This is my current board - as an improvisor, I’m constantly changing bits of it just to make each performance distinct from the last, but this also gets pretty close to 100% CPU when the pitch-shifter, Envelope Filter and lots of the delays are going at once
Latest favourite additions are using the sidechain on the envelope so it still works with the octave up effect, Adding the Gaffa back in, and discovering the Galactic reverb and its hold/freeze function - assigned it to a couple of faders on the Quneo and have a really great use-case for it.
The last thing added is another Instance of the floaty where the playback pitch and delay length are changed every 15 seconds or so by a CV LFO S&H generator, set to 0.03hz - means I have a ‘random shit’ button that I can never predict that just adds craziness to the sound Adding randomised parameters with S&H LFOs seems to be one of the real super-power moves of the MOD platform - some real Chase Bliss level madness.
I haven’t shared the pedal board because it’s such a specific set of pedals including a bunch of paid ones, but if anyone would benefit from me uploading it, I’m happy to
…the one issue I’m currently having that I can’t isolate is that after a certain amount of use, the sound disappears from the drum signal path (bottom left, played via the Quneo) - I’ve not worked out what sequence of buttons or pedals or whatever is causing it to happen, or even where the signal is dropping from (whether it’s an audio error or a MIDI error) still working on that!
Controller-wise - I have four ‘scenes’ on the DuoX with buttons and knobs assigned - they’re full and I’m thinking of adding a fifth
I also have a Softstep that has 10 foot control buttons and an expression pedal attached (currently that sends the main signal to the ambient path so I can have both - I also have a single footswitch that makes it all-ambient) - I have an expression pedal attached to the CV-in that at the moment controls the pitch on the whammy pedal (set to a minor third), and I have a MOD footswitch that is all Looperlative functions. I’ll take pictures of all of them and upload them here when I can…
Oh, and I have a Quneo which I use to play drums (and sometimes keys) and I have the faders on it assigned to various delay/reverb parameters. That’s still expanding (I used to use it a lot, then stopped, now getting back into it) - I’m also thinking of reintroducing using an old mobile phone that’ll do OSC midi-over-USB as a cheap controller. Can never have too much control
Aaaaand I just bought an AudioFront MIDI expression quatro so I can plug in 4 more expression pedals
I have the outputs split so I can use the digital and analog outs separately for recording - I have the main bass signal on the analog outs and the looper and ambience on the digital outs, going to a K-Mix desk, recorded into Reaper.
no kidding! that’s part of why i always shied away from sharing my pedalboards - there’s so much external control that it really doesn’t make sense to try to use it without the ancillary hardware that “plays” the board. besides the MOD footswitch, i’ve generally got a bunch of DIY MIDI control - at least 5 switches and 3 or more expression pedals. i’m a big fan of realtime, expressive control of various pedalboard parameters, rather than switchable steady-state effects.
yes… i’ve often wished for more feet!
…ahhhhhhhh… if only i had waited for the production model! …was considering jumping up from my SE model right about when Duo X production ground to a halt.
Hi,
I’m thinking of getting a cheap second hand original Mod Duo (not the X). How CPU-hungry is AIDA-X in your experience? Will it run smoothly on it with a decent pedalboard, or will it chug quite fast? I know that ‘decent’ has a different meaning for different people, and different gear uses different level of CPU power, but I’m just trying to get an idea…
I am not sure if the original duo even has the ability to run aida. The duo is over 5 years old and hasn’t been able to keep up with feature parity from my understanding.
Yes it can. The software is always the same (the Dwarf has a few extra software capabilities to create simple pedalboards directly on the pedal, without using the computer, but that’s it).
Both the ooriginal Duo and Dwarf have just 1Go RAM and 8Gb storage. The main difference is a couple knobs and… the CPU power (huge difference since Duo as 21.0Ghz, while Dwarf has 41.3Ghz.
So the mimimum running requirements are met, but… it might start to chug as soon as the pedalboard becomes moderately complex. Even more with AIDA-X… but I have no idea.
Here are a few CPU usage comparison between Duo vs Raspberry Pi4/MODEP vs DuoX (look for thread called “how-does-the-mod-duo-x-compare-to-the-raspberry-pi-4”
For a single pedalboard comparison:
Duo (1Go RAM): 80% CPU and 20% RAM
DuoX (2Go RAM): 22% CPU and 10% RAM
R-Pi4+MODEP (likely 2Go RAM): 20% CPU and 10%RAM
And here, in the previous post, an extreme pedalboard that I will never need:
DuoX (2Go RAM): 75% CPU and 30% RAM
In terms of processing power - even if one cant ‘sum’ the processors to determine processing power - just to give an idea, the Duo has 5 times less processing power than a DuoX, and 2.5 times less than a Dwarf or a Pi4… In a nutshell: yes, it will be able to install and run AIDA-X, but the pedalboards be kept quite simple for it to run smoothly… and that would miss the whole purpose of MOD…
How much extra burden does AIDA-X add to the CPU?
For the good news, the RAM necessary for MOD/AIDA-X to run seems not much, and that’s why they brought back the Dwarf to just 1Go RAM, like the original Duo.
Also, NAM seems to be quite light on an R-Pi3, so I am hopeful that AIDA-X, the same type of plugin, might also be light on Duo’s CPU… Has anyone tested it?
Adding randomised parameters with S&H LFOs seems to be one of the real super-power moves of the MOD platform - some real Chase Bliss level madness.
…was considering jumping up from my SE model right about when Duo X production ground to a halt.