My review of Mod Dwarf

[pslh]

Hi Simone,

I do not use AIDA-X, or indeed snapshots, so I cannot comment on point 1 but here are some thoughts for points 2 - 5:

@fxsimone

2. only 2 SWITCH BOXes are supported. I want a SWITCH BOX that branches to 3~4. I want to switch the reverb used with it.

You might want to check out @zwabbo’s Ztoggle4 - MOD Audio (beta) plugin; it supports up to 4 outputs. I am using a couple of these plugins to select between different delay and reverb options.

@fxsimone

3. When I use DWARF alone, I cannot see the WEB-GUI, so I cannot understand the change of control of the effector using MIDI. For example, let’s say I assigned a reverb ON/OFF via MIDI. In this case, even if the reverb is actually turned ON via MIDI, there is no way to know this visually.
   This is very unsettling.

I use a KMI Softstep (v1) MIDI controller with my Dwarf, and when using it to toggle plugins on/off I configure it to turn the footpedal LED on when it sends the MIDI command to enable the plugin, and off when it sends the MIDI command to disable the plugin. If your MIDI controller has LED’s or a display of some kind, perhaps you can do something similar. I have not yet found a suitable solution for showing the status of a ztoggle plugin (i.e. which of the four signal paths is currently enabled) but this has not proved a big issue for me so far.

If you are using a controller without LED’s or a display, you might want to check out @SrMouraSilva’s Gossiper - Plugin to say what is happening when you are looking it

@fxsimone

4. Multiple controls cannot be assigned to a single switch. I want to control multiple effectors On Off with one switch, but this is not possible. I want to control multiple effectors with one switch like BOSS GT-1000.

There has been some discussion around this point on this forum e.g. No Device and MIDI control at the same time? , Two-way Midi Mapping, Assigning a pedal to be on/off through both footswitch and MIDI

It is sometimes possible to construct a workaround using CV plugins and/or the infamous mindi

I have never done this myself, but it should in theory be possible to use a Control to CV - MOD Audio controlled by a Dwarf Footswitch, another Control 2 CV driven by a MIDI and then sending the outputs of both to an XOR CV plugin to produce the final CV output to be used to control the desired effect plugin.

@fxsimone

it takes a little time to connect to the web-gui when Bluetooth is disconnected during a live performance. This is critical in live performance. Therefore, you should not use the web-gui in live performance.
Therefore, my dwarf has a simple configuration.

The Bluetooth connection is just about usable for minor changes on a tablet/PC but I don’t think it was really intended to be used for real-time live use.

I have used my Dwarf live on several occasions now, but (at least in the way I use it and think about it) there is a clear separation between the “configuration” of the pedalboard(s) using a PC connected via USB when I am setting things up and making changes like adding/removing plugins, and the “live” use, when I select the desired pedalboard and control it via the Dwarf footswitches and dials and MIDI (only).

I think it makes sense to be able to use a tablet via Bluetooth to make minor changes to an existing board during a rehearsal. I could imagine experimenting with a new song and wanting to add a Phaser plugin (say) to a board in order to try out some new sounds, but personally, I would not want to do this on stage.

@fxsimone

I also use looper.
The visibility of the looper is very important. So I will use BOSS RC-5 as looper. dwarf’s display is inconvenient to use as looper.

I have not yet used a looper live but I have used the Looperlative LP3 in rehearsal and it is part of my default pedalboard. I know @solobasssteve uses a Looperlative on his MOD DuoX, if it’s good enough for him, then it is likely more than I will ever need. I will say that for now, I keep the looper controls on the Dwarf, since the LED and Display feedback are important parts of it’s usability.

You also write something I am not sure I understand:

@fxsimone

In my opinion, this hardware is too small for the performance of mod dwarf.

Do you mean that the CPU is not powerful enough (in particular for use with AI-based simulators)? Or that it is physically too small ? Or something else?