Which Mod device, if any?

Developers
#1

I found Mod devices whilst searching for a development platform for a looper pedal which doesn’t currently exist, or if it does exist I’ve yet to find it. So having found Mod devices, and initially thinking, this looks interesting, I got cold feet. The reason is because there is a looper in the plugin shop:

However I can’t see the price of that looper and of more concern is that the first question I’d have is how much time can the looper record. That question seems to have been asked in 2017 but never responded to. That’s not a great sign so after finding Mod Devices I left it.

But it is a compelling product and I have a few more requirements which it might fill. I want to run a stereo guitar setup and as a result to save having to transport two Amps I’d like a stereo preamp/cab simulator which I could plug directly into a mixing desk. It looks like the Mod Duo or Mod Duo X could satisfy that requirement, even if I’ve no idea how much the looper pedal costs or what it’s specification is.

Additionally from a developer perspective, if I wanted to create a looper using a Mod Devices device then I’d have to know how much memory they had as a looper pedal would be fairly demanding on memory. Which device the Duo or Duo X has the greater potential? The ‘Specs’ are heavy on marketing department phrases but I don’t see any mention of memory. Processing power is a limiting factor in a digital device, but so is memory.

OK I’ve asked a number of questions in there and maybe a DUO is no exactly what I’m looking for in therms of a looper or a dev platform for a looper, but could I use a mod device as a stereo guitar rig and plug straight into mixing desk simulating Amp and Speaker Cab in the Duo?

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#2

Comments on plugins are hard to see. I certainly did not notice it before, sorry about that.

Both devices have 1Gb of RAM.
Right now that looper plugin can use at maximum 400 seconds of audio (around 6 minutes and a half)
But this is a compile-time value that we can change as needed.
We are currently experimenting with a stereo version of it by the way.

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#3

And it’s free.

#4

Ah yes, forgot that small but important detail.

The plugins that do not have a price listed are free.
Most of them are open-source too, in case of sooperlooper you can find it here https://github.com/moddevices/sooperlooper-lv2-plugin/

#5

Thank you for your quick response and for taking the time to respond. I’ll maybe return to questions on the looper later, or what I’m looking for. But first the output levels from the Mod Duo/Mod Duo X. The various plugins listed include both amplifier emulations and speaker cab simulations so I assume I can combine those and then run the two DUO outputs straight into the mixing desk and I no longer need an Amp and speaker Cab, or two in the case of stereo.

On the looper functionality. Looper pedals are usually limited in the number of loops which can be recorded, a simple looper will only have one loop for a single section of a song. You can’t simply add another looper pedal to add a second ‘song’ section as you’d then have to simultaneously switch both loopers one to stop the current and second to start the next section. If each looper was MIDI controlled I could define in a MIDI master device, (laptop), what sections of a song are and when they are started and stopped.

So if the verse has a four bar loop which is repeated four times then the ‘controller’ tells the looper to start recording and after four bars loops those four bars, or possibly over dubs, if I feel like doubling up, or playing lead. Then after 16 bars it tells that first ‘Verse’ looper to stop playing/overdubbing. Say now that the song has two bars of a bridge, (numbers are for example :wink: so looper does nothing as that’s not repeated, or maybe be it is repeated later in the song so we want to start another loop for ‘Bridge’. As it’s not immediately repeated the looper starts recording and stops after two bars. Similarly for the chorus the MIDI controller tells the looper to start recording, over dubbing, play or stop.

As your looper has about 6 minutes of loop time that’s more then enough for most songs. It can now fill that 6 minutes with any number of song sections and not be limited to a single loop. Additionally you’ve defined the sections for a particular song. So if the song is AAAABCCDDAAAACCCE you just define it as that and let the controller do the switching in and out.

The only limiting factor is that you can’t play two loop sections at the same time. That’s not an issue for me. This would be for live performance and you know what songs and the structure of each, which are predefined and stored in the controller. You might need a click track so you know where you are but you’ll probably have a drum track coming from another device.

As you no longer have to footswitch each section, to concentrate on getting the timing right for the switch, you can just play. You could flash LEDS on the MOD DUO/MOD DUO X to indicate a count in. So flash LEDS orange/yellow for four beats prior to recording and whilst recording LED goes RED, playback could be green.

I’m not asking you to do all this I’m looking for a dev platform. I could put this together in Hardware but that would take a lot of Hardware development time. If your platform has all the Hardware in place I could just start there. I’m tempted by the MOD DUO X as it has generative synth capabilities, (watched Red Means Recording stiff. That man has cost me a lot of money in the past few years!)

Sorry for long winded description of my looper. I’m just checking as this might be a really bad idea or the MOD DUO might not be the platform I think it might be. Either way if it replaces two Guitar Amps I might be able to justify it.

Thanks again

John

#6

The Mod Duo has multiple looper options.
There are also beta plugins like ALO that sounds like it has features you want.
If you have the footswitch controller you can run multiple loopers in the same pedalboard. Or you can use a MIDI footswitch also.
(There are 300+ plugins in beta that don’t appear in the online plugin store)
Search the forum for looping/looper and you will find other options.

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#7

Thanks a million for all your help, (I think), just ordered a Mod Duo X. I should probably have gotten the foot switch module but for the moment I’ll try it out as it is. Actually is the comms protocol between the Duo X and the footswitch module open or proprietary?

#8

It is control-chain.
See https://wiki.moddevices.com/wiki/Control_Chain and https://wiki.moddevices.com/wiki/Control_Chain_Protocol (this last page being out of date now though)

#9

You’re gonna love the Mod Duo X. The way you want to route things and try and figure out solutions, I’m sure the X will help a lot. I have crazy options and I’ve seen other pedalboards (I got a glimpse of @solobasssteve’s at NAMM!) and the possibilities are almost endless.

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