First impressions diary

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#1

I just got my Dwarf after a while lurking on the forums. Figured I’d just document thoughts and findings as I go.

DAY 1

Arrived in the post, managed to squeeze a quick go on my lunch break.

Updated to lasted version, nice that it all happens on the unit, no need for installing additional software like Boss stuff or having to open up Terminal.

The on-device UI for setting input levels etc was way more intuitive than I expected once I’d jabbed at some buttons.

Booted up the GUI put a really simple bass patch together, auditioned the compressors already installed on the unit. Managed to get a really nice tone with the Calf Saturator and GxSVT which sounded close enough to my Handbox tube head.

Started looking at distortion and started to struggle a little more, there are so many options that it can be a little intimidating. I think this is where some additional tagging and ratings would help on the pluggins, once I’ve had more time to experiement I’ll be able to save out my favourites etc but as a new user it’s a pretty daunting task!!!

Didn’t really have long to get much further, found some drives which sounded great. I think the cable routing is incredible, it doesn’t lend itself to quick audioning of other fx. I know it’s probably not possible given the variety of I/O on each fx module but it’d be super handy if you could swap a module inplace without having remove, drag a new one in and reconnect.

These are all minor gripes though. The sounds I’ve managed to get in just a 30-45 min slot are way closer to what I wanted than I think I ever managed with other modellers. Had a cheeky trial of the new AIDA-X JCM800 too and it’s pretty incredible, sounds better than the STL Tones version I recently tried to my ears.

Hopefully gonna get some more time later tonight but for now I’m very happy with it. Just got a lot of stuff to get my head around now!!!

P.S. If anyone reading this has any suggestions for good drives to experiment with for bass. I’m currently using an EAE Halberd and Longsword for most of my driven tones with a little extra base level grit from my Jad Freer Capo if it helps.

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#2

PS PS Also worth noting I had a quick play through some of the factory presets and some of them are absolutely incredible.

Had so much fun cycling though some of the ambient style drone pedalboards, really do a great job of showing off what kind of stuff is possible once you get your head around it. Very inspired to create some cool ambient textural type patches and play with some of the CV stuff there.

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#3

Hi @mrdinsdale

Thanks for documenting your onboarding. It is very useful for us.

And very glad that the journey has been positive so far.

Yep. There is always space for “one more fuzz”…

@brummer from Guitarix is the man behind many of the distortions and, among the many he has published, there is more than one option specifically for bass.

@solobasssteve might be able to give you some suggestions. Steve is not only an amazing bassist, but also is the holder of the record for the biggest amount of plugins in a single board :smiley:

There’s something cooking on this topic for the next OS release :slight_smile:

Looking forward to next chapters!

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#4

The fuzz for bass I recommended is the Rumor

still in beta, but that one will rattle on your walls for sure. :metal:

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#5

@mrdinsdale to enable Beta plugins, go to the Settings: MOD Web GUI User Guide - MOD Wiki

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#6

Amazing, thanks @gianfranco and @brummer.

I ended up have a play with the Guitarix Boobtube which I really like.

Also had a play with an AIDA-X capture of the NeuralDSP Darkglass plugin, I’ll be honest I’m not really super into DG tones but it was a lot of fun messing around with.

Amp model wise I’m using another AIDA-X capture of a GK700rb ii which I used to own a while back, it’s very close to how I remember it! This was pretty CPU heavy so I’ve had a play around with the Portals to optimise some of the CPU usage, lurking on the forums paid off!!! :joy:

I would share the pedalboard but I’m assuming saved pedalboards don’t include any IRs or AIDA-X profiles?

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#7

Oh one thing that was a little faffy was uploading all the IRs and AIDA-X profiles neatly organised into a folder structure only to find that within the plugins it’s shown as a big list. This made navigating all the IRs particularly painful as there are so many subtle variations of each.

Not a big issue, just deleted the ones I rarely use and left some of my favourite there but seems a shame that the plugins don’t have a file browser that supports the folder structure.

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#8

When sharing a pedalboard with plugins that load files, the actual files get embedded into the board and is shipped with it, so that people who download them can use accordingly. But there is no access to these files, so those who downloaded it, can only use them in the downloaded pedalboard.

This is a common topic internally. It will come at some point :slight_smile:

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#9

I’ll add more to this later, but my first couple of tips is are the distortion is made or broken by the cabinet sim you put after it. So make sure that you rummage through a range of cabinets for each overdrive to see what works well with it! At the moment, I’ve got full AIDA for preamp/overdrive, using a Fender Champ clean sound, a Fender Twin for break-up and a ‘glam’ (??) preamp for overdrive. The cabinet is the IR cab loader with some crazy thing I found online on it, but I REALLY like the Vintage cab sim.

