Check out the MOD Assistant Beta to find a guitar tone with AI

News
#1

Dear Community,

we would like to introduce you to the new MOD Assistant and invite you for Beta testing!

This Assistant will help you replicate a guitar tone from an audio sample using an AI-generated Pedalboard. You can instantly try the suggested pedalboard on your MOD device and tweak the tone to your taste.

To check it out, have your MOD device connected, updated and go to assistant.mod.audio

Unlike with beta testing of new MOD OS versions or plugins, testing the MOD Assistant does not affect the stability of your MOD device at all. The stable 1.12.1 update is needed only to receive the pedalboard, while the magic happens in the cloud.

Currently the MOD Assistant is suggesting a chain of an Amp Sim, Reverb and Cab Sim only, with a limited set of plugins. This will be extended and improved as things progress, and your feedback is very important. Therefore pedalboards are stored anonymously with your rating.

It’s also very much appreciated, if you share your experience here in the forum. This is unknown territory with a lot to learn, for the AI as well as for us humans. Beside the public discussions on practical usage, I would also love to establish an AI experts group with those of you who happen to have a respective background. DM me if you are interested please.

The underlying research and advanced development started in March 2022. We shared and discussed some of the results with you here: AI research at MOD. I’m glad we could continue this very promising project with the reboot and have @itskais now as our AI Engineer collaborating closely with @falkTX and @jesse. Thanks for this awesome first release!

Happy holidays everyone!

33 Likes
#2

Super cool idea! We’ve all dreamt of this, right? I just tried it out with my Dwarf. I recorded myself playing a Gilmour lick into my DAW and processed it with 5 different Amp/Cab/Reverb setups via Amplitube (order of assending gain): Bassman, Fender Twin, Hi-Watt, AC-30, PRS. No effects other than Spring, Hall or Plate reverb. Uploaded each sample, then loaded and played thru the created pedalboard.

I did give the thumbs-up to one: My PRS/4x12-Brit/Hall sample which the assistant matched to their high gain amp with 4x12 greenbacks and a nice plate verb. Another was close: HiWatt w/ plate reverb which matched to a Brit Marshall 2000 cab, good choice, but the amp had almost no grit/overdrive and the reverb chosen was a shimmer verb (I hate that shit). It seemed to choose that whenever I had used a plate reverb.

I uploaded a few other riff snippets too with various levels of overdrive applied. With my playing, it seems to chose between just two amps: Gx Alembic for cleaner tones (with near zero gain/grit), Mutant for gainier (with way too much distortion applied). If I turned down the cranked gain on the Mutant that it gave me, it was sometimes in the ballpark.

Similar story with cabs. Even though they have Bassman, AC-30, Twin cabs, etc., it tended to select the “Tool Pot” cab (named after the band I presume) for tones without much breakup, but seemed to pick better matches, like 4x12 greenback and Marshall 2000, for gainier tones.

I was using the same guitar/pickup to record my upload and auditioning the pedalboard, but if you weren’t, I can’t imagine the results being very reliable. Upload a real sample of Gilmour and you’re using a 335… yeah, how is it gonna know how to bend your tone? If it took a direct guitar sample along with your processed sample, then it knows the real transfer function like a real profiler. At the very least, maybe you could offer selections for type of guitar: Strat, Tele, LesPaul, Semi-hollow, P-Bass, etc. and which pickup(s) you intend to use. Maybe better yet, suggest which pickup you Should use with the pedalboard.

Anyway, this “Profiling as a service” seems like it could eventually be a nice way for nubes or tweak-a-phobics to get good tone. Thanks for creating this and providing another reason to embrace AI instead of fearing the day we become its servants.

13 Likes
#3

My honest point of view is that I believe there are better fields of investments for Mod Audio right now than AI for tone capture/reproduction. There are still quite a few issues to be ironed out in current firmware like midi timing and tempo matching to make all these midi adn synth features really usefull. I’d rather have mod audio invest in making those rock solid before nice to haves like AI. To appeal to the pro market, things must work reliably.

7 Likes
#4

Hey @randreich!
Thank you for taking the time to assess our new Beta feature, and providing us with a detailed feedback on your experience with it.

Let me start with acknowledging the fact that, yes for cleaner tones, tones with just a bit of breakup, the assitant is a bit biased towards using the Gx-Alembic (although it’s mostly a super clean tone with not much gain). That’s mainly due to the fact that training was done with an initial limited number of plugins, not covering a huge range of tone when it comes to gain and drive.
That also affects the cab suggestions when it comes to cleaner tones, since the system wasn’t trained on a lot of clean (slightly gainy) guitar sounds.

Adding a selection of guitar types or pickup types to have more personalized pedalboard suggestions is in fact an idea in the backlog of this profiling project, altho we’re not in a position to implement it yet!

