Looking at the Mod Duo X and its possibilities

#1

I’m writing to express my feelings about the Duo X and look into what the possibilities are. Before someone tells me so, I’ve read two long previous threads about this topic (by @QuestionMarc and @Elk_wrath) and I’m also fully aware of the financial situation, scarcity of components, etc etc etc. We don’t need to get there. My point here is to have some company-driven guidance to what is realistic in terms of expectations for us. I already know that upkeeping will happen, some features will come except for the control layer, and that production will not resume until “company is stable”. I get that.

Recently, @friedsilence mentioned that component scarcity was not an issue for resuming production, but staff is inadequate at this point. I totally get that.

I’m also well aware of Mod’s desire (or need) to put all efforts into the Dwarf and trying to ramp up sales. Looks like this AIDA thing was a major hit and well worth the investment. I don’t use it being an electronic musician, but can see the value for others.

It looks like the Duo X was a victim of the lack of resources. People & parts. I get that.

What I fail to understand is why precious resources are going into an expression pedal. Nice as it might be, it’s something good midi pedals can do. I use two KMI units that allow me to make a billion things, even play the bass with my left toe. This this was crowdsourced long before the pandemic hit, so there’s no excuses for its multiple delays and much less it getting finalised when resources are so thin.

Also, why were time and resources put into an AI tool, even if the pay is now subsidised?

I ask that because a while back it was even proposed that Duo X users pay for the extra work that would bring some updates, but that never received a proper response.

You see, when I bought this thing it cost me upwards of 700 Euro, more than a Zoia. It came with big promises. But we have been left behind not now, but since some time in 2021. Sure, some things came, but we still have issues like noise and crosstalk that haven’t been dealt with yet.

So, my point here is: when the “company is stable” and other pieces fall in place, will the Duo X resume its role in the Mod ecosystem? I expect no guarantees from you of course, but to hear what is your vision for it should the company move forward.

I appreciate your sincere response to this topic.

Cheers, Al.

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#2

Well, this thread gained near zero traction, which is sad but not surprising.

In light of Gianfranco’s Reboot Update as of late, there’s nothing much coming to the Duo X except for maintenance and some eventual catch up (like 1.12 recently). Plus accommodations for stuff like AIDA.

However another portion of that update tells what I needed (but didn’t want) to know: the 2016 Duo is now end-of-service or EOL (end-of-life) if you will.

So the 2018 Duo X may get EOLd sometime in the next 2 years. Specially with the company being reduced to 2 employees. More so with it being left behind for years now, again with the exception of 1.12 update.

What’s more, the motto “when the company gets stable” is very questionable. Mod simply doesn’t turn a profit and needs to seek investors/backers every turn of the way. Not now with the reboot, but if you read carefully, there were other instances, and products moved forward with crowdfunding. I’m in the financial market auditing business btw. This information is public, so there’s no insider info here, it’s in plain sight.

What is worse is when you pay a lot of money for a private company and then someone tells you that you should go to GitHub and fix some issue for them and for free. No, users are not obligated to do that, MOD should fix it. Don’t use open source rhetoric when you charge corporate amounts for your work.

I have been reading this forum for years, but my taking part in it is recent. And it ends here.

My Mod Duo X is now up for sale, if anyone’s interested. Pains me to do that, but I have to move on.

Peace everyone.

1 Like
#3

@miss_demeanor

Very sad to read :frowning:

That is very unlikely, as long as the company is alive. The reason for EOLing the original Duo is mostly related to its NAND based hardware which is not supported overall.

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#4

and to add to this, the Duo sadly has too many variants which makes support extremely difficult:

  • itead nand boards with 3.4.x kernel
  • itead nand boards with mainline kernel
  • marsboard nand variant with 3.4.x kernel
  • marsboard nand variant with mainline kernel
  • marsboard emmc variant with mainline (3.4.x kernel not supported here)

it is 3 variants where 2 of them can have its overall boot and kernel setup quite different.

and more, the Duo being the slower unit also means it is harder to debug things there in case something goes wrong. as performance is critical we don’t even try to capture any process/system logs of any kind.

now in my opinion (so not as a company rule) I don’t see any way to deprecate the Duo X while we only have the Dwarf as it exists today as replacement. for development the Duo X is the unit to go, or for when trying out new plugins that are not yet optimized, among other topics like these.

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#5

Thanks @falkTX for the clarification. I’m not in your area of expertise but I can see that it’s hard and complex to keep that going.

@gianfranco if the company can provide Duo users with a trade-in program like you said, that would be great. Maybe some parts could be reused for building Dwarfs? Just curious.

I’m glad you’re still considering a future for it. At this point I won’t hold on to my Duo X, which I REALLY love, because I no longer wish to wait for the midi clock to be fixed, among other things. Don’t take my words as harsh criticism, please. No hate from me at all.

I sincerely hope you will find a way to keep Mod alive. Honestly.

Sincere regards, Alice.

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