Community Role Discussion (was: MOD community video and website page)

That’s quite demotivating @QuestionMarc :frowning:

Guess I have to grow a thicker skin.

I have to agree with @QuestionMarc here. His answer is well crafted, insightful and also really helpful - as always. This shouldn’t be a question of thicker skin. This is free advice and from the COMMUNITY.

I get the you have to work with what you got but a community video where the product isn’t shown once makes no sense to me.
Why not use the time and effort and re-edit this video? Start with music and the product, add some closeups, beauty shots. Done.

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Hey! Many months ago when I was saying things like “your plugins have seemingly random value ranges which is made worse by vague plugin descriptions/no documentation” I used to be the bad guy!

(admittedly, once or twice, I wasn’t that polite about voicing my views, which I’m sorry for, being a douchebag is never justified)

It’s actually 8. Also, I’m a bit math-challanged, but basic combinatorics indicate that you don’t need that many elements to provide users with “virtually/practically/functionally endless possibilities”. I don’t think anyone cares about that either. People care about having many good options and, those aforementioned 8 slots on HX Stomp can be occupied by digitally modeled representations of gear that musicians (mostly guitar players but synth and music production enthusiasts as well) actually care about.

As for the rest of your post, I completely agree. Well, I sorta agree with the above bits as well :grinning:

Benn Jordan basically sold me the Dwarf by showcasing both the basic signal chain creation and using Mod Duo X as a groovebox. Now, for me, Dwarf fell short (damn you Benn Jordan! you talented, smart. bastard, you!). Using Ableton + Launchpad for looping and outsourcing my guitar tone to HX Stomp + small pedalbard, proved to be orders of magnitude more pleasurable and seamless, but that Benn Jordan video where he actually showed how to use the MOD product, and that it could potentially be used to do something, the competition can’t do, was enough to convince me.

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Sorry if I expressed myself in the wrong manner @spunktsch

Between the daily hate emails I get from angry backers, the use of our ads as a platform for complaints and the general fires we daily need to put out, reading one more comment from users who have the units in their hands and are engaged here, telling us once more that something should have been done a long time ago is sometimes a bit frustrating. That is why the comment about the demotivation.

I also think it is a pity that the community video looks so worthless to you. It took practically none of my or the staff’s time, seems to have been a fun thing for those who participated, and has a lot of branding value for the fundraising efforts we are doing.

If the improvement of the existing videos is so easy and straight forward, I’d gladly provide the original files for those who step up to improve them.

Anyone? :slight_smile:

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There’s something positive in his post :

I think he’s right to point out that MOD devices strength is their uniqueness. The products themselves stand out from the competition. It’s good news. Now you might need to advertise a bit more on that aspect.

The video is nice and that’s cool that the community participated and had fun. It may not help you sell the product but as long as it didn’t need too much effort on your side, it could be considered as a fun exercise that puts some light on the community. Maybe there are some misunderstandings between its realistic goal and what people expect as proper advertisement.

So let’s be positive and consider this video a way to show MOD has a cool community. I’d be happy to participate in another one (dude, how dare you make a funky tune without the funkypou ?).

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Indeed! “Who d’ya get ya funky from?” Not Bootsy, it’s @funkypou!!!

Thanks for your kind words, @spunktsch! Love your Metal Groovebox video, it does exactly what you propose.

Isn’t that the best combination of all? Ableton has proven to be irreplaceable in my workflow, a Launchpad or Push is a phenomenal addition, Helix is fantastic (I own a rack one), and between them there are sounds, loopers, synths, and top quality effects and digital processing. I’m happy for you.

Thanks for the update. All the way to revision C it was 6 slots only and a major source of complaint at the Line6 forum. I didn’t really research further as I acquired my Helix for just about 300 Euro more than the HX Stomp.

Your earned your “reputation” by means of your repeated snarky and ill-tempered comments, which regardless of being right or wrong hit the community the wrong way. Most, if not all of us, agreed with the issues regarding the lesser quality of amp sims, the lack of superior models, the limited IR loader, the inconsistency of effects levels, naming, values, documentation etc. In fact, just recently I posted something to that exact effect – fix the levels of the plugins! People didn’t necessarily disagree with you there, but your repeated rambling long past you had returned your Dwarf was indeed unnecessary. @Elk_wrath even discussed that with you, in which his opinion was likewise that your points were correct but the manner of saying them was not the best.

(I was young when I learnt that “the one who screams loses the argument even when one is right.”)

We too interacted and discussed in the past, and I wholeheartedly supported you in your decision to return your Dwarf, go for the pedals that made you feel happy, and move on with your life. It is you who, in spite of requesting to be deleted from the forum more than once, keep coming back repeatedly to grind your old grievances.

It looks like Mod Dwarf was a major trauma in your life – damn you, Benn Jordan! Guy is a good seller, showcasing a Duo X made you buy a Dwarf! Hire him, Mod Audio!

But now you have a nice set up, with much more enjoyable and higher quality effects, so if I may give some advice, you should look forward to years of enjoyment and good music, and hopefully overcome the sad mark left in your heart, move on and be happy.

If I may quote your own post of March of 2022:

image

May you live a happy and fulfilling life.

(Over. And. Out.)

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My dear @gianfranco,

Wretched me! “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:19, as per the NIV)

I believe I have tried my best to be positive, productive, helpful, informative, generally upbeat, and to put a hopeful outlook on things, in face of adversity and never-ending problems. True, I do not run your company and am not aware of your recurring displeasures, but still I try to be constructive and assist you and MOD in any capacity I have, be it professional help or a financial contribution to the reboot.

