MOD Duo X

Super excited to see this announced!! It looks like it solves pretty much all of the minor complaints I had with my MOD Duo: (EDIT: ah, it doesn’t - see follow-up posts below)

  • Not quite enough CPU power (especially when using pitch-shifters): now boosted from a dual-core ARM A7 1.0GHz to Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53, 1.5GHz
  • 2 knobs and 2 stomps wasn’t quite enough - 10 and 4 will be great!

and it seems there are other nice benefits of upgrading:

  • reduced latency
  • enhanced signal-to-noise ratio
  • pagination system (what is this exactly?)
  • 2 instant “snapshot” push-buttons for easy setting recall and alternation
  • commutable Control Voltage I/O to integrate with a modular Eurorack setup (don’t understand this but it sounds cool :wink: )

and lots more. It would be great to hear more details on all of this.

However I’m a bit confused by the pricing. Currently the shop lists the Duo X at €699 whereas the Duo is €674. Surely there is much more than €25 extra value in the X - does this mean €699 is the discounted pre-order price and it will go up at some point?

Also are there any suggestions for what those of us who want to upgrade should do with our existing Duos? Is selling 2nd-hand the best option, or perhaps there is some kind of recycling / upgrade path planned?

Thanks!

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I think these are 4 pushbuttons and not 2 stomps :slight_smile:

Exactly @tourneriff

The MOD Duo X is a DESKTOP unit.

It was NOT designed to be used on the floor.

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Ahhh, I missed that. That’s super disappointing for me :frowning: Would it really be hard to offer a version for the floor as well?

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the MOD footswitch is made for you @aspiers :wink: !

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I already have the footswitch and it’s great. But …

  • It doesn’t provide extra knobs, and 2 really isn’t enough for me.
  • It’s extra bulk which expands my (physical!) pedalboard.
  • If I had the extra CPU power I could ditch my NanoPOG octave pedal and make my pedalboard even smaller.
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Another workaround would be a fix for Request: synchronise MOD with LEDs on MIDI foot controllers - then I could use my Softstep 2 more easily.

I’m not a market expert but I expected the market for floor-based devices to be much bigger than for desktop devices - am I way off here?

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I absolutely love the look of this - the differentiation between ‘Duo + footswitch’ and ‘Duo X for tabletop use’ makes perfect sense to me. I’ve always done foot control with the Softstep anyway (I’m looking forward to trying out the MOD Footswitch at some point), but being able to add all of that continuous control and hand operability in the same form factor is excellent…

(My own observation is that the market for floor-only units is pretty saturated, but the market for tabletop processors that-aren’t-a-laptop-with-a-soundcard is pretty wide open…)

As someone who has almost never put the Duo on the floor and always uses the Softstep to control it, this is a very welcome upgrade :slight_smile:

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I guess my big question at this point, which is emblematic of growing, is, what’s the MOD DUO (X or otherwise) suppose to be? Who is it for? Where’s all this headed? Clearly, MOD has it’s roots in guitar processing. Yet, it’s versatilely has lead me to use it for so much more, and at this point I don’t see it as just a guitar processor.

As such, I see a bit of an identity dilemma here. The result of which is a fruitful and enjoyable period from my perspective. Although, this can be troublesome for a new brand. Again, it’s emblematic of the present growth stage for MOD as a company. Moreover, for this reason, I am watching and feel personally invested in this company closer than any other I can think of right now.

Through this period, as I see it, there are many interesting quirks with the device, the software, etc. For instance, perhaps the most obvious feature of the MOD DUO, is the duo-screens. At first, I thought the meaning of this was to do with two signal paths, which would seem reasonable. Though, in practice, I never really conceptualize my patches as such. So then, it occurs to me, why two screens? Why not one? Wouldn’t there be a cost saving in having just one, that’s larger perhaps? How temporal is the duo-screen concept, I wonder?

Then, there’s stuff where the concept is so expansive it blows my mind, like the social media approach to sharing patches; the Control Chain possibilities; the TCP/IP and web-UI stuff; the USB host abilities; LINUX, LV2, etc. It’s a diametric opposite to the proprietary hell that I’ve know for so long with marquee brand names in pro audio. To this end I am thrilled!

My ultimate point here is this: I don’t know where this is all going; it’s being worked out before our eyes. I see huge potential, a good moral compass, if I may. As such, MOD is already far more than a specific device, despite it’s realization through the hardware. To me, it’s the infrastructure and intellectual capital that being built here which is the real star. I feel here lays the strongest or real identity of MOD–the identity I’m already sold on and wish to see succeed.

I must admit though, the hardware direction of MOD I don’t quite get yet. It could be only certain things are possible at this stage; having a device engineered and manufactured is not a trivial thing. I would not complain for this reason. Yet, I cannot say the hardware is optimal for me yet. I have good hope though!

That said, I like the stomp-box approach for a ‘less gear to haul’ approach. For instance, I can take my DUO, Radial VOCO-LOCO, Softstep 2 and RE510 mic to a gig and have virtually everything I need, plus far more! Yet, I strongly desire something like a 1U rack version of the “DUO” for my home studio, offering expanded I/O (TOSLINK ideally) and much greater processing power (x86_64 arch, say). I’d pay like ~1.5 to 2 grand for such a thing, definitely.

Those are my thoughts.

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To follow up with @lunardigs Lunardigs comments, I think the hardware and the software are indeed two different things.

I would love to have all the software built as a group of debian packages for me to be able to have a virtual mod inside my PC to be able to integrate into my DAW environment as well as the actual hardware thing.

I suppose many WINDOWS users would like that two.

I know it is actually already possible to do so, but I don’t have the time right now…

That could also help expand the MOD community and the number of plugins users/buyers.

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@Azza

If you add the KXStudio repos you’ll find most of the MOD related software there.

https://kxstudio.linuxaudio.org/Repositories

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:heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes: !!!

That’s great ! However, the jack2 version on debian is quite prehistoric, so I need to build that one from source (@falkTX gave me the instructions long ago :slight_smile: )

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Since the MODX will have a expression input, does this mean the CC expression pedal is out?
Will you still make the CC Expression pedal?

Hi @Skydiver

No. The CC pedal is not out :wink:

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We’ve published a blog post with more info on the Duo X here.

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@gianfranco - Great! Looking forward to getting mine.

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great info in that blog post, @dwek… thanks for posting!
i’ve just pre-ordered and can’t wait – the possibilities, with two units running, are pretty tantalizing! :grinning:

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Thank you all and @asplers and @glanfranco for this topic.
In regards the DUO X being a Desktop device would it then be an interesting idea to make it mountable on a mic stand. As TC Helicon did with their Vocal Live Touch 2. This device I actually was keen on buying first until I can across the MOD.

My concern, already commented on an other post, is not to be sure what to buy the MOD Duo or MOD X. And these topic give me more food for thought to rephrase my choice again ;-D.
Anyway this forum is awesome so thanks anyway to let me learn so much from you all.

Musical happy greetings,
Manupeo
Finland

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Just doing a check in to see if the Duo X’s are coming along well. I preordered one and I’m already getting excited about following its shipment at the end of the this month! (Or early next month?)

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Good morning Treelemon, please see this update about the Duo X production from yesterday. There is a slight delay due to the availability of the brand new coreboards we have chosen, but otherwise production is coming along nicely. Estimated shipment date of the limited edition is now end of October. I know it sucks to wait a few weeks longer, but believe me, it will be worthwhile. The new coreboards are extremely powerful and the new features of the Duo X are pretty amazing if I dare say so myself: https://www.moddevices.com/blog/mod-duo-x-update

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