MOD Reboot - Phase 2

News
#1

Dear MOD Community,

I’m excited to share some important updates with you.

Here’s the short version:

We’ve sold some of our software assets to industry peers and our staff is now working part-time on these collaborations. This brought new revenue and reduced pressure, although it comes at the cost of having a smaller, part-time team.

Additionally, these collaborations bring valuable resources and opportunities that were previously unavailable, strengthening our position and ability to move forward.

As a result, the following actions are being taken:

  • All remaining crowdfunded Dwarf units will be shipped at no extra cost.

  • We’re committing to open-source, releasing the source code for our hardware devices (Dwarf, Duo X, Duo), including controller firmware, PCB, and mechanical designs. Some online services, like the Pedalboard Feed, will also be open-sourced.

  • We’re investing in infrastructure improvements and development workflows to foster greater community engagement and ownership.

And now for the full update:

New Partnerships and Funding:

Since mid-2023, we’ve been in discussions with other companies in the musical instrument industry, exploring collaborations that leverage our technology. After over a decade of developing embedded Linux machines for pedal-like enclosures, we’ve built a strong toolkit that allows us to advance in this field quickly.

As the industry shifts towards digitally enabled devices, we’ve capitalized on new business opportunities. These collaborations have provided us with fresh revenue streams, allowing us to continue our work with renewed confidence and at a more sustainable pace.

However, this progress comes with a trade-off. A portion of our staff’s time is now dedicated to these external projects, but it allows us to relieve our old internal pressures for immediate results.

Crowdfunding Units:

Our main priority right now is delivering the remaining MOD Dwarf units from our Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns.

The funds raised during our reboot in October 2022 were insufficient to cover free deliveries and, at the time, the best we could do was to implemented the 150€ voucher option while seeking for a better solution. We deeply appreciate the 403 backers who supported us with this option – your patience has been vital to our survival.

Thanks to the new funds, we are now able to deliver the remaining units free of additional charges for backers. Pre-production is already underway, and we aim to ship all units before the year’s end. We’ll soon contact backers to update their shipping details, and we sincerely apologize for the delay. We hope our efforts reflect our commitment to fulfilling our promises.

Higher Open Source Commitment:

One of MOD’s longstanding challenges has been defining our position on open-source licensing. Over the years, we’ve held back from fully open-sourcing some of our products, leaving us in a difficult position: not open enough for the open-source community, but seen as “too open” by some business-minded stakeholders.

In 2022 (MOD Audio reboot), we began revisiting this issue. I’m thrilled to announce that MOD will now fully embrace open-source. We will release the source code for all our devices – Duo, Duo X, and Dwarf – including firmware, hardware designs, and PCB layouts. While we cannot fully open our internal development tools for OS image generation, we will make the necessary changes to allow users to modify and repack custom images.

Our mod-ui, the remote web interface, is already open-source, and we’ll also be releasing the source-code for the Online Pedalboard Feed, giving the community access to the entire platform.

Making the MOD Platform More User- and Software-Centric

To enhance community engagement and ensure the financial stability of the company, we’re shifting our focus to make the platform more user-centric. This means transitioning from device-based identification to user-based identification and increasing our allocation of resources into the Desktop application.

These changes aim to attract new users, streamline software collaboration, and expand the audience for our plugin marketplace. Additionally, to foster greater community involvement, we plan to source developers from within our own community for paid development work.

Please note that this shift does not mean we are discontinuing the devices. Quite the contrary, the devices are a strong pillar of MOD and our new partnership will ensure this for the future. But we need to further develop a stronger software-only branch in order to become more sustainable.

Next Steps

  • MOD OS 1.13.X will be released with a special update allowing users to repackage the OS.

  • MOD OS 1.14 will follow, featuring our latest changes and improvements. Full details will be provided soon in a “nightly” builds fashion. This will be the final version using our current internal architecture, allowing us to pursue new technologies for mod-ui and mod-desktop.

  • MOD Desktop 0.13 will be launched with significant updates, including the ability to function as an audio plugin for DAWs.

After these releases, we will pause the development of new features to implement necessary structural changes. During this hiatus, users will still have the ability to (re)package and distribute ongoing developments, so we anticipate a rise in community-generated OS images circulating.

All of the actions described above will not happen at the same time nor all at once, of course. Apart from the crowdfunding deliveries that are one-sided actions from us, the proposed changes involve dialog, engagement and development.

It took us quite a hiatus to reorganise the company but I am glad to say that we will be able to keep a steady flow from now on.

Many news coming in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, I invite all of you to let you know your thoughts and wishes for the future, so that we can shape it accordingly :slightly_smiling_face:

My dearest wishes to all of you

Gianfranco, aka The MOD Father

63 Likes
Reboot Phase 2 updates
Future of the Dwarf
Possible to Sell Dwarf Indiegogo Contribution?
#2

This is amazing news! Thank you for the update and I’m very excited for the future of MOD!

6 Likes
#3
#4

Wow !!! Really good news !!!
Thanks a lot for the update, and so happy to see the adventure going in a very good direction.