It was not my intention to demotivate you and I feel sorry that you get hate emails on a daily basis, while also facing financial hardships, technical and logistic issues, while also juggling a family and other obligations. Trust me, I have been through similar experiences and it doesn’t feel good. My feeling here is that you are badly worn out, so that a comment with a minor dose of criticism hits you right between the eyes.

Sadly, anyone in a position of leadership, relevance, prominence, importance, or any denomination that might fit, is subject to criticism. You, as the ModFather and CEO of now Mod Audio UG are no different. Within our community you are a hero, and the efforts of your team, small and badly overworked, do not go unnoticed. New improvements are repeatedly praised, setbacks are mostly met with encouragement, several of us put cash down to keep your company alive, many of us contributed with either content, expertise, coding, unofficial technical support, pedalboards, testing, etc etc etc. On my side specifically, I tried to address the anger of backers, the recurring noise issue, solve some specific users’ problem here and there, give business advice during the reboot days, and even personal advice for you at some point.

I am now faced with some tough decisions, and the need to take care of my health, embark in a different and unsuspected career that opened to me, rebuild some of the knowledge and skill in other areas that I had in the past and are now in demand, and most importantly be with my kids. To focus on what’s important and what’s feasible, leaving old grievances and even some dreams behind (be them silly or valid). With that I am offloading a lot of music gear, and I must confess my MOD has been on the exit door for a while now, due in large part to the stance of Mod Audio regarding the Duo X.

And most importantly, I really don’t have the time and energy for forums anymore. Even if my Mod doesn’t sell and/or an instance where it can be put to use presents itself, at this point I have already contributed what I could to this forum and cannot undertake a task (video editing or any other) if not for financial compensation, and even that within strict limits. This post was already a stretch, while also another instance of neglect towards what’s most important to me in this world.

Therefore this is the appropriate time for me to say farewell to this lovely community.

It is my sincere wish that MOD grows and thrives, that the team gets rewarded for their hard work (and grows too), that users get more and more from their devices, that many more people have a MOD Dwarf in their hands, and that the future be bright for all.

With my warmest regards, QM.

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We invited everyone who filled out the survey and said that would like to participate in these company videos. Did you not fill out?

Had no idea to be honest lol. The forum wasn’t in the best place during the restructure, so I am not sure how many people filled surveys or not

I don’t remember. Furthermore, this survey may have been created at a time where the Dwarf was still a dream for me. I just remember offering my help for the reverb community video.

Anyway, my sentence wasn’t a real complaint but was meant to be funny.

Thank you for that.

I understand what you mean as you seem to be a Dostoïevsky kind of poster. :slight_smile:
Beware of perfectionism. I myself suffer from that and it ruins my life.

It’s sad for us and maybe even more for the MOD company, considering your support. But your life will always be more important than a forum dedicated to music gear. I just hope you’re leaving us without a bitter feeling and with good memories.

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What do you think about using the private sharing pedalboard with sounds sample as tool for make shared music sample for video advertising?
Just create a pedalboard topic within a short riff or melody that other user could enrich whit their personal approach so also the pedalboard making could be clear as creative tool (and we could learn each other).
It could be easier for whom that have not video make skills or good camera to rec the performance. As advantage it could be done directly by user here in the forum ( maybe implementing a little bit the tags of the category "pedalboard ") and having the screenshot pedalboard make more clear how customizable are those devices. Afterall one minute of music in internet advertising it’s a lot of time considering the average attention time of nowadays. The role of mod team could be reduced in some final editing just to emphasize the fact that all the pedalboard are directly in the device and no computer is needed in the performance and you can try them with a click.
A video of player could be placed in the corner, but if someone don’t like video ( as me) just place the username and profile photo.
In this way the community can start several “projects” at the same time without use the mod team time until we are happy of the result.

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this seems to me like a great idea… if we can all use just a MOD device for sound processing, and clearly show the function(s) of the pedalboards we build, it would demonstrate a lot of the MOD flexibility, gathered around a unifying idea.

the key would be to keep a good focus on what the MOD device brings to the table, and how it accomplishes that.

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If I had the money for some decent zoom video camera or something, I’d see myself documenting some steps through the journey I have made as a singing guitarist in both heavy and singer/songwriter genre.

I think it would be more of a webpage with brief video and audio fragments and text and images in between rather than a fully edited pro production.

but budget is a little tight right now :confused:
Maybe next year

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I didn’t say that. I was just pointing out what I think is missing. But I might again misinterpreted what audience this video is for.

send me the link. I’ll do something with it.

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Awesome @spunktsch . That’s the way to do it!

I will send a PM with the links

It was not meant to be a product video and it was meant to focus on the people and music, rather than the product.

Hi Gianfranco, here is a new video tutorial showing how to build a simple “double pedalboard” to go straight to a PA with an electric instrument and an acoustic instrument.
I often use this kind of configuration and it works pretty well for me. Hope it could help…

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That very good @zwabo . Very fun video :slight_smile:

Quick question. Do you keep the Dwarf display protector foil on purpose?

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I’ve left mine on. Bad habit. I usually leave things like that on until they get damaged, and then remove them.

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No…nothing on purpose…, I just forgot to pull it off.

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the video is now on the website.

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