switches to that exact position, only faster and cheaper. :slight_smile: Does that make sense?

Its likely the documentation is old, since pedalboard presets is one of the newer features.

yes, or pedalboard presets can change them.

Somebody should make a youtube demonstrating the different ways to achieve switching different sounds (pedalboards, presets, switchbox/toggleswitch etc.). I think without a DUO to try it with its hard to understand the subtleties. I wish I had time to do it.

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Well, here’s an idea. Send me a Mod Duo for a month to experiment with against no costs. I will be obliged to update the online manual properly with a thorough explanation of how to use the device. At the same time I won’t have to guess if this device is going to be a solution for me. I will buy it, if it does (maybe a little discount would be in order), and send it back if it doesn’t. In both cases the manual would become clear about how this device can be used in detail.

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Hi @jk_sigtermans,

Where are you located?
Maybe there is someone in your area that has one and you can check it out.

Don’t forget, the Mod Duo has a 30 day money back satisfaction guarantee. You will have to purchase it up front but you have 30 days to return it if it’s not for you. If you are in the USA I can help you… PM me for details.

Thanks @Skydiver. I live in The Netherlands and I think I have to buy one online -> here

Well, I try and check the return policy then I guess. :slight_smile:

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