6 Likes
#5

thanks so much for the update, @gianfranco ! so great to hear that a solid, forward-looking plan has arisen!

i’m curious about a couple of things:

  1. i wouldn’t be surprised if the new open source status will engender a number of software forks, perhaps clustered around solving specific long-standing concerns which have been discussed in the forum. has there been discussion of the possibility of making use of any such development efforts as a source of code revisions which could be applied to the mainline OS for the devices? …or, to put it another way… could there be a way of aggregating code bases, such that we have one OS which incorporates a number of approved fixes, so we don’t just end up with a bunch of forks, each of which solves only a specific issue?

  2. does this new company structure and mandate include any ability and plan to resurrect the Expression Pedal project?

all the best!
excited for the MOD future!
thanks for all your work, and for hanging in there!

:orange_heart:

8 Likes
#6

This is excellent news! The MOD ecosystem is such a fantastic environment for experimentation and music making and these developments are great for developers and musicians, especially those that wear both those hats. I am optimistic that moving to user-based identification will provide the portability that will allow users to retain the pedalboards they’ve worked hard to create and depend on with the associated plugins. I have a concern that this portability would include paid plugins from the store, but not those awarded as stretch goals or rewards for donors patience, thus making that portability less useful and requiring users to buy plugins that they have been using in the Dwarf or Duo. It would be fantastic as a demonstration of good will to allow those to be associated with users and not locked on devices, ensuring users future proofing and sustaining the work they’ve invested in sculpting their own sounds using these capable tools.

4 Likes
#7

I believe that’s one of the goals yes. Instead of registering the device you register the user and you can then use all these plugins on all supported platforms.

It would be great if this can also consolidate some of the other spin-offs from MOD, like the MODEP project.
Imagine building a DIY device that you can then still buy some awesome plugins and IR for from the store.

7 Likes
#8

Transitioning to more of a focus on the software seems like a good move for MOD. I hope this results in more hardware manufacturers embracing open software platforms. It is hard enough for small companies to excel at software or hardware. Trying to do both well is that much more difficult.

4 Likes
#9

I think it will depend on how we organize ourselves - and by “we” I include the community contributors. There will be a lot of “repackaging” going around and the contributors will need an organized way of making this.

We want, at one point, to integrate good changes into the mainline image, of course.

Not at the moment :frowning:

6 Likes
Expression pedal update
#10

This will need to be discussed with the plugin developers and is not our decision to be made unilateraly.

The current defaut license is personal and can be used in multiple devices (Duo, Duo X and Dwarf).

The general pricing of plugins inside the MOD platform is way below their PC & Mac counterparts (when they are available), given the restricted use in the devices only. With the expansion to the Desktop this will need to be discussed with the developers, as some might not consider ok to simply extend, at no cost, a license that was meant for devices only and now covers also desktops and laptops.

Additionaly, and as you mentioned for the stretch goals, there are diferent licensing cases.

We will need to think on an upgrade path for SINGLE-DEVICE > MULTI-DEVICE > DEVICES+DESKTOP and I am pretty sure we can find a solution that is good for both the developers as for the users.

11 Likes
#11

This is fantastic news! Thank you for the long-awaited update :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#12

I appreciate the thoughtful response. I’ll stay tuned.

4 Likes
#13

Thank you for sticking to your commitments, even after all this time. Restoring a little faith in humanity!

I’n not sure why you are claiming these units are being sent “free of charge”. I certainly paid the original shipping charge and it was not ‘free’.

2 Likes
#14

I edited the post and adjusted it accordingly.

4 Likes
#15

Excellent news and congratulations! I wish you and MODDevices all the best in your new future! You have created something truly revolutionary and should all be very proud of what you’ve built.

3 Likes
#16

This is fantastic news! One of the things that most impresses me is the resilience of the mod team in general, not to mention the extraordinary resilience, focus and determination of the MOD Father!

Gian - you da man!!

per google translator:

“O pai do MOD manda!”

(Like most Americans I only speak English and have enough trouble with that!)

9 Likes
#17

Boom shakalaka :boom:

6 Likes
#18

This is fantastic!

Do I understand right, this is also a “happy ending” for those MOD backers who were previously asked to increase their contributions? Or partially? It would make things very tidy. Sorry if this opens that uncomfortable topic, just hoping for clarity.

Regarding the new MOD path…
It would be nice if the new Linux PC host runs on a mini PC that can be controlled via an iOS or Android tablet (browser) or Bluetooth/Wi-Fi midi controller for compactness and reliability in performance.

This would make it possible to just build a mini PC with MOD into rigs for gigging musicians and control it via either Bluetooth/WiFi to midi pedal, audio software, remote tablets, etc without a bulky notebook or tower PC. Automation also.

IMO, separating physical control from the hardware and software makes things a lot more flexible. As much as I love my DWARF, I applaud this new direction! I’m looking forward to the first releases under the new model. Great concept,
Congratulations MOD Team!

2 Likes
#19

Amazing product line - happy to see the company making moves to keep the lifeblood flowing. I played with some of my devices synced over midi earlier today and it was just a joy to see everything lighting up and playing in time - rock on mod crew!

2 Likes
#20

@gianfranco: Congratulations to keeping MOD alive and even making progress in these difficult times! Perseverance is key, and you certainly have plenty of it. Looking forward to the next leg of this journey with you!

2 Likes