Thanks again for your reply, this will totally be kept in mind when working on the next iteration.
Cheers!

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#5

So we’re continuing to work on the next iteration of the MOD Assistant, taking into consideration the feedback that you gave us, both here and through the feedback buttons (thumbs up and down). Soon enough we will announce the second release.
We thank you again for collaborating on it.

One thing to mention, though, when you continue using this tool for now, please don’t upload full song files. The Assistant can only work with sound files that contain solo electric guitar sound, that way it’s able to provide you with the closest pedalboard suggestion.

6 Likes
#6

The MOD Assistant is now upgraded to a new version.
Here’s some of the things we worked on improving, based on your feedback:

  • Better UI/UX in general
  • You can now directly input youtube links for videos that contain guitar sounds
  • Added a low gain Amp configuration for the clean but still gainy guitar sounds

Hope this new iteration provides a better experience for you, looking forward for your feedback!

N.B.: Please input sounds that contain only solo guitar sounds (whether through uploading, or selecting a snippet in a youtube video).

10 Likes
#7

To clarify - does this mean solos as in melodic runs of single notes, or solo as in no other instruments or sounds are present but chord riffs are OK?

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#8

Solo as in no other instruments or sounds are present, only guitar sounds. Chord riffs are definitely okay. :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#9

Will it work on lower-register instruments like baritone or bass?

1 Like
#10

I wouldn’t expect good or accurate results with instruments other than guitar, as it was trained on electric guitar sounds and using guitar Amp-sims.
However, let us know if you had a meaningful experience with your instrument.

4 Likes
#11

just asted 45 mins trying to get it to work :confused:
all goes well until the step
“Pedalboard successfully uploaded to your device!”

nothing happens on my dwarf, tone doesnt change, nothing changes on screen
connectivity is ok,
reconnect,
reboot,
update
none of it helps

tips?

#12

Before to download the pedalboard from Assistant try do save the current pedalboard on your device and than download. Or better… create a new (default) pedalboard on device and than diwnload from assistant. In my case the second solution wotks…

3 Likes
#13

that worked @Rino2
Thanks

@friedsilence
Once again, I’m faced with a maxed out CPU :frowning:

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Am I the only one maxing out while using the Mutant on a Dwarf?
nasty interruptions/clip/cutouts due to cpu maxing out.

always happens when using the Mutant, even with this prefab board

VeJa - Mutant
VeJa - Mutant
#14

I haven’t noticed that - I have a few pedalboards with the Mutant feeding into Vintage cab and a few effects, sometimes with Roamer and Bass Cabinet on the second input.

#15

I tried the pedalboard, also my dwarf will explode without buffering to 256 frame.
However i think that the more CPU hungry effect is the room reverb ( 44% CPU used when is alone in the screen), Mutant only uses 27%.
In my pedalboard the Mutant never gave me problems, instead dragonfly reverb ( Hall and Room ) are really too “heavy” to use them ( and a pair of other plugin) witout use the buffer.
Usually i use the “early reflection”+“plate” combination for similar result and for save some CPU as showed by Roger Couto here: AROG Clean Klein 02 - MOD Audio
I tried them on your pedalbord and it became usable.
Clearly in this way the assistant need some assistance :sweat_smile:

1 Like
#16

I’ve noticed that the Dragonfly reverbs really bog down a pedalboard as well. They’re beautiful and I want to love them but they’re so impractical unless you have a pedalboard that’s JUST the reverb.

1 Like
#17

@CarloDossi @RashDecisionAudio
Not much experience with the reverbs but the main reason I don’t use the Mutant is because of it being the plugin maxig out my boards in other setups too. It’s really a pity because it has the best sound for my heavy metal / thrash band. The Dwarf just can’t deal with it properly and up till now, It seems like one of the sole voices speaking aobut that so I guess it’s not “the Dwarf” but “my Dwarf” that can’t handle it properly.

I’m steering this off topic hough.

I love how this tool works as a creator for a tone primer.
Got me wondering how you can detect suff like that. Crazy math? :smiley:

#18

update on the Mutant+verb+cab sim cpu issue.
@Jan did an update on the mutant that chips off 5% cpu load and it made the difference for me
Read about it in the Veja Mutant thread

6 Likes
#19

I’m happy to announce we got a 20k€ government grant from a German innovation subsidy program approved for the “AI Pedalboard Assistant” project!

Quite some paperwork and payout is spread over the year, but it’s a meaningful contribution for this stage.

26 Likes
#20

cool, that promises some more granular and precise results in the future?
But yeah, reverse engineering a sound to different components DOES sound like witch craft! :smiley:
Congratulations!

3 Likes