Hello everyone!
I wanted for some time now to bring up the question of how things are going with Mod Audio and the Dwarf and also how is plugin and update development going?
I feel that it is a great unit with great potential and very well thought off functions ,but for some reason it is not being marketed enough or something…
Especially with introduction of AIDA i think it went many steps further albeit that it could benefit from higher CPU power to load heavier NAM profiles.
I’m sorry if it’s only me that feels this way and i hope i’m wrong.
All the best to everyone!
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I feel the same. The Dwarf always seems to be missing on any online reviews or Gearnews threads etc. Not sure why.
But for me I wish the would push the synths more and maybe have the cardinal modules separate as I think that’s where the differences lie. I feel it just gets lost against line 6, hot one, amplitude and headrush just to name a few, with the guitar stuff. And don’t forget us guitarists are a fickle bunch when it comes to menu diving and not being able to edit on the fly. Synth guys love a menu 
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I’ve been meaning to start a similar thread. Unfortunately there have been no updates to the blog since July 2023, and no new Dwarf firmware since November 2023.
@falkTX, are you able to share when the next Dwarf update is planned for?
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@gianfranco, can you tell us when the next Dwarf update might come out? Even if you don’t have a release schedule yet, a little explanation is much better than silence. Please give us a little insight into what is going on. Thanks!
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I have no affiliation with MOD, and this is my own speculation. For what it’s worth, I’ve closely followed this group for several years due to a combination of loving: the product concept, the interesting and helpful community, the saga of a small company with big ambitions.
I think MOD is at a point of having little to no revenue, and no remaining capital for producing more units. Sourcing funding seems unlikely since they already pursued lending options during the bankruptcy, and had to rely on the user community to raise enough to manufacture the crowdfunded units. I’m guessing they are moving away from hardware and are trying to focus on the MOD Desktop and/or re-packaging the MOD experience as a software service or DAW plugins.
If that’s close to the truth, then I’d also guess that there’s very little incentive to do Dwarf-specific work going forward. It’s not a great outlook in terms of resolving some usability problems and feature requests, which might be frozen “as is” for the future. However, it does seem like they are continuing to pursue partnerships with audio plugin developers, so the selection and quality of plugins could continue to improve as long as they are able to maintain the plugin store. Hopefully, they would also be able to release any user experience improvements they make in the pedalboard management available. A few years (or more) ago there was a “beta testers” group and I’m sure there would be a group of users here willing to help with testing and feedback.
This isn’t pleasant to say, but if the Dwarf is important to your work / playing, I advise:
- Start making and testing the backup / restore feature, in case you need to reset your device to factory settings at some point
- Depending on how paranoid you are, install any plugin from the store that you’re remotely interested in, in case the store goes offline.
- Consider buying a backup unit(s) while you can
It’s worth re-stating here that in the event MOD disappears into the ether, the Dwarf will still continue running, and the pedalboard builder will still work because the server for that page is on the device itself. So it would be like any other audio device where the company went defunct or the model was discontinued - you can keep using it until the hardware fails.
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I hate to say it, but totally this— gotta be. They’re probably drafting another letter to the community this week. Such a bummer, software just isn’t the same but I’m still in love with the whole MOD endeavor so all I can do is bemoan the environment that kept these products from being a hit, whatever the causes may be.
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Completely agree with this.
I’d love to see the hardware part of the business keeping up with the great work tho 
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The silence of MOD team doesn’t bode well.
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Unless they are about to surprise us! 
I think it’s not going well and it’s a shame.
Lately i tried input 1 and output 1 to my amps’ fx loop for delays, reverbs etc and input output 2 in the front for drives, wah, pitch and it was really good apart from the latency that it gets a bit much even at 128. Wish they would keep on developing…
Too bad…
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I just bought my dwarf. I have it about a week and after an initial learning curve I’m really enjoying the device.
I think it’s a shame that more people aren’t buying and using it, it’s an incredibly versatile and fun unit, and sounds great.
I’m sure the announcement of the tonex one, and the NAM hardware unit aren’t going to help it’s appeal though.
For me, I wanted it for it’s flexible routing and primarily to add modulation / reverbs to my signal chain. That said, I’ve mostly used it so far with NAM / AIDA-X for impromptu playing… and it works great for this. Once I figured out it’s gain staging I’ve found it takes pedals really well and sound great - no latency, noise or other issues for me.
If the writing is on the wall for the dwarf I’ll be very disappointed but I’ll still have a great little unit that will work for me, and my workflow.
It’s a hugely ambitious project and I think the team should be proud of what they’ve done in a market as crowded as it is with modelers / and multifx units.
I’m hoping there’s some positive response from the team.
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No.
Given your user name I had hoped for a, uhm, less final answer…
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This is not how computer software works, nor is it relevant for this topic
Thank you for clarifying, and my apologies for bothering you.
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From mod-ui project on github: [Refactor] Snapshot controllers by SrMouraSilva · Pull Request #141 · moddevices/mod-ui · GitHub
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thanks, @dreamer!
everybody… before drawing dire conclusions from the partial quote, above, please go and read the entire post which @dreamer linked. context is important!
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I feel like there are two separate issues here. The first is what’s going on with the company. Having worked at startups and in professional audio I can really empathize with this as it appears they are struggling financially. It’s really too bad because MOD has the rare advantage of a second revenue stream in the form of commissions of plug-in sales. In theory that would help fund ongoing development without having to charge for firmware updates. (For the record, I wouldn’t mind paying $100/year for a new feature release every quarter.)
The second issue is a public relations one, i.e. how to communicate during a hard time. I realize MOD has over-promised and under-delivered in the past e.g. with the expressional pedal. But going silent is arguably the worst thing you can do. It makes users think the company isn’t listening, doesn’t care, or is already out of business.
Obviously MOD may be in the middle of confidential discussions that they can’t share yet, or other announcements which aren’t finalized. The solution is simply to say so. Even if it’s just “Hey guys, we hear you, we’d like to get back to Dwarf development but we’re currently 100% on the desktop app.” They don’t have to promise a specific date or make any commitments, just share what they can and let us know the company is still going. I had asked @gianfranco privately a while ago to publish a blog post once a month for this reason, I hope he will reconsider and do so. Otherwise users will naturally start drifting away after a while, and that would be a shame.
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Hi ladies and gentlemen
I know the silence is kiling some of you but I kindly ask for a bit more of patience, if you can find it.
NDAs are all over the place, so I cannot disclose details at the moment, but there is a very important partnership on the works for more than six months and, very honestly, the snail-pace is killing me too. Literally 
I hope to bring positive news here in the next weeks.
Regarding Dwarf updates, it is part of a broader discussion. There are no plans of discontinuing it, but the company needs to sort out a bigger issue before making promises. The “software for the Dwarf” is very broad, ranging from the firmware of the HW controller to the online plugins at the shop, and we need to draw some lines to better organize how we proceed on each of the fronts.
Much of the software is not exclusive to the Dwarf itself. As you can see with the MOD Desktop, the whole Web UI experience can be deployed in different ways. We are putting separations in place, as the development pace, expertise and governance is different for dedicated and shared software components.
The mention of FalkTX to a “final” release refers to being the last before we move into a new topology of software, one which can better acommodate the shared and the dedicated SW components accordingly.
There is a couple of improvements and fixes partially in place for release 14 and it will hopefully soon go out.
Sometimes I wish I had a meme that could explain it all
Wish you all the best
Gianfranco, aka The MOD Father
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