Yesterday I downloaded and installed Mod Desktop on my Win 11 PC. I found it pretty easy and intuitive to work with except for a few issues:
The UI appearing on my screen seems quite different from the Mod Duo, Mod Duo X or Mod Dwarf web UI so -
I was unable to find the icon/button which allows access to external files. Only two icons appear in section 7 of the UI (according to the manuals for Mod devices found here).
I also tried to access my files from within the small GUI which opens before the web UI, but was unable to do anything more than select the audio interface inputs, outputs etc. (When I tried to open files from my external or internal hard drives a Window opened, but when I tried to select and open the files nothing happened, and there was no tab in the window to allow any option other than close it.) The file manager seems to autmatically open this folder: C:\Users\David Administrator\OneDrive\Documents\MOD Desktop\user-files - but all the folders are empty. If it is necessary to copy the relevant files into these folders from my other hard disks, there is insufficient space on drive C, so how can I change the folder destination so Mod Desktop knows where to find them?
I was also unable to access any pedal boards created by other users - again there was no icon to access this function.
I was unable to access the store - also because the access icon doesn’t appear on the UI
There is no app configuration icon to the right of the UI screen. Only tempo and CPU and memory use percentage - nothing else?
My first guess was that maybe my screen resolution was cutting out these sections of the web UI, but when I checked that was not the case.
I’m still on the wall regarding purchasing a Mod device until I am able to really try out the full functionality of the Mod Desktop app, so I’d really appreciate some support with these issues.
Thank you.
Please do realize that mod-desktop is still in alpha status (so not even in beta and still far from production ready).
Feed back is of course appreciated but is best aimed with individual reports in the relevant topics or on the github page: Issues · mod-audio/mod-desktop · GitHub
Thank you, but can you at least tell me whether the issues I have commented on are actually due to the product being in the Alpha testing phase, or whether the buttons which do not appear on the webpage GUI should in fact be accessible? In other words does the Mod Desktop app allow access to files on the PC, and should it allow access to the store and other user’s pedal boards?
Is therre some sort of manual for the Mod Desktop app, and if so, where can I find it?
as mentioned on the github side, the hidden buttons are on purpose. the stuff that is not working is hidden.
Yes, but since the files are local on the system instead of a “remote” box (like a MOD unit) there is no need for the file manager tab on the Web GUI.
The MOD Desktop app has a handy button to open the user files with the OS tools (file explorer, finder, etc). Then you can store your files there, and plugins loaded within the MOD Desktop environment should see them, in the same workflow as the rest of the MOD platform.
not for the moment, this is work in progress and will take a bit of time before it is operational. there are many things involved behind the scenes that need to happen first.
not for the desktop app itself, though I think the panel GUI is quite self-explanatory.
just pick your audio interface and press start, then “open web gui” to control things from the browser.
we have some documentation for the Web GUI at MOD Web GUI User Guide - MOD Wiki
not all applies to desktop as it does not have device controls or banks, but the rest works the same.
OK, so if I understand correctly, selecting the button on the lower left side of the web GUI opens the file manager where the app expects to find the file hierarchy for each of the different types of audio file which can be loaded into the different plugins. This as I already said is on my C:/ drive in the Documents folder. Since symlinks do not work, that would mean that in order for the desktop app to be able to find the relevant files - they need to be saved to the nested folders which appear when accessed using the file manager button. Is this correct? If that is the case, then this would be possible, but would reduce the free space on my C:/ drive - something which I really prefer not to do. I suspect that other users will also run into this problem, since those who are computer savvy will have the OS on a smaller drive C:/ partition of the drive, with one or more larger partitions for larger file storage. So it makes little sense in my opinion to limit file storage to the C:/ partition - if that is what you meant? Admittedly most of these types of files tend not to be particularly large, but the sheer number of captures or IRs in multiple collections could end up being considerably big nonetheless.
Right now I have a series of folders on a dedicated audio drive containing my collection of all types of audio file for this type of application. If I could create symlinks for these files and folders and place them in the folders in which the desktop app expects to find the files it can load into the different plugins that would be far more reasonable than expecting the user to copy the content of their audio collection into those folders directly.
other users have voiced similar concerns, so we are likely to try to do something about it.
support for following folder symlinks would be a start, but I am not sure if most people will know how to use such links specially on Windows.
the best approach would be to allow to set a custom folder for each file type, but this needs some new settings within the app panel. then also an easy way to retrieve that info so the plugin versions can know about these paths too.