Introducing the MOD Desktop - Beta release

Hi falkTX,
Are you considering in the future a way to include a custom plugin in the MOD App ? (.lv2 folder with .so and .ttl files).

This has already been discussed. Itā€™s somewhat the goal that mod-app will make development easier, so loading custom plugins is kind of one of the points :wink:

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Iā€™m sorry, I donā€™t want to be rude, but this statement makes me feel that there is no actual point in even installing the desktop app in the first place. If it doesnā€™t work as a playground to test things that can then work on my actual Mod device, then what would be the point in me wasting any time using the desktop version?!
I would have assumed that -somehow- there is some level of transferability. I have stated myself -in the post above yours- that I understand the reason related to software architecture, that prevent this from being an easy task. However, I re-state that the only use the desktop app might have for the end user, would be the test of things before loading onto the device.

This is precisely what I refer to. So I donā€™t understand the negativity on your post above. Sorry if I misunderstood your text.

It does, you just canā€™t put windows/macos/x86_linux binaries onto a Linux ARM computer.
You need OS and Architecture specific binaries in all these cases.

Only negativity I see is you referring to ā€œno actual pointā€.
The point is that you can play with the MOD environment without having to buy a device.

This has nothing to do with transferring binaries between incompatible devices.

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Itā€™s not disimilar to applications on windows/mac. You can run word/chrome/photoshop on either platform but you cannot just copy the same program files from one to another, you need the windows or mac version.

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*** TLDR; WARNING!!! ***

Iā€™m sure all the following has been discussed, but here are my immediate thoughts (while Iā€™m waiting for the caffeine to kick in) after returning to this and trying to get back in the developer mindset:

To the question of all the permutations (mac, windows, linux arm, linux x86) of converting one object file format to another, this capability e
Iā€™m pretty sure the capability already exists for converting .dll to .so. Iā€™ve never tried to do it but Iā€™m not aware of a simple application that exists in either the .dll or .so environment where you can just input an object file of one environment and produce an object file of the other - as in give the bartender some money and get a beer. The conversion of money to beer (or a burger or a ā€¦) of course involves a lot of intermediate steps. Even after the object file(s) are converted thereā€™s a lot still to be done.

My brain hurts. And I havenā€™t even finished my coffeeā€¦

No, this is not possible.

These binaries are 100% incompatible between different OSes and Architectures.

Besides for MOD we need different builds for Duo, DuoX and Dwarf. So you can add a few more options to all the required permutations ā€¦

Thanks @dreamer.

Iā€™ll have to re-read the thread and think this through again.

New release!

Main changes:

  • Adds ASIO driver (automatically activated with the Windows installer)
  • Reworked Linux device access

The custom ASIO driver means that, when MOD App is up and running, you will see a ā€œMOD Appā€ ASIO driver in your preferred DAW settings.
It activates a 2x2 IO virtual device that sends audio into the beginning of the pedalboard on the MOD App side, accessible through 2 new ports on the left side of the pedalboard.
The ASIO driver inputs receive the audio as generated by MOD App, so basically the same that goes into your speakers, allowing you to easily record the output of MOD App from within your DAW.

Still considered an experimental release, but do let us know how it works for you, specially this new ASIO driver thing.

Some screenshots from my own testing:

image

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I have the OSS version running on a Raspberry Pi4 with a Presonus audio interface. It runs well. You still need a web browser to configure the MOD software, but hitting 127.0.0.1 works.

I just grabbed this today. Iā€™ll have to get one of my Audio Interfaces connected to the Mac M2 Mini ASAP.

I few questions:

  • Is the build Apple Silicon Native?
  • I just grabbed the few free x42 plugins that are not included. Iā€™m assuming any macOS compatible LV2 plugin can be added, correct?
  • Where should user plugins be installed? The default ones are inside the application bundle.

Thanks a ton!

Yes, it is a ā€œuniversalā€ build so natively compatible with both intel and arm.

Yes, use the LV2 option to show all plugins, disabled by default.

There is no installation of new plugins via mod-app for the moment

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I started the services with the logging panel open and I saw that /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/LV2 is scanned and the plugins in there are loaded. Also, if thereā€™s a newer version of a shipped plugin in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/LV2, it will load that one over the one in the application bundle.

Nice!

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Hereā€™s my experience with 0.0.5 on Windows.

a) I saw a message (must be installed as administrator), but I did not stop and re-run installation as admin, I just ā€œallowedā€ it when it asked.
b) Windows defender and Avast anti-virus were interested in this but Avast decided it was OK (not surprising, just telling you what happened).
c) Multiple Mod App windows popped up (I think I had 3 at one point).
d) Two Mod App entries in systray were seen (I closed one of them).
e) I am not able to actually start audio. I click on the start button and a few seconds later it (the button) becomes active again (meanwhile, nothing happened - except the error report).
My audio interface is a Behringer XR18. I also have ASIO4ALL installed, which I did recently. Iā€™m not 100% sure I need it.

This is the error with either XR18 ASIO or ASIO4ALL. Doesnā€™t like the sample rate. Itā€™s set to run at 44100 at the moment. Will try changing it to 48000.
=================
Starting jackd using:

-R -S -n mod-app -X winmme -C .\jack\jack-session.conf -d portaudio -r 48000 -p 128 -P ASIO::ASIO4ALL v2

jackdmp 1.9.22

Copyright 2001-2005 Paul Davis and others.

Copyright 2004-2016 Grame.

Copyright 2016-2023 Filipe Coelho.
jackdmp comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; see the file COPYING for details
Drivers/internals found in : C:\Program Files\MOD App
Drivers/internals found in : C:\Program Files\MOD App
JACK server starting in realtime mode with priority 10
self-connect-mode is ā€œDonā€™t restrict self connect requestsā€

Pa_OpenStream error = Invalid sample rate

Canā€™t open default PortAudio device
Cannot initialize driver
JackServer::Open failed with -1
Failed to open server
==========
Using any of the WSAPI devices gives this error.

Pa_OpenStream error = Invalid sample rate
Canā€™t open default PortAudio device
Cannot initialize driver
JackServer::Open failed with -1
Failed to open server

===
DL
image

UPDATE - took me awhile to figure out how to change the Behringerā€™s sample rate. Much happier at 48 kHz. Checking it out now.

First impression - canā€™t read the knob text on the pedals very easily. The few things I tried seemed to work OK.

Just quick test of 0.5. With ā€œshow all LV2 pluginsā€ Neural Amp Modeler missing GUI. I just like to use noise repellent, thatā€™s why I checked this checkbox.

Any chance of adding a version for Arm64/AArch64?

Sam x

the required setup for it is not very worthwhile I think. (very little amount of users vs the amount of work needed for it)
the cross-compilation of python is particularly painful.

in theory everything already works as-is for building on a arm64 linux pc, it is the cross-compilation (needed for CI/automated builds) that makes things more complicated.

actually one nice thing for having the community here do is a flatpak variant, which has a bonus of being directly installable from a few linux app stores.

this is something that I have no experience with whatsoever, and where community involvement can really make things happen.
eventually mod-app would go into https://flathub.org/ when it is all ready

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:+1: awesome !!!

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An AppImage would also be great, even easier for users than a Flatpak.

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