Tip 2 is that you’ll almost always get more interesting results with things that aren’t designed for bass. If you have trouble with them sucking the low end out, you can always put a high/low splitter in and only run everything above 100hz through the overdrive, keeping the bass end clean (I’ve done this with the preamp IRs a lot) or just put an EQ before or after it to even things out.

The joy of the MOD environment is how quickly and easily you can chain up unlikely things, tweak it, save it and build something unique and truly versatile. I’ve been using MOD stuff for what, eight years now (??) And still spend time every day tweaking aspects of my main pedal board, finding new ways to do things and new settings to tweak or assign to MIDI controllers! :slight_smile:

enjoy!

Steve

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#10

Excellent advice!

Yeah most of my go to drives are designed for guitar, especially the Electronic Audio Experiments stuff. Will be experimenting more, will likely have a play with doing some multiband stuff too.

Is there a RAT style drive in there? I did look and couldn’t see one.

IR wise I’m currently using some free ones by Shift Line, I’ve tried some other highly rated ones but always come back to their Mesa and Orange IRs. For guitar I really like these Zach Weeks - Impulse Responses as they work great for clanky guitar tones I’ve found.

I committed to putting the Dwarf on my board which usually take a lot longer :joy: I’m only running it through one output of my Cioks DC7 which only puts out 500mA, was suprised it was working. I was thinking as an interim, my pedal board has a pass through barrel dc psu connection on so I might just settle for 2 power cables from my board for now until I can get one of the Cioks highcurrent extensions on there.

I also need a right angle USB B or to get the Bluetooth working so I can connect it all while its on there!

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#11

@mrdinsdale Wow… what a beautiful pedalboard. I like it!

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#12

It’s just missing the Model FeT and then it’ll be complete.

That being said I have a smaller Rockboard 2.1, if I can get some driven tones that work as well as the halberd and longsword from the Dwarf I’d maybe look at a lighter weight version by removing those and the Hyper Luminal.

#13

@mrdinsdale I have a long story with pedalboards. You can read it here. I will add some more information to that thread in the next days because meanwhile it is again changed. I have two Dwarfs now on my pedalboard, because I am playing three instrument an I am also singing through the Dwarf.

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#14

Some pretty cool looking setups in there! I actually think I read through most of your post when I was attempting to research the Dwarf. Really useful insights there :raised_hands:

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#15

DAY 2

Another lunch break play after hooking the Dward up with my other pedals. One small snag that I hit along the way is that I can’t connect to the Dwarf via Bluetooth to my laptop (VPNs and other security stuff blocking it) and tbh it’s too slow for anything other than small tweaks. For now will use the iPad via BT or try and get it wired up again, just means removing from my board to make room for the usb cable.

Think I may have to look at wired options, perhaps a long USB cable I can coil and attach underneath my board should I ever need to connect. I’m gussing not but anyone know if I connect via usb C to my iPad will it allow me to connect to GUI?

Worked out how to assign controls to the device and set up some stuff so that I can make quick tweaks on the fly to the compressor and Boobtube drive.

Now that I have it on my board I can more easily A/B my exisiting physical pedals to try and match the tone, I’m not expecting anything to be exactly the same but it’s a good reference to a tone I know works well in the band setup.

Next up going to play with some more drive options along with having a play with some of the modulation options :raised_hands: It’s a world I’ve never really explored before, I’ve rarely used chorus, phasers or flangers etc before so don’t really know what I’m looking for but might try and replicate some of Justin Chancellors bass tones as a bit of a goal to keep me focused!

The dream is to get proficient enough to start crafting some more out there stuff. Not remotely applicable to the current band but it would be awesome tos start being able to but cool tones like this together - How to Create a Synth sound with Mastro Valvola LEM & OFF1 - YouTube

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#16

Been jumping between playing into my bass amp, DI out to my Scarlett 2i2 and headphones straight out of the dwarf.

Found a bit of an issue with headphones, because I’m using the channel 1’s out and channel 2’s in as an FX send, if I use headphones I get the send signal in one ear and the end of the chain in the other.

Is there any way to configure the headphones to a single channel? Fortunately (I guess) I’m deaf in one ear so I can just about make it work if I put the headphones on the right way but it’s not ideal :joy:

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#17

Hej!
I must admit i didn’t read every word above, but i read “Bass” and “distortion” :sweat_smile:
Maybe you’d like to check out my aida-x model of the boss ODB-3 Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive
I’ll probably try to capture it better soon, but what i shared there is already very usable. I already used it live and it sounds great :grin:

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#18

I most certainly would :joy: added to the list!

#19

It does.

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And is way faster than BT!

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#20

Yeah, huge improvement and found that the table + pen is perfect for the fairly intricate UI